December 3, 2017

"In some ways, it’s never been easier to be a political comedian: the Trump jokes write themselves."

"In other ways, though, it’s never been harder: amid all the absurdity, the most consequential issues imaginable are at stake," writes New Yorker editor David Redneck...

Damn you, autocorrect.

That's New Yorker editor  David Remnick, writing in email pushing me to read various articles about "comedians who are helping us to understand and survive the chaos." They've got something about Samantha Bee, whose political satire is, we're told, “slash-and-burn” (which sounds like more chaos) and something about John Oliver, who, we're told, is "cable’s king of catharsis" (catharsis cures chaos?).

I'm interested in this idea that it's easy to do comedy now because "the Trump jokes write themselves," because I was just reading "SNL’s Toothless Trump Schtick Is Tired as Hell/After a record-breaking, Emmy-winning season, ‘Saturday Night Live’ is struggling to get laughs with its unimaginative Trump-bashing skits." 

That's by Matt Wilstein in The Daily Beast — published 2 days ago and thus not taking account of the Trump-bashing cold open on last night's show. Wilstein is particularly critical of comedy writing that is "barely an exaggeration of what the real Trump said during a speech a day earlier" (like when Alec Baldwin's comic Trump told the mayor of San Juan, "I don’t know if you know this, but you’re on an island in the water, the ocean water, big ocean, with fishies and bubbles and turtles that bite," after real Trump had said, "This is an island surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water").
Last summer, before Baldwin had started playing Trump, author Malcolm Gladwell used another iconic SNL impression—Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin—to denounce what he viewed as the show’s “toothless” satire problem. Like Baldwin, Fey would often just repeat what Palin had actually said for comic effect. “They want the laugh, so they make fun of the way she talks,” Gladwell said on his podcast. “But the way she talks is not the problem.” The same could be said for Baldwin’s Trump.

And that’s the same critique that John Oliver levied this week on Late Night with Seth Meyers, albeit without naming Baldwin or SNL. “It’s easy to do bad comedy, because you just need to repeat what he says,” Oliver said. “And that’s not a joke, that’s repetition. Whereas comedy, especially if you want to try to do something that’s not just happening online all the time, is an effort.”
If it's easy, you're doing it wrong. That seems to be the proposition.

What I'd say is: Those who want to do anti-Trump humor need to understand that Trump himself is a comedian. I'm not saying Trump is just a clown, and it's crazy that we made a clown President. I'm saying, whatever his worth as human being carrying out the duties of the presidency, he is also a comic talent, with many humorous insights, great timing, and — like the greatest comedians — he's challenging us to see what's funny and what's serious as he mixes it up and causes anxiety that we can relieve if we climb out of the ocean of confusion and onto the island of laughter.

You don't have to like any given comedian, and a comedian who wields tremendous political power is going to fail to amuse most people. In fact, whatever your politics, you're not going to be a very funny comedian if you just think of the President as a wonderful humorist and laugh at his jokes. But you should understand the way in which he means to be funny and project yourself into the minds of the many people who do respond to his humor. You should do this, not because he deserves respect, but because it's the foundation for writing better humor yourself.

If you've been finding it easy to make fun of Trump, you are not working hard enough. It's like trying to write a brief in a hard legal case and believing your adversary's arguments are just stupid. You'd better understand the way they make sense and the thinking of the people who might hear these arguments as cogent or you're not doing it right.

167 comments:

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

They aren't being unfunny enough.

Birkel said...

The post in which Althouse accurately sees and describes the PURPLE ELEPHANT.I

It would be a shame if Democrats got the joke.

tcrosse said...

The Reckoning should be a comedic Mother Lode. Is anyone mining it ?

RichardJohnson said...

If you've been finding it easy to make fun of Trump, you are not working hard enough. It's like trying to write a brief in a hard legal case and believing your adversary's arguments are just stupid. You'd better understand the way they make sense and the thinking of the people who might hear these arguments as cogent or you're not doing it right.

Given that the default position of many Demos that Pubs are a bunch of stoopids, that will be rather difficult. After all, you have to be REALLY stupid to live in Bumfuck, Kansas.

Whirred Whacks said...

Nice post! I am enjoying seeing the unhinged comedians flailing.

Go Buckeyes!

AllenS said...

Trump is not a comedian, he's an entertainer. Much like a sports hero that entertains through winning.

David Begley said...

There is no chaos. Us Deplorables are just tearing down the failed infrastructure of the Liberal Coastal Elites.

The deaths of Kate Steinle and Sarah Root of Iowa are complete howlers. Yuck. Yuck.

I just found out a high school friend lost his 20 year old son to a death by methadone overdose. Opiates flow across the border. Major drug bust last week at the Omaha train station. Juan someone.

Wall? Can’t build it! Impossible! Trump is insane.

The open borders crowd lets in the drugs and murdering illegal aliens.

Scott Adams writes about one movie but people seeing two versions on the same screen. I’m not seeing a comedy here.

Hey liberals! . You have completely screwed up this country. Trump is trying to fix it. Fuck you people.

Sebastian said...

"Big water. Ocean water." Message: you're gonna get hurricanes. You gotta be prepared. Get your act together before you start begging and whining. IOW: take him seriously, but not literally.

“But the way she talks is not the problem.” To progs, it is the problem: the way she talks is deplorable. Our inferiors want to patronize us, before they want to lord it over us.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

It's like trying to write a brief in a hard legal case and believing your adversary's arguments are just stupid. You'd better understand the way they make sense and the thinking of the people who might hear these arguments as cogent or you're not doing it right.

The Left has been doing that on a political lever since 2008, I guess it's about time comedy caught up.

Bilwick said...

"The agitprop writes itself." FIFY.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

"level", not "lever".

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Saturday Night Live was funny when it wasn't political. Long ago. Ever since the hive-mind left fell for Bill Clinton and gave him a pass for being Harvey Weinstein, SNL became Air American for late night TV. The progressive corruption excusers on SNL mock any R and give all the D's a soft-touch pass.

Then, if the cast happen to mock a sacred D, the proggy masses melt down like snowflakes.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Those who want to do anti-Trump humor need to understand that Trump himself is a comedian. I'm not saying Trump is just a clown, and it's crazy that we made a clown President. I'm saying, whatever his worth as human being carrying out the duties of the presidency, he is also a comic talent, with many humorous insights, great timing, and — like the greatest comedians — he's challenging us to see what's funny and what's serious as he mixes it up and causes anxiety that we can relief if we climb out of the ocean of confusion and onto the island of laughter.

Yeah! Nuclear war! Hahahaha! Really funny!

Those horrible killjoy professional comedians. Valuing their lives more than the Trump apologists do! How much insight they must lack!

You people are just as unhumorous as always. Laughing like Major Kong on the way down makes you hysterical, not humorous. Like the raving laugh of a lunatic or the smile on Jack Nicholson's face as he says "Here's Johnny!" Yeah, normal people don't want to share in that.

tcrosse said...

So a belligerant loudmouth walks into a bar....

Mattman26 said...

It was easier to make fun of Sarah Palin's homespun manner of speaking (which I think Camille Paglia recognized as actually kind of refreshing) than to deal with the substance of what she was saying, because if you focus on the merits, there's a risk people might agree with her, and we certainly can't have that.

