FORGIVE THE IRONY you’re about to witness. (Also, forgive me if this isn’t the correct usage of irony. My only point of reference is the Alanis Morissette song, and if she isn’t using “ironic” correctly maybe Strunk and White should quit being a bunch of nerds and write a fucking hit for once.)
I am outraged about outrage. I’m not angry at the outrage itself, I’m angry at the outrage’s existence in lieu of shit people actually want to read. I’m mad that outrage is deer-ticking the creative energy of my generation, energy that might be better spent writing something memorable, writing something that might actually end up mattering.
Recently Louis C.K. did an episode of his television show Louie about a fat girl. He went out of his way—out of reality’s way—to paint her as a “REAL HUMAN BEING” and it came across as heavy (LOLOLOL) handed, yes, but at least it was an attempt to stray outside the “sassy, brassy fried-food and farts” archetype. What followed the episode was a torrential downpour of essays, first-hand accounts of being a fat girl, Louis C.K. takedowns, and gasping, exasperated screeds tailor-made for skimming, sharing on Facebook, and forgetting.
I’m not a C.K. apologist, I’m not even that big of a C.K. fan (which is to say I love him and think he’s brilliant, but I wouldn’t kill myself if he asked, which, in my comedy community, basically means I hate him), but I’ll tell you why C.K.’s perhaps misfired attempt is infinitely more valuable than the entire collective work of outrage it spawned. He created something. He saw a problem in society and he tried to address it as best he could.
This outrage jack-off fest isn’t addressing the issues, it’s addressing someone else’s point of view on those issues, or often times, someone’s right to even have a point of view on that issue. What kind of honky-tonk bullshit are we fucking ourselves with? Fool, you have the same capacity to create as Louis C.K. or Stephen Colbert or Shonda Rhimes or Leslie Jones or Georgia O’Keeffe or whoever the fuck’s been scandalized.
People: why are we waiting for someone else to make something just so we can explain our worldview by tearing down theirs? Animal Farm is not “Let’s Talk About Joseph Stalin”—except it is. To Kill a Mockingbird is not “What I Found Problematic About Race, Class, and Gender Roles in the Deep American South”—except it is. If it had been painted in 2014, Picasso’s “Guernica” would’ve been a picture of him holding a piece of paper with “#FuckFranco” written on it with a Sharpie.
I don’t want to slather too much cinnamon butter on y’all’s biscuit, but you’ve got beautiful minds and just points. You have the ability to evoke feelings and envelop others in your experience. You can walk someone through your outrage; you don’t have to scream it at them. If we continue down this path, our culture will become think-piece tennis… and that would be fucking terrible.
Even worse than a black fly in your chardonnay.
Thanks Ian, but I make awesome biscuits and I don’t need you cinnamon buttering them up to make them taste good.
(just kidding I suck at biscuits, save it for some $4 toast, which is too much to spend on toast but I’m sure will taste great)
That’s my argument to people when they complain about stuff like George Lucas ruining Star Wars or the new Pixies album being awful (which I absolutely don’t think is the case). If you don’t like it, go make your own shit. It’s the critic problem. Critics are critics because they can’t be creative.
Believe me, Ian, we really don’t want most people writing novels, stories, or poems, or creating paintings. 99% of people really suck at those things. But many of those suck-at-being-creative people are very good at being outraged. So you’d take away their outlet? It was for this that the internet was created. If you’re outraged about their outrage…ignore it. You saw the best minds of your generation destroyed by…angriness? No. Not the best. Just the rest.
I’ve found it much easier to rail against an alleged slight on the internet than to deal with my own fucked-up life. I am far from unique in this behavior.
Maybe you should try doing something other than commenting on other people’s work, Todd. I’ve seen people grow creatively in leaps and bounds and go from someone you’d want to ignore to someone you would pay to see.
“Critics are men who watch a battle from a high place then come down and shoot the survivors.” -Hemingway
flff: Hemingway said that? I thought it was alex trebeck.
Thanks, Ian. Maybe I will. But not everyone will. And they still get their say, even if you consider them terribly negative and uncreative. And Louis will be fine. At least until