Will Farrell has turned banality into an art form. A low art form. Those never introduced to real humor, that is humor that is actually funny, are moved to laughter by his somnolence. Exposure to decades of Saturday Night Live and other snooze fests, combined with the vulgarity that acts as a stand-in for comedy peddled by stand-up “comics”, have left the audience confused, befuddled, and ignorant of the wit that acts as the basis of comedy and humor.
Wit has seemed to elude Farrell and it doesn’t seem to bother him. He abandoned the effort, resigned from the chase. A case in point was his Broadway show, purported to be a comic impersonation of George Bush. When the banality ran thin, he sprinted to the vulgar like it was his long lost brother. It didn’t matter, his audience, seemingly composed of hand picked Bush haters, would laugh at any vapid comment directed at the ex-president. They showed as much sophistication as a cluster of rubes at a taping of Hee Haw.
So it is puzzling that Farrell was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. But, perhaps not. In the past the prize has been awarded to performers, or to a person who writes for performers. Although awarded in New York, it’s a Hollywood prize, as much as the Oscars or the Emmys.
True American humorists; Dave Barry, Ian Frazier and Calvin Trillin, to name just three, will likely never be celebrated with the Mark Twain Prize. They don’t stand on stage and act the fool. They don’t make asses of themselves, which seem to be the standard for past winners.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Wall Street Greed
The Second Gilded Age is with us and every bit as ugly as the first; uglier really. The Ultra Rich have redefined avarice. Their endless thirst for wealth, wealth they have done nothing to earn, exposes their lust for the vulgar accumulation of wealth for the shear joy of watching the numbers in their accounts increase. The accounts they admit to owing, that is. They keep an army of tax lawyers and accounts busy avoiding taxes; taxes being the only dirty word they recognize. Taxes are the responsibility of the middle class as the Ultra Rich see it. Controlling more wealth than one person can ever spend is the burden they must bear, alas. The middle class bear no such burden so paying the taxes that support the government is the least they can do. The very least.
It seems we have learned one thing from history, that avarice takes precedence over the knowledge of our mistakes. The Ultra Rich still manage to convince the so-called Average Joe their interests are superior to the interests of the men and women who do the work, produce the wealth. After all, might not we join the ranks of the Ultra Rich? The lotto awaits.
There is a greater likelihood of winning the lotto than joining the ranks of the Ultra Rich. They simply would not allow it. The employees of the Ultra Rich occupying the seats of Congress are there simply to protect the wealth of their employers . They believe their reelection to their House or Senate seat is vital to the welfare of the Republic. If the unthinkable should happen and one of the politically less skillful should be turned out of office, they may take comfort in the fact a lucrative job in the so called “private sector’’ awaits them, along with the Ultra Rich golf courses of the world.
The protests against Wall Street have gone on for weeks, and you know they cause Wall Street nerves to fray by the simple fact the cops have been sent in to bust some heads. How long will it be before protest organizers can expect the door kicked in at 3 am and the protester disappeared, never to be heard from? Why else would the Ultra Rich employ hard-core corporate security operatives? Travel in limos with the same or better armor than protects the president; protected by ex Special Forces Operators who carry weapons superior to what is available to Secret Service agents?
It is time to consider finishing the work begun with the French Revolution, absent the blade of the guillotine. Can justice be found in our courts? Too soon to tell.
In the meantime there is plenty of room in the streets for the people. People who cannot pay their mortgage, buy food or afford to buy gas for their cars as they drive the streets in hopes of finding a job, any job, that will see the family through another day.
While they consider their bleak future they can recall the bonus’ paid in the tens of millions of dollars to executives whose, greed, incompetence and sense of entitlement helped turn the United States of America into little more than a banana republic, where the civil servants party at so called meetings at the most expensive Washington hotels, and the city managers of mid sized towns pay themselves more than a heart surgeon earns in years.
Finally, we can ask why we are still in a war longer than World War One, World War Two and the Korean War combined. We should expect an answer from an ex president who lied and lied and lied so he might conduct a private war in Iraq. A vulgar, stupid little man cooked-up a story that has cost countless American lives, ruined others and hastened the Treasury to bankruptcy. The Ultra Rich benefit from both wars. The warriors are the losers, along with the people who will pay for the private wars of the Ultra Rich for decades, it not longer.
Rest assured the Ultra Rich will get richer. That’s what they do.
It seems we have learned one thing from history, that avarice takes precedence over the knowledge of our mistakes. The Ultra Rich still manage to convince the so-called Average Joe their interests are superior to the interests of the men and women who do the work, produce the wealth. After all, might not we join the ranks of the Ultra Rich? The lotto awaits.
There is a greater likelihood of winning the lotto than joining the ranks of the Ultra Rich. They simply would not allow it. The employees of the Ultra Rich occupying the seats of Congress are there simply to protect the wealth of their employers . They believe their reelection to their House or Senate seat is vital to the welfare of the Republic. If the unthinkable should happen and one of the politically less skillful should be turned out of office, they may take comfort in the fact a lucrative job in the so called “private sector’’ awaits them, along with the Ultra Rich golf courses of the world.
The protests against Wall Street have gone on for weeks, and you know they cause Wall Street nerves to fray by the simple fact the cops have been sent in to bust some heads. How long will it be before protest organizers can expect the door kicked in at 3 am and the protester disappeared, never to be heard from? Why else would the Ultra Rich employ hard-core corporate security operatives? Travel in limos with the same or better armor than protects the president; protected by ex Special Forces Operators who carry weapons superior to what is available to Secret Service agents?
It is time to consider finishing the work begun with the French Revolution, absent the blade of the guillotine. Can justice be found in our courts? Too soon to tell.
In the meantime there is plenty of room in the streets for the people. People who cannot pay their mortgage, buy food or afford to buy gas for their cars as they drive the streets in hopes of finding a job, any job, that will see the family through another day.
While they consider their bleak future they can recall the bonus’ paid in the tens of millions of dollars to executives whose, greed, incompetence and sense of entitlement helped turn the United States of America into little more than a banana republic, where the civil servants party at so called meetings at the most expensive Washington hotels, and the city managers of mid sized towns pay themselves more than a heart surgeon earns in years.
Finally, we can ask why we are still in a war longer than World War One, World War Two and the Korean War combined. We should expect an answer from an ex president who lied and lied and lied so he might conduct a private war in Iraq. A vulgar, stupid little man cooked-up a story that has cost countless American lives, ruined others and hastened the Treasury to bankruptcy. The Ultra Rich benefit from both wars. The warriors are the losers, along with the people who will pay for the private wars of the Ultra Rich for decades, it not longer.
Rest assured the Ultra Rich will get richer. That’s what they do.
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