Likewise with Trump's loose and funny verbal associations. Rather than acknowledge the correctness of what he is really observing (as Sebastian notes), let's pretend he's out of his mind, or a complete dope, or both.

You might as well ridicule someone for having a stutter. It's bad comedy, and when all is said and done I'd imagine it's bad politics too.

Michael K said...

The left's insanity is just not funny. Comedy requires that the comedian realize what he/she is saying is not literally true. It may be an exaggeration or a distortion but, with the exception of humorists like Will Rogers and Finlay Peter Dunn, the comedy is not true except as it illustrates absurdity.

Tina Fey said things the audience thought were things that Sarah Palin had said but they were not.

The anger and rage are not funny.

The humorist Mark Russell was funny.

What we see now from supposed comedians is not.

Mattman26 said...

TTR, are we headed to nuclear war? I'd missed that.

I assume it's North Korea you're worried about. Would you like to hold accountable the administrations that allowed that psycho-state to become a nuclear power?

Michael K said...

"You people are just as unhumorous as always."

The emotional meltdown of the left would be funny if the rage were not so obvious and a few examples of nuts acting as if it were permission to shoot Congressmen has made it distinctly unfunny,

David Begley said...

“he is also a comic talent, with many humorous insights, great timing, and — like the greatest comedians — he's challenging us to see what's funny and what's serious as he mixes it up and causes anxiety that we can relief if we climb out of the ocean of confusion and onto the island of laughter.”

Great insight by Althouse. I would add that Trump learned plenty from his WWE days and he uses that experience from time to time. Lorzenzo Ball and Kim Jung Un are “faces” right out of the WWE.

But the Smartest People in the Room and who read the Failing NYT and Bsnkrupt New Yorker aren’t as smart as Althouse and will NEVER get Trump.

I am so angry today at the arrogance and cluelessness of liberals. Twenty year old boy dead of a drug overdose in Omaha. You fucking liberals have turned America into an Empire of Dirt. MAGA.

James K said...

Maybe they could try making fun of a Democrat for once. There's a lot of material.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The left's insanity is just not funny.

The right's complacency is moronic. And unfunny.

But hey! At least you got to blow up the deficit once more by giving him the Trump Family Tax Cut!

It's good how you get to prove how capricious, changeable and temporary your "principles" really are. At least several times a decade. It's important to show the country how little you actually stand for. Over and over again.

David Begley said...

Yeah. 80 something black Democrat Congressman walking around his office in his underwear and harassing younger women while his wife is in PRISON.

Did SNL do a skit on that?

buwaya said...

They are working for their masters; its all part of the propaganda war.

You assume that this is all something coming from the minds of a lot of independent creators. Its not. This stuff is all commissioned work done according to a template, the propaganda line of the week, or day or even hour.

James K said...

Or a fat, obnoxious blowhard movie producer trying to get off the hook for decades of abusing women by promising to devote his time to attacking Trump.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Twenty year old boy dead of a drug overdose in Omaha.

Ahhh... One boy. In the middle of nowhere. The selective rage machine is funny!

Thank the Republican deregulatory state for allowing pharma manufacturers to market every opioid for every need ever experienced in America by anyone. Got an ache or a pain? A pill will solve it! The wonders of the deregulated market! The right wing loves that shit.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/8/3/16079772/opioid-epidemic-drug-overdoses
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/7/15724054/opioid-companies-epidemic-lawsuits
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/18/16326816/opioid-epidemic-keith-humphreys
https://www.vox.com/2017/11/7/16387318/doctors-helped-create-opioid-epidemic
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/20/16338996/drug-overdoses-life-expectancy

Be sure to tell me how "less government's" going to solve this one, murderers.

It's fun listening to sociopaths philosophize.

Narayanan said...

Comedians feelz are hurt when we laugh at their flailing and not their 'jokes'

David Begley said...

TTR

I am a rule of law guy. You are one sick fuck.

Sam L. said...

Dang it! You're helping the ENEMY!!!!11111!!!! OK, trying to. They won't listen, for they know it all, they're waaaaaay smarter than us. Yep.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Government can stop us from killing our citizens with excessive opioids. Let's have a lot less of it!

And more tax breaks for the struggling Trump Dynasty. They're the ones in need here. The ones who could use some tax legislation to ease their burden. Can't you people see the real victims in all this?

Clyde said...

All of the late night hosts are smug, smirky progressives. I was in the break room at work and Seth Meyers came on and did his Two-Minutes Hate against Donald "Emmanuel Goldstein" Trump and Roy Moore. I think there was one joke about Al Franken thrown in for "balance." The trained seals clapping in the audience ate it up. My response was "a pox on all your houses."

Michael said...

Why try to write "anti-Trump humor?" Why not just write effective, innovative humor and let the chips fall where they may?

Gahrie said...

Like the raving laugh of a lunatic or the smile on Jack Nicholson's face as he says "Here's Johnny!" Yeah, normal people don't want to share in that.

Which is exactly why Trump won.

Johanna Lapp said...

Recycling Graydon Carter's 20-year-old line about Trump's tiny hands is joke thievery on a par with Amy Schumer. Cheeto-colored makeup is at least two years old. Even Alec Baldwin has stopped pronouncing it "Dzhgina" instead of "China." Mocking Trump's wife, who speaks six languages and has a distinct style that's NOT Michelle Obama's "challenging" avant-garde fashion, as stupid makes the complainant look small.

If they want to keep ripping Trump, they need to write new jokes every week.

Gahrie said...

But hey! At least you got to blow up the deficit once more by giving him the Trump Family Tax Cut!

Obama borrowed more money than every single president before him combined.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Ah, a blogpost made in Trump Sycophant heaven.

Michael K said...

"It's fun listening to sociopaths philosophize. "

No, I don't think you are funny at all. Just sick.

Dave, the opioid thing is complicated. There are a lot of people with chronic pain who are not getting treated because pain docs are always frightened by the focus on them.

Most of the abuse of these drugs, except Fentanyl which is present in many many overdoses and is almost always smuggled in from Mexico, is caused by a few bad apples and by criminal syndicates that are switching to opioids because the marijuana market is shrinking and the volumes of material are greater for the same amount of money.

The legalization lobby has added a lot to the crisis as kids think it is OK to use drugs and get involved in stuff they don't understand.


Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I am a rule of law guy. You are one sick fuck.

Legislators make, and executives sign, those laws. I guess you're ok with them making and signing the least effective, most vengeful, ones?

Perhaps a top marginal tax cut will solve the opioid overdose epidemic. That sounds like healthy thinking!

Whatever you do, rail against pharma but deregulate them as best you can. That's very rational.

http://thehill.com/regulation/327469-senators-battle-over-fda-nominees-financial-ties
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/04/health/fda-gottlieb-background-qualifications/index.html
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/04/06/trumps-fda-pick-backed-opioid-industry-dollars-called-disgraceful-choice
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/health/with-fda-vacancy-trump-sees-chance-to-speed-drugs-to-the-market.html?_r=0
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/heres-what-we-know-about-trumps-fda-head-nominee/

Fox, meet henhouse. Henhouse, meet fox.

Thank you, Republicans! A more dangerous set of circumstances for the average American patient is in your hands! How wonderful! A nation soon to be completely addicted to the opioids that will be necessary to make it through your administrations thanks you!

Ray said...

Very good cemetery Ann.
Damn you, auto correct

Bay Area Guy said...

