Stephen Colbert: Great show, or the greatest show?

Stephen Colbert... the man has a mascot (Stephen Cobeagle The Eagle) named after him, has Captain America's indestructable shield, could probably win for president, has been offered a vice-precidency position by Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, has an ice cream named after him, made out with Jane Fonda on his show, has a whole day dedicated to him in the city of Oshawa, wrote a book, created the word "Truthiness" which was the word of the year i 2005 by the American Dialecy Society and Marriam-Webster, was voted 2006's second sexiest news anchor on maxim online, has an airplane named after him, and plays dungeons and dragons.

Stephen Colbert is the man! For a while, i was obsessed with Stephen Colbert. His right-winged ignorant character is so outragous that he doesn't just play the character, he lives it. His facebook group "1,000,000 strong for Colbert" has over 1,500,000 members. After joining this group, i really asked myself: "would i really vote for him". If he kept feeding witty and funny jokes out, i would. After reflecting this, it made me respect Stephen Colbert's character more.

I would have been voting for Colbert's satirical character on the same reasons he satires against. Check out this interview with the A.V. Club in 2006:

"AVC: It seems like you're actively cultivating a cult of personality on the show.
SC: That's exactly what those are, these are all personality shows. It doesn't matter what they're saying. Doesn't matter what the news is, it's how this person feels about the news, and how you should feel about the news. It is also the personality. I'm not playing it nearly as hard as someone like O'Reilly or [Sean] Hannity does."

Stephen Colbert really is a living satire. He really shows me how sometimes one can forget facts or even logic and just get caught up with any high-status person with a lovable personality.

First Encounter with Dark Humor

The first time I would have to say I was confronted with dark comedy was probably in high school (go figure). I was introduced to dark comedy before but the thing is, I really didn’t know it was a genre of comedy. The television shows and the people I was around when I was growing up made dark jokes (usually humor of hypothetical violence/tragedy). But the one who showed me dark humor in literature was my senior year English teacher, Mr. McDun.

Back in my days of high school, I was fortunate enough to meet one an insane and senile as McDun was. The first time I met him was my sophomore year as he supervised my study period. He knew me from my brother, who was currently in his Senior English class. At first, I thought he was crazy. I heard many stories about him such as him giving you 40 A’s in one day but still have a failing grade. He would sing old songs in class and play his kazoo to “Role down the Barrel”. Every now and then alumni would come by and McDun will know where he sat, what class he was in, everything about his family, what grade he got, but could not remember his name. He was quite the character.

Anyways, he always had books over on his podium that I always took an interest in (anything to procrastinate studying). One study period I was looking through the book, and saw pictures in one. The book was Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. It was hilarious to see someone actual draw out a sketch of an asshole. When asking my teacher what kind of book had pictures in it, he called me a Gumba (he called a lot of people Gumba’s). He explained that it was novel written by America’s greatest novelist and explained the book with the terms of “dead-pan satire” and “dark humor”.

After being intrigued and bored, I decided to read the book. I soon learned that Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions was written as a birthday present to himself. It was written with simple, childlike illustrations and it has a patchwork story that eventually defies the constraints of the stories format itself that leads up to a message of self-liberation. This book really consumed me with its humor for the humor was not like anything else I have experienced before. Take this joke:

“Teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.” (Breakfast of Champions)

I couldn’t help at laugh at Vonnegut’s cynical-ism but I also got the feeling of “what the fuck is wrong with humans?” It gave me an uncomfortable feeling and made me really do something I never done before, analyze jokes. It was the first time I felt humorous and angry at the same time.

Breakfast of Champion really put more meaning into dark comedy for me and really got me into the genre. Maybe I confused dark comedy with obscenity but after breakfast of champions, I started to appreciate dark humor more.

Sleeping Hazard (Mark Twain Post)

I was reading a short little story by Mark Twain called “The Danger of Lying in Bed”. The title was a bit bizarre but it caught my interest. The story starts off with a man asking the Twain if he has accident insurance before he gets on a train. Twain responds:

"No," I said, after studying the matter over a little. "No, Ibelieve not; I am going to be traveling by rail all day today. However, tomorrow I don't travel. Give me one for tomorrow."

