Sawyer Paul's Blog, page 190
June 13, 2011
June 11, 2011
Villainy and pride.
Villainy and pride.
Top notch, worth your money, professional wrestling journalism.
Top notch, worth your money, professional wrestling journalism.
June 10, 2011
Antagonist Comedy
Tracy Morgan is in trouble over comments made at a comedy show because these comments were homophobic and antagonistic. He's apologized. People have reacted in a way that, like my Fair to Flair cohort Razor pointed out, should maybe react when their congressman says similar things.
Antagonist comedy is important. Comedians do an incredibly important service to difficult topics in that quality comedians can distill our real problems into something easily digestible. Antagonist comedy can help people overcome stereotypes, insecurities, and other societal issues by making them entertainment. Antagonist comedy isn't always funny; in fact, you're more likely to squirm than laugh. But it's important, because it can lead to catharsis, a change in perception, and an icebreaker into important discussion.
The thing is, antagonist comedy only really works when the comedian is speaking the truth. Tracy's anti-gay rant wasn't a) his own progressive belief attacking a permissive belief held by the audience, or b) likely even his own beliefs. He was trying to rile the crowd, but he riled them using the wrong ammunition. And because your crowd on a stage is now the entire world (through the use of video cameras implanted in everyone's cell phones), you're no longer playing to just a room but the entire connected world.
In that regard, if you're going to antagonize, you have to really believe it. If Jordan actually believes the things he said in the bit, his stock as a valuable comedian has just plummeted. If he doesn't, his stock as a trustworthy comedian has just plummeted. It's not good news either way, and it's perhaps the most amateur thing I've seen out of Jordan in years. It is his job in many respects to antagonize us into looking at our own perceptions, and in this regard he's done his job poorly.
June 9, 2011
From Rory Mulholland of The Guardian:
In Benghazi, a...
From Rory Mulholland of The Guardian:
In Benghazi, a day's drive east along the Mediterranean coast, there are also lots of public pictures of the man who has ruled this desert country for more than four decades. But here, his image is used as a weapon against him.
The Very Best of WCW Nitro
I've been live-tweeting my thoughts on the new Nitro DVD. (#nitrodvd) I've interested quite a few people into getting it. If you do, I'd really appreciate it if you clicked the link above to do so, as I'll get a kickback from Amazon.
Aggressive Art is run advertisement-free, free to all readers, at an expense to myself in terms of money and time. If I do ever put up a link like this, it is only because I believe in the product. You're never going to see a link to the Glacier Bobblehead, for instance.
