१ नोव्हेंबर, २०२०

"At the center of much of this creative coordination is Wisconsin’s Ben Wikler, chair of the state party Democrats, who was focused on comedy two decades ago, writing for the Onion and working for Al Franken..."

"... on his books and radio show, before rising in the political world. Now, his state party is the leading beneficiary of these fundraisers, raising more than $7 million since August, part of the $58.7 million it’s reportedly brought in over the past two years. David Mandel, former 'Veep' showrunner and 'Seinfeld' writer, says of the virtual format: 'I give credit to Ben Wikler for really weaponizing it.' Americans don’t particularly want to be politically lectured to by Hollywood, Mandel says. 'But they do like it when Hollywood people do what they’re really good at, and that’s to entertain,' he says. 'We entertained the fans and that’s what we weaponized.'"

 From "'Princess Bride,' 'Seinfeld' and more: How nostalgic cast reunions became a Democratic fundraising weapon" (WaPo) (you get to watch the actors on Zoom reading their lines from the old script).

६५ टिप्पण्या:

jeremyabrams म्हणाले...

My plumber doesn't lecture me about politics. Why should my entertainer?

Sebastian म्हणाले...

"'We entertained the fans and that’s what we weaponized.'"

But as Althouse has shown, Trump is the entertainer-in-chief. That's the prime skill he "weaponized."

mccullough म्हणाले...

Trump has Brett Favre

wendybar म्हणाले...

Nobody cares what Hollywood thinks and does.

PB म्हणाले...

I turned off the west wing reunion when Michelle obama came on to beg.

Rory म्हणाले...

Strip these people of their income stream - reduce the copyright period so that it matches the 20-year patent period.

Mary Beth म्हणाले...

I've been aware they have been doing this, but I've mostly ignored them so it hasn't affected how I view the original movie/show too much. It would have been nice if they had done this for a charity other than the Biden campaign. It will be interesting when the donors find out that it was more charity than campaign.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

do we know where the big bucks come from? Probably other rich celebrities.

No sale. Hollywood is hollywood and leftwing hollywood can stuff it.

That Hollwyood supports a known crook like Biden makes me despise Hillarywoodland even more.

Charlie Currie म्हणाले...

“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.” – Joseph Stalin

Same goes for ChiCom Wuhan Flu.

cacimbo म्हणाले...

"Weaponizing" $$$$ is super fab when leftists do it.

Temujin म्हणाले...

I've read about this seemingly steady stream of cash from all over the tech and entertainment industries going to Dems in places that these same tech and entertainment people would never set foot. And I've read about a number of these entertainment nostalgia reunions plugging for Dems.

To me what's the difference between Julia Louis-Dreyfus lecturing me from a podium at an awards show, or she and the entire team of Seinfeld or VEEP telling me, laughingly, how I should vote and what I should think? The difference, I guess, is that they are changing my desire to watch them anymore. Let's face it- Seinfeld is so old that I've seen every episode 25 times. I still enjoy it from time to time. But in the back of my mind I'll be thinking, why should I get them another penny in syndication revenue?. Same thing for VEEP. Princess Bride, eh. When my grandkids are old enough I'll deal with that.

But, the diminshing returns are becoming a thing for me. Today I'm wearing an old Pat Metheny t-shirt from a 2005 tour stop. I've seen Metheny and his various groups over the years, at least 7 times. Also bought and listened to his music for about 30 years now. (wow...is that possible?) One of my favorites. But on his most recent album, his cover story- his 'about this album'- was pretty much calling me a racist hideous person for being a Trump voter/supporter. What do I do with that? I've supported Metheny over 7 times as long as I have Trump. Yet I'm done now.

Life is too short to support people who disregard me, slander me, insult me, then ask me for money.

Joe Smith म्हणाले...

So much smug assholery in one place at one time.

Whenever I read about one of these 'reunions' it makes me sick.

So much 'diversity' of thought with these people...every show stocked with progressive idiot automaton clones.

The only reason they get into acting in the first place is because they are world-class narcissists...the writers aren't good-looking enough so are after the money and babes.

Kate म्हणाले...

"We weaponized entertainment." Short term gain on their goals, long term loss on their industry. Zero understanding.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...
ही टिप्पणी लेखकाना हलविली आहे.
Dan in Philly म्हणाले...

And as we've seen from the avengers fundraising, actors who don't participate in democratic fundraisers get ostracized.

David Begley म्हणाले...

Was Ben funny when he came over to your house? Is he a funny guy? Did he amuse you?

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene म्हणाले...

"...what they’re really good at, and that’s to entertain,"

Please, PLEASE diagram that sentence! That's the ubiquitous unnecessary "to." I despise the unnecessary "to!"

