TAKE MY WIFE, FOR INSTANCE
February 22, 2006
Classic Comedy Routines Vetted for Hyperbole
Burbank, CA | Gone are the days of insightful political discussion. Ratings-driven news bureaus both large and small have abandoned their obligation to an informed citizenry, opting instead to serve up a steady diet of sound bites and infotainment. In this so-called Information Age, people who can't name their elected officials know Saddam Hussein loves Cool Ranch Doritos.
Political commentary has been hijacked by carnival barkers like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson who owe their success to disingenuous controversy. Their integrity is on a level with professional wrestling, '50s game shows and guests of Jerry Springer.
Straightforwardness has been replaced with theater, credible analysis of current events superseded by thinly-veiled propaganda. As the world plummets into intellectual darkness, the burden has increasingly fallen upon its jesters to cut through reactionary rhetoric and partisan hackery.
For better or worse, retooled funnymen such as Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Al Franken and Dennis Miller are the New Fourth Estate. Recent violent reaction to several satirical cartoons published in Europe underscores the humorist's elevated function in modern society.
The International Oversight Committee on Whimsy and Monkeyshines has issued its annual guidelines for "responsibility in the public discourse" which place severe new restrictions on sarcasm, mockery, caprice, exaggeration and farce. Simply stated: There is no place for humor in comedy.
A massive program of voluntary retroactive self-abridgment is now underway and many old classics will have a new look after conforming to IOCWM protocols:
Monty Python's Flying Circus
NEXT PHOTO >>
