I had imagined that I would use groink.net as my platform for my own buffoonery and crotchety, old-fart rhetoric in relative anonymity. I don’t know if that is such a good thing after all. Maybe it was because I received an AARP card in the mail the other day, but damn, I’m feeling old and reflective.
The thing that’s been bugging me as of late (other than co-workers and traffic) is the overwhelming lack of gravitas in the US. And sure, this has been exemplified by the current US presidential primaries, but even before that cast of characters even took the stage, it feels like society has been dead set on squeezing in a dick joke (apologies to Bill Hicks) into every social commentary.
Of course, I don’t mean literal dick jokes — although you wouldn’t strain yourself searching for them. But everyone has to get their snide, snarky or cutting remark in to every discussion. The rise of social media has given equal voice to all who can connect to the internet. You would think that this egalitarianism born of this would be a great thing. I have yet to see the virtue in it. All it is meant to do is stroke the egos of those who engage in it. And the most prominent voices are those who are the most boorish, outrageous, and who can generate the most “Likes”. All you have to do is be entertaining. Fuck being right. Fuck being moral. Fuck being nice. All those things are boring and do not entertain.
I remember watching the likes of Walker Cronkite, David Brinkley, and Peter Jennings on the national news when I was a kid — usually forced because that’s what the parents were watching. But I never recalled them cracking wise or doing anything other than reporting the news. Their demeanor demanded your full attention; they were telling you shit you needed to know because it was fucking important, so listen up America! And they never had to resort to low humor, or sarcasm to get their message across. Now I can’t vouch for the veracity of their information or say that were political neutral or that they weren’t knowingly lying at any point in their careers. But they treated the whole affair with the proper amount of gravitas.
I feel that a true comedian has a message to deliver, and usually its a serious one. My first thought goes to Dave Chappelle and his reasons for ending “Chappelle’s Show”. First off, that show was fucking funny. But its point was to show you that the shit happening in those skits was absurd. It wasn’t license for people to use the word nigger or bitch or to be okay with the status quo. It was a call to do something. You laugh because it was slightly uncomfortable; who would do that?! Oh it really happens. Well, shit. Dave Chappelle said:
“You know why my show is good? Because the network officials say you’re not smart enough to get what I’m doing, and every day I fight for you. I tell them how smart you are. Turns out, I was wrong. You people are stupid.”
I agree.
I think the founding fathers (here I go) agreed, too. Everyone in America screams “Democracy, democracy!” Those guys looked at all the dirt farming fucks that made up the bulk of the country at the time and said, “Uh, let’s make this a democratic republic.”
But then we got the Internet.
