A Piper Cub Lands in Philistia

I have mixed feelings about Newt Gingrich. But you can’t deny that he’s a deep thinker, is good at giving illustrations that the rest of us can grok, and can be a funny guy when he wants to be. This short YouTube video shows all of those.

HT to Challies.

An American Carol
(2008 — Kevin Farley, Kelsey Grammer, Leslie Nielsen)

In the early 1990s, when the Dilbert comic strip was starting to get popular, what made the office humor so funny was the fact that creator Scott Adams would take a silly issue that really occurs at the office and blow it way out of proportion. Adams even unashamedly solicited incidents from fans that he could further lampoon.

However, some time ago, Dilbert ceased being funny because of such caricature. Don’t get me wrong; it’s still often funny. But the humor comes simply from Adams’ style. 21st-century corporate America is impossible to caricature anymore; it has become so unbelievable in reality, that to push its boundaries in fiction would come across with all the sense of order of a Salvador Dali painting.

If there is one cinematic failing of An American Carol, it is a parallel to concept; there are some issues that the movie tackles that are impossible to caricature, but the style sometimes doesn’t make up for that fact. Radio and TV host Glenn Beck said about the movie, “There are uproarious parts to it. And then there are some parts in which it’s obvious that the film-makers were going for laughs, but the issue was too close to reality to actually be funny.”

Case in point: The Michael Malone character (a clear spoof of “documentary“-maker Michael Moore) states, “I love America; that’s why it has to be destroyed.” A ludicrous (and somewhat funny) statement, in and of itself. But it’s an easy extrapolation of actual statements that Moore has made. Fortunately, there are enough moments of extreme caricature that save the movie from these occasions.

An American Carol was directed and co-written by David Zucker of Airplane and The Naked Gun movies. Assuming you like slapstick and sophomoric humor, these were masterpieces. Of late, Zucker has added satire to his bag of tricks, primarily in defense of conservative ideas (or perhaps more accurately, in ridicule of liberal ideas). You can check out YouTube for examples of Zucker’s comedic exposure of the asininity of negotiating with mad-men. In the movie, Zucker revisits and expands on the issues in that second video, paralleling the naivete of Neville Chamberlain with that of those today who think we can just play nice and the terrorists will leave us alone. Zucker has also written and directed some other brief anti-Democrat videos that the RNC admittedly found funny, but refused to use.

The main story of the movie is told by Zucker-movie staple Leslie Nielsen to his grandchildren at a July 4th picnic. In a parallel to Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol, the main character of the story is a very bad person who meets three spirits whose visions convince him to change his ways. Paralleling Scrooge is Kevin Farley’s character, Michael Malone — as stated before, an obvious spoof on Michael Moore, down to the trademark Michigan State “S” ballcap and abundant girth. The three spirits are General George Patton (Kelsey Grammer), George Washingon (Jon Voight) and the angel of death (country music star Trace Adkins, who also appears as himself later in the movie). Malone also has a nephew (merging Bob Cratchit and Scrooge’s nephew, Fred), a young man named Josh, who has enlisted in the navy and is due to ship out on the evening of July 4. Josh (like Cratchit) has a crippled son, Tim.

We later find out that Zucker takes this over the top by introducing us to Josh’s two daughters, one who is blind and cross-eyed and one who is on constant dialysis. All three children have been promised, but not given, help by their uncle.

Having won another director’s award from moovealong.org, Moore sets his sights on leading a movement to abolish Independence Day celebrations in America. The movement is to culminate in a demonstration outside Madison Square Garden, while inside the arena, a concert is put on for American troops and their families (headlined by the afore-mentioned Adkins). It is on the night before this demonstration that the three spirits visit Malone. Announcing the visitation of the spirits (in a parallel to Jacob Marley) is John F Kennedy, who Malone proclaims as his “hero”. Unfortunately, Malone (like many liberals who worship JFK) has conveniently forgotten many of Kennedy’s beliefs that they would be consider to be far-right and anathema. In a throw-away line, Malone tells Kennedy that he’s starting to sound like Ronald Reagan, to which JFK replies, “Thank you.”

Zucker lampoons much of the left’s ideology, from the assumption that terrorism exists because America did something wrong, to the afore-mentioned naivete of negotiation, to “brave” Hollywood directors who tackle no-longer-existing evils of the past but are too cowardly to address current evils such as terrorism. An American Carol also features an appearance by a beret-wearing Rosie O’Connell, who even Malone thinks is nuts. There are also appearances by bumbling terrorists that will certainly get Zucker in trouble with CAIR, but I doubt that he cares (pun intended).

If you can get around the parts that would be offensive to some (which I’ll discuss in a moment) and are of a conservative ilk — or at least have some personal honesty and a funny bone (both of which would disqualify Moore) — An American Carol is a fun movie.