The New Yorker + Comedy = fish + bicycle

bagoh20 said...

We should elect a President with lockjaw. Then, we would have to pay attention to what he actually does. I never saw so much attention paid to what someone says and especially how they say it at the expense of what he actually does and accomplishes. If you watch MSNBC, it's completely obsessed with the horror of what Trump says everyday. They should put a giant string of pearls on the table of Morning Joe, and let the whole panel clutch them in unison for an hour each day. What a circle jerk that is.

Rusty said...

Clean up in aisle TTR!

Leland said...

Is SNL really meaning to be funny? I get they want to be satirists, but I think the Tina Fey as Sarah Palin thing tripped them up. Too many people actually believed it was Sarah Palin who said what Tina Fey actually said in the process of making fun of Palin. The result was people assumed Palin was stupid, and SNL was happy with that result. I wonder how much they are trying to portray Trump the same way, while not realize that the Trump brand is far more established than Palins. They are too busy trying to make Trump look ridiculous, rather than having fun with Trump's ridicule.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Obama borrowed more money than every single president before him combined.

So did FDR, who then gave us the largest expansion of the middle class in history.

But you can't blame 1929 on him any more than you can 2008 on Obama. That's what happens after a Republican financial disaster: Less money comes in and more has to be spent. Were you busy wistfully reminiscing on life in your beloved Weimar Republic when they were teaching American history class or something? Time to wake up.

If you can't smell the coffee then at least get yourself some prescription opioids. They're the Republican drug of choice for making it through the administrations they give us.

Dave said...

"It's like trying to write a brief in a hard legal case and believing your adversary's arguments are just stupid. You'd better understand the way they make sense and the thinking of the people who might hear these arguments as cogent or you're not doing it right."

This is million dollar advice. The first response of the ego is to assume that someone who expresses something you can't understand is stupid/evil. It's not so much so if the subject matter is very high level, for example if you are trying to read a mathematical proof of the infinite dimensionality of a hilbert cube, you probably won't first assume the author is stupid/evil.

It's more so when we can understand on the surface what someone is saying, but don't really inquire into why they are saying such a stupid/evil thing.

Here are several pairs of statements:

A. Best Buy was gouging Houston residents by charging $25.00 a case for water, and that is just wrong.

B. Allowing businesses to charge whatever they want for goods is best for everyone, even during natural disasters.

A. Lowering the corporate tax rate is just a gift for the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle classes.

B. Lowering the corporate tax rate is good for all Americans because it encourages business growth.

A. Poor people can't live on the minimum wage. It should be raised to $15.00/hr

B. Raising the minimum wage puts people out of work and is very hard on minorities.

Typically B type statements require some explanation and there is very little interest by the media elite in allowing that.

donald said...

Every time I see some shitbird on TV talk about how fun this shit is (Every single network personality does this) I become
Enraged.

I find none of it funny. I find it horrific and tragic.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

No, I don't think you are funny at all. Just sick.

I'm sure you think that about anyone who calls out your lack of interest in reality and accountability.

Dave, the opioid thing is complicated.

Republican-speak for, "We can't do anything about it! Deregulate! Let the industries causing the problem do anything they want! We are hostages to lobbyist money! Sorry, American people but you have less money to offer our campaigns than these precious industries do!"

rehajm said...

I hadn't occurred to me they are trying to be funny for the sake of entertainment. By my eye it's either to influence or for catharsis. Perhaps since neither is working for them they don't know how to react.

buwaya said...

Your interest is better directed at who owns these shows, the media companies that provide their venues, and their advertisers. And then figure out what more substantial interests these have, because in all cases the mass media, especially anything doing polutical commentary, is only a tiny part of the whole.

They are not profit centers, they are a cost center, performing a political function important to their owners.

Dave said...

"If you can't smell the coffee then at least get yourself some prescription opioids. They're the Republican drug of choice for making it through the administrations they give us."

Is this compassion? When I read about FDR, I always got the sense he saw himself as everyone's president. I felt the same way about Bill Clinton.

These days, I get the impression from the left they would rather I just died. Considering the history of socialism/communism, maybe I'm right.

rhhardin said...

Wayne Booth in Modern Dogma and the Rhetoric of Assent noticed, in the 70s, that each side just issued pamphlets quoting the other side, in the battles at U Chicago where he was dean.

Duties: fund-raising and riot control.

bagoh20 said...

Nobody works hard anymore: comedians, writers, reporters. Even the garbage collector doesn't get out of the truck now days, but at least his work product stinks less than it used too.

William said...

The entertainment and media industries don't realize how badly their brand has been damaged. Glue meet rubber. Jokes directed against Trump are more revelatory of the comedian's big red nose than of Trump's baggy pants. These are industries that have nourished and protected not just rapists but of sexual criminals whose offenses are too idiosyncratic and weird to be defined in Psychopathia Sexualis. How does one go about developing a fetish for masturbating in front of A-list movie stars?.......think it would be a bad idea for a Catholic priest to crusade for reform and closer supervision in the day care industry. Entertainment and media people no longer have standing to make fun of Trump's sex life.

Dave said...

What is interesting is that Amazon wants into the prescription drug business. If you look at stories in the Washington Post on companies in that space, you will see very many negative stories on those companies. Stories on Amazon, however, are largely positive.

Many of the companies that are being targeted by the media as accessories in the opiod problem, actually have nothing to do with the problem.

The Washington Post has a lot of power to drive down stocks of any company that competes or wants to compete with Amazon.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Dave, the opioid thing is complicated. There are a lot of people with chronic pain who are not getting treated because pain docs are always frightened by the focus on them.

Listen and behold! A "doctor" who doesn't even have the training or brains to know that opioids are usually no good for chronic pain. Neither does he even have the morals to educate himself.

But he does have the shit-for-brains attitude that dismisses the fact that opioid-overdose deaths decrease in states with less marijuana prohibition. AND he STILL buys into the long-discredited "gateway drug" theory.

So, there you have it. Even a supposedly educated physician (surgeons are notoriously bad with evidence, though) shows that with a little bit of conservative Republicanism, he too can become an irrational, empiricism-hating, domestic policy MORON who spouts bullshit and half-truths to make his tiny little narcissistic self feel better.

THROW THESE BUMS OUT.

https://drugabuse.com/legalizing-marijuana-decreases-fatal-opiate-overdoses/
http://www.newsweek.com/legalizing-cannabis-opioid-deaths-how-marijuana-saving-lives-colorado-686949
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/16/legal-marijuana-is-saving-lives-in-colorado-study-finds/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/high-hopes-ride-on-marijuana-amid-opioid-crisis/

Dave said...

By the way, I forgive any of you who don't read my comments. Usually I just skim these for Althouse and rhhardin.

Althouse needs a tag for "rhhardin disagrees" which would dramatically increase the quality of this blog for me.

Tim said...

Isn't it refreshing that comics can once again make jokes about the president, since the were too scared to make jokes about the previous president.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You know what? Fuck it.

If these Republicans want to kill their own, especially in red and purple states, with more deregulation, more opioids, less safer alternatives, horrible economies, more attention to the "needs" of tycoons and less to the laborers whose outsourcing they've cheered on for decades - all in the name of a stronger economy - then let them have it. They're reaping what they've sown. It's darwinian.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/new-research-identifies-a-sea-of-despair-among-white-working-class-americans/2017/03/22/c777ab6e-0da6-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.fcded091623f

This is how they treated black males for decades. Hey - at least they're not over-incarcerating them! Or are they?