The man looked puzzled. He said: "But it is for accident insurance, and if you are going to travelby rail--"

“If I am going to travel by rail I sha'n't need it. Lying at homein bed is the thing _I_ am afraid of."

He then goes on and compares the deaths that happen in a train and the deaths that happen in beds (every day, lots of old people/sick people die in there bed). He gets very specific like in A Modest Proposal with his statistics and mentions a variety of largly populated cities to add more numbers. This is why he advices people to carry these insurance papers to bed with them. He then ends with telling the reader that the marvel that train kills only a small amount of people rather than the huge amount of people who die in there bed.

I don’t know if Twain was trying to make a small joke out of this piece of rather that he was trying to get appoint the message that we can die anywhere at anytime, regardless of the situation. I can hint a lot of sarcasm in this piece, but it really is hard to tell if he’s just joking or making a point but I guess it can be actually both. Not a bad piece, I really did find it funny but it dragged when he was giving statistics of populations in cities. Maybe he did it on purpose though, either way, I got a laugh.

The Innocense of a Child (South Park Blog)

South Park has come a long way since I first watched it in 97. My older brother always watched it, so I was stuck to watch it (thank god). It was amazingly awesome when I was a lad, never seen any comedy. I didn’t really get that it was exactly dark comedy at first or anything like that, I was about 10. The things that really grabbed me was the vulgarity of the little kids and the absurdness of it such as when the aliens stole Kyle’s little brother, Ike, in the first episode:

Kyle: Dude, I have to save Ike! I don’t even know what to do!
Stan: Well, we can’t do anything now; that fat bitch won’t let us!
Ms. Crabtree: WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?
Stan: I said that rabbits eat lettuce.
Ms. Crabtree: Oh. Well, yes, the certainly do.

Classic South Park… I can remember my dad yelling at me and brother, ignorantly calling it South Fork for some reason, and nagging us on how this cartoon is rotting our brains.
South Park has come a long way, and I have nearly watched every episode… (a little sad, but I regret nothing about it). Over the years I have notice and appreciated there clever use of pop-culture parody, there extreme satire, and there continued use of toilet humor.

The thing about South Park and other cartoons, such as The Simpson’s, is that the characters are grade school kids. This is an interesting approach because usually, you would never hear or see kids go through such language or situations as the kids on South Park do. It’s funny to see these kids go through adult type situations and there responses to it. Making the main characters kids really puts a different aspect to the cartoon that you won’t see in others. These kids go through the absurd world of South Park and turn out to be more mature than the adults. This is an effective tool for dark comedy as it’s easier to laugh when a child does something wrong/right. Such as in the South Park 69th episode, Scott Tenorman Must Die, Cartman cuts the bodies of a bully kid’s parents, Scott, and tricks him into eating his parents that was diabolically put in chili. Also Cartman planed that Scott’s favorite band, Radiohead, come laugh at him while he is crying over his dead parents (which in real life, Radiohead wouldn’t do). The fact that Cartman is just a 10 year old really put the humor in this. It’s so evil and clever that no one would suspect that a child could be capable of such a malevolent act.

South Park has uses dark humor to show how absurd the world and various individuals are. I’m not sure if this is on purpose, but I believe the children are there to show generation comparison. It really makes me ask myself, what would the next generation think of me watching some lame reality show or me being tolerant to fat people but not smokers? How can I explain porn with 8 people and two of them are midgets? I dread the day, if there ever is, if they ever decide to make children news reporters about serious subjects because I bet there would be many answers that I just couldn’t answer to a kid.

