Until today, I thought "Chamillionaire" was a parody hip-hop artist name invented by the writing staff of "30 Rock."
You know, that episode where they're dancing in the writer's room and Jack catches them? Yeah. I'm like a dream-juror in a high profile case against anyone involved in pop music.
Michael Hirschorn doesn't like "quirk". He has some good points (Napoleon Dynamite, Garden State, and You and Me and Everyone We Know tried too hard to be quirky and ended up annoying, but it's still good that they were made) but from what I can gather, he just doesn't like things that are too subtle for stupid people to get and that don't make a ton of money. (This American Life, Flight of the Conchords, Arrested Development, Wes Anderson movies other than Rushmore.) As if intelligent, subtle humor wasn't already in enough jeopardy, let's kick it some more! It's not like what he calls "quirk" is taking over our culture at a time with the best show on TV (the extremely quirky "30 Rock") is in danger of cancellation while exploitative reality shows and "Two and a Half Men" thrive.
A plea to Mr. Hirschorn: thanks for giving the world Celebrity Fit Club and I Love New York, and celebreality shows in general. But can you leave the already-depressed people who work their asses off to entertain those of us with higher standards alone? We're already hard enough to please, and they're already hearing a constant refrain of "dumb it down, dumb it down, only a few people will get this". Some of us happen to prefer things that only a few people get. Sometimes those things are the only things that make us believe pop culture has anything to offer us. What you call "quirk", we call "originality", and while there will probably never be a huge market for it, we need more of it, not less.
Last night my friend Eric called me excitedly:
Eric: "Oh my god, remember that thing on the 30 Rock website where you could have Alec Baldwin leave a personalized voicemail for your friend?"
Me: "I don't think anyone has pointed that out yet! I sent some to my friends last year! Maybe it's still up! (Of course, publicists thought of it before Eric did and scrubbed it from the site.)
I hate to make fun of this situation, but how funny would it be to have a version of AB's rant sent to your friends' phone? Like, you could choose their age "I don't care if you're 29 years old...or 30 years old...or that you're an adult" and various insults "thoughtless pig" just like with the original. Okay, that's terrible. But kind of funny.
"I don't know what happened in your life that caused you to develop a sense of humor as a coping mechanism, maybe it was some sort of brace or corrective boot you wore during childhood but in any case: I'm glad you're on my team."
- Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) to Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) on last night's 30 Rock
I have a friend who wore a scoliosis brace in middle school who is now a humor writer (update: Emily) and our running joke is that I'm jealous of her for the funny-making brace (she assures me that I have and have had quite enough to compensate for -- whew!!)
Apparently my 2003 archives are all messed up but I found an old thing I said about the "Theory of Compensation" quoted on the blog Chaos Theory. It's by no means an original idea, but four jaded New York years later I still believe it to be true.
Anyway, go watch last night's 30 Rock -- the quote above is by no means the funniest part.
Recent Comments