Just For Laughs

 

Alec Baldwin recently won an award for his Saturday Night Live (SNL) portrayal of President Trump. It is very good and yet it is part of a larger problem with comedy. When I think of great comedy I think of Monty Python, Douglas Adams

 

(“It’s unpleasantly like being drunk.”

“What’s so unpleasant about being drunk?”

“You ask a glass of water.”)

 

writers of The Simpsons and Lenny Bruce. Most from the same era admittedly but all with one thing in common. Their humour was never nasty, it was never about an individual it was always about an archetype from conservative MPS to religious fanatics. They also subverted expectations for example, Monty Python would show gangs of old ladies terrorising young men. It was all in good humour, it was all very clever and it wasn’t at all nasty.

 

Recently an (apparently) famous comedian, famous, it seems, for being homosexual, started a series of jokes about Kevin Spacey’s alleged paedophilia by insulting Islam. It was seen as being funny as a) the comedian is Homosexual and b) it insults Islam. The comedian has previously spoken out about generalisations about homosexual people and yet feels that he can start a series of jokes about what seems to be a terrible man by insulting one of the world’s great religions which preaches love and compassion.

 

Lenny Bruce would not stray away from sensitive and controversial subjects and was hounded by the law for it (he wasn’t ahead of his time, everyone else was behind) and yet what he did, although it may not have seen it from the beginning of the joke, was an important critique of the society. I have a quote, it is rather long so I’ll include it at the end of the entry (see below) and yet nowadays (and even then and back to the great Greek playwrights and probably before) humour is about being nasty and picking on one, usually, superficial flaw in a character- a speech pattern, a big nose etc. these are not funny, they are just nasty and yet people see racist, homophobic, Islamophobic etc humour on TV and repeat it at work, in the playground and normalise such behaviour. This is not good, it is not clever and, worst of all, it is not funny.

 

Until comedians (some do, usually the intelligent ones, BBC Radio 4 The News Quiz writers, Have I Got News For You, Jack Dee (what is second class post? Does it have to sit at the back of the van with a curation drawn across so it can’t see what a goodtime the first class post is having?), Dara O’Briain (see below) but these are usually drowned out by those who think swearing always equates humour (sometimes it does) and being nasty is all in good humour, just for laughs.) stop insulting individual people, just because they can and start giving their audiences credit I can’t see humour rising, only falling to levels which will be wholly partisan and will reflect the times, not as a critique but as symptomatic of them.

 

‘till next time

 

Dara O’Briain:

 

‘He once went to York Model Railway because he had a few hours to kill, and asked if he could leave his bag while he went round. The man behind the counter reacted immediately to his accent. “He said, ‘I don’t think so. Not with what your boys have been up to for the last 30 years.’ I said, ‘Well, a) they’re not my boys, and b) even at their most crazy, I don’t think the IRA ever said, Do you know what will break the spirit of the English? If we go to York Model Railway, they’ll be out of Northern Ireland by the end of the week.’ And your man said, ‘Since 9/11 we have to be extra careful.’ I said, ‘I don’t think al-Qaeda are hatching any evil plans to break into York Model Railway and fly tiny aeroplanes into each of the buildings.'”’

 

 

Lenny Bruce:

 

(excuse the language)

‘Are there any niggers here tonight? Can you turn on the house lights, and could the waiters and waitresses just stop serving for a second? And turn off the spot. Now what did he say? “Are there any niggers here tonight?” There’s one nigger here. I see him back there working. Let’s see. There’s two niggers. And between those two niggers sits a kike. And there’s another kike. That’s two kikes and three niggers. And there’s a spic, right? Hm? There’s another spic. Ooh, there’s a wop. There’s a Polack. And then, oh, a couple of greaseballs. There’s three lace-curtain Irish Micks. And there’s one hip, thick, hunky, funky boogie. Boogie, boogie. Mm-mm. I got three kikes. Do I hear five kikes? I got five kikes. Do I hear six spics? Six spics. Do I hear seven niggers? I got seven niggers. Sold American! I’ll pass with seven niggers, six spics, five Micks, four kikes, three guineas, and one wop. You almost punched me out, didn’t ya? I was trying to make a point, that it’s the suppression of the word that gives it the power, the violence, the viciousness. Dig. If President Kennedy would just go on television and say “I’d like to introduce you to all the niggers in my cabinet. ” And if he’d just say “nigger, nigger” to every nigger he saw, “Boogie, boogie, boogie, nigger, nigger, nigger, nigger,” till it didn’t mean anything any more! Then you’d never be able to make a black kid cry because somebody called him a nigger in school. I am of Semitic background. I’m Jewish. Now, a Jew, dictionary-style, is one who is descended from one of the tribes of Judea or one who is regarded to have descended from them. But you and I know what a Jew really is: One who killed our Lord! I don’t know if it got much press coverage here on the West Coast cos it was 2,000 years ago. Although there should be a statute of limitations, we’re still paying the dues. Why do you keep busting our balls for this crime?! “Why? Because you skirt the issue. You blame it on Roman soldiers. ” I’m gonna clear the air once and for all, and confess. We did it. My family, I did it. We found a note in the basement: “We killed him”, signed Morty. Good thing we nailed him when we did, because if we had done it within the last 50 years, we’d have to contend with generations of parochial schoolkids with little electric chairs hanging around their necks.’

