'F--- Sister Jean'

Yep, I hear you. I have a deep appreciation for Seinfeld's sense of professionalism and craft. At the same time, I have more tolerance for filthy humour than most, but I like it when it comes with something more. Louis CK, for me, is pretty much the pinnacle of funny. Boundary pushing but also smart.

I'm trying to think of a good example of boundary pushing and dumb. Andrew Dice Clay? That's just bad comedy, and I think the relatively short time he had in the spotlight proved that most people agreed.

The first time I did standup, I did a joke about blowing the cigarette ashes out of Ted Nugent's asshole so I could fuck him. I thought it was funny, but I learned (partly thanks to the audience non-reaction) that shock without higher purpose is pointless.

Shock with purpose? I think you can make the case that's as good as what Seinfeld does. But I understand when people don't agree.

 

Talk about burying the lede ...

 

To circle back: I don't imagine that the Tennessee radio host was trying to "shock" with his Sister Jean. I think it was more or less supposed to be understood as play-acting a fanboi overreaction.

I don't think it merited a column by the Trib's lede columnist. That said, I have no doubt people ate it up today, so maybe it did.

 

I thought the column was very schoolmarm, but I suspect it got massive traffic.

 

Dear David Haugh,

Thank you for extending my 15 minutes.

Sincerely,

Cody McClure

 

That's kind of where I stand. Yes, there are comedians who use dirty jokes to go for the cheap and easy laugh, but that isn't what Carlin did. It isn't what Pryor did. Carlin in particular spoke about why he used profanity in his act. Sure, part of it was not wanting the restriction, but he also argued that keeping it clean was part of the softening of the language that, as he put it, "takes the life out of life."

 

I do think McClure seemed a little exasperated to have to take the call, though.

 

It's not fun for most people to be at the centre of a shitstorm. People who have an endless appetite for it, like Ann Coulter, are extremely suspect.

 

I'm paraphrasing a bit, but in the Bill Maher episodes of Comedians in Cars, Maher said he once challenged the notion that he was smug, telling Seinfeld something to the effect of 'I'm not smug. You're smug. I'm arrogant.' They both seemed to relish the idea of embracing what others would consider to be character flaws.

As far as Seinfeld as a clean comic, maybe one of the reasons it doesn't rub me the wrong way is that I appreciate the fact that he worships the craft. I don't know if anyone has ever seen this roundtable with him, Chris Rock, Louis C.K., and Ricky Gervais, but it gives a lot of insight into the process and philosophy of these comics, including Seinfeld's cleanliness.

 

I think McClure comes off pretty well in the Haugh column, and I agree with him here:

"Why are we so soft on the internet, yet in real life people are joking around about things that they wouldn’t post online? Pardon my language, but can we stop bull-s******g ourselves for once and have a laugh?’’

It was absolutely the kind of joke my friends or I would make watching a game.

 

A little George Carlin story and then I have to go to work.

I have a friend who worked with him in Las Vegas. Before every show, Carlin would go through all the vending machines, looking for quarters in the change slots. He'd do it after his show, too. On his way to or from the stage, he'd look for quarters. My friend saw Carlin do this hundreds of times and never saw him find a quarter. So before one show, my friend plants a quarter in the change slot and sits back to watch Carlin's reaction. Carlin does his usual thing, checking each of the machines, and then he finds the quarter. He was delighted. Like, visibly thrilled.

Thought of it when I read the "takes the life out of life" line in your post just now.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

Never had fb, but from reading here about it, hearing from friends about it and reading the news that seems like bs.