r u trying 2 say "no one wants to see a movie with Madonna?" you've said something i won't say on my FB page. I don't want to activate that memory node for anyone on my FB page (look at the friends i have)
I have to disagree with you, Jon. Everyone (mostly I guess is more accurate) watching a Norman Lear show knew the characters were not real people, they were prototypes. I also think when viewers laughed at characters such as Archie, it was because they found his remarks so extreme they were ludicrous, not to be taken seriously. It was the shock value that elicited the laughter. Chappelle is a different story in recent years, in my opinion. His humor on his show was similar to Lear's except he was making fun of his own group. He stopped doing the show when he realized it was harmful, reinforcing a stereotype of Blacks rather than skewering it. In recent years, though, he is ridiculing other groups. Also, I think he believes calling his statements (jokes?) humor hides the fact that he is not trying to be funny. I guess he thinks most of his audience is not insightful enough to see behind the curtain. He means what he is saying when he mocks Jews and LGBTQ+ individuals.
Jon—I understand you quoted Dave Chappelle because he spoke specifically about Norman Lear. However, his comments about “the person on the other side of an argument from me is not my enemy” and “everything’s gonna be alright if we can laugh together” caused me to laugh so suddenly and strongly that my drink sprayed across the room. In light of his frequent mockery of Jews and LGBTQ+ people, his comment that laughing together makes everything alright is ludicrous. I guess what he meant to say was that everything is alright as long as he is ridiculing others.
I watched a great documentary about Norman Lear the other night, and I regret I don't have his courage nor his reach.
My ONLY regret about Lear's magnificent work is the rise of Jimmy "JJ" Walker, who was merely a one-hit wonder and mostly irrelevant. No more "Dyn-O-mite!" PLEASE! My world has been "rocked" enough!
Thanks for this, Jonathan. Norman's creations became fixtures in my mother's house; mom was an Eisenhower Republican who, I think with Norman's help, made a slow transition to Democrat. And, somehow, Norman managed all this AFTER he turned 50! I must admit that sometimes I give in to negative thoughts about how "it's all over" at my age (the same as yours). Norman has given me hope! Over and next, indeed!
When I think of Lear's work, I realize how dramatically I have changed. When All in the Family first hit the airwaves, my teenage years were just about to begin and the revolutionary nature of his shows were as combustible and raucous as adolesence.
First, I loved him
Later on, I came to hate his stuff.
First, the love affair:
Before Lear, situation comedies were as banal and as boring as a dinner consisting of 8 slices of white bread.
On "Leave it to Beaver," the little boy protagonist of the show might lose a watch. On "The Lucy Show," Lucille Ball, for the 99th time, would try to finagle her hubby to give her an act in his nightclub. This stuff was as sanitized and sterile as a gauze pad.
Archie Bunker et al broke down the barriers between politics and entertainment. Episodes touching on the Vietnam War, women's rights, race relations, homosexuality et al were explosive, and the word explosive does not begin to convey just how dramatic his material was.
However, as I aged, I realy got sick of his stuff.
I started to hate the stuff for 2 reasons:
1) Every minority, or interest group, was defined by stereotypes. After all, a 30 minute times slot does not give us time to sketch complete and real characters. Instead, we just get stereotypes.
And so blacks liked R& B music, greasy food and rousing exclamatory speech. Feminists were blistering bitches waging blitzkriegs against the male gender.
In no time, this became tiresome.
2) In blurring the line between politics and entertainment, it inaugurated a process in which people got their political news from entertaiment. SNL might offer some info about curent events, but the emphasis on being funny entails the abridgment and distorttion of the truth.
r u trying 2 say "no one wants to see a movie with Madonna?" you've said something i won't say on my FB page. I don't want to activate that memory node for anyone on my FB page (look at the friends i have)
Every deeply religious person I have met in my 80 years exhibited the same qualities: humility, doubt and questioning. A toast to Edith Bunker.
I have to disagree with you, Jon. Everyone (mostly I guess is more accurate) watching a Norman Lear show knew the characters were not real people, they were prototypes. I also think when viewers laughed at characters such as Archie, it was because they found his remarks so extreme they were ludicrous, not to be taken seriously. It was the shock value that elicited the laughter. Chappelle is a different story in recent years, in my opinion. His humor on his show was similar to Lear's except he was making fun of his own group. He stopped doing the show when he realized it was harmful, reinforcing a stereotype of Blacks rather than skewering it. In recent years, though, he is ridiculing other groups. Also, I think he believes calling his statements (jokes?) humor hides the fact that he is not trying to be funny. I guess he thinks most of his audience is not insightful enough to see behind the curtain. He means what he is saying when he mocks Jews and LGBTQ+ individuals.
He was a trail blazing legend and will be missed for sure.
Jon—I understand you quoted Dave Chappelle because he spoke specifically about Norman Lear. However, his comments about “the person on the other side of an argument from me is not my enemy” and “everything’s gonna be alright if we can laugh together” caused me to laugh so suddenly and strongly that my drink sprayed across the room. In light of his frequent mockery of Jews and LGBTQ+ people, his comment that laughing together makes everything alright is ludicrous. I guess what he meant to say was that everything is alright as long as he is ridiculing others.
I watched a great documentary about Norman Lear the other night, and I regret I don't have his courage nor his reach.
My ONLY regret about Lear's magnificent work is the rise of Jimmy "JJ" Walker, who was merely a one-hit wonder and mostly irrelevant. No more "Dyn-O-mite!" PLEASE! My world has been "rocked" enough!
Not even to "pimp" Medicare Advantage!
Thanks for this, Jonathan. Norman's creations became fixtures in my mother's house; mom was an Eisenhower Republican who, I think with Norman's help, made a slow transition to Democrat. And, somehow, Norman managed all this AFTER he turned 50! I must admit that sometimes I give in to negative thoughts about how "it's all over" at my age (the same as yours). Norman has given me hope! Over and next, indeed!
He was an amazing talent and you were so fortunate to be able to have this access and clearly a friendship as well.
When I think of Lear's work, I realize how dramatically I have changed. When All in the Family first hit the airwaves, my teenage years were just about to begin and the revolutionary nature of his shows were as combustible and raucous as adolesence.
First, I loved him
Later on, I came to hate his stuff.
First, the love affair:
Before Lear, situation comedies were as banal and as boring as a dinner consisting of 8 slices of white bread.
On "Leave it to Beaver," the little boy protagonist of the show might lose a watch. On "The Lucy Show," Lucille Ball, for the 99th time, would try to finagle her hubby to give her an act in his nightclub. This stuff was as sanitized and sterile as a gauze pad.
Archie Bunker et al broke down the barriers between politics and entertainment. Episodes touching on the Vietnam War, women's rights, race relations, homosexuality et al were explosive, and the word explosive does not begin to convey just how dramatic his material was.
However, as I aged, I realy got sick of his stuff.
I started to hate the stuff for 2 reasons:
1) Every minority, or interest group, was defined by stereotypes. After all, a 30 minute times slot does not give us time to sketch complete and real characters. Instead, we just get stereotypes.
And so blacks liked R& B music, greasy food and rousing exclamatory speech. Feminists were blistering bitches waging blitzkriegs against the male gender.
In no time, this became tiresome.
2) In blurring the line between politics and entertainment, it inaugurated a process in which people got their political news from entertaiment. SNL might offer some info about curent events, but the emphasis on being funny entails the abridgment and distorttion of the truth.
As a matter of historical fact, there has been only one 'must-see' TV show in the last 50+ years - Norman Lear's All in the Family.