September 9, 2020

"Is the joke that... the young woman doesn’t realise the interviewer does not have the same interests as she does and is asking sarcastic questions?"

59 comments:

Wince said...

You could do the same to women of many generations who followed soap operas.

As George Carlin in a female voice noted in the 1970s, "my stories".

John henry said...

The embedded video shows up in my phone, within the post.

I went to watch it on my desktop PC and it does not show up. I was able to see it by clicking the link and watching in Twitter.

Big meh.

John Henry

wendybar said...

Who watches this crap??

Lucid-Ideas said...

Haha lol yeah...that's the joke. Also, the 19th amendment was a mistake. Like, a haha funny mistake, you know.

Fernandinande said...

The interviewer reminds me of me when someone tries to get me to talk about sportsball games. (does that qualify as a 'Biden' sentence, with its three mentions of 'me'?)

Kay said...

Very sad to see the show ending, though they really could’ve called it quits around 2014-2015. I had been wondering about the way the current season ended abruptly but I guess it’s just been on hiatus. I will say that I am glad the show didn’t end before got to see Kourt and Kim trade blows earlier this season.

Bob Boyd said...

The guy in the green shirt is a Mean Girl.

Kai Akker said...

It's not funny. The girl seems to realize by halfway through that she might be getting mocked by this overenthused dolt of an interviewer. She starts to get self-conscious but she does play along the rest of the way and gives 80% serious answers. Who would make fun of that perfectly decent girl? Boooo

rehajm said...

I'm rejecting the mocking. She's lovely, an antidote for the times.

Todd said...

This is a "weird" affirming interview. Regardless of what she says, he tries to affirm it and encourage her. I think he is trying to demonstrate how vacuous she is (and I get that) BUT he knows exactly what/who she is talking about and is familiar with the context of it all. I knew like two of the names that came up.

Bob Boyd said...

This ambush tells us a lot more about the interviewer than about the girl in the hat and it ain't pretty. The interviewer ambushed himself.

Is this really who you want to be, bud? Out there making the world a better place are you?
Time for an agonizin' re-appraisal.

jeremyabrams said...

You could similarly mock a lot of guys by pretending to share their enthusiasm for sports. Lovely young lady. Mean-spirited interviewer.

Birches said...

Sorry. I thought it was funny. Isn't this just another version of Jaywalking?

Heartless Aztec said...

We're all media targets these days. Nothing is to boorish, to fatuous or mundane to make someone a target of.

Bruce Hayden said...

And this last week, they announced a deal between Kosovo and Serbia. Who else on the planet has done more peace stuff over the last 3-4 years as Trump, and his team, including in particular, his son-in-law, Jered Kushner?

robother said...

"The joke's on the joker, that's the joker's joke."

She's kind of like the person sho waves enthusiastically at the guy in the next lane giving her the finger.

Ice Nine said...

"So, next, where is Brazil?"

These kind of interviews - of which there are many - are not funny. They are not meant to be. They are meant to be instructive -- and they are. They are horrifying.

Amy said...

I couldn't take 30 seconds of Kamala's interview but I could watch this girl for hours.

Limited blogger said...

Sometimes it's just stupid, and should not be shared.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

No the interviewer is the joke. He is an old, bitter, vicious queen.

But I have no idea who he is so maybe he's playing the character mocking the bitter queens of the gay world but I doubt that would be allowed.

The young woman is lovely.

Mike Yancey said...

I think what’s funny is a) his ‘sarcastic’ questions are indistinguishable from actual questions that media who follow and promulgate ’the Kardasian Industry’ would ask. And b) it’s funny that any of that conversation would even be of any importance at all.

Ryan said...

Billy Eichner is a bitch.

Temujin said...

Billy Eichner is hilarious. I used to watch 'Billy on the Street', I guess it would have been a few years ago. Eichner is quick, funny, and off the wall. I love his end to this: "OK, I'm going to go blow my brains out now." To answer your question, wendybar, of who watches this crap?

I guess it used to be me. This white, hetero, conservative leaning libertarian male. Funny is funny. To me humor is my #1 trait in humans. If they're funny, they get a few minutes of my time. Thank God my wife thinks I'm funny. I think it keeps her around. Or maybe it just makes me think it's what keeps her around. Maybe she's really planning her escape and laughing at me to keep me off track. Hmm. Maybe she's plotting something large and I walk into the room and make a simple crack about a lamp shade and to take me off guard she laughs uproariously out loud.

Could be. But then she doesn't know my dark side. My 'Althouse' side.

Kai Akker said...