Final Paper Subjects

I love cartoons… it feels weird to be almost 20 and watching them but hey, adult cartoons have made it to the hearts of millions of TV sets in America. I was raised on The Simpson’s, Ren and Stimpy, South Park, Rocko’s modern life, and many others. Thank god my parents didn’t care what I watched on TV; otherwise I wouldn’t know of these great cartoons and probably wouldn’t know the great adult cartoons of today’s media.
Most of the adult cartoons of today are actually quite clever. They relate the audience to controversial and taboo subjects that really make the audience think about what exactly they are laughing at. A lot of new age adult cartoons that are popular in America media confront the audience with controversial subjects of politics, war, and culture using black comedy, satire, parody, and post-modernism.
My thesis: “Many popular American adult cartoons of the 21st century are influential forms of art that confronts the audience with controversial and important topics of politics, war, religion, and culture using black comedy, satire, parody, and post-modernism.” The cartoons I will include in this paper are Wonder-Showzen, The Boondocks, South Park, Morel Orel, and possibly a few more.
I also want to express in the paper the controversy of whether these cartoons are beneficial or just trashy drug-humored TV. It is a very touchy subject, but here’s an interesting quote from the creators of Wonder Showzen commenting on the standards of the MTV, the network that aired the cartoon:

“Vernon Chatman: It's not standards, it's protection. Everyone's protecting themselves. Standards are such a weird thing at a network like MTV. What's your moral standard when you're celebrating 16-year-old kids spending $2 million on a party? That's always our argument—"You show this stuff that's actually offensive!"

John Lee: There's not even any satire to it, just people yelling at workers.”

Fake News Story Blog

Las Vegas – Punch-drunk Love-sick Wedding war.

Breaking news today, the consolation of our American wedding utopia has been wrecked. The nation is griped after the shocking revelation of a same-sex Gothic and Christian professional licensed unionizers were caught in a disgusting and depraved intermingling. This relationship is so taboo, that it makes bestiality look like a pretty white kid making a snow-man.

It all started when a new Gothic wedding chapel, The Count Dracu-love Wedding chapel, opened 100 feet from a Catholic-based chapel, The Jesus is my Homeboy Wedding Chapel. The news of the Count Dracu-love W.C. opening up disturbed the Jesus is my Homeboy W.C. on the fact that the Count Dracu-love W.C. was so close to there’s and it was evil.

The Count Dracu-love church is run by a man named Lue Mephistopheles. He offers such awesome gothic features to a wedding such as Count Dracula and Grim Reaper as ministers, theatrical lightning lighting, live internet web cast, and fake blood. A feud started with Mephistopheles and the leader of the Jesus is my Homeboy W.C, Rich Gimme, when Mephistopheles put up a controversial poster in front of there chapel: “Anything Jesus can do, we can do better.”

Gimme was very distraught by this poster, and decided to take actions into his own hands. During midnight at the Count Dracu-love W.C, they ring a huge church bell to declare that it is witching hour and that couples can get a discount if they get married between 12-1 A.M. Gimme ran into one of Mephistopheles W.C.’s staff and stabbed him in the heart with a katana and put a letter on his back, reading: “See you in three days.”

This act led to a knife fight between the two chapels several hours later, led in a back ally. Sometime during the fight, two of the chapel’s staff member announced that they were in love, they were sick of this hatred for one and another, and that they were getting married. This revolting news led the two chapels to gang up and riot against any type of Gay marriage. The riot also brought the Wild-Wild West Wedding Chapel to be apart of the violence which was led by their leader and also somewhat popular comedian, Gary the Cable Guy. Gary helped recruit local civilians with his southern homo-bashing style of comedy.

The riot lasted for a few hours until broken up by the police. Many were arrested, including all the members of the Count Dracu-love W.C and Jesus is my Homeboy W.C. America was shocked not by the violence of the legal religious chapels, but by the fact that the same-sex couple was going to get married. The subject is truly controversial and here are some responses of locals from Las Vegas when asked there position on same-sex marriages:

“Same-sex couples make me SICK!!! It’s un-Godly like.”

“This is just a slippery slope to people marrying camels!!”

“I don’t see what’s wrong with same-sex couples… shoot; I have had the same-sex with my wife for 15 years.”

The same-sexed couple are going to be locked up for a long time and it seems that America needs a law that tells them exactly what Marriage is.