Owen म्हणाले...

These people don’t seem to understand that they are sawing off the branch they’re sitting on. If they sincerely entertain, they cannot propagandize. If they do, it poisons the product. The audience cannot trust them.

Getting the audience to believe in your characters and sympathize with their predicaments is the first and hardest task and if it is accomplished then all is possible. Without it, nothing happens. These folks are willing to take that essential asset and throw it away in exchange for trying to sell an ephemeral mundane political agenda. Even if it buys them a political win, it will cost them everything as artists.

LYNNDH म्हणाले...

If Trump or another Rep used the term "weaponized" the Insane Left would explode.

narciso म्हणाले...

I will always love the princess bride, because it is timeless, too many characters are acting like vizzini or prince rupert,

LordSomber म्हणाले...

Is there a difference between "lecturing" and "weaponized entertaining"?

Just curious.

MadisonMan म्हणाले...

"Weaponized" Why is this a good verb for a responsible politician (or entertainer) to use with admiration in their tone!? TDS on steroids.

Megthered म्हणाले...

Who cares about Hollywood actors reading lines from an old movie. We can plug in the movie and watch the real thing. I don't care what they say politically, they are entitled to their opinions as long as they don't lecture me about being a racist, call me a deplorable chump and tell me to vote for an Alzheimer patient.

Lurker21 म्हणाले...


I can't use the "I knew his cousins" line again, so I guess I don't have anything to say about this.

tim maguire म्हणाले...

Blogger jeremyabrams said...
My plumber doesn't lecture me about politics. Why should my entertainer?


At least they don’t lecture you about politics during the thing you pay them to entertain you with. Which makes them better than athletes.

ConradBibby म्हणाले...

Nothing moves votes like appeals from celebrities. I think it's because Hollywood people are clearly the moral superiors of the rest of us.

Sally327 म्हणाले...

Weaponized...like anthrax?

It is an interesting juxtaposition, the progressives using nostalgia for the past as fuel to drive change in the future.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

This is how you get more Trump, not less.

Such political reunions are probably counterproductive. They preach to the choir, and alienate everyone else. It is bubble thinking.

I don't know how one could go about it- it is a bit of a conundrum- but if I were going to put people in charge of political operations of my party, I think it would be best to not give it to hardcore party supporters. I would want someone whose natural world isn't dominated by bubble thinking.

David Begley म्हणाले...

This is appropriate as the Biden campaign is a joke and, deep down, Ben knows that.

Mike (MJB Wolf) म्हणाले...

Everything about those sucks. No one stuck at home networking wants to watch another zoom. These reunions don’t reunite the cast, and I resent the unity word being deployed for political reasons to beloved intellectual properties. Poor dead Andre the Giant got no say in Rob Reiner’s grifting “reunion.” These are sad productions actually worse than than the horrible DNC this Summer. Everyone I know is annoyed by alleged celebrities (please God let the virus destroy the sports entertainment industries!) telling us to “get out and vote” because they hate the guy I’m voting for. Everyone I know except the crazy sister-in-law is voting for Trump. We don’t need Hollywood’s advice. We don’t want it. It has the opposite effect. So I hope they keep it up! But I’m growing to despise these people.

Which brings us to big tech, choosing to amplify THESE VOICES and censor our side, while also siding with Big Journalism the most hated “profession” er Fourth Estate in America. Talk about choosing poorly.

rehajm म्हणाले...

All that money...wasted.

Drago म्हणाले...

wendybar: "Nobody cares what Hollywood thinks and does."

Actually, there are a handful of FakeCon LLR-lefties who have been exposed as radical democrats who literally live and die by how they are viewed by the entertainment industry "elite".

Some of them are even self-declared lawyers from mid-western states like Michigan.

JAORE म्हणाले...

Do Ross and Rachael ever get together?

If they answer that burning question....

gilbar म्हणाले...

jeremyabrams said...
My plumber doesn't lecture me about politics. Why should my entertainer?


but! But!
But they're entertainers! they are paid to Act like they believe the lines they are reading!
If someone pays your plumber to talk to you about politics, he won't sound persuasive
If someone pays an Actor to talk to you, they will ACT LIKE they know what they're talking about!
So we should believe them! 'cause they're getting Paid!

Fritz म्हणाले...

jeremyabrams said...
My plumber doesn't lecture me about politics. Why should my entertainer?


At least the plumber understands that shit doesn't run up hill by itself, and may even have a smattering of business sense.

Iman म्हणाले...

wendybar has it right @8:28am

Mike of Snoqualmie म्हणाले...

