cult of [comedic] personality

the cult of personality is a relatively new phenomenon in the world of comedy. the act of creating a comic persona and then staying in character at all times has been harnessed by few in the past but it is becoming more frequent in the last few years. for some it's playing on a one-note joke, but the best characters reflect the absurd times we live in. politicians and celébutantes too self-righteous, too self-absorbed and too determined to stay "on message" to not only miss the joke, but unwittingly add more fodder to the echo chamber in this netosphere.

let's look at three case studies.

1. Dane Cook:

possibly the least funny "comedian" on the circuit (rolling stone recently inquired how Cook has come so far- an HBO special, Employee of the Month with Jessica Simpson- and is able to call himself a comedian while never telling any jokes.) maybe there's a reason there are not jokes/ bits/ clips on his myspace page. not to mention the inanity of the SUper FInger hand gesture (right). but i wonder if he's all persona, riding a brand that someone dreamed up. come up with a gimmick, prop him up with just enough attitude, and he's the kevin federline of comedy.

2. Stephen Colbert:

in a recent New York Magazine cover article, colbert discussed the need to distinguish between his 'act' and his real-life persona. he's been asked to make public appearances- most notably the white house correspondence dinner (transcript)- where he's unsure as to which colbert they are expecting to show up. so he's debating making the distinction of "cole-bert" being his true self, and "cole-bear" his pseudo-right wing propagandist. nevertheless he is certainly one of the finest satirists working today. i had the good fortune to catch a taping of the colbert report a few months back and it's incredible how easily he is able to turn it on and off. furthermore he is so burrowed in the character and has such an attuned sense of the irony in the conservatives argument that it's no surprise that republican candidates up for re-election are refusing to go on his show (la times). let's just hope he doesn't turn out like mother night.

3. Sacha Baron Cohen

arguably the most consistent prankster. jimmy "laugh-at-every-sketch-i'm-in" fallen could learn a lot from the cohen's stone face. in the publicity campaign for his new film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan he has presented an unparalleled consistency qua Borat for press announcements live on CNN, interviews on various talk shows and magazine interviews. cohen's Da Ali G Show is a fascinating glimpse into duping unsuspecting interviewees (akin to colbert's "better know a district") including newt gingrich.

however, to reverse the process and be interviewed in character is a brilliant ploy for the movie. will farrell has appeared on conan o'brien in past years in various characters, but more as a gag than anything. for cohen, known only to a niche audience in the US, to call this a success is an understatement. (his next film, based on his other character bruno was just picked up by universal to the tune of $42.5 million.)

the real distinction here is that to be the interviewer, one can control the situation and steer the discussion into a particular direction. while a lot of interviews are typically predetermined, or the questions are scripted, there is always a varying degree of improvisation. and in the dozens of interviews cohen has yet to slip and break character. here's a particularly good amalgamation of his UK publicity tour. but how many grey suits does he own?

end of copyrights?

it's a sad state of affairs when a restaurateur in oregon is being fined by ASCAP while google is allowed to stream videos of copyrighted video on youtube (with out the expressed written consent of major league baseball, i might ad.)

it seems the club owner has nightly live music and the bands play an occasional cover.

Now [ASCAP and affiliated publishers are] suing Dorr for copyright infringement - and they're seeking payment of between $750 and $30,000 for each song, along with attorney fees.

"It's basically going to bankrupt me and put me out of business," Dorr said this morning. "I can't afford the lawyer and the fees. It's going to close me down."

that's insane.

on a more businesslike note, Viacom just sent a seize and desist letter re: copyrighted material to the purveyors of goodness over at google. so they are anxiously removing all NBC/Uni clips before they take control. of note: all daily show and colbert report segments (ny times article.) which makes one wonder about the power of youtube diminishing since it is predicated on drawing people in with one clip and then having viewers stick around to watch another, boosting advertisement views with each new clip.

the only reason i use it is watch copyrighted material that previously aired. yeah it's funny to watch the star wars kid, but it's not gonna get me in the door. or it will only once a month as opposed to once a day. idiotic acts only go so far. (and this may nullify my previous post on identity in public record. note the removed clip.but i doubt it as new sites will blossom in it's wake.)

but i'm willing to bet that if these letters continue- which they certainly will- and all copyrighted material is purged, not only will youtube hits decline, but also viewership on these popular shows. the clips act as a free commercial. they create buzz and interest. not to mention most can be found on comedycentral.com. so i suppose the real problem here is not the infringement on copyright, but the infringement on controlling who has access to the content. and that's the future of the web, not who has what, but who has access to what.

next up: i predict a youtube premium service wherein you can view copyrighted video. (access of evil? et tu google?)