The interviewer's snark and even the insulting comment above the tweet-video annoyed me but clued me in, that that is Billy Eichner and he thinks he's a [very small] star. Wikipedia gives the following info; you will not be surprised by much of it:

"Eichner is a native of Queens and grew up in Forest Hills. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1996, and from Northwestern University in 2000 with a BA in Theater. Actor Robin Lord Taylor was his college roommate.[LOL!] Eichner is Jewish and gay.[22][23][24][25]

"Politics
"Eichner is a Democrat. On February 1, 2018, Eichner announced a new initiative called Glam Up the Midterms, during that night's episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in conjunction with Funny or Die and with the support of several late night hosts including Sarah Silverman, James Corden, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O'Brien, John Oliver, Chelsea Handler, Robin Thede, and Andy Cohen. Glam Up the Midterm's purpose was getting people to vote in the November 6, 2018, midterm elections, especially millennials, of whom only 12% voted in the previous midterm election. Eichner endorsed Elizabeth Warren in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries."

I sure hope Althouse catches his "endorsement" for this election and posts it for those many who will be breathlessly awaiting. Little does he know his shtik only creates more Trump.

wild chicken said...

Lol women are stupid.

Also, a woman who's not stupid is not a Real Woman.

wild chicken said...

Lol women are stupid.

Also, a woman who's not stupid is not a Real Woman.

stlcdr said...

Blogger Kai Akker said...
It's not funny. The girl seems to realize by halfway through that she might be getting mocked by this overenthused dolt of an interviewer. She starts to get self-conscious but she does play along the rest of the way and gives 80% serious answers. Who would make fun of that perfectly decent girl? Boooo

9/9/20, 9:30 AM


Yeah. That's right. It is totally not funny. And mean. She is so enthusiastic about the Kardashians, that it would be completely nasty to make fun of her. I mean; really, really, mean. He should be told off in a big way. Maybe a timeout or something.

Bilwick said...

You could get the same sadistic jollies asking Joe Biden about his economic policies.

Ken B said...

Funnier than that Trump lip syncing woman, but just barely.

DEEBEE said...

Ahh! A grown-up baby flipping a cockroach and finding it amusing.

Ralph L said...

I think it's fake. The moving mic is distracting, too.

Earnest Prole said...

He apparently forgot hunting cows is not actual hunting.

Lurker21 said...


It's not funny. It's at most droll - drily amusing - if you're in the mood for it.

It's ironic, and irony "feels funny" without always being funny. Sontag might say it's "camp," but she's not around anymore, so we don't have to.

Billy Eichner can be funny when he goes wild and acts like a lunatic. It's as much a matter of laughing at him as laughing with him. When he's like this, he's just cruel and annoying.

mikee said...

I've found that waving enthusiastically at the guy in the next lane giving me the finger is a wonderful way to treat that behavior. It drives the angry one crazier, and makes me happy.

So I find myself liking the girl more and more as the interview proceeds. The creepy guy is being treated politely and with some sincerity in an obviously public setting. Sort of like humans in civil society are encouraged to behave. She's a winner.

I'm reminded of the Chik-fil-A video of an abusive gay customer screaming about gay rights, being treated with perfect civility by the woman serving him from the window.

Francisco D said...

Bob Boyd said...
The guy in the green shirt is a Mean Girl.

My initial thought was that of a member of the White House press corps interviewing a person on the street. The technique is so similar.

tim maguire said...

I made it about 45 seconds. She likes the Kardashians and finds meaning in their lives/careers. So? Good for her. What's the problem?

Jason said...

Was the interviewer out walking his rare clumbers?

rehajm said...

You could similarly mock a lot of guys by pretending to share their enthusiasm for sports.

Ann has kind of riffed in this before but you could trap a bunch of 'regular' guys into this interview on hunting attire fashion.

You could make a Netflix series with the same guys and 'gun safety'...

rcocean said...

Of course she understands. She's just playing along, she knows being "into celebrities" is silly, but she likes talking about them anyway. She's very cute, and its too bad young girls like this aren't just having fun but insist on voting and influencing politics. The interviewer comes off as borderline obnoxious.

rcocean said...

Why anyone would care about the Khardaisians is beyond me. But whatever.

Jamie said...

Yeah, interviewing dude (wasn't he Craig from Parks and Rec?) is a douche. If that really is Craig, then I prefer the Craig character, who was desperately, angrily earnest about even the most trivial things, to this b*tchy mocking Mean Boy.

Update: yup, it's Craig. Craig, be Craig, not Billy. Billy is a douche.