Republican policies are like a drug. They make you feel emotionally awesome and better than everyone else for one quick rush. Then you wake up the next morning and find your life in shambles.

But these are the policies they want so let them have it. Lord knows they won't learn their lessons through persuasion and evidence. So let them kill off a few million more of their own and then see if they've had enough. It's like violence in the Middle East; simply must run its course. The Republican experiment in seeing how many poor white folks they can kill just must be allowed to run its course. And even then, it's likely that they still won't learn.

Pride is the most powerful drug of all. Hey, at least now it's a white guy with orange hair presiding over all the death that your policies have wrought, right? That's important!

Michael K said...

Doctor Ritmo has now declared himself (itself?)

" A "doctor" who doesn't even have the training or brains to know that opioids are usually no good for chronic pain.

Idiots abound. As do fools.

Narayanan said...

@TTR ... Does FDA have opioids and THC on same prescription schedule or are you saying they should be?

Dave said...

TTR,

Here in our conservative/libertarian household, we think drug warrioring is pretty stupid and we despise Jeff Sessions. But don't you think the opiod problem is due to the way prescriptions are dispensed to patients by doctors?

I will say this, I think you might have some sound arguments, but I would be more inclined to read more of what you have to say if you there weren't so many ad hominems in your posts.

jwl said...

Comedy is hard now because we live in po-faced culture and 'that's not funny' is more likely to heard than laughter.

Michael K said...

Earth to Ritmo.

You are full of shit.

But we knew that.

Opioids are currently the primary treatment method used to manage both acute and chronic pain.

walter said...

It's one of the most shocking bits The Daily Beast has Subject lined in my email.
When even TDB says the anti Trump schtick is tired..
Fortunately, Toothless continues to ground us with predictable (tired?) "Sky is falling!" tirades and insults.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Is this compassion? When I read about FDR, I always got the sense he saw himself as everyone's president. I felt the same way about Bill Clinton.

These days, I get the impression from the left they would rather I just died. Considering the history of socialism/communism, maybe I'm right.


We gave you the chance to have some FDRs and you said fuck no. Those folks aren't good enough to the tycoons, you said.

Bill Clinton is a pathological narcissist. He's everyone's president in the sense that everyone likes to be lied to about how well they're understood.

But not everyone falls for it, though.

FullMoon said...

Toothless doofus screams:
Like the raving laugh of a lunatic ...

No comment necessary, speaks for itself.

Gahrie said...

So did FDR, who then gave us the largest expansion of the middle class in history.

Unlike Obama who saw the middle class shrink. FDR, despite his many flaws, actually built things, put people to work and restored the American economy. Obama did none of those things.

Michael K said...

"don't you think the opiod problem is due to the way prescriptions are dispensed to patients by doctors?"

That is a small part of the problem. A lot of the problem is illicit drug access.

Chronic pain patients are not the main problem.

Opioid abuse appears to have entered a technology-driven new world of clandestine labs all over the globe and many new synthetic analog, counterfeit, and adulterated drugs that arrive via the internet faster than the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) can catalog and outlaw them. To deal with opioid abuse, it must be recognized that it is more - far more - than a subset of chronic pain patients who become addicted. Indeed, to reduce the opioid epidemic to this population is to misunderstand it. The opioid epidemic involves illicit opioids, counterfeit opioids, new psychoactive substances, diverted opioids, and prescription opioids.

For those who want to know rather than blather BS.

Ken B said...

In the island thing Trump is mocking the Democrat who criticized him. SNL's shtick is to pretend that he wasn't. It's very stupid. It isn't intended to be funny, it's intended to be (wait for it Ann) a totem.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Who gives a shit about a single publication in "Fluids blood barrier" or whatever the fuck. Is it even a review article? There's no basic science way around this. The only "chronic" condition for which you should be giving more and more opioids is CANCER. You know, a disease you die from.

Everything else, you'd better be maxing out your non-opioid options. Opioids are addictive and best reserved for severe and acute pain. They are completely ineffective at anything neuropathic, which is usually the component that sets in if not the original cause of anything chronic. If you as a surgeon can't do anything about a chronic non-neuropathic cause then blame yourself and invent a better procedure, asshole.

FullMoon said...

Toothless calmly, methodically reasons:
iSo let them kill off a few million more of their own and then see if they've had enough. It's like violence in the Middle East; simply must run its course. The Republican experiment in seeing how many poor white folks they can kill just must be allowed to run its course. And even then, it's likely that they still won't learn./i

Well, you convinced me !

Narayanan said...

Hello ... trick question - Who was it recognized USSR and glory of communism?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

"don't you think the opiod problem is due to the way prescriptions are dispensed to patients by doctors?"

That is a small part of the problem.


Total bullshit. No doctor who's not looking to lose his license and credibility buys into the idea that the skyrocketing of prescriptions pushed on Americans and the medical community over the last 20 years of ad campaigns was justified at all. Let's find the numbers of increased prescribing and the misleading ads that the Oxy-Contin manufacturers pushed through their new fangled DTC campaigns.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Michael K cares more about his income and big pharma than he does about you. Don't listen to him.

And he's shit at interpreting the literature. Cherry picks worse than a fucking squirrel.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Is Michael K on Purdue's payroll?

Kevin said...

When every joke about something other than Trump has Trump as the punchline, they have long since traded comedy for advocacy.

Ken B said...

TTR wants to convince us he's not just a class bigot. He does this by calling Omaha "nowhere" and shrugging at the death of nowhereites.

Yancey Ward said...

I can't really top the praise for this bit of Althouse more than Birkel did with the second comment from the top.

Francisco D said...

Trump gives comedians a lot to make fun of, but their deranged actions suggest that they are bereft of talent. Kathy Griffin is only one example.

Part of the problem is that POTUS jokes were not allowed during the Obama Reign. The comedians got rusty because all they did was kiss Obama's ass. I guess we could say the same about news reporting, except the MSM has always been the propaganda wing of the Democrat Party.

buwaya said...

FDR succeeded because of the war mobilization. And not the US mobilization, but the global one, re-armament of Europe -
Britain and France, but also every neutral, and Germany and Japan too imported plenty from the US until much later than one would think.
Prior to that he was floundering.
When every other developed country was far along in their post-depression recovery, the US fell into yet another recession, pulled out of that double-dip only by the Nazi threat.
Who pulled the US out of the Great Depression?

Hitler.

rehajm said...

My comedic talents peaked before middle school but I do recall contemplating this as a child. There's the cheap laugh. You can do Rich Little's act with funny voices and crack up the class. After a while it's unsatisfying. It's the teacher laugh you want and you gotta work for that one.

Big Mike said...

My late sister suffered painfully from neuropathy for decades before she passed away in her sleep. Given the attitude Toothless displays towards people who suffer from chronic pain, I can and do wish the same for him. I want Toothless to scream at the touch of clothing against his body. I want him to have a grandchild he can’t pick up because of the sheer pain entailed. I want him to hurt so much he cries for hours.

Then maybe he’ll learn the positive role opioids play in medicine.

Hagar said...

The comedians work for those who pay them, which is the owners of the networks, not us.

Narayanan said...

Thank you Buwaya. Ignorance of history making it easier for liberal to call for socialism/statism

Narayanan said...