 

 

 

The Doubt Of Faith

 

The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure

To live it you have to explode

In that last hour of need, we entirely agreed

Sacrifice was the code of the road

I left town at dawn, with Marcel and St. John

Strong men belittled by doubt

 

Dylan

 

Assuming that the Marcel refers to Gabriel Marcel, a Christian existentialist (Dylan books which comb his songs for hidden meanings haven’t picked up on this so it is hard to know for certain) the point which is raised is as contradictory as it is surprising. St John and Marcel were men with a strong belief in God however, they were men full of doubt. Theology and the holy scriptures are full of those with the strongest faith questioning the very foundations of their belief (see the beginning of the Bhagavad Gita) yet how can absolute faith bring about the most doubt?

 

In one of Michael Lewis’ books he talks about a man who is misunderstood by those around as he is so smart that he even doubts his mind and yet is incredibly self-confident (in the good non-primate way (sorry monkeys)) and this, it seems, is the crux. The ability to have a true, deep faith or staggering intellect is usually accompanied by all aspects including the ability to hold two conflicting arguments and treat them with equal weight. Those with great intellects usually don’t end up in the highest jobs due to the complexities of their minds and ability to see the different aspects and through the illusions which we call chase (and call life). Plato said that those best suited to rule (The Philosopher Kings) will be those who desire it least. Why? Plato doesn’t say but one can assume it is because these people (men and women) understand the true meaning of power, not that it corrupts (how can it? Power is an abstract construct and cannot be good or evil. Rather it is fairer to say that people corrupt power) but that it is an illusion.

 

So if you are very smart, vitreous and see through the illusions that we call chase what is there to be done with you? Nietzsche writes about those who live for knowledge alone who find some small corner of the world and do some menial work whilst working on the books which, if read, would change the perception of those in the world forever (think Einstein in the patent office or Spinoza grinding glass) yet it goes deeper than this. Many with high intellects have coping strategies to deal with life. Kerouac drank and also would lock himself in the bathroom for two hours in the morning and evening to (no…don’t be vulgar) read the Bible and Shakespeare. When asked by his childhood priest later in life if he feared hell, Kerouac replied that he feared not getting to heaven and here it is. Most people claim to have daemons with which they battle (Leonard Cohen’s were ‘middleclass and tame’) yet, as with Jacob, ‘Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed’ who went on to be named Israel (He Who Struggles With God), it is with the angels of their better natures that these people wrestle with, not the daemons. The daemons can be controlled relatively easily (St Augustine lived a life full of illusion and daemons but then overcame them to find the eternal love of God) yet it is the angels that one does battle with for how can you fight against the things which want you to be good and holy and who can live up to such standards? The answer is none (or very few) so if one cannot obtain such perfection then surely it is understandable that one must be filled with self-doubt in most aspects of their being, even if they are filled with the deepest, unshakeable faith imaginable?

 

‘till next time

The Secular World

If you wish to make someone on the right angry tell them they don’t understand the bible. If you want to make someone on the left angry just mention the word bible. This, obviously, is a generalisation but it raises an interesting question, which has been debated ad nauseam, do we live in a religious world or a secular world? To set up this debate I will use three tenants from Christianity but which can be applicable for all of the great religions (and some minor ones and some not so great ones)

1)      Heal the Sick

2)      Feed the Hungry

3)      Protect the Weak

 

1)       There are people dying in the world from sicknesses which were cured a hundred years ago in other parts of the world. Yet these sicknesses still fester and claim lives. Why? To quote Toby Ziegler from The West Wing ‘there’s more money in giving a white guy an erection than curing a black guy of AIDS.’ So it all comes down to profit margins. Great. So far we have scored 0/1

2)      According to statistics from 2016, 30% of the world’s population is obese and ‘Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year — approximately 1.3 billion tonnes — gets lost or wasted’ whilst people die from want of a cup of rice. 0/2

3)      Protect the Weak…

What a week for this one eh? The former Arsenal football player Ian Wright was asked why he didn’t speak up for black players and he said that if he did people would say- he’s using the race card, he’s not playing any more, he should go back to his country- all things which were then instantly shot at the England Women’s team player Eniola Aluko (102 caps for England). It turns out the Football Association tried to blackmail her (£20,000 now and £20,000 later when you’ve signed a letter saying that we are not institutionally racist) into keeping quiet. Anyone who has had to stand up to their employers knows how lonely it is when everyone, even those paid to help you, abandon you to stay on the cool team, then again the FA paid former England manager Sam Allardyce over one million pounds after sacking him for engaging in illegal activities- his one crime being caught so they had take action.

