Ali G

Last night, I caught Da Ali G. Show on HBO. Brilliant and funny. Ali G. is the alter ego of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen; he’s the quintessential white suburban gangsta/hiphop wannabe, and he conducts talk-show interviews and performs various stunts. Mostly he does the talk-show thing, asking his guests the most inane, stupid, and off-the-wall irrelevant questions, This is comedy as real-time performance art, in the manner of Andy Kaufman; the guests are “real” people, i.e. celebrities or authorites, and their encounters with Ali G. are unscripted. I was pretty much hysterical with laughter when Ali G. interviewed C. Everett Koop, asking him importunate questions about various body parts–questions about whether the heart could be reprogrammed to have a drum ‘n’ bass beat instead of its usual one-two; or about the growth of the bones and skeletal system, which turned out to be really about having a “boner”; and as a followup to that, Ali asked Koop (doubtless thinking of lots of chintzy horror films): “I know this is something of a generalization, but why are skeletons evil?” Koop struggled throughout to maintain his dignity, though his puzzlement was obvious, as well as his increasing conviction that Ali G. was an idiot. All in all, pop culture post-ironic performance at its finest.

Last night, I caught Da Ali G. Show on HBO. Brilliant and funny. Ali G. is the alter ego of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen; he’s the quintessential white suburban gangsta/hiphop wannabe, and he conducts talk-show interviews and performs various stunts. Mostly he does the talk-show thing, asking his guests the most inane, stupid, and off-the-wall irrelevant questions, This is comedy as real-time performance art, in the manner of Andy Kaufman; the guests are “real” people, i.e. celebrities or authorites, and their encounters with Ali G. are unscripted. I was pretty much hysterical with laughter when Ali G. interviewed C. Everett Koop, asking him importunate questions about various body parts–questions about whether the heart could be reprogrammed to have a drum ‘n’ bass beat instead of its usual one-two; or about the growth of the bones and skeletal system, which turned out to be really about having a “boner”; and as a followup to that, Ali asked Koop (doubtless thinking of lots of chintzy horror films): “I know this is something of a generalization, but why are skeletons evil?” Koop struggled throughout to maintain his dignity, though his puzzlement was obvious, as well as his increasing conviction that Ali G. was an idiot. All in all, pop culture post-ironic performance at its finest.

Jackson Redux

I wish I had more to say about tonight’s Michael Jackson Interview on Fox, but it was just lame. I doubt that anyone will be convinced by their repeated claims of objectivity, and that Michael had no editorial control over the show. Nor does it discredit Bashir very much to show his various ass-kissing comments to butter Michael up, as if they somehow threw into doubt his harsher judgments in the final edit of his documentary. All in all, it was more sad than anything else.

I wish I had more to say about tonight’s Michael Jackson Interview on Fox, but it was just lame. I doubt that anyone will be convinced by their repeated claims of objectivity, and that Michael had no editorial control over the show. Nor does it discredit Bashir very much to show his various ass-kissing comments to butter Michael up, as if they somehow threw into doubt his harsher judgments in the final edit of his documentary. All in all, it was more sad than anything else.

Saddam and Space Aliens

According to this article from Pravda (via Follow Me Here), Saddam Hussein has captured a crashed UFO, and it’s the technology he is getting from said UFO, or from alien survivors who are helping him, that makes him a danger to world peace. The stuff he is getting is techonlogically so advanced, it could make him the ruler of the world, unless the US intervenes before it is too late. All I can say is, this is the best explanation I’ve seen for the insane warmongering of the Bush administration. Believing in the threat of UFOs, and an alien invasion, is no weirder than believing in apocalyptic, evangelical Christianity, as Bush has shown himself to do on numerous occasions.

According to this article from Pravda (via Follow Me Here), Saddam Hussein has captured a crashed UFO, and it’s the technology he is getting from said UFO, or from alien survivors who are helping him, that makes him a danger to world peace. The stuff he is getting is techonlogically so advanced, it could make him the ruler of the world, unless the US intervenes before it is too late. All I can say is, this is the best explanation I’ve seen for the insane warmongering of the Bush administration. Believing in the threat of UFOs, and an alien invasion, is no weirder than believing in apocalyptic, evangelical Christianity, as Bush has shown himself to do on numerous occasions.

Michael Jackson Unmasked

Tonight’s NBC Dateline special, Michael Jackson: Unmasked, was disappointingly lame; it was poorly edited and full of hot air, neither showing any intelligence nor feeding my morbid voyeuristic fascination. Still, it led me to some new thoughts on the situation…

Tonight’s NBC Dateline special, Michael Jackson: Unmasked, was disappointingly lame; it was poorly edited and full of hot air, neither showing any intelligence nor feeding my morbid voyeuristic fascination. Still, it led me to some new thoughts on the situation….
Continue reading “Michael Jackson Unmasked”

Jacko TV

“The more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war…. The real pity is not that television has no shame; it is that there are not still more Michael Jackson specials scheduled beyond the Fox event on Thursday.” Thus
Alessandra Stanley in today’s New York Times; I couldn’t agree more. Let a thousand Jacko specials bloom.

“The more we see of Mr. Jackson right now, the healthier we are as a nation: at least it indicates we are not at war…. The real pity is not that television has no shame; it is that there are not still more Michael Jackson specials scheduled beyond the Fox event on Thursday.” Thus
Alessandra Stanley in today’s New York Times; I couldn’t agree more. Let a thousand Jacko specials bloom.