(from about a week ago):
it’s time for Burt Reynolds’s mustache, it’s time for Burt Reynolds’s mustache….
that was Burt Reynolds’s mustache, that was Burt Reynolds’s mustache….
Hilarious. This sung by kids in a taunty way, and with animated mustaches dancing around….
I was ambushed by a coworker and her husband tonight and taken to a Vietnamese restaurant. It was very exciting.
So I read this article in The New Yorker about blue-collar comedy. It’s not online, otherwise I’d link it. Anyway, the author interviews J.P. Williams and the guys who comprise this big blue-collar tour (sort of like the Kings of Comedy from several years ago), including a “Larry the Cable Guy.” I know that Comedy Central was showing this for awhile last month. Anyway. I happen to seriously abhor stand-up comedy in general. I have never found it a good art form, even with comedians I like in other situations (think sketch). But I can assure you I don’t like these guys. It was an interesting article, because, presumably, most people who read The New Yorker wouldn’t subscribe to this kind of comedy, either.
However, what this article points out well is that such an enormous number of people in this country eat this stuff up. The arguments and frustrations that the blue-collar comedians put forth are that they’re “the people you find once you get fifteen minutes outside the major metropolitan areas — is people who have less money and are less focussed on status, who are just trying to survive. We are the ones who get up and go to work, get up and go to church, get up and go to war” (Jeff Foxworthy).
I can see how rural people in the heartland or in non-urban areas feel that they’re seen as simple and that their opinions don’t matter to the urban “elite.” And I certainly think that I’ve been guilty of lumping people into a “simpleton” category. My issue with it is not what people do for a living, or how educated they are, or what they appreciate in life. What I have a problem with is people who rally behind the Republicans and vote against their best financial interests and Constitutional rights. What I have a problem with is with people who vote against their best interests in order to control the freedom of others — by voting to outlaw abortion, to limit the rights of other citizens (such as gays and lesbians), etc. I have seen some of this “blue-collar” comedy and I do find much of it to be homophobic, racist, and sexist. (I also find a lot of African-American comedians to be homophobic, racist, and sexist — but I’m not even going to go there.)
There are a lot of cultural things I appreciate that are down-home and simple. A lot of my friends who don’t already know that are often surprised to learn of it. I actually enjoy going to church (well, ok, as long as it’s a bit liberal), I know lots of old country music and folktunes. I get along extremely well with old people in spite of our often differing world-views (between generations). I’m turning out to be quite an asset for the sheet-music collection because of my extensive knowledge of popular music from about 1860 through 1965. This is a lot more likely to jive with much older generations, but it can be surprising to people that I’m not always all about high art and opera and shit.
I don’t know where I’m going with this. I’m tired. I guess I am trying to say that there’s no accounting for taste, but it’s just completely out of taste, in my opinion, to tout one’s ignorance by being offensive. I understand that there’s a big segment of the American population that for some bizarre reason feels marginalized and shut out by gay rights and women’s rights and everything else.
OMG, that new Snoop/Orbit gum commercial is HILARIOUS.