And Stalin made sure to keep the motor running with his lend lease demand.

FullMoon said...

The Toothless Revolutionary declares...

Michael K cares more about his income and big pharma than he does about you. Don't listen to him.


Unlike doofus whose comments reflect concern for every individual, regardless of sex, race, age or political affiliation

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Their obvious prime directive is to "first do no harm" to the Democrats, the Liberal Media or the Cause of Progressivism. Then, once all those topics are off the table they look for something silly Trump tweeted. That ain't comedy. Comedy is honesty, the truth laid bare and that's why people laugh.

When you start off with the fundamental dishonesty that Nothing-on-the-Left-is-Funny then you are doing it wrong. It's Fake Comedy to compliment all their Fake News.

buwaya said...

Having a grandchild is worth any amount of physical pain.
Ritmo's problem is, I think, that he is convinced that a grandchild is out of reach, for him. That may be over-specific, but it works generally. He would be enormously happier if his situation was such that grandchildren were even a possibility.
Its that general frustration in life that drives him.
His pain is of a different sort, and worse. Its an existential dissatisfaction that he releases here.

Bilwick said...

The Toothless State-fellators assumes that the less society is controlled by his beloved Big Brother, the more dangerous to life it is. Loyal little serf that he is.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Unlike doofus whose comments reflect concern for every individual, regardless of sex, race, age or political affiliation.

I can't stop darwinism, dummy. I've been telling people for years, decades, that these policies are suicidal. If you want to vote for your own suicide, then you've given yourself the power to implement it, and I can't stop you any more than someone who's restricted from entering the top floor off of which you've chosen to jump. Enjoy the way down, Major Kong!

This is completely a policy thing. Whites in other countries are living longer. We're killing ours more quickly and earlier due to policy choices. Hope they give you the pride you feel you've been missing in life!

I don't have to care about you. If you don't care about yourself or your own life then you've already dug your own grave.

bagoh20 said...

We have an opioid problem because they work so well for those who discover them. If you have pain, they make you feel better, and they are relatively cheap. If you don't have pain, they make you feel better anyway. It's a damned good feeling, although I don't often have the luck to have an excuse for a prescription. When I occasionally get hurt and the doctor gives me that happy piece of paper, I really enjoy the feeling of contentment and just pure happiness they provide without any hangover or mental diminishment. This effectiveness is of course dangerous if you have no self-control, but isn't lack of self-control the real root of all social problems? You can't outlaw everything that people use or enjoy just because some people can't control themselves. That lack of control has it's own punishment, and that should be it's deterrent. If you can't control yourself, you will screw up your life with something else anyway.

Bob Boyd said...

tcrosse said...

The Reckoning should be a comedic Mother Lode. Is anyone mining it



https://medium.com/@chrisrosenthall/nobody-wants-to-see-your-dick-a-guide-to-handling-your-newfound-wealth-and-influence-132708f771b9

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

More nonsensical brain farts from Chadwick the fellator of the state of Alabama. Who actually had the idiocy a day ago to proclaim that Alabamans, with their largest and most micro-regulated constitution in the world, are freer than anyone else!

It's like these commenters are addicted to getting things WRONG! Lol!

wwww said...



Trump has learned a lot from his WWF time. His fight with LaVar Ball was both men getting into a WWF fake fight. They both had a great time doing a political performance and LaVar Ball's interview was performance art.


Don't know how this thread went into a debate on pain medicine. Obvs. pain medicine is good for people in intense pain and bad for addicts chasing a high. But thought the thread was about comedy. ADon't know why we're talking about grandparents going through pain for grandchildren. It's the mothers in back labour who go through pain. That's the great thing about grandparent-ing. You aren't on the c-section table and you can give back the cuties when they blow out their diapers.

buwaya said...

Comedy is pain.

buwaya said...

Comedians are artists of pain.

gbarto said...

On Twitter the other day:
[White House]

Trump: My Elf On The Shelf is the best. It’s the most lifelike. No one else’s is as good.

Jeff Sessions: Can I please get down now, sir?

That's funny.

stevew said...

It's only chaotic for one group of people.

-sw

buwaya said...

There were comedians in the Roman Colosseum.
Much of what was done there was played for laughs.
Painfully.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

My late sister suffered painfully from neuropathy for decades before she passed away in her sleep. Given the attitude Toothless displays towards people who suffer from chronic pain -

The attitude is your brother-in-arm's Michael K's - who doesn't even have a fucking clue about what neuropathy is. If you picked up his advice on using opioids to treat it, then your sister would have died in more pain and probably sooner due to the addiction brought about by the very drugs he loves that are impervious to treating what she had: http://www.cochrane.org/CD006146/SYMPT_opioids-neuropathic-pain

I can and do wish the same for him. I want Toothless to scream at the touch of clothing against his body. I want him to have a grandchild he can’t pick up because of the sheer pain entailed. I want him to hurt so much he cries for hours.

There are much more effective ways (including drugs! Yeay!) for treating neuropathy but if you prefer to dwell on politics and curses and casting spells then obviously you're just as irrational as Michael KKK. and I can't help you either. As for your sadism, that tells us everything we need to know about your own idiotic motives.

Then maybe he’ll learn the positive role opioids play in medicine.

Right. I'm so impervious to 19th century medicine - the sort inherited from pre-Christian practices. I guess this is the morality that you are stuck in and the technical state of medicine that Michael K is stuck in. Oh, how behind the times I must be!

mockturtle said...

"comedians who are helping us to understand and survive the chaos."

What chaos?

Wince said...

"In some ways, it’s never been easier to be a political comedian: the Trump jokes write themselves."

Especially in the way late night TV and other audiences have become ideologically self-selected?

Michael K said...

The delusions and psychosis of Ritmo are on full display.

They are completely ineffective at anything neuropathic, which is usually the component that sets in if not the original cause of anything chronic.

Who knew we had a neurologist among us?

Fools are easily recognized. Ask them.

Ann Althouse said...

Why did a post about how to do comedy inspire comments about dying in pain?

(I know there are a million comedy routines about how comics say "I died out there" or "I killed," but seriously... what is the problem?)

buwaya said...

Comedy is the manipulation of pain.
Someones pain. Almost always someone else.

buwaya said...

Humor and comedy exists because of original sin.

Bilwick said...

Toothless State-fellator claims that I claimed Alabama are the freest people. Not true (although I suppose it could be). But then this is a guy who probably believes There is no truth but socialist truth. What I hypothesized is that the average Alabaman is probably less of a State-cultists than he is. But then who isn't? Apparently his reading comprehension level is about equal to his grasp of economics and ability to reason.

Michael K said...

"Why did a post about how to do comedy inspire comments about dying in pain?"

It just became another Ritmo thread.

Bilwick said...

Toothless State-fellator claims that I claimed Alabama are the freest people. Not true (although I suppose it could be). But then this is a guy who probably believes There is no truth but socialist truth. What I hypothesized is that the average Alabaman is probably less of a State-cultists than he is. But then who isn't? Apparently his reading comprehension level is about equal to his grasp of economics and ability to reason.

Kevin said...

Comedy is the manipulation of pain.

"Life sucks" is not comedy.

"I thought life sucked, but look at the bright side" can be funny.

Unfortunately, our elites are predisposed to find no bright side until we have another president.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

“It's the mothers in back labour who go through pain.”

