It has been a year since scolds from Roger Rosenblatt to David Brooks exulted that the ironic would now give way to the iconic, the sarcastic to the bombastic, the deadpan to the grave. No one called for humor itself to disappear -- not openly, anyway. But certain subjects, we were told, would be forgotten, discarded as so much frivolous nonsense; and the topics that remained would never be discussed without the appropriate gravitas.
Yet irreverence and distraction have prevailed. Crude jokes and celebrity trivia have survived. It took a while, but mocking the president is popular again. What a relief!
In the weeks and months following 9/11, political humorists did seem to be an endangered species. Last January I reflected on its impact on my own humor writing:
Is irony dead? Is poking fun at the President tantamount to treason? I took a very personal interest in these issues after the terrorist attacks in my home town of NYC because of my satirical Dubya's Dayly Diary.
I put that column on hiatus the day the terrorists struck and seriously considered not bringing it back. In fact, Ellen Goodman's column about humor post-9/11 mentioned my Dubya's Dayly Diary along with certain Leno jokes and other humor that were no more:
"Before Sept. 11, Jay Leno could say, 'We make fun of George Bush but this morning he was at work bright and early. OK, he was early.'
Before Sept. 11, a humor columnist wrote Dubya's Dayly (sic) Diary on the Internet."
However, rumors of the death of my column (and irony) were, indeed exaggerated. I brought Dubya's Dayly Diary back after five weeks, lots of thought, and an outpouring of reader email.
Interestingly enough, most of the email said that a brief hiatus was the right thing to do. But when my hiatus stretched past three weeks, more and more readers pressured me to bring it back. Some even accused me of letting them down by not covering the President's actions and statements in my satirical fashion.
The diary was tougher to write post-9/11. And my hate-email grew increasingly more venomous. But I really had no choice but to keep it going. Abandoning it seemed cowardly. Reviving it and continuing it for as long as Bush is President had become essential for my self-respect.
Wow, what a maudlin entry! I'd better end with some satire: late night talk show hosts in group therapy.
Is the Bush administration driving you to drink? What about drugs?
For the first time since the end of President Clinton's first term, drug use has gone up significantly in the first full year of the Bush Administration. 7.1 percent of the population used an illicit drug in the month prior to the survey, compared to 6.3 percent the previous year -- a 12.7 percent increase among actual users. The new data comes from the highly respected Household Survey of the Department of HHS, released today.
Of course this is Clinton's fault. How do I know? Because everything's Clinton's fault.
In his meeting with Blair, Bush cited a satellite photograph and a report by the U.N. atomic energy agency as evidence of Iraq’s impending rearmament. However, in response to a report by NBC News, a senior administration official acknowledged Saturday night that the U.N. report drew no such conclusion, and a spokesman for the U.N. agency said the photograph had been misinterpreted.
After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to change my birthday. Not the year, though that isn't a bad idea, come to think of it. But I'm actually talking about changing the day. Why? Because my birthday's September 11th.
Oddly enough, many years ago I jokingly invented a condition called "Badly Timed Birthday Syndrome" in a humor column I wrote for AOL's late-lamented Howdy Humor feature. (Any AOLers out there remember Howdy? It was edited by the always entertaining John Scalzi.)
Q: My birthday falls right before Christmas and I always get short-changed. Do I have any legal recourse?
A: You suffer from Badly Timed Birthday Syndrome. Fortunately, last year's Anti-Discrimination and Mental Health Care Reform Bill included the Birthday Rehabilitation Act. It allows you to petition any federal judge to modify your birthday by no more than 30 days.
Q: That's great news!
A: You need only prove that your birthday coincides with a key holiday, causing pain and suffering and depriving you of your fair share of attention and gifts.
Q: Wow! Can I also modify my birth year?
A: How old are you?
Q: 37.
A: I'm afraid not. But you're free to lie like everyone else.
Jack Shafer over at Slate wants to know if we lefties suffer from right-wing envy. He quotes the LA Weekly's John Powers:
Back in the '60s, the left was the home of humor, iconoclasm, pleasure. But over the last two decades, the joy has gone out of the left—it now feels hedged in by shibboleths and defeatism—while the right has been having a gas, be it Lee Atwater grooving to the blues, Rush Limbaugh chortling about Feminazis or grimly gleeful Ann Coulter serving up bile as if it were chocolate mousse, even dubbing Katie Couric "the affable Eva Braun of morning television."
I couldn't resist emailing this response:
Bush and his administration provide endless fodder for left-wing political satirists like me. So if you'd like to see a lefty having fun, check out my political song parodies and Dubya's Dayly Diary
Do I envy the right-wing? Hell no! If anything, I feel a bit guilty for extracting any fun out of an administration that's destroying our country.
And while we're on the topic, how can you say the left has lost its sense of humor when you have columnists like Molly Ivins?
In Ivins' latest column she reminds us that when "Cheney was CEO of the oilfield supply firm Halliburton, the company did $23.8 million in business with Saddam Hussein, the evildoer 'prepared to share his weapons of mass destruction with terrorists.'"
So, how come so few mainstream journalists, other than Ivins, seem to notice "that sending Vice President Dick Cheney out to champion an invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein is a 'murderous dictator' is somewhere between bad taste and flaming hypocrisy?"
I hope you had a great holiday, despite all the nauseating coverage of Bush's athletic prowess. I, for one, was gratified to learn that running helps clear Bush's mind. Cause that explains a lot!
Then there's the disturbing revelation that fighting a war improves Dubya's running times. Yet another reason to attack Iraq?
Needless to say, Bush's Runner's World story inspired me to write another song parody:
Bush Clears His Brain (To be sung to "The Rain In Spain" from "My Fair Lady" by Lerner & Loewe)
By Madeleine Begun Kane
To clear his brain Bush runs across the plain.
That George he does it.
That George he does it.
He runs because he fears he'll go insane.
By George he does it.
By George he does it.
Now where does Dubya train?
On the plain. On the plain.
And what's with Dubya's brain?
It's inane. It's inane.
Bush hates to read and indoor stuff's his bane.
That George won't do it.
That George won't do it.
Cause sitting still just goes against his grain.
That George can't do it.
That George can't do it.
Now why are books his bane?
Lazy brain. Lazy brain.
Is sitting still a pain?
'Gainst his grain. 'Gainst his grain.
Bush even keeps a treadmill on his plane.
That George he works it.
That George he works it.
He won't admit he runs because he's vain.
That George denies it.
That George denies it.
Now where does Dubya train?
On his plane. On his plane.
And why won't he refrain?
Cause he's vain. Cause he's vain.
A day without a run is quite a strain.
So George must do it.
So George must do it.
Bush even does it when he's stuck in Maine.
That George must do it.
That George must do it.
Are run-less days a strain?
Can't abstain. Can't abstain.
Does Dubya run in Maine?
Must maintain. Must maintain.
Bush prays that he will never need a cane.
Cause George must do it.
Cause George must do it.
He'll either run or drink beer and champagne.
So George must do it.
So George must do it.
Can Bush survive a cane?
Big weight gain. Big weight gain.
And if he gets a sprain?
He'll guzzle beer. And champagne.
Bush makes his aides run in the heat and rain.
That George he does it.
That George he does it.
Bush loves to put his senior staff to shame.
That George he loves it.
That George he loves it.
Must White House staffers train?
In the heat and the rain?
Does Bush put them to shame?
Quite to shame. He's inhumane.
Our President is into brawn, not brains.
That George he buffs it.
That George he buffs it.
His reign is driving us right down the drain.