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Content advisory stuff: Although there are no f-bombs, language is consistent with a PG-13 rating. Unfortunately, like many purveyors of sophomoric comedy, Zucker includes in this some children using foul language. While surprising juxtaposition (in this case, childlike innocence vs foul language) is a staple of comedy, this particular usage of the concept has always struck me as unnecessary. (Granted, though, it is all in insulting characterization of Malone, so half a point to Zucker for accuracy, even if it’s unnecessary.)

There are a few sexual references, including two characters who make a hand-gesture that implies male masturbation and an innocent (but confusing to characters who only hear, and don’t see the context) conversation between two characters. For the latter, think of the misunderstood conversations that were stock in trade in the TV show Three’s Company, only a bit cruder when misinterpreted.

Violence appears occasionally, but it’s generally of a cartoonish nature. If you’re of a mind that the old Looney Tunes were too violent, then the violence in this movie would probably offend you. Though if you are of such a mind, the whole movie would probably offend you, anyway.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I’m surprised or anything.

Less than 24 hours after the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Democratic senators were already using the tragedy for their own political purposes.

Harry Reid (D-NV) led the charge as Democrats slammed the administration and other Republicans for failing to pass non-existent or mis-identified infrastructure bills. Reid even pulled 9/11 oout as a club.

Patty Murray (D-WA) joined in on the fun, saying that she worried about things like this every day. Interesting that this is so important to her, and yet she waited until now to make a big stink about it.

At least somebody in the public eye said something rational (emphases mine):

There’s not a whole lot of Congressional stupidity that’s surprising enough to stir me to action. But I will be contacting Reid’s and Murray’s offices tomorrow to ask if, the next time they want to stand on dead bodies to make political hay, can they wait til the bodies are fished out of the water?

In case you want to get in on it, here’s their info:

Reid’s DC office:

Fax: (202) 224-7327 Phone: (202) 224-3542

Reid by email

Other offices and addresses for Reid at the bottom of this page.

Murray’s DC office:

Fax: (202) 224-0238 Phone: (202) 224-2621

Murray by email

Other offices and addresses for Murray on this page.

I was listening to a bit of Hugh Hewitt’s radio show on Thursday while out driving around. He was discussing the inanity of the McCain-Kennedy bill that’ll make the borders have too many holes in them to even make a good sieve.

One of his guests was James Lileks, who noted John McCain’s obsession with consensus. McCain had said that this bill was “a product of a long hard trail of negotiation”. With this in mind, as well as McCain’s other past stunts of capitulation (see also McCain-Feingold, Abu Ghraib grandstanding, the Gang of 14, etc), Lileks said the following: *

* Note: This is paraphrased based on my memory of listening to a radio show. But it’s pretty close, and the spirit is definitely there.

Haven’t given a Give ‘em Zell award in quite a while. Rumsfeld’s resignation knocked any serious contention for a loop for quite a while.

But today on the Senate floor, Senator Mitch McConnell (R - KY) spoke regarding the debate over Dems trying to set a timetable on troop pullout of Iraq. He noted that:

Then noting the about-face of those politicians, he surmised that:

I hear there’s a new term being bandied about: Mitch-slapped.

John F-ing Kerry is now claiming that his slam on the men and women in the military was unintentional and a “botched joke”. He spent 2 days refusing to apologize and defending what he said before today. Makes today’s apology seem really sincere, doesn’t it?

VP Dick Cheney’s analysis (and latest winner of the Give ‘Em Zell award):

Question for the Dems: So how do you deal with it when an October Surprise gets pulled on you by a member of your own party?

David Zucker, director of such farcical comedies as Airplane and The Naked Gun recently created an ad for GOP organizations that will never get any TV air-play. But thanks to the wonders of the web, it’ll probably be seen by many more people than would see it on network television, anyway (all three of them).

The commerical exposes the folly of diplomacy by appeasement. It starts with the true account of the Clinton administration sending Madeleine Albright to North Korea to give Kim Jong Il a basketball autographed by Michael Jordan. Then it traces the logical extension of such naivete (held by most Democrats), portraying Albright mowing a terrorist’s lawn or changing his flat tire, assuming that this would keep him from doing anything bad to America.

You can see the ad here in all its loony, but factual, glory.

I never thought I’d be able to give a “Give ‘Em Zell” award to a president. Even President Bush, as forthright as he is, generally leaves the straight talk to VP Cheney, Sec Rumsfeld, et al.

But today, President Bush addressed the Unnecessary Nations and secured himself in the “Give ‘Em Zell” hall of fame. Of particular note was the following comment:

Bush had actually paused after the word “assumption” to let the translators catch up, and I inserted what I thought was an appropriate conclusion of that sentence, keeping in mind that I was being a bit of a smart-aleck. Then the President finished the sentence exactly how I had just said it.

Not bad company, if I do say so.

Theodore Roosevelt — 1919:

Note: You may have received an email with part of this quote in it, and attributing it to 1907. The quote is accurate, but the date is not. HT to snopes.com for clearing that up.