Prophetic Comedians

Jon Stewart's the cover boy for Sojourners magazine this month - [full disclosure: I'm a contributing editor.  But I'd like the magazine even if I wasn't] - engaged in conversation with Jim Wallis about the comedian's role in society.  Stewart tends to downplay his identity as prophetic jester - he deflects praise with statements like "Because we’re in the public eye, maybe people project onto us their desires for that type of activism coming from us, but just knowing the process here as I do, our show is maybe the antithesis of activism, and that is a relatively selfish pursuit. The targets we choose, the way we go about it—it’s got more of a personal venting aspect than a socially conscious aspect."

I'm sure he believes that; but I'm also sure that his show does a hell of a lot of good - releasing the pressure felt by people who otherwise were ignored or insulted during the Bush era, and holding the rest of the media to account.  (Even though he also denies that's what he's doing.)

"Part of it, honestly, is trying to reconcile our reality to the reality we’re seeing in television. It’s trying to get back to, “Okay, so why is it that I’m seeing this as ‘yes, we have tortured,’ yet it appears that we keep hearing how we have never [tortured].” Make your case! Make the case that in these urgent times that’s what we needed to do, but don’t be disingenuous.

Tell the truth.

Yeah! Tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Too often the role of government and corporations is to obscure their real argument, and we feel like the role of media and the role of editorial authorship is to re-clarify those things. If there’s anything we think, it’s that we’re presenting it in what we believe to be the clearest position that we can in a satirical framework."

Stewart and his comrade Stephen Colbert are walking in a tradition that demands attention - the Sojo interview put me in mind of a few other prophetic comics:

The Marx Brothers: Not only did they manage to represent Freud's notion of what constitutes the self (if you want to know what the ego, id and superego are, look no further than the interplay between Groucho, Harpo and Chico.  Alas, poor Zeppo, whom nobody seems to have known that well doesn't really get much of a look-in), in 'Duck Soup' they created a political satire that is both insanely funny, and as powerful a humanist statement as anything written by Jonathan Swift or Mark Twain.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDJgPCNzt5E]

Lenny Bruce: Spoke what he felt, not what he ought to say.  If this meant telling people that he thought Life magazine's saccharine captions underneath photos of Jackie Kennedy's escape from the open top limo made them 'dirty pictures', then he said it, puncturing sanctimony so the light could get in.

Bill Hicks: A man who died 15 years ago and still seems ahead of his time.  Preached against fear and made people feel alive; without denying that transcending fear is itself a frightening business; and told the truth about money, desire and war.  I need to stop now, because a) I'm still a little bit afraid of him (in a good way), b) It seems to diminish his work to talk about it rather than just watching or listening, and c) He'd probably think I was an idiot for blogging.

And finally:

My Dad: A man not afraid to go toe-to-toe with one of the members of Monty Python and at the end of the encounter, Michael Palin was laughing at himself.  Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime.

Displacement in Belfast: A Response

It's good to see that temporary emergency accommodation has been made available to the 115 Romanian people displaced in Belfast last night after violent intimidation.  City Church Belfast - in whose cafe I spent much of the past few years - had provided shelter in the immediate aftermath; local government has now stepped in to allow breathing space for the families to decide what they want to do next.  Many seem to want to return to Romania, and who could blame them?  They've had a terrifying experience. Lots of northern Irish people have shared the experience of displacement - I know something of this from the inside, having had to move house as a child for reasons of safety.  The paradox is that while the communal memory of displacement may increase empathy for its newest victims, it may also mean that we take it less seriously than we should: it seems too much like 'business as usual', and so many of us may let it pass with only a wince and a conversation.  Most of us don't actually do anything about it - partly because we have seen it so often before that we feel disempowered; partly because we can blame it on a small minority (who are of course, directly responsible; but their prejudice is nurtured by social norms that 'the rest of us' have been content to let prevail); and partly because, quite simply, we don't know what to do.

So here's a suggestion:

The recently elected Alliance Party Lord Mayor of Belfast, Naomi Long, a woman with a strong track record in opposing racism and encouraging diversity, should recruit at least one city councillor from each of the parties represented on the council to offer temporary accommodation in their own homes to the families displaced last night.  They should invite their consituents to offer food and employment to the people targeted; and they should organise public gatherings in their various council wards at which long-standing residents can meet their new neighbours.   We northern Irish people are reputed for our hospitality.  The city council could help neutralise the bigotry displayed last night, and that always simmers under the surface for some people, by turning that reputation into a new reality, starting with the most ancient of practices: offering shelter to vulnerable people.

Sometimes He Really Brings It

David Letterman - a man whose talent for serious conversation is so often subsumed by the fact that he is employed as a kind of circus ringmaster, dependent on advertising revenue to stay on the air: he lives in the irony that he only gets to have an audience if he doesn't sound too intelligent - apologised last night for his offensive joke about Sarah Palin's family.  Unequivocal, and evidently with real personal intent.  It's not world peace; but it's a pretty good example of what can happen when powerful people are humble too. See the apology here.  It's a pity the Huffington Post editors felt they needed to indulge in some sour-graping by highlighting how many other people had made jokes about Governor Palin, and how she may be have invited such humor by jokes and set-ups on 'Saturday Night Live' in which she was complicit.  Letterman's apology should be allowed to stand alone.  It's clear, it's truthful, and it deserves a response.

UPDATE: Palin has accepted the apology, and while she makes some meaningful points about respect and dignity, alas she couldn't miss the opportunity to indulge in a bit of sabre-ratlling:

"This is all thanks to our U.S. military men and women putting their lives on the line for us to secure American's right to free speech," she said. "In this case, may that right be used to promote equality and respect."

The use of the military analogy is a pity; instead of taking the high road, accepting the apology on its own terms, and building bridges by - say - appearing on the show, Governor Palin turned it into a subtle attack: everyone who makes coarse jokes is doing so because soldiers are dying for their right to do so.  Enormous existential questions have, as Groucho might say 'gotta be faced before they get us'; but sometimes an apology is just an apology; and accepting an apology is better done without the nationalism and moralising.