Counter-culture legend Paul Krassner on comedy -- from Jon Stewart to Jared Loughner
What makes Krassner more than just another great comedian is his love for the pen -- putting the entire comedic drama of his life on paper. Besides editing Bruce’s famous biography, How to Talk Dirty & Influence People, Krassner was the editor of The Realist and has written for magazines such as Rolling Stone, The Nation, The Village Voice, LA Times among many others. In all, he's written four books (with forwards from literary giants such as Ken Kesey and Kurt Vonnegut). He graciously sat down for this exchange at his home in Desert Hot Springs, California, communicating with me via the Internet (I live in the mysterious swamps of South Carolina). NANCE: What would you say about the current state of humor in politics? Not necessarily political humor by professional comedians and pundits, but within the American political process itself ? KRASSNER: Sarcasm passes for irony. Name-calling passes for insight. Bleeped-out four-letter words pass for wit. Easy-reference jokes pass for analysis and the audience applauds itself for recognizing the reference. The appearance of political candidates on comedy shows is intended to humanize them for voters. That’s why in 1968 Richard Nixon said “Sock it to me” on Laugh-In and why his opponent Hubert Humphrey regretted turning down their invitation to say it; why four decades later Jay Leno tosses softball questions to such guests; why David Letterman’s writers supplied Hillary Clinton with a Top Ten list to read off the teleprompter; why politicians gladly go on The Daily Show so that Jon Stewart can interrupt their little stump speeches with his own compulsive punchlines. NANCE: While political humor these days could be best described as“snarky,” the work done by men like yourself, Abbie Hoffman, Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin seemed to be both sly and confrontational -- but far less dependent on sarcasm. Do you feel what you guys were doing (and you still do) was more subversive in nature? KRASSNER: Who is to say what’s subversive? Nyah, nyah, we were more subversive than thou. Malcolm Muggeridge, former editor of Punch, the British humor magazine, wrote that “Laughter is the most effective of all subversive conspiracies, and it operates on our side.” My own feeling is that irreverence is my only sacred cow. And the more repression there is, the more need there is for irreverence toward those who are responsible for that repression. NANCE: Men like yourself... were coming at cultural/political humor from the outside. Do you think that gave you a perspective that comedians today like Stewart and Stephen Colbert, who work within the corporate media, cannot have? KRASSNER: Again, I don’t want to get into a pissing contest with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Nyah, nyah, we had more cultural insight than thou. But a lot depends on the venue. The Rally to Restore Sanity and Keep Fear Alive was organized on their respective fake-news programs on Comedy Central with the aid of mainstream and alternative media alike, hungering to attract the attention of readers, listeners and viewers to their own print and electronic outlets, all in the interest of fun. It was a perfect storm of mutual manipulation -- not that there’s anything wrong with that. I saw Stewart perform at the first annual Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. Although he’s used to studio audiences that virtually all agree with his stance on Iraq, when he talked about then-President Bush’s renewed push to justify the war, he couldn't help but notice that those in the front rows were not laughing and applauding like those “in the less expensive seats. You like the way things are going just fine.” He began pointing at different sections of the orchestra: “You run Halliburton. You make bombs. You own NASCAR.” Whereas, on The Daily Show, Stewart apologized the day after, he agreed with a guest that President Harry Truman was a war criminal. I think that Truman was indeed a war criminal. Actually, I believe that in most wars, both sides harbor top-level war criminals, but that the victor determines who they are. As Lenny Bruce said in 1962, “If we would have lost [World War II], they would’ve strung Truman up by the balls.” Lenny was arrested for obscenity that night. One of the items in the police report complained: “When talking about the war he stated, ‘If we would have lost the war, they would’ve strung Truman up by the balls.’” I thought Colbert was uncompromisingly brilliant at the White House Correspondents Dinner, staying in character with the determination of a salmon swimming upstream. However, he took a different approach to courage at the rally. Don Novello, playing his original Saturday Night Live priest character, Father Guido Sarducci, delivered a satirical benediction. “What is the right religion?” he asked God. “When I come to the right one, give me a sign.” He proceeded with a litany of religions: “Methodist, Episcopalian. Baptist. Roman Catholic. Any kind of Christian religion. Judaism. Islam. Buddhism…” Later, he told me, “I tried to hit all the religions, like seeking this little message from God and I had in there the Mormons. You know, it was kind of touchy with my bit about Jews and Arabs, so I thought a clever way into it was, I’d say, ‘Mormonism’ -- and then I’d do a riff on that. But they didn’t want me to do the Mormon thing. Colbert said, ‘Glenn Beck is a Mormon.’ Like they didn’t want to offend Glenn Beck, he’s a Mormon. I mean the pope is Catholic, right? So that’s how sensitive they were to not offending someone. I was impressed.” Of course, Colbert was merely trying to keep fear alive. NANCE: How important is transgression to humor in a media culture where it all seems to be done? Where is the edge of the envelope on shocking your audience into laughing? KRASSNER: All humor is totally subjective. What’s shocking to some is shockproof to others. What strikes people as funny keeps evolving along with everything else. And it’s increasingly becoming an interactive process between media and audience. NANCE: Is it harder to shock and amuse through the filter or does comedy flourish better live? KRASSNER: Pragmatically, with so much competition to capture eyeballs and ear canals, shock becomes a necessity for advertisers as well as the programs they sponsor. The other day I saw a commercial for satellite TV that offered 6,000 channels. Surfing such a menu alone would take more time than watching just one show trying to manipulate your emotions. I think comedy flourishes better live, if only because spontaneity happens, for better or worse, whether it’s a brilliant response to heckling or a clash like Michael Richards’ racist outburst The irony is that if comedians have developed a following because of TV exposure, then the audience comes prepared to laugh at a live show. Some of them even rehearse at home. NANCE: Do you feel that humorists need to temper their approach or back off in the face of a national tragedy such as 9-11 or the recent attack against Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? KRASSNER: Every humorist has their own timeline. Events like that madman massacre in Tucson can be challenging, because even if a performer has a satirical take on something like that, the audience may not be ready for it. Besides, how could made-up humor possibly top the actual absurdity of a mass murderer like Jared Loughner asking his MySpace friends to “Please don’t be mad” at him? After all, he was merely planning to indiscriminately kill as many innocent human beings as he could, with democracy itself as collateral damage. On the Monday following that tragic weekend, Jon Stewart was unable to find anything funny about it. Nor was Stephen Colbert, although he did present a montage of news clips with various explanations of Loughner’s behavior, and the final one, from Fox News -- “He is also being described as a left-wing political pothead” -- managed to evoke laughter from the audience. NANCE: What do you think the function of a humorist is in a society dealing with a terrible event? KRASSNER: Certainly not to make the victims a target, but rather to present a truth about the villains secluded in a humorous context. The night before Loughner committed his senseless slaughter, he had taken photos of himself posing with his gun while wearing a G-string and displaying his naked ass. A week later, satirist Harry Shearer observed that “The nightmare in Tucson is the inevitable result of a society where a mentally confused young man can purchase a red G-string anywhere at any time, and pose with it as he sees fit. Can't we all agree now to lower the temperature on underwear?” The re-released and updated memoir, Confessions of a Raving, Unconfined Nut: Misadventures in the Counter Culture can be purchased at: http://www.paulkrassner.com/ -- http://dscriber.com/front/item/counter-culture-legend-paul-krassner-on-comedy----from-jon-stewart-to-jared-loughner-661 Via InstaFetch -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sixties-L" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sixties-l?hl=en.
