Re: your comment about being able to get on a plane without going through security reminded me of that scene in The Parallax View (1974) where Warren Beatty is tailing some bad guy and the bad guy gets on a plane so Warren Beatty just follows him on to the plane and takes a random empty seat. Then after the plane takes off the stewardess comes by and finds he doesn’t have a ticket so he just gives her cash for the price of the ticket right there. Hard to believe that was once a valid way to fly.
FInally! I thought that Mauer was philosophically opposed to playing good copyright expired music. But don't stop with Morton, try some King Oliver, Charlie Poole, Cliff Edwards(Ukulele Ike), Bessie Smith, etc.
I’ve been searching for interviews and considerations of Tom Lehrer since his passing this week, as well as relistening to the 3 disc set “The Remains Of Tom Lehrer” from 2000. These two articles are good at distilling Lehrer’s perspective:
Although he doesn’t use the term “clapter”, you find he’s keenly aware of it, and he doesn’t like it. He’s also skeptical of satire in general: Apparently he liked to quote Peter Cooke’s like about how the cabarets in Berlin were so successful at thwarting the Nazis. Lehrer also pointed out that when someone laughs at a joke, it’s in recognition that they noticed the same thing but it hadn’t been said (or “allowed” to be said), so it doesn’t change people, it makes them feel less alone.
Is “Clapter”, then, some kind of extension of feeling less alone, to the point where instead of feeling camaraderie you feel the power of Being Right? As I relistened to Lehrer’s live album, I was struck by how often the audience applauded at his cutting remarks about the world in his day (and he was of his time, calling rock and roll “children’s songs” to applause). I’m trying to put myself in their shoes, and my guess is that they felt besieged by the pop culture of their times and that someone was finally giving it good to those what deserved it. Clapter feels different, closer to applauding for Stalin out of obligation (“why obligation, comrade?”). Still, couldn’t you say that applause is also for “telling it like it is”? It’s all Greek philosophy stuff about group affinities and mobs, it seems.
Or to bring it around to the top of your episode: “White guy appreciating how revolutionary Jazz is compared to its contemporaries” lands differently than “White guy insisting everyone recognize the genius of Black Americans, and their own moral uprightness in recognizing it themselves”.
I still find Talladega Nights funny. Sure, you can say it was critiquing and mocking masculinity and that should be fine. We should know how to take a joke. The trouble is that was the only joke that could be told starting circa 2014.
Don’t worry about praising jazz as a white person, Jeff. According to Wesley Morris and the movie Sinners, you’re not virtue signaling, you’re a vampire!
Sheesh! When people try to say Wokeness is dead, point to Morris’ new podcast and this episode, which holds up Sinners and Kendrick Lamar as protectors of the Black flame, or something. It ought to be viewed as the opposite of diversity, but by some twisted logic they go hand in hand, and it’s made the last 15 years or so absolutely maddening.
I never thought David Letterman had much comedic talent. For instance, on the top 10 lists he just read them off without any sort of pauses or changes in the cadence of his voice. I hardly ever watched him though, so maybe I caught him on a few off nights.
On the other hand, Conan was terrific as a goofy, slapstick comedian.
That was a great read, thank you sharing. It sounds like he was a good fit for the era he started in. I’m not sure he would have been a successful comedian/tv host in any other time or place.
I hope Spinal Tap turns it up to eleven!
Please do write that piece on new comedy movies all being franchise extensions.
Re: your comment about being able to get on a plane without going through security reminded me of that scene in The Parallax View (1974) where Warren Beatty is tailing some bad guy and the bad guy gets on a plane so Warren Beatty just follows him on to the plane and takes a random empty seat. Then after the plane takes off the stewardess comes by and finds he doesn’t have a ticket so he just gives her cash for the price of the ticket right there. Hard to believe that was once a valid way to fly.
FInally! I thought that Mauer was philosophically opposed to playing good copyright expired music. But don't stop with Morton, try some King Oliver, Charlie Poole, Cliff Edwards(Ukulele Ike), Bessie Smith, etc.