Kurt Vonnegut = A pillar of salt, (Slaughter House 5 Blog, theme of loss of meaning of life)

Kurt Vonnegut was an author that I have grown to admire and have attempted to emulate in my own writing. The power and truth of his harsh and mournful views of this tiny planet have moved my perspectives, thoughts, and feelings of life.

Vonnegut was a grumpy old man who always express in his writing a theme of dehumanization or loss of meaning of life for the human race. He even writes in Breakfast of Champions:

“I tend to think of human beings as huge, rubbery test tubes, too, with chemical reactions seething inside.”

Strong words. In the PBS special we watched in class, Vonnegut, as he was nearing the end of his life, said referring to the human race as a whole:

“(Sigh) Look, after two world wars and the holocaust and the nuclear bombing of Urashima and Nagasaki and after the Roman games and after the Spanish Inquisition and after burning witches in public, shouldn’t we call it off? (Speaking with laughter) I mean we are a disease and should be ashamed of ourselves.”

In “Slaughter-House Five” and also in a lot of his writing, Vonnegut infuses this dehumanization theme that tends to depress regular people with a fresh and unique style of black humor. A few examples:

"Even though Billy's train wasn't moving, its boxcars were kept locked tight. Nobody was to get off until the final destination. To the guards who walked up and down outside, each car became a single organism which ate and drank and excreted through its ventilators. It talked or sometimes yelled through its ventilators, too. In went water and loaves of black-bread and sausage and cheese, and out came shit and piss and language."

Here, Vonnegut refers a boxcar moving POW’s to Germany and compares it any other ‘organism’. He doesn’t show any meaning and describes the box-car full of soldiers as nothing more than animals that talk, eat, and excrete.

“So it goes.”

This phrase occurs over 100 times in the book, and is mentioned anytime after death is in subject. It is said in the same toned no matter the nature of death that is being mentioned. It could be accidental, on purpose, or a massacre but all Vonnegut says is “So it goes”. It also points out that no matter what anyone does; they are still going to die somehow and someway.

So is Vonnegut really saying that we are nothing special? Is our race nothing more than horrible killing machines or mindless animals? Even of knowing what Vonnegut said about the human race, I believe that Vonnegut shows, even though hard to believe, a message through this theme of dehumanization and the meaning of life. You can see it clearly through this quote, referring to a story in the bible:


“And Lot’s wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for hat, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt.”


I love this quote, it really shows a message through the dark consequences of Lot’s wife being turned to a pillar of salt, and that message is clear to me: That we are all humans, we are all bound by the same vulgarities, the same emotions, and the same regrets. We are all confined on this little round floating rock by birth and then death. We need to accept that we have flaws; even Vonnegut calls himself “a pillar of salt” in the novel. He shows us through his dark dehumanization themes and criticism that we need to better ourselves from actions that can only be explained by a mindless statement such as “Poo-tee-weet”.

Vonnegut died about a year ago, I don't know how, but that is unimportant. What is important is that he lived. In that PBS special, I was shocked to hear him call us a disease… maybe somewhere he just gone off the rails, just lost hope His life is an example of how life can be more than a “disease”. So I propose this simple epitaph for Mr. Kurt Vonnegut. It is simple. It is short, and very impersonal. I think he would want that.

"Kurt Vonnegut: He lived.
Thank you.”

Comfort and Cigarettes (Tasteless, By David Sedaris)

In Tasteless, Sedaris opens up with an optimistic line about quitting smoking:

“Taste buds paved beneath decades of tar will spring back to life, and an entire sense will be restored.”

I really like this line, it sounds like a rebirth over a habit that causes mental and physical damages. After this line though, Sedaris takes a 180 and says that he has not notice any significant change. Not so optimistic.

Sedaris, for the rest of the piece, goes on about how he really doesn’t care much about food. He doesn’t care about the names of food, he writes about thinking fried chicken was fried fish and associates, and he associates food with color. It is weird though that even though he does not care for food that much; he spends a lot of time with it. My theory on this is that he is trying to say, through his writing, that he is using food as a comfort food or a void to just pass time with.

