Don't Be Cross
I was recently in Ann Arbor, home of my alma mater, the University of Michigan. A local free magazine listed the many activities occuring that month.
Comedian David Cross was in town. Here's what they said:
Cross reigns as one of the most brutally honest comedians you will ever hear, slaughtering every sacred cow in America's pasture, from the terrorist "threat" to gay marriage to abortion [....] You've been warned!
I've seen Cross and think he's great. Still, I have to wonder if anyone in his audience will really hear anything that goes against their views on terrorism, gay marriage or abortion.
Mind you, that's not a comedian's job. All he has to do is be funny. But whenever I hear that a comedian is brave, I ask myself if he truly says anything that challenges his audience's notions, or just strokes their prejudices.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:20 AM
4 Comments:
A truly brave comedian- saying things his audience didn't like (rather than things his audience thinks other people really won't like) probably can't by definition exist- except maybe Andy Kaufman (Elvis, Mighty Mouse, Wrestling) of course by the end some people went to see him wanting to be pissed off (I think a lot of cable news commentators works that way too but they're not labelled as comedians)
I don't know if I'd go that far. A chancey comedian can take his audience to new places, make them look at things differently, and even make them feel a bit uncomfortable (though perhaps not for too long).
By the way, if it wasn't clear, I'm not attacking Cross. I was just bothered by the self-congratulory tone of the article.
Just because NE guy doesn't like cable commentators doesn't mean others don't like them. This is a common argument. That somehow popular public figures can't possible believe what they're saying, it's just a put-on to be popular.
I didn't say I didn't like cable commentators or that nobody did ( clearly they don't, numbers don't don't lie). Some I like, some I hate, most I ignore. I did say that a lot of people who watch them deliberately do so in order to get pissed off by them - its seems to be why mom continues watch Bill O'Reilly- just so she can get outraged and call me up and tell me about it.
I'm sorry anonymous I will be more charitable in my future characterizations of screaming meatheads and their fans. oops
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