Self-absorbed person is self-absorbed.
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Protip: human beings the world over are nice. We’re all nice, by and large. Regional characterizations to the contrary are universally racism or nationalism. I’ve never understood why people always exclaim with surprise about “how nice” the people in a new place are. Of course they are! Everyone is mostly nice most of the time! It’s how human society works!
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That word…
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His story arc was similar to that of a lot of comedians who gradually got too successful for their own good:
- Tell relatable and self-deprecating jokes about your own life as a working-class schmuck
- Tell funny stories about the shenanigans you used to get up to when you were younger
- Tell more and more jokes about experiences involving hotels and air travel
- Share anecdotes about the wacky characters you met during custom remodeling projects or exotic vacations
- Complain about encounters with the kind of people you used to be at the beginning of your career
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NO! That would be cancel culture and threat to free speech!
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Yep; that’s sure been Dave Chappelle’s career arc.
Material success often kills an artist’s creativity and/or humanity.
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It’s bizarre for me to think that Santaland Diaries is…franchised out. It’s such a personal piece about his semi-autobiographical experiences that this idea of someone else performing it just seems odd. I’ve only ever experienced it in his NPR readings.
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Dealing with French bureaucracy, especially if a foreigner, is enough to warp anyone’s sensibilities.
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That’s really what I was trying to imply in my original comment. Not the stereotypical rude French waiter that other’s here thought.
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From what I have heard this is absolutely standard operating procedure. I was at a production not long ago of Once Upon a Mattress, which as written features a lusty old king who sexually harasses lots of his subjects, which this production managed to almost 100% turn into his being really into desserts. There was one sung line that gave the game away, so they put the person singing that line in the very back of the stage, and made them very quiet, easily drowned out by the hubbub up front. All this was easier than asking for changes to the sacred text.
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If you watched the droll, bedhead humor of CBS Sunday Morning, you’d get why they picked him for his commentary.
I’m not defending the decision or the show (which I’ve liked in the past) I’m just saying it’s definitely meant to be humorous. Whether the satire lands properly or not, is an entirely different concept.
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I’m sure Marie Antoinette was joking too about that cake thing…
That’s not an excuse for shitty behavior. Just because he was trying to “make a joke” doesn’t mean it’s not shitty.
People who work in retail and in restaurants get treated like shit for really low fucking pay already and we’re current in the middle of a fucking pandemic that has hit that group the hardest. How is joking about also adding in making their job even more contingent on them sucking up to rich, privileged assholes helpful or funny?
I’m so sick of people’s humanity being treated like a joke.
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This is the United States. Everything must be bought and paid for. Unless you have money.
It would still be a rich White asshole punching down in the middle of a global pandemic where millions of people are sick and struggling.
Intent doesn’t mean shit to the oppressed.
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I worked in retail for a decade before my degree, in some of the crappiest working conditions (third-tier fast food taco restaurants and stock rooms with no AC) so I agree! But my point is, the show he appears on is punctuated with dry humor segments that the target audience laps up. I don’t think they’d see it the way we all are–out of context. I was a little surprised to see it highlighted this way on BB since they’ve blogged about CBS This Morning in the past. Either way, if the humor isn’t hitting, then it’s def. time to rethink those segments during a pandemic.
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The context isn’t the problem here; it’s NOT that people criticizing Sedaris “just dont get” his humor.
Sure seems like ya are. Just sayin’.
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Maybe that’s because it’s shitty?
I generally like Sedaris, but this is not funny and it’s punching down.
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Seems to me you’d all be down on noted white privileged asshole Dean Swift and standing up for the poor Irish and their delicious, delicious babies. Seems he made you examine this position critically, job done. Although I have a feeling it wasn’t aimed at you.
Yes, yes… we’re all too thick to get the joke… we’re the problem, of course.
It couldn’t possibly be a failed attempt at satire that didn’t land well… Must be us. /s
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The target audience of this CBS show is older white privileged people, the kind who tend to grouse (sometimes “jokingly”) about service workers. Which is exactly why I don’t think this is dry and ironic satire.
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