Sedaris introduces himself as a shoveling eater or a prisoner. He will eat until he becomes sick and even offered money “convict-like” during his childhood dinners. For someone who recalls food with colors, this seems a bit much if not crazy. The anxiety or the fear he gets of going without food might be an explanation of why he treats food in such a manner.

Sedaris also goes on about how his childhood revolved around food. He even says:

“All I knew about being young had canned parmesan cheese on it.”

Kind of funny but a bit sad. He doesn’t care about food, but he doesn’t stop cooking and eating while other kids are doing drugs and sex. This whole piece actually reminds me of a South Park Quote that was used in the Fat Camp episode:

“Cartman: Hey Chad, do you know what you need? You need a friend.Chad I do?Cartman: Yes a chocolate friend. Mr. Candybar doesn't judge you Chad, Mr. Candybar likes you just the way you are. Look how yummy and sweet he is.”

I think when Sedaris was young he would use food in a way to pass time in his life and not feel so bad about not doing anything else. It was a great piece.

Kelsy Grammer, The Villainous Phycotic Killer (Favorite Simpsons Episode).

"Chief Wiggum: Well, I'd like to help you m'am, but I'm afraid there's no law against mailing threatening letters."

My Favorite episode of The Simpsons is no doubt Cape Feare, a parody of the movie Cape Fear with specials guest Kelsy Grammer, from the hit show Frasier, voices the phycotic Side Show Bob.

This Episode was made during the 5th season and stabs the life out of my funny bone. The opening scene opens with both Bart and Lisa getting mail:

"Lisa:(excited) It's from my pen pal Anya! (Lisa reads letter, Anya's voice can be heard: "Dear Lisa, As I write this I am very sad. Our president has been overthrown and(turns into man's voice) replaced by the benevolent General Thrull. All hail Thrull and his glorious new regime! Sincerly, Little Girl." Lisa moans.) "

Bart then reads his and it informs him in blood "I'm Going To Kill You." While Bart is reading this, an episode of Itchy and Scratchy is playing while Itchy is letting a laser cut Scratchy into many pieces. Lisa luaghs, Bart doesn't. I found the contrast of death on tv and in real life intresting.

After Bart gets parinoid and expects everyone to be the killer, the whole Simpsons family figures out that it was Side Show Bob who was writing the threatening letters while finding him out of prison (from framing Krust the Clown) and in a movie theater smoking a huge cigar and laughing:

"Bart:(Pointing at Bob.) You wrote me those letters.
Marge: You awful man, stay away from my son!
Bob: Oh I'll stay away from your son alright, stay away forever.
Homer: Oh no!
Bob: Wait a minute that's no good. (Gets angered at his mistake and walks away. He then comes running back.) Wait I got a good one now! Marge say stay away from my son again."

I'm going to make this clear right now in saying that I am a big fan of Kelsy Grammer and especialy the show Frasier. I believe Kelsy Grammer does a wonderful job of being a villainous homicidal maniac. Bob gets out of prison not with reason, but with charm:

"Lawyer: What about that tattoo on your chest, doesn't it say "DIE BART DIE"?
Bob: No! That's German...for "Die Bart Die" (Courtroom laughs.)
Right board member: No one that speaks German can be a bad man."

After this, The Simpsons move to Lake Terror and change there name to the The Thompson and move to Cape Feare (which adds to the parody of the move Cape Fear). Little do they know that Bob, being crazy, is under the car while there driving. Little does he know that he is in for a bumpy ride though:

"Homer: Lousy speed bumps.(Speed bumps hit Bob in the head. Homer is drinking coffee) This coffee is too hot. (pours it outside, lands on Bob.) Hey kids wanna drive through that cactus patch?
Bart: Yeah!
Lisa: Yeah!
Bob: No.....
Homer: Two against one!(Homer drives into cactus patch with Bob still inderneath.)"

Even after the ride, while the "Thompsons" are checking out there new boat home, Bob gets up form the car, bruised and worn out, and he steps on a rake followed by tge rake hitting him in the face. He turns another direction and is hit in the face by another rake. This continues to happen over and over and over again until 9 rakes are hit. This adds humor to Bob being a phycotic killer becuase he keeps getting screwed over by wacky situations, a famous Frasier plot style.

