or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
November 22, 2007
Beyond Satire
By: Bernard Chazelle
Tom Lehrer, still a cult figure among math types of a certain age, on why he won't be honoring Bush with a song:
I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them.
And yet, as Lehrer liked to remind his listeners, the power of satire is unstoppable: so much so that the legendary British comedian Peter Cook modeled his own comedy club on the political cabarets of Berlin in the 30s, because they did so much to prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler.
In this song, Lehrer distills the essence of US foreign policy:
Members of the Corps / All hate the thought of war / They'd rather kill them off by peaceful means.
Oh, one more thing. On this important day, when you say thank you to everything that moves, please remember: some turkeys had other plans.
Posted at November 22, 2007 11:43 AM | TrackBack
HAPPY THANKSGIVING ATR
(1-202-225-0100 IMPEACH-it's an AMERICAN thing to do.)
Jon, do you have a link to the piece from which the Lehrer quotes come. Would love to read something recent by the satirical genius.
Thanks.
Posted by: catherine at November 22, 2007 01:54 PMcatherine: just added a link.
a word to the wise from a vegetarian: don't touch the tofurkey. it's totally yuck-tastic!
Posted by: almostinfamous at November 22, 2007 09:57 PMa word to the wise from a vegetarian: don't touch the tofurkey. it's totally yuck-tastic!
happy thanksgiving, you damn americans!
Posted by: almostinfamous at November 22, 2007 09:57 PMI think tofurkey is edible. The consistency is wrong, but it's not awful.
Posted by: StO at November 23, 2007 03:06 AMGod, Tom Lehrer was great.
Wonderful stuff, Bernard. That Peter Cook quote is one of my favorites (and very useful in this time of Stewart/Colbert-worship).
On the other hand, while purusing this biography of Cook for my Lennon book, I came across a quote from a friend saying that, in spite of all his accomplishments, Cook was dogged by a persistent sense common to comedians that nothing he did amounted to anything.
So on the whole, it's probably hazardous to perceive reality TOO clearly.
Posted by: Mike of Angle at November 23, 2007 12:34 PMLooking back, I'm amazed how much I absorbed Lehrer's worldview by listening to his records when I was ten, even though I had no understanding of most of what he was saying.
Just in this one song, I'm sure I had no idea what any of these things were:
OAS
Randolph Scott
the reference "to the shores of Tripoli"
what the joke was in "not to mississipoli"
the meaning of "status quo"
I also remember in "Who's Next," the line "Egypt's gonna get one too, just to use on you-know-who." But I was listening after the Camp David accords, and couldn't understand what he was talking about and what the joke was.
Still, I got the main point, and his perspective has been installed in my head ever since. Very sneaky, these artists.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at November 23, 2007 02:14 PMBernard, thanks for the link.
And Mike, God was(is) he ever.
Posted by: catherine at November 23, 2007 03:20 PMThere will be no more misery/When the world is our rotisserie/Yes, we'll all go together when we go!
Tom Lehrer. Too sarcastic to live, to awesome to die.
Posted by: atheist at November 24, 2007 12:18 PMThere will be no more misery/When the world is our rotisserie/Yes, we'll all go together when we go!
Tom Lehrer. Too sarcastic to live, to awesome to die.
Posted by: atheist at November 24, 2007 12:18 PMGenerally I agree that comedians/satirists (to paraphrase Stalin) don't have any divisions. But I was thinking today how thankful I am that Bush's approval ratings are so low, and Colbert/Stewart et al help with that. Hearing recent news reports about Putin and Musharaf makes me realize that if Bush were merely polarizing instead of largely despised, the right wing would be openly discussing lunatic ideas of how to keep him in power beyond January 2009. As it is, they must keep such plans secret, or discuss lunatic successors. So you see, there is hope.
Posted by: Whistler Blue at November 27, 2007 01:46 PM
