Journalism II Blogs

Nationalism, ignorance, racism…they all come to a fine, definitive point in my associate Pot Roast. A few moments ago, one Mr. Roast stood in my room and chastised the British comedian Russel Brand for his duties hosting the MTV Video Music Awards a couple years ago. While I’m not one of Brand’s biggest fans, I can appreciate his style of satire and manufactured contrivance. He reminds me of one of his fellow countrymen, Sacha Baron Cohen, in that they both rely on an alter ego and a basic understanding of method acting from their audience. They commit to an outlandish ego as a form of social commentary, which serves vehicle for their humor. Now, back to Pot Roast.

Pot Roast is the embodiment of everything I find wrong with Americans today. He is committed to a single, unalienable worldview: that America is the greatest country on the face of this earth: from this feverish commitment stems a significant disdain for any attempt to criticize America in any way, shape, or form.

This blind nationalism, combined with questionable values in the moral realm, makes for a special breed of hypocrite. I recently heard of a scheme of his to receive free admittance to Disneyland by “volunteering” at a homeless shelter; this "volunteering" consisted of showing up at a homeless shelter past operating hours as to avoid the “bums.”

But I digress. His statement about Brand, which still rings in my ears, is as follows:
“No British guy comes into America and insults Americans on an American awards show in front of an American audience.”

First and foremost, this statement is utterly negated because Mr. Brand did in fact come to America and “insult” Americans on an American TV show. I could feel roast dripping with genuine indignation as he spoke, as if Brand moseyed on stage and set fire to an American flag while reading excerpts from the Communist Manifesto.

I believe there is a difference between humorous discourse and vehement opposition. Sadly, some refuse to distinguish between the two and make hateful diatribe out of stand up comedy. Some Americans insist on interpreting the world with a chip on their shoulder and a vigorous opposition to satire that stings a little bit.

Humor, especially in this era, is essential to our sanity.