Mandel says. 'But they do like it when Hollywood people do what they USED TO BE really good at, and that’s to entertain,' he says. 'We USED TO entertain the fans and that’s HOW WE KILLED HOLLYWOOD.'"

FIFY.

Bilwick म्हणाले...

Maybe in a new Biden administration, Mr. Mandel can become Minister of Agitprop.

Lawrence Person म्हणाले...

All of the "Actors reunions for Biden" doesn't equal one Lil Wayne or Ice Cube.

Why? Actors being liberal political activists is in no way novel. Does anyone think the Seinfeld cast would endorse anyone but liberals? Moreover, how many non-hardcore Princess Bride fans can even name who played Wesley or Buttercup? Why should anyone care who they're voting for?

But you know what's not usual? Rap stars endorsing Republicans, especially a Republican President so hated by white political elites as Donald Trump. Many black people may be low information voters, but they know their cities are broken, they know that Democrats run their cities, and most don't think that rioting, looting and defunding the police are answers.

Seeing not just black celebrities endorsing Trump, but black celebrities whose entire images revolve around being "ghetto" endorsing Trump does carry novelty value. That's the sort of thing that gets attention and breaks through to voters that never watch CNN or pick up The New York Times. That's the way preference cascades start.

Bob B म्हणाले...

Each election year the wealthy fund the Democrats' message promising to only tax the wealthy. Every other year, the middle class gets taxed by the Democrats to fund the programs of the wealthy.

PubliusFlavius म्हणाले...

Trump is the entertainer-in-chief. That's the prime skill he "weaponized.

aye

SNL's opener was actually funny, and fits in your

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/10/i-get-feeling-nyt-is-bracing-for-trump.html

Theme.

The representation of Lil' Wayne, and as Maria like's to say Cube, in addition to a wide host of characters is ...interesting.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alaen4fno20

Tomcc म्हणाले...

Not being young and hip, I don't really understand the premise or the attraction of this "weaponized" form of persuasion. Perhaps it's appeal is more selective, like a drum circle.

Bob B म्हणाले...

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...
"...what they’re really good at, and that’s to entertain,"

Please, PLEASE diagram that sentence! That's the ubiquitous unnecessary "to." I despise the unnecessary "to!"


I do to.

RMc म्हणाले...

David Mandel, former 'Veep' showrunner and 'Seinfeld' writer, says of the virtual format: 'I give credit to Ben Wikler for really weaponizing it.' Americans don’t particularly want to be politically lectured to by Hollywood, Mandel says. 'But they do like it when Hollywood people do what they’re really good at, and that’s to entertain,' he says. 'We entertained the fans and that’s what we weaponized.'"

The fact that Mandel uses the word "weaponized" twice indicates he's not being ironic or funny. (As I often say about such people, "He's as serious as a heart attack, and almost as appealing.")

Achilles म्हणाले...

Ben Wikler supports corruption and mob violence.

Ben Wikler supports the suppression of views he does not agree with.

Ben Wikler supports the burning and looting of innocent business owners livelihoods.

Ben Wikler supports open corruption and selling our country out to China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and more.

Ben Wikler supports using the FBI and CIA to spy on his political opponents.

And unless you think Ben Wikler is really stupid he knows all of this.

He is evil.

William म्हणाले...

I was reading a book about the South Sea Bubble. Both Alexander Pope and Isaac Newton lost a bundle in that mania. Pope was the foremost poet of his day and Newton was the foremost scientist of any day. You can be very bright in one area of life or, in Newton's case, many areas of life but still be profoundly stupid when it comes to gauging or standing aloof from the craziness of your moment...The unacknowledged legislators of mankind. There's no doubt that artists and intellectuals have great influence on what we think about the moment in which we live, but there's almost no empirical evidence that they are right in their preachings and prophecies outside of the fields of iambic pentameter and calculus. Not even a better than chance correlation....I like Shakespeare. He didn't speak truth to power. He mostly sucked up to the Tudors and/or Stuarts as appropriate, but he spoke truth to the ages.

Jamie म्हणाले...

What's with the nostalgia? I thought Republicans were the ones always pining for the past. I see two possibilities: either it turns out that Democrats are the backward-looking people, or Hollywood has shot its wad (sorry to be so crude, not a usual thing for me, but I'm feeling the sting of having been apparently permanently banned on Power Line for much less, foolishly not having read their policy because I'm always posting from my phone rather than my computer) and can't come up with anything new with which to entertain us.

Or, I suppose, both.

I would kind of like to see if Cary Elwes and Robin Wright can still meet eyes the way they did back in the day. But since a huge part of the appeal of those Princess Bride moments for me was the beautiful youth of those two, I think the thrill would be gone regardless.