Identity

this internet contraption is duplicitous and unbalanced. for the private sector: one can make up whatever they want and present it as fact. so this idea of truthiness has spilled over into defining ones personality.

with the advent of myspace, you can create a profile and lie thru your teeth and present it as "the real me." i've visited old friends' pages and they are filled with details i never knew about them, and am skeptical to some of their claims. (i'm sure dating sites are the pinnacle of such behavior.) it's a borderline manifestation of their ideal selves. these avatars have as more interaction with one another than i do with the real person.

however, life is much different in the public sector. president bush said on sunday "we've never been 'stay the course'." for which got a healthy amount of flack. tony snow claimed yesterday that he could only come up with eight times that the president used the term over the last four years. kieth olberman racketed up 29 instances of the term (clip), and i'm sure there were plenty more from other, non-televised speeches. or maybe snow was referring to 8 speeches that the president delivered dozens of times across the country while his poll numbers precipitately dropped.

second k.o. clip. (more after the video):

so back to this idea of truthiness, with the ubiquity of record, that is having everything you ever say, do or write being of public record our private lives are becoming more exposed every day. private people (re: not in the public eye) can manipulate this fact by altering their online identity. never has it been so easy to reinvent oneself: fill out a survey and claim you are a buddhist and for all intents and purposes suddenly you are. how can anyone argue with that?

with old speeches and corrupting information hitting the echo chambers of the netosphere, the smallest indiscretion could and does effect our elected officials. now i think this is mostly beneficial as it extends the period of viewership (as i don't own cable, i am able to watch clips from the previous nights broadcast, and at my leisure)

my fear is that politicians, as insular as they already are, will retreat further into heavily orchestrated appearances. much like the touted 'town hall' style meetings the president has carried out across the country: scripted questions with a predetermined, sympathetic audience. it's more theater than discourse and the local news carries his scripted oration as a genuine, in the moment response.

and this will only get worse. if there is any lesson learned over "stay the course"-gate is that politicians will be even more tight lipped, confined and staged.

Obesity Linked to Mental Decline

well, here we are as a nation. not only are we getting fatter, we're getting dumber as a result. discovery news reports:

"Cross-sectionally, a higher [Body Mass Index] was associated with lower cognitive scores after adjustment for age, sex, educational level, blood pressure, diabetes, and other psychosocial co-variables," reported Maxime Cournot, an epidemiologist at Toulouse University School of Medicine in France, and colleagues in the current issue of Neurology.

Lower cognitive scores in overweight and obese people were particularly apparent in a test involving the memorization of word lists. Participants were given a list of 16 words and asked to remember them immediately and again after a delay.

While people in the lowest BMI range (15 to 21.5) remembered on average 9 of 16 words, those in the highest range (27.7 to 45) remembered only seven words on average.

What's more, individuals with the highest BMIs showed greater cognitive decline five years later — their recall dropped from 44 percent to 37.5 percent on average. On the contrary, subjects in the low-BMI range maintained the same level of recall.

here's the full article.

300 Million

we've hit the pinnacle population of 300 million people this morning. which got me thinking about the population of other counties. China [1,306,000+] has us beat by in single but ever important '1'.

looking that up, i came across Christmas Island, an island three-quarters the size of washington d.c. and 2/3 is designated national park space. named for the date it was discovered.

this was followed by discovering the British Sandwich Association offering "novel sandwich recipes" and this befuddling definition:

The British Sandwich Association defines a sandwich as: Any form of bread with a filling, generally assembled cold - to include traditional wedge sandwiches, as well as filled rolls, baguettes, pitta, bloomers, wraps, bagels and the like, but not burgers and other products assembled and consumed hot.

Hot eating sandwiches are also included.

i would also like to make the claim that i came from Sandwich, Mass, which has a disappointing seal. no cold cuts.

or you can book a hotel in sandwich. i hope it's swiss, so i get a room with a window.

not sure why i wasted your time with this.

Bah Humble

new favorite sight on the subway: the humble tough guy.

last night as i was trekking back from the editing room around one ay-em, riding the packed and oft-delayed A train (insert suitably terrible joke on my punctuality here. and please don't call me that. yes i know what you're thinking.)

it was another standing-room-only voyage to brooklyn and i had the great pleasure of planting my thin frame next to an iced out 300 pound man who looked like he could eat four of me as an appetizer. gripped between his thick fingers the size of my forearm he carried a dainty clear bag in which presided a pair of toilet paper rolls. he looked humiliated carrying them along side a collapsed umbrella.

seems the old wife sent him out and he didn't want to dampen his threads in the late night mist that was developing.