Oh yes ain’t that the truth! I had back labor with all four of my children. Sheer agony.

“That's the great thing about grandparent-ing. You aren't on the c-section table and you can give back the cuties when they blow out their diapers.”

Now that’s funny and true too!

Kevin said...

The corollary is that under Obama life could not suck for even one second.

Hence, no comedy either.

Kevin said...

Those who want to do anti-Trump humor need to understand that Trump himself is a comedian.

Our current crop of comedians are left telling Trump's jokes in a way that seems even funnier to them.

It's like when they were kids and memorized Steve Martin and Richard Pryor's routines, and would recite them almost word for word on the playground to draw attention to themselves.

buwaya said...

The two true sides of comedy and comedians-
Batman's Joker and Canio in Pagliacci.

Kevin said...

It's like when they were kids and memorized Steve Martin and Richard Pryor's routines, and would recite them almost word for word on the playground to draw attention to themselves.

This did not make them funny. It did not make them comedians. It made them people walking around trying to understand what comedy was.

wwww said...

Why did a post about how to do comedy inspire comments about dying in pain?


A commenter noted that Trump's comedy learned a lot from the World Wide Wrestling Federation. I thought that was a great point. The same commenter angrily accused Democrats of causing the opioid epidemic & a boy dying in Nebraska.

Then TTR took up the opioid epidemic idea and said nobody should have pain medicines unless dying of cancer & accused doctors of causing the epidemic. That caused people to argue with his points about pain medicine/opioids, and the Trump-As-Comedian thread got dropped.

Back to comedy: I wonder how classical Greek ideas of comedy figure into this. Aristophanes can be vulgar. Trump's comedy can be vulgar. I think that's why people react so badly to him, because he's a Head-Of-State who uses a vulgar comedic style for political rhetoric. The symbolic head of the country as comedian isn't going to go over well with a significant portion of the poils.

Perhaps another argument for why a separation of Head-of-State from Political Leadership might be a good idea for a country --or at least a separation between a President and head of Parliament.

Inga...Allie Oop said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Inga...Allie Oop said...


The difference is when Obama was funny, he meant to be. When Trump is funny it’s because he meant it to be serious. Then it becomes hilarious when Trump’s followers think Trump actually means to be funny. The man doesn’t have a funny bone in his entire body.

Bilwick said...

My last post got me to wonder: of the liberty-phobes who post here regularly, which one is the most liberty-phobic and servile? I go with Toothless (how a guy who spends so much time on his knees can sit down at a computer so often is quite the mystery); but I suppose a case could be made for ARM or Inga. Should we take a poll?

ARM: "Me! I love Big Brother more than anyone!"

Toothless: "No, me! I'd not only let him fist me, I'd have his baby!"

buwaya said...

There is a school that says that all western comedy is based on classical archetyes, usually defined as the stock characters in Italian commedia dell'arte, which are mostly identifiable in ancient Roman comedy.

I find some of this archtype mapping a bit of a stretch.

wwww said...


Now that’s funny and true too!


Diaper-blow outs are very funny, especially if you aren't the parents. Poo, poo all over the place. I recall one visit to the doctor's office that ended in disaster. A friend had good advice for plane trips -- you, not just the baby, need at least 3 changes of clean shirts to be safe.

Another example of low comedy. Not sure if it's vulgar, even though it's about poo, because the cute baby involvement.

roesch/voltaire said...

Yes Trump is a laugh a minute with his quips that Althouse thinks are made by an entertainer, not a comedian. For example his claim that the tax cuts won,t benefit him or his family can only cause us to admire how well this actor can tell a bold faced lie just to entertain us with his witty performance. Who could top that?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Does William Chadwick think that no son or daughter from a right wing family ever used or died due to drug use/ overdose? To accuse liberals of being the cause of substance abuse would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

And the notion that rightists are liberty lovers and leftists libertyphobes is worth a laugh. When anyone starts throwing around the word liberty in this fashion, I just cringe in embarrassment for that person.

wwww said...

"but I suppose a case could be made for ARM or Inga. Should we take a poll?"


Ugh! Why are the commenters so RESISTANT to the thread topic? Comedy can be a FUN topic people! Everything doesn't have to be personal insults and opioid crisis and death!


Years ago I read Aristotle's Poetics. Was too long ago for me to remember the specifics he wrote about comedy, but I've long been intrigued about Greek comedy and tragedies. The real pain isn't caused by either comedy or tragedy art forms, but that which evokes the pathetic. Pathos.

Bruce Hayden said...

Blogger Michael K said...
“The left's insanity is just not funny. Comedy requires that the comedian realize what he/she is saying is not literally true. It may be an exaggeration or a distortion but, with the exception of humorists like Will Rogers and Finlay Peter Dunn, the comedy is not true except as it illustrates absurdity.”

My partner is too literal to understand this, and that much of what I say around her is funny for that reason. Her kids get it, but they aren’t around all that often, maybe every other week or so.

The thing that blows me away though is that there is so little comedy these days that would appeal to the average Trump voter. Most of the “trump is an idiot” jokes fall completely flat for us. Often, it seems like the joke is on them, not understanding what Trump said. He is our comedian in chief. Which means that all these late night comedians, etc are desperately fighting for a share of less than half the population of the country. Kinda like what Roger Ailes said about Fox News, that their market niche or segment was essentially the half the population not being served by the liberal MSM. Limiting the appeal of late night shows (or comedy shows) to the half the population that voted for Crooked Hillary seems almost suicidal, esp since every othe late night and comedy show is essentially doing exactly the same thing, and not doing it very well.

D.E. Cloutier said...

During a conversation in the early 1970s, media guru Marshall McLuhan told me: "All jokes are grievances."

wwww said...

Yes Trump is a laugh a minute with his quips that Althouse thinks are made by an entertainer, not a comedian.


He does have great comedic timing. That's what made him more likeable then Hillary.

I'm not saying his comedy is good. It's very vulgar. It's horribly vulgar. I do not approve of the Head-of-State behaving in this manner. I am appalled he talked about his dick size during a Republican debate that Jr. High school students might have been watching for school assignments.

But that vulgar comedic timing fundamental to who he is. He's a Performer and a pusher of Brands. He's a Flim Flam Man running a schtick. He's going for ratings and publicity. It's who he's always been, and it's why his show did well and it's why Page 6 followed his divorces and it's why he went on Howard Stern.

Look at the photo spreads he's done for the past 30 years. There's an element of vulgar comedy to them. He's doesn't play "sincere."

buwaya said...

There actually are good metrics whereby one can judge whether the new tax plans are more or less progressive than the previous regime. Tax collections by income percentile are published and easily analyzed.

I propose bets on this, to be resolved by ebd of FY 2019.

Note: Recessions decrease progressivity. High income individuals income has a very high proportion of capital gains which is volatile. So hope for continued growth.

FYI, just an aside- OECD countries are all far less progressive than the US, taxing their poor and middle class more, and they have less volatile tax collections.

A serious critic of the tax plans should be willing to put bets on this.

wwww said...

Limiting the appeal of late night shows (or comedy shows) to the half the population that voted for Crooked Hillary seems almost suicidal


Not saying SNL regularly does good skits, but this is overestimating the # of regular viewers shows need to be profitable. And the # of people who watch TV but don't vote.

Kevin said...