 

Children are the most venerable of all and yet when reports come out of people in powerful positions sexually abusing them no one cares. Senate candidate Roy Moore has over thirty sources saying that in his 30s he slept with or propositioned young girls from the ages of 14-18.  A normal person would be a paedophile and thrown in prison yet large sways of the Republican party think, even if true, that is it not a problem, and anyway Hilary is not a feminist for ignoring stories of Bill Clinton (allegedly) committing rape.    What? A man in his 30s has sex with a girl of 14 and yet that’s ok and it will be defended by making accusations about people from the other party? What the hell is going on? Turns out old co-workers knew he ‘dated’ high school girls and hung out at schools and that it was ‘weird’. Even if he wins, Congress can refuse to ratify his election. Will they?

 

One of my favourite actors is Kevin Spacey. I once saw him on stage at the Old Vic in London and it was mind blowing. Now it turns out he is a paedophile who routinely preys on boys from their teens to their 30s and everyone knew about it but, as with Mr Moore, no one did anything. I’m using Mr Spacey because I’m a fan and the long list of other people whom it seems are also sexual predators I’m indifferent too so maybe I expect more from him, but that’s not the point. The point is these people in power are exploiting their power and when they are caught release a Twitter statement saying they are going to have a holiday to think about what they’ve done. Everyone else would be in prison but not stars, no no no.

 

So, #3…what do you think?

 

‘till next time

The Victory Of Trump

 

The Former First Lady (no not you yet, Mrs Trump, sorry) Obama recently gave a talk. What the talk was on and who it was to I do not know but the reason why it made the news was because the former First Lady made a not-so-subtle insult at Trump. The crowd fell over in hysterics (it wasn’t even clever, let alone funny) and Mrs Obama looked smug. In that moment, watching the clip, I saw a headline TRUMP WINS SECOND TERM.

 

Trump often makes not-so-subtle insults at people but that is to be expected after all he is, in the words of his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, ‘a f****** moron’.  Bitchiness, nastiness and downright lies are what we expect from him and his minions (Trump claims his proposed tax cut is the biggest ever in the history of America. Obama had two which were bigger, plus a bigger inauguration crowd) yet what concerns me is that serious people, people whom I respect, even if I don’t like them, people like former President George W Bush, former President Clinton, former President Obama, former President Candidate McCain are trading petty, transparent insults with Trump. The Republican party should be in jail for aiding and abetting the travesty which is happening in American politics. Mr Flake may suddenly decide enough is enough and step down, but only after confirming all of Trump’s staggeringly unqualified  nominees and aiding in the destruction of the legal system (voting to change the law so that judges can be voted in (essentially) along party lines after blocking all of Obama’s over-qualified nominees).

 

It all started with the Tea Party (funded by the bottomless pockets of the Koch (in name and in nature) brothers) setting out a one issue platform- hate Obama. This policy meant that real Republicans, those who believe in government and due process even if they disagree with large aspects of it (which is good), had to hate Obama and move as far to the right as Crazy Town in order not to lose their seats to others Republicans (aka Tea Party). No one in the party had the backbone or finances to oppose the Koch brother Tea Party and one by one respectable senators fell by the wayside. This created a vacuum of responsible politicians but who was there to fill it?       

 

The Democratic Party is a shambles, even worse than the Republican party. The infighting and bitchiness in the party is destroying any chance of forming a cohesive message other than taking a page out of Trump’s book and ‘not being Trump’ (as in ‘not being Hillary’). Any chance of forming behind one leader (never before has the United States needed the next Obama) is thwarted by constant appearances by Mrs Clinton (does she have a book out or something?) blaming Trump, Comey and the Democrats for her failure. The party is on life support and until Mrs Clinton sucks it up and goes away and the Democrats can focus around one or two leaders and combat ignorance with education I can’t see them taking back Congress. Everything these people say is through a megaphone drawing the attention of the world so maybe they should take this responsibility seriously and use it to say something worth saying.

 

‘till next time