February 3, 2007
I KID BECAUSE I DON'T CARE:
Silly Silverman skewers sex, race, doody (Amy Amatangelo, January 31, 2007, Boston Herald)
Needless to say, Sarah is a totally unlikable protagonist. The kind of person who tells a homeless man, "I've got to get to brunch. There's a stack of pancakes looking for a home." And tells an elderly woman, "Now that you're closer I can tell that you're old." She makes George Costanza of "Seinfeld" look like a compassionate human being.
Fans of Silverman's movie "Jesus Is Magic" and her appearance in the movie "The Aristocrats" know that her particular brand of absurdist humor is an acquired taste. She's an equal-opportunity offender - mocking sexual orientation, ethnic background and other taboo subjects with reckless abandon. Her shtick is she plays everything with utter sincerity - her earnest face never letting the audience know she's in on the joke. "I'm going to change him from a homeless person to a real person," she tells her sister about the homeless man she meets.
Just keep telling yourself it's just a shtick and you can laugh at all those protected minorities. Posted by Orrin Judd at February 3, 2007 9:21 AM
Comments
OJ:
I have a theory about the whole Michael Richards situation: The thing that really got him in trouble was that he wasn't funny. Were his comments offensive? Of course. But if he had managed to make his shouting of the n-word a funny act -- if he had gotten in a few good zingers at the hecklers instead of looking complete lost -- people would have been a bit uncomfortable but would have put up with it. At worst, they would say it was "edgy" and move on.
Posted by: Matt Murphy at February 3, 2007 4:56 PMThere's a reason Seinfeld never had blacks on.
Posted by: oj at February 3, 2007 9:23 PM