It's predictably infantile enough, based on the clip I saw. It takes place while Bush 41 is president, and Lil' (sic) Bush and Lil' (sic) Cheney, et lil' al. won the softball game for Team Halliburton by getting revved up on crack. 41 says that cheating is fine if it wins back the trophy (apparently a reference to the 2000 election), and a knowing evil laugh is had by all. Dubya is portrayed as diabolical, but still an ignoramus, natch.
The correct contraction for "little" is li'l, of course, not lil'. This incorrectly punctuated graphic passed before literally hundreds of people at Comedy Central who apparently find the show funny.
Not a single one of them caught it. Irony knows no measure these days.
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The last time I cited Hitchens to you was in relation to the limitation of definitions. But the preceding sentences seem appropriate now (lest anyone think that the war is Hitchens sole reason for defending Bush):
ReplyDeleteEvery now and then, in argument, I find myself glib enough to make a cheap point or a point that might evoke instant applause from an audience. But I am always aware of doing so, or if you like of the temptation to do so, and I strive (not always with success) to resist the tactic, and rather dislike myself when I give in to it. Why do I do this? Socrates called this restraint the daemon: an inner voice that helps us toward self-criticism. Many later thinkers have defined it in discrepant ways, but a definition is something short of an understanding.
While I might argue that the foundation of Hitchens' moral structure is a little shaky, he is still able to know that cynicism is rather unbecoming of such a meticulously well organized conglomeration of molecules.
Team Li'l Bush is no doubt extremely talented, but no one is ever in any danger of being elevated by the employment of those abilities.
That was disappointing, here I was hoping since the TRC showed condescension, there might actually be something good there. But no, it's terrible. I wouldn't even have bothered to Google it, and watch a couple clips on Amp'd Mobile's website (The original producer is a cellphone company! Figures, no?).
ReplyDeleteThe Bush administration doesn't need to be deliberately caricatured. Just repeating what they say (given a context of um... reality) is enough for some satire. Irony is by no means limited as you point out. Hitchens is implicitly admitting as much while saying "denigrating Bush is for stupid people" He's done so himself in the past, but stopped because of inevitable repetition and dare I say some loss of perseverance? Because he clearly doesn't give up often. He would say he's moved on to bigger more important issues, I'd say he's willing to overlook a fatal amount of incompetence and ideology. Reading his columns has gotten to be like watching Requiem for a Dream if you ever happened to catch the movie. It's a sad state of affairs.
I happen to think The Colbert Report is perfect satire, if such a thing exists. You should watch it sometime, see how much you dislike it.
ReplyDeleteThat was disappointing, here I was hoping since the TRC showed condescension, there might actually be something good there.
Hehe. Believe it or not, righties have a sense of humor. I thought "That's My Bush" starring Tim Bottoms, also on Comedy central, was almost good.
And Colbert's a riot. Never saw anyone do what he does, but he's the best at it there ever was.
Colbert is doubly funny. His genius as a cynic is obvious - and anyone can (even those of us on the right) can appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteBut to call what he does satire, at least if you're expecting it to have some corrective intent, is a bit of a stretch. And therein lies the second level of humor, albeit a perverse one. What could be funnier than watching someone like Colbert take Al Gore seriously?