Kay said...

I have to add that I do like the show from which this interview comes from. Seen it a few times and it’s pretty funny.

Original Mike said...

"I think he is trying to demonstrate how vacuous she is (and I get that) BUT he knows exactly what/who she is talking about and is familiar with the context of it all."

I'm not sure that's true, which is part of the joke. Listen to his questions. I could have asked the same questions, and I don't know anything about these people.

richlb said...

I love Billy Eichner. Fight me.

PatHMV said...

The author lost me when supporting the centrality of the "consensus" of scientists as the guiding touchstone, without even a nodding gesture to the many, many examples of new discoveries upturning decades or even centuries of scientific "consensus."

Many leading scientists had a broad consensus that certain racial groups were less intelligent, less capable. Among Western scientists, that consensus was deep and long-lasting (and deplorable). But ultimately overturned because it was, well, wrong and not supported by evidence. For decades, there was a consensus that stomach ulcers were caused exclusively by diet and excess stomach acid. That lasted until one scientist bucked the "consensus" and proved that h. pylori bacteria were a substantial cause of many ulcers. These examples happen time and time again throughout scientific history.

So a very disappointing article that shows no understanding of the real benefits that science and the scientific method offer over other systems of belief.

Temujin said...

Man...there's no sense of humor on either side anymore.

To quote my President: "Sad!"

Rick.T. said...

"I'm going to blow my brains out!"

Promises. Promises.

Todd said...

Original Mike said...

I'm not sure that's true, which is part of the joke. Listen to his questions. I could have asked the same questions, and I don't know anything about these people.

9/9/20, 11:30 AM


If you can stand it, listen again. He parrots back a lot of her comments but he drops names [that I assume are part of that group] some times before she does. I don't think he doesn't know who these people are or who they hang with. I could be wrong but that is my take. He is trying to make her look bad but he looks worse for knowing this much about that same group.

Krumhorn said...

See, here’s the deal. A straight guy could never get very far with her doing this performance art thing. It just wouldn’t wear right on his demeanor. For some reason the gaydar in women make them feel safe with this flaming horseshit so she is defenseless against being mocked with it. It’s actually pretty vicious.

- Krumhorn

Yancey Ward said...

I never mind the mocking of true self-important idiots, but mocking this young woman for following the Kardashians isn't where I would go myself. In short, there is nothing apparent in this video that deserved this kind of public mocking- it makes the interviewer just look mean. All of us have our interests that are going to look downright silly to almost everyone else- the interviewer seems to be oblivious to this fundamental truth.

Yancey Ward said...

Bob Boyd said...

"The guy in the green shirt is a Mean Girl."

Well put!

n.n said...

the centrality of the "consensus" of scientists as the guiding touchstone

Science has evolved as the philosophy and art of plausible, and as a sociopolitical institution coupled with special, peculiar, and corporate interests.

h said...

The Kardashians have identified a consumer need and acted to fill that need. One of them makes money selling cosmetics and I'm not sure how others make money; but individually and as a group they fulfill the need on the part of young people, especially young women, to feel that they belong to a larger group with shared interests. I think in past generations that need was filled by large families and by religion.

mikee said...

Kim Kardashian is a billionaire, and the rest of the family are individually worth tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. Mock on, asshat interviewer, mock on. If the interviewee is inspired to entrepreneurial success by the Kardashians, more power to her.

Original Mike said...

"If you can stand it, listen again. He parrots back a lot of her comments but he drops names [that I assume are part of that group] some times before she does."

Well, I can't Todd, but I believe you. When I listened to it, I latched onto the parroting.

Lurker21 said...

I guess the joke is that the snobs are every bit as knowledgeable about trash culture as the slobs. They are just are more "knowing" and "ironic" about it. That wasn't the joke Eichner intended but the cosmic joke comes around to hit him as much as his intended target. Or take the joke to the next level: to be alive and informed and plugged in now, is to know an awful lot about trash culture. If you don't you're not part of the national conversation.

Sofa King said...

It's not you I hate, Kardashian; I hate what I became because of you.

pious agnostic said...

She's a fan. Fans enthuse about their fandoms.

And people who do not share their fandoms mock them.

You can think that's funny, because you think it's fun to see someone mocked for their genuine enjoyment of something you don't like.

Or you can shake your head. She's a fan, and it gives her joy. It builds her up.

He's a jerk and a bully.

Zach said...

I have never seen the show and couldn't pick her out of a lineup, but if Kim Kardashian used her celebrity to get an old woman out of jail and lobby for sentencing reform, I can muster a golf clap.