Ready to blow who?
Apparently, George W. Bush, who fights crime in his superhero persona The Decider, was just so mad over Stephen Colbert's WHCD evisceration of both him and the media that, according to an article by Paul Bedard on US News and World Reports, "He's ready to blow."
Well, he's blown for the last six years, really, so this is nothing knew. Still, I'm not sure if Colbert's patriotic act will be big enough for Bush to somehow twist into justification for invading Iran. However, I'm sure the CIA will shortly manage to produce evidence that not only is Colbert helping the Iranians build nuclear weapons, he's also teaching them how to hide their WMD stockpiles so effectively that, three years after an invasion, they still can't be found.
You know, I've never been comfortable with the idea of roasts. It seems to me that, if you truly respect a person, the best way to convey that respect isn't to tell a group of peers that their penis is so small a female flea would question if it's in yet. I understand it, in a sense, that respect is earned and roasts are a way to show that the person being roasted has survived in a business that is both cruel and uncaring at the same time. Still, it just seems mean to me, and it's supposed to be, but mean in a loving way, like kissing your wife with your belt.
That's perhaps the problem with Colbert, though. He gave a roast but no one expected to be roasted. At most, everyone was ready for yet another evening of ego felating in the ivory tower that is Washington. Colbert, however, bit it off and this caused some surprise.
Of course, there was the surprise that he was actually doing it. More to the point, though, people new they didn't deserve a roast. Let me be clear, they didn't deserve a roast because they hadn't earned it. It's a fine line and they were aware they were on the wrong side of it. Instead of being able to laugh at himself, The Decider, in the spirit of the dry drunk, got angry because what was being said was true. The media has dismissed Colbert as unfunny, trying to pathetically spin the fact that once again they were skewered by some guy from Comedy Central.
They're right, in a way, though. It wasn't funny. It was just sad, sad that journalism in this country had fallen so far. A friend asked me, "Isn't it great how only Stewart and Colbert have the balls journalists are supposed to have?" I thought about it a whole moment before I said, "No, it's depressing and upsetting."
Still, I have to say that while the media and the blogosphere fight about Colbert's success, eveyone's missing the truly amazing story: Bush actually understood that he was the butt of the joke. Up till now, I had thought the subtle arts of parody and satire were beyond his ken. Maybe he's not as dumb as I thought he was? Don't get me wrong, he's still dumb, just not, "tape yourself having sex" dumb.
Well, he's blown for the last six years, really, so this is nothing knew. Still, I'm not sure if Colbert's patriotic act will be big enough for Bush to somehow twist into justification for invading Iran. However, I'm sure the CIA will shortly manage to produce evidence that not only is Colbert helping the Iranians build nuclear weapons, he's also teaching them how to hide their WMD stockpiles so effectively that, three years after an invasion, they still can't be found.
You know, I've never been comfortable with the idea of roasts. It seems to me that, if you truly respect a person, the best way to convey that respect isn't to tell a group of peers that their penis is so small a female flea would question if it's in yet. I understand it, in a sense, that respect is earned and roasts are a way to show that the person being roasted has survived in a business that is both cruel and uncaring at the same time. Still, it just seems mean to me, and it's supposed to be, but mean in a loving way, like kissing your wife with your belt.
That's perhaps the problem with Colbert, though. He gave a roast but no one expected to be roasted. At most, everyone was ready for yet another evening of ego felating in the ivory tower that is Washington. Colbert, however, bit it off and this caused some surprise.
Of course, there was the surprise that he was actually doing it. More to the point, though, people new they didn't deserve a roast. Let me be clear, they didn't deserve a roast because they hadn't earned it. It's a fine line and they were aware they were on the wrong side of it. Instead of being able to laugh at himself, The Decider, in the spirit of the dry drunk, got angry because what was being said was true. The media has dismissed Colbert as unfunny, trying to pathetically spin the fact that once again they were skewered by some guy from Comedy Central.
They're right, in a way, though. It wasn't funny. It was just sad, sad that journalism in this country had fallen so far. A friend asked me, "Isn't it great how only Stewart and Colbert have the balls journalists are supposed to have?" I thought about it a whole moment before I said, "No, it's depressing and upsetting."
Still, I have to say that while the media and the blogosphere fight about Colbert's success, eveyone's missing the truly amazing story: Bush actually understood that he was the butt of the joke. Up till now, I had thought the subtle arts of parody and satire were beyond his ken. Maybe he's not as dumb as I thought he was? Don't get me wrong, he's still dumb, just not, "tape yourself having sex" dumb.
posted by QuakerJono | 11:01 AM
1 Comments:
I thought the real tradition of the roast included a part where the guest of honor standing up at the end and turned all the barbs back on the teasers. This part always seemed to me that was the best bit of the evening, and in fact, gave the guest of honor the advantage of the last word.
I believe the actual roasting was supposed to be respectful and delivered with love. Often the roasters would start with sincere complements and then move to more backhanded complements and finally into direct teasing.
It's all very old school; originating back in the day of the three martini lunch and when everyone wore hats.
Sadly like most things in our 'modern era', we've lost the solid core to a lot of our traditions and have ended up with empty shells that ring hollow and make little sense.
B.
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