Eventualy, Bob gets the whole family tied up except for bart. Bart gets only one last wish till he is killed:

"Bob: Well Bart, any last requests? (Walks toward Bart.)
Bart: Well,...there is one, but(Looks at distance to Springfield sign.)...Nah...
Bob: No, go on.
Bart:You have such a beautiful voice.
Bob: Guilty as charged.
Bart: Uh huh. Anyway, I was wondering if you could sing the entire score of the HMS Pinnafore.
Bob: Very well Bart. I shall send you to heaven before I send you to hell."

I love that last line there as Bob is foiled by his own image of being sophisticated. He sings the song elegantly while the boat drifts back to springfield. By the time Bob is done, there back and Chief Wiggum arrests Bob for attempted murder:

"Wiggum: Hold it right there Sideshow Bob. You're under arrest.
Bob: By Lucifer's beard! "

I also love this episode not only for it's parody of Cape Fear, but also its Parody of Kelsy Grammer's character Frasier. They make Side Show Bob into a intelectual killer who is stoped by wacky situations and two children, Lisa and Bart. It is so annoying to Bob that he can outsmart the whole Springfield Cop's but can't outsmart two kids. Yet again though, Chief Wiggum is pretty dumb:

"Bart: Take him away, boys!

Chief Wiggum: Hey I'm the chief here! Bake'em away, toys!

Lou: What'd you say chief?

Chief Wiggum: Do what the kid says..."

Bob returns in future episodes and starts a great theme in later shows. This episode was halerius and is my favorite Simpson's Episode.

Fake Plastic Marriage (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Fabrication of reality can lead to reality. In Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” Jack Worthing, the play’s protagonist is a respectful landowner who is a sculpt image of Victorian values. He is caught into a pretense or a restriction of being of notions such as honor, respect, and responsible. This mold is supposed to be filled for conventional Victorian morality but Wilde satires this construct by using Jack to represent hypocrisy of the Victorian World. Jack fabricates an alter-ego, Earnest, to break through his Victorian image and allow himself to express himself through lies. This gets in the way though of his love for Gwendolen, a female character that represents the qualities of conventional Victorian womanhood. Gwnedolen is fixed on the name Earnest, and Jack must reconcile his two worlds to fully understand who he is and what exactly he wants.

Fate undermines Jack’s efforts with his lies catching up with him. He tried to come up with a romantic relationship but it was based on lies and he must confront those lies to Gwendolen. He even is willing to change his name and live his lie to get Gwendolyn’s hand in marriage.
At the end of the story, Jack runs into his long –lost mother, Miss Prism, and figured out that his fabricated story was true all along. I took this is Jack showing his true side and figuring out who exactly he was rather than what he was supposed to be.

This play was hilarious and showed me a theme of how being Earnest can be hypocritical and boring to ones true feelings of one’s self.

Jonathan Swift could feed the world, Baby!

In reading “A Modest Proposal”, Jonathan Swift proposed an idea that would prevent the poverty-stricken babies to being a drain on society. He proposed of feeding these poor babies to a plump and then feeding them to rich land-owners. Swift says that babies could be sold at the age of one to meat markets which will give some money to the poor, lessen the amount of poverty, and contribute to the society economically.

This would shock most people if it was considered a real proposition but “A Modest Proposal” is a satire essay to show Swift’s anger for the lack of qualified politicians and the hypocrisy of the wealth.

The idea of eating babies is quite absurd (I prefer chicken dinners). To accept the murder of our own race would be inhumane and would turn society into a cold emotion-less society where efficiency reigns as priority.

This whole idea of eating babies reminded me of a clip of Wonder Show Zen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBQxPUBks_U

“Slaves built the pyramids. Slaves build the Parthenon. Slaves built America. This is your song. Thank you slaves!”

Eating babies might be considered productive for a society as slaves were when slavery was legal. It makes one wonder if population control went really out of hand, could cannibalism actually be considered?