Charlie Poole +1
Last one, I promise!
I’ve been searching for interviews and considerations of Tom Lehrer since his passing this week, as well as relistening to the 3 disc set “The Remains Of Tom Lehrer” from 2000. These two articles are good at distilling Lehrer’s perspective:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer
https://www.avclub.com/tom-lehrer-1798208112
Although he doesn’t use the term “clapter”, you find he’s keenly aware of it, and he doesn’t like it. He’s also skeptical of satire in general: Apparently he liked to quote Peter Cooke’s like about how the cabarets in Berlin were so successful at thwarting the Nazis. Lehrer also pointed out that when someone laughs at a joke, it’s in recognition that they noticed the same thing but it hadn’t been said (or “allowed” to be said), so it doesn’t change people, it makes them feel less alone.
Is “Clapter”, then, some kind of extension of feeling less alone, to the point where instead of feeling camaraderie you feel the power of Being Right? As I relistened to Lehrer’s live album, I was struck by how often the audience applauded at his cutting remarks about the world in his day (and he was of his time, calling rock and roll “children’s songs” to applause). I’m trying to put myself in their shoes, and my guess is that they felt besieged by the pop culture of their times and that someone was finally giving it good to those what deserved it. Clapter feels different, closer to applauding for Stalin out of obligation (“why obligation, comrade?”). Still, couldn’t you say that applause is also for “telling it like it is”? It’s all Greek philosophy stuff about group affinities and mobs, it seems.
Or to bring it around to the top of your episode: “White guy appreciating how revolutionary Jazz is compared to its contemporaries” lands differently than “White guy insisting everyone recognize the genius of Black Americans, and their own moral uprightness in recognizing it themselves”.
The whole shoehorning progressive ideas, particularly ones critiquing masculinity, has been going on at least since Will Ferrell hit it big
Can you think of any examples from pre-2013? I’m not questioning that they existed, I’m just curious to hear a specific case.
Lots of it when Ferrell/McKay released Talladega Nights in 2006.
MAD Magazine got this treatment posthumously (posthumorously?), but that was recently.
I still find Talladega Nights funny. Sure, you can say it was critiquing and mocking masculinity and that should be fine. We should know how to take a joke. The trouble is that was the only joke that could be told starting circa 2014.
Re being gobsmacked at people just going to the gate at the airport in older movies:
Watch The Parallax View (1974) sometime. Warren Beatty:
- Not only goes straight to the gate, he gets straight in the plane
- That is smothered in cigarette smoke
- When the stewardess asks for his ticket, *he buys one then and there*
- He then sees something fishy with the people loading baggage onto the plane, and decides to get off
- As you watch him walking away, you hear a giant explosion and a camera shake (budget restrictions, I imagine)
Don’t worry about praising jazz as a white person, Jeff. According to Wesley Morris and the movie Sinners, you’re not virtue signaling, you’re a vampire!
Sheesh! When people try to say Wokeness is dead, point to Morris’ new podcast and this episode, which holds up Sinners and Kendrick Lamar as protectors of the Black flame, or something. It ought to be viewed as the opposite of diversity, but by some twisted logic they go hand in hand, and it’s made the last 15 years or so absolutely maddening.
I would like to see Carrot Top do a political comedy show
Didn't Conan just take David Lettermans style to extremes?
I never thought David Letterman had much comedic talent. For instance, on the top 10 lists he just read them off without any sort of pauses or changes in the cadence of his voice. I hardly ever watched him though, so maybe I caught him on a few off nights.
On the other hand, Conan was terrific as a goofy, slapstick comedian.
This was a good explanation of why Letterman caught on the way he did (with mostly college kids): https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/25/good-night-on-television-emily-nussbaum
That was a great read, thank you sharing. It sounds like he was a good fit for the era he started in. I’m not sure he would have been a successful comedian/tv host in any other time or place.
At least William Jennings Bryant didn't get run over by a street car.
You gotta give him that.....