Kevin म्हणाले...

you get to watch the actors on Zoom reading their lines from the old script

I can see where he got the idea.

He was probably watching his candidate.

Curious George म्हणाले...

I know he's a family friend Althouse, but Wikler has the same intellectual curiosity as your idiot son John who endorses a candidate for POTUS for no other reason than he is gay. Wikler has also parroted talking points that are proven false, and that you have denounced on your blog. OK, I know that the game. He's a political animal. But if you play what does that make you?

Curious George म्हणाले...

Althouse, how many times has Ben Wikler denounced the rioting, looting, and violence in Madison, Milwaukee, or Kenosha?

Let me help. Zero.

That asshole would run you through a wood chipper to achieve his political gains.

Chris Lopes म्हणाले...

"At least the plumber understands that shit doesn't run up hill by itself, and may even have a smattering of business sense."

At least the plumber probably didn't get his job by sucking some middle aged producer's dick.

Yancey Ward म्हणाले...

Never go up against a Biden when a Presidency is on the line.......

BUMBLE BEE म्हणाले...

"I don't fuck much with the past, I fuck plenty with the future"... Patti Smith
"Too many people lookin back"... Bob Seeger
The words of the prophets...

William म्हणाले...

Hollywood: The land where Roman Polanski gets a standing ovation and Ronald Reagan gets exiled. Do the people there ever contemplate how wrong they have been about most things? "Okay, we were wrong about GWTW and Roman Polanski, but this time we've really got it right. You can trust us because we're convincingly sincere and good looking.".....In real life, Jennifer never paired off with David Schwimmer. She was more into Brad Pitt, but Brad was more into Angelina Jolie. There's some kind of moral here about appearance vs reality and the vanity of all human desires. The lesson I've learned from my study of rich, good looking people is that it's better to be rich and good looking than poor and homely, but there may be other lessons for the more astute.

gilbar म्हणाले...

you know what Would be really entertaining?
if they'd remake that O'Bama is Our GOD video, with the little kids singing about how they'd gladly Die For O'Bama.
Think about that video, now, imagine them enthusiastically singing it for Jo Biden
after all! this is Joe Biden’s Battle for the Soul of This Nation
so, where are the Joe Biden Hymns ?
It's a funny thing to think of!

Kate म्हणाले...

I became curious and had to look. From urbandictionary:

"It actually comes from the old days of musket guns, where a wad (strips of cloth) was packed down in the barrel to create a seal between the gunpowder and the bullet, increasing the internal pressure when the gunpowder fired, and thus speeding the bullet."

I'm old enough to remember when "shot my wad" was an innocuous idiom.

mikee म्हणाले...

Monetized, weaponized entertainment. I look forward to reading more old books in the future.

mikee म्हणाले...

And shooting one's wad implies one forgot to load the bullet, and is shooting only a bit of cloth, harmlessly but with a lot of noise and smoke and commotion. Uselessly, to be specific.

I'm Not Sure म्हणाले...

"Life is too short to support people who disregard me, slander me, insult me, then ask me for money."

Yep. Go to a concert/ballgame/movie? Fuck that shit. If I want entertainment, I'll play with the dogs or take them for a walk and enjoy a nice afternoon at the park.

Musicians/athletes/actors most certainly have a right to their opinions but I'll be damned if I'll knowingly contribute money to those who would use it to make my life more difficult.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves म्हणाले...

Temujin @ 8:52

That. A million times - that.

Assistant Village Idiot म्हणाले...

As I just wrote in the Greenwald thread. Liberalism is social, not intellectual.

Mike of Snoqualmie म्हणाले...

A reunion that would impress everyone: Every worker for that show, down to the drivers, the caterers, the "best boy" and key grips, the hair stylists, the stuntmen/stuntwomen, the standins and all of the extras. Get everyone of those together and then you could make a statement. Until then, just STFU.

Bilwick म्हणाले...

Jamie wrote: "I see two possibilities: either it turns out that Democrats are the backward-looking people . . . ." Bingo! I've never met a statist yet who wasn't, in his/her heart of hearts, longing to go back to the Society of Status and get away from the Society of Contract.

CarolMR म्हणाले...

From what I've read, Jerry Seinfeld will not be part of this cast reunion. Interesting.

Unknown म्हणाले...

I live in Bangkok

Nearby Pattaya suffers from the travel lockdown in place since Feb.
That town is loaded with bar girls, and locals are not interested in beer and hos.

The latest gimmick is to "stream" bar girls. Lonely incels buy "lady drinks" at $10+ a pop. The girls clap, and drink water instead of vodka.

Selling an illusion to losers...

Same thing as this article.