Limiting the appeal of late night shows (or comedy shows) to the half the population that voted for Crooked Hillary seems almost suicidal, esp since every othe late night and comedy show is essentially doing exactly the same thing, and not doing it very well.

But this is the trap. Now that their audience is almost exclusively liberal, they must make Trump jokes every episode or they will disappoint their remaining audience who turn in just to hear them.

Jimmy Fallon has tried to pay it down the middle <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2017/10/jimmy-fallon-continues-to-lose-ground-in-the-late-night-wars.html>and he's losing everyone</a> because conservatives are turning off late-night TV en masse.

Their only way forward is to become straight-up advocacy shows. Kimmel is not losing his mind, he's realizing it's the only path available to him.

Kevin said...

During a conversation in the early 1970s, media guru Marshall McLuhan told me: "All jokes are grievances."

That's good! Thanks for sharing.

wwww said...


I've never been a big fan of SNL for many years. They'll get one or two funny skits, but a lot of it bores me. I think I get bored because a lot of the skits evoke pathos, not comedy.


Now Dave Chappell's skits can be funny. The Chappell/ Charlie Murphy skit on Prince: Game, Blouses is hilarious.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Well, I’ll admit that Crooked Hillary was funny seeing who threw it out there. The irony is hilarious.

Howard said...

You nailed it Althouse. Trump is a standup (stand-up?) comic who owns the hecklers in the press and main-stream politics. That is the source of his borscht-belt jiu-jitsu ability to brag about grabbing the pussy and causing Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose to go down for the count.

MD Greene said...

Remnick is so hunkered down in his echo chamber that he does not see that his magazine's humor isn't funny anymore.
Looking down your pince-nez at the proles and sneering at them is a different kind of entertainment that doesn't resonate with a broad audience. Eustace Tilley forever, I guess.

Lalalalala, can't hear you.

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Howard said...

Doc Mike: you have it 180-degrees out of phase with reality. Comedy is only successful if it's 100% true and honest. That's why great comedy is so rare, most people can't handle the truth. Hence, the PC push-back.

MD Greene said...

Why did a post about how to do comedy inspire comments about dying in pain?

Perspective. People are hurting -- career insecurity, fractured families, failures to launch, cheap fentanyl on the street, meaning-of-life issues unaddressed.

Mel Brooks: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.


Inga...Allie Oop said...

You know what was really funny? Hearing the crowd yell “Lock him up!” when Flynn left the Courthouse, seeing as he was the cheerleader for the lock her up chants at the Republican convention. The irony!

Jim at said...

So a belligerant loudmouth walks into a bar....

Ain't that the truth.

Skipped the rest of the thread.
I mean, what's the damn point?

Bad Lieutenant said...

I am appalled he talked about his dick size during a Republican debate that Jr. High school students might have been watching for school assignments.



Wwww, do you get, did you know, that he did not start that, fresh-faced clean-cut young Rubio started that, and Trump finished it?

wwww said...

"Perspective. People are hurting -- career insecurity, fractured families, failures to launch, cheap fentanyl on the street, meaning-of-life issues unaddressed.
Mel Brooks: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."


The ancient Greeks would disagree. But they had 3 categories: Tragedy, Pathos, and Comedy. The tragic sense of life was distinctly different then pathos -- the pathetic.

Tragedy and Comedy are both uplifting -- the opposite of the pathetic, or the things that evoke pathos.

20th and 21st century Americans have lived an enviable lifestyle. Vaccination, antibiotics, refrigeration, no wars fought on American land, widespread food availability. Not just food availability, but you can buy fresh strawberries, citrus, a variety of cheese, avocados, relatively cheap meat, and dozens of types of bread in the story. The US employment rate is 4.1 percent --
below full employment.

The choice to prefer pathos over the comedic or tragic sense of life is interesting.


Michael K said...

"classical archetyes, usually defined as the stock characters in Italian commedia dell'arte, which are mostly identifiable in ancient Roman comedy.

I find some of this archtype mapping a bit of a stretch."

There are supposed to be only four plots in drama although Anthony Hope is supposed to have invented a fifth with "The Prisoner of Zenda."

Comedy is different.

Doc Mike: you have it 180-degrees out of phase with reality. Comedy is only successful if it's 100% true and honest. That's why great comedy is so rare, most people can't handle the truth. Hence, the PC push-back.

I disagree in that comedy should illustrate the truth, but not by being literally true.

It should exaggerate or distort in a way that illustrates truth.

Two examples.

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender says, "Why the long face ?"

Horses have long faces but the other use of the term is about being sad.


Another.

Three doctors go duck hunting together. The first, an internist has first shot and a dick flies by. The internist says 'Is that a duck? Are you sure it's a duck ?' The duck is long gone by the time he decides.

This describes a common impression among other doctors that internists are indecisive and take a long time to decide.

The next shot is to be by the surgeon. A duck approaches and "BLAM BLAM!" he shoots. Then he turns to the pathologist, the third doctor, and says 'Make sure that's a duck!.

This illustrates the internists impression that surgeons are too aggressive,


The examples illustrate what I said. The observations are exaggerated but illustrate a truth.

The Comedia del Arte characters are still pretty much the usual comedy characters, At least they were until politics got into what passes for comedy.

wwww said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
wwww said...

Wwww, do you get, did you know, that he did not start that, fresh-faced clean-cut young Rubio started that, and Trump finished it?


Yeah I watched it and saw what happened. Both were vulgar. Both made that choice of free will and both are responsible.

buwaya said...

Is the perception of vulgarity simply an instance of being a whited sepulchre?

Is the entire concept of vulgarity simply an element of status signaling? If so, arent the vulgar likely to be morally superior? This was very much a 1960s meme.

It is interesting territory. Ancient and medieval Christianity made quite a lot of it. The difference vs the 1960s counterculture was it came with a sense of sin, and of the communal vs the individual.

Michael K said...

There was a comment some years ago about how British upper classes, in a country very class conscious, were adopting the manners of the lower classes.

It was a sort of "grunge" thing.

Rusty said...

OK Althouse.
Inga, TTR and ARM walk into a bar.
And the bartnder says,"What is this, some kind of joke?"

Bad Lieutenant said...


wwww said...
Wwww, do you get, did you know, that he did not start that, fresh-faced clean-cut young Rubio started that, and Trump finished it?


Yeah I watched it and saw what happened. Both were vulgar. Both made that choice of free will and both are responsible.
12/3/17, 2:16 PM


Are you a woman, wwww? Because a man would understand that such an insult could not be allowed to pass unreplied-to.

John henry said...

Dave,

I find it hard to believe that Best Buy would be charging $25 for water that would normally sell for $3-4 dollars.

They aren't stupid. The few thousand they might gain would hardly set off the tens or hundreds of thousands in bad publicity.

Is there any actual evidence they did this?

OTOH, if they did, decide to be scumbags, that would be their right in a free society.

John Henry

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Why did a post about how to do comedy inspire comments about dying in pain?

Probably because Trump's pro-death policies are no laughing matter. And they ain't no joke.

Humor only works if it's honest. And comedians can see through BS better than anyone.

Trump is the most prevaricating president in modern history - probably ever. So there's your answer as to why they know there's nothing intentionally funny about him. Especially in an age when all the information anyone needs is out there. Liars are not funny.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Then TTR took up the opioid epidemic idea and said nobody should have pain medicines unless dying of cancer & accused doctors of causing the epidemic.

Another lie. But if right-wingers were interested in truth they wouldn't be right-wingers.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Who knew we had a neurologist among us?

Fools are easily recognized. Ask them.


Not you. You're a neurologist?

Find me ten neurologists who agree with a primary role for opioids in treating neuropathic or chronic pain and then you'll be on to something, sparky.

In the meantime, it's nice to watch you play a neurologist on tv.

Anyway, no need to burden the neurologists with your silliness. Were you aware that pain management is actually its own specialty? With certification and everything? Who knew!

The state of medicine has progressed mightily since the 19th century practice standards you were trained in 150 years ago, Old Timer.

Michael K said...

Ritmo is not a doctor but he/she/it plays one on a blog.

Fortunately, most people reading this thread know enough about you to know that, aside from advice on which McDonald's happy meal to buy, your advice is not worth the pixels.

They also notice that I link to serious medical literature whereas you link to your scrotum, assuming it is still there,

Caveat Lector

That's Latin twerp.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

You cherry-picked to single articles - one with no clinical material/relevance whatsoever, just a theoretical/physiological nonsense treatise - as if they were superior to comprehensive, clinical reviews. You may get paid to contribute what you feel you can get away with contributing to the overdose epidemic but I get paid to stop it. So we know who's buttering your bread: Desperate folks who are pressured into going to some old schmuck with no oversight over what he does - which is the way you like it.

Again, cite your expertise in pain management. Everything you said on this thread was basically open evidence for a massive lawsuit, ripe for the undertaking. I guess you take your comfort from the fact that most overdoses don't happen until the bloke is too broke to bother with such a thing. But I'll happily watch you lose your license once you put your money where your mouth is and try out some of your cowboy bullshit on the people who deserve better than an ignorant and untested halfwit mad scientist like you.

Every day I see the consequences of the handiwork of assholes like you, and then get paid to correct it. Keep sending me business, hopefully before you kill these kids.

Michael K said...

As usual Ritmo makes threads unreadable.

Bye.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh you could read it, Mr Blood-Brain Barrier of the Opioid Abuse Epidemic. Don't play stupid.

Just because you are incompetent doesn't mean that you're stupid. You know full well what you're saying, and doing.

You probably even know the difference between a writing about basic CNS physiology and an actual clinical or epidemiological review. You just don't want to be responsible for what you say. Krappety Kennedy.

Big Mike said...

Toothless at 5:38, responding to another comment:

Then TTR took up the opioid epidemic idea and said nobody should have pain medicines unless dying of cancer & accused doctors of causing the epidemic.

Another lie. But if right-wingers were interested in truth they wouldn't be right-wingers.

Toothless at 10:56:

Who gives a shit about a single publication in "Fluids blood barrier" or whatever the fuck. Is it even a review article? There's no basic science way around this. The only "chronic" condition for which you should be giving more and more opioids is CANCER. You know, a disease you die from.

Michael K said...

Ritmo is just an angry wannabe. He might have even failed to get into medical school and is now a barrista.

It's hard to tell. All I know is he is angry failure,

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Hey Big Bowel Movement Mike -

There are other pain medications than opioids - let alone "more and more opioids." But since by Michael Krappety Kennedy Kunt's standards you must just be a barista, you can't be expected to know that. And since his own practice is so pisspoor that he's about one step away from losing his own license, he seems to have forgotten that, too.

Michael: Talk turkey. What non-standard conditions have you prescribed opioids for and what were the doses, drugs, and other treatment modalities you used/didn't use? I'm beginning to think that YOU'RE just a fucking "barista, failure," or whatever. What's clear is that you're full of shit. What was it about "the blood brain barrier" that guided your clinical practice when it came to how you used analgesics?

K is bluffing.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

K seems to say that since he is no barista, he is magically prevented from doing harm.

He is happy and proud to have a license to do whatever he wants.

So how does he use opioids and what makes his own particular use of them so safe and effective - other than his extensive knowledge of what the blood brain barrier is?

He does not even know when to consult a neurologist, so let's hear the lowdown on how he treats pain.

Like I said, he's just a big, lying, blundering trash-talker. Hardly a credential for a decent physician, but that's probably why he had to retire.

He's not a barista, he's invincible! His license makes him a god, he says. He looks down on all of you.

Bad Lieutenant said...

Every day I see the consequences of the handiwork of assholes like you, and then get paid to correct it.


Dear Toothy,

1) My father has major spinal issues and has been prescribed both opioids and gabapentin/pregabalin, which have their own issues.

2) Not to pry, but would you like to disclose exactly what it is you do for a living, as above? Do you run/work at a detox clinic or something?

Toad Trend said...

Michael K said "The emotional meltdown of the left would be funny if the rage were not so obvious and a few examples of nuts acting as if it were permission to shoot Congressmen has made it distinctly unfunny,"

That's the rub, the left takes itself so seriously, they are incapable of recognizing or creating true humor. Factor in the denial-of-reality attacks against 'unbelievers', it makes being 'humorous' that much more difficult as true humor always contains grains of truth.

If these angry people weren't so dangerous, I'd probably be laughing at them more than I currently am.

Bandit said...

Sorry but the droll nonsense on SNL isn't remotely funny - "We all hate Trump" - Hardee-har-har!

Ralph Gizzip said...

Most of the comedians today just aren't funny. They're mean. And there's a BIG difference.

Michael K said...

Just checking to see if Ritmo ever went to sleep. Some of his rants sound hypomanic and they can stay awake for days,

wildswan said...

There was Italian commedia dell arte whose stage set must have a church, a private house and a brothel. Then two twins separated at birth arrive in town and complications ensue. One falls in love and the other ignores the girl offending her; one is given a bag of money to deposit, the other gets asked where the money is, doesn't have it and is jailed. I've always been able to contain my laughter. Shakespeare mixed these conventions with other forms - serious with comic - and the academies ever since have hated him for that. But it's an English way of doing things and still in existence.

There's also samizdat comedy. It seems more appropriate to our times but doesn't apply. The statists wouldn't think it was funny and the deplorables have won an election so they aren't completely stifled. Anyhow here's a samizdat joke.

It seems that Stalin, Khrushchev, and Brezhnev were riding on a train. Suddenly, out in the middle of nowhere, the train inexplicably stopped.

After a few minutes of fidgeting, Stalin stood up and left the compartment. He returned after a while and said, “Problem is solved. Engineer has been shot.”

Still the train did not move. After a few more minutes, Khrushchev stood up and left the compartment. When he returned, he said, “Problem is solved. Engineer has been posthumously rehabilitated.”

And still the train did not move. Finally Brezhnev stood up, pulled down the window shade, and said, “Problem is solved. Train is moving.”

Of course that was all white privilege.

wildswan said...

AGA - Althouse Great Again.

And her question - how did we get from the subject of current comedy to the subject of excruciating pain and opiods? - I say, by a natural association of ideas. I think that's what she was suggesting. Perhaps all these very tedious "comedy" routines are the opium of the coasties. Thinking: "Someone's an idiot - Oh, not me, not intern-groping-feminist-supporting, gun-control-supporting-bodyguard-protected, black-genocide-supporting-black-lives matter-supporting, richy-rich me. It's Trump, must be, has to be, is, is-not-me. My precious, my precious, gone, lost. Baggins, we hates you. Quick, tell a Trump joke, a shot to ease the pain."