Humor = Democracy

HUMOR = DEMOCRACY

The world portrayed by Homer is a world ruled by kings, but one of its remarkable features is the freedom with which lesser men speak their minds to greater men; they risk anger, abuse and violence, but the risk has more in common with prodding a bull than with ridiculing the sacraments. Democracy was a logical consequence of irreverence.

THE GREEKS, Kenneth Dover

This is a great book, by the way, filled with insight into the world of the Greeks and trenchant analogies to the present. If I can take Mister Dover’s observation a bit further I would say that humor is a very powerful form of irreverence and presents a tremendous challenge to humorless, dictatorial rule (such as the case in most of the Muslim world). Imagine the course history may have taken had someone stood up in that Munich beer hall and asked, “Yo Hitler, what the fuck is up with that stupid moustache?” The entire house of cards could have come crashing down.

The pillory of political leaders in America has been the bread and butter for comedians since the beginning of this country. Think about Nixon and you think of shaking jowls and the scowl of a criminal. Ford’s clumsy bumbling practically made Chevy Chase’s career. Jimmy’s Carter’s naiveté and southern drawl were easy targets for parody. Reagan’s speech patterns are mimicked by half of the populace that lived through his two terms. George Bush was mimicked so well by Dana Carvey that Bush himself was a big fan of his work. Clinton’s fondness for McDonald’s and sex made life easy for stand-up comics from the right and left.

And now we have George W. Bush whose malapropisms and solecisms make Dan Quayle sound like Winston Churchill. Bush sort of makes comedians superfluous.

Notes on Pop Culture

I saw on TV a clip of the Pope being lowered into a car during his trip to Poland. Think Weekend at Bernie’s but with the leading Catholic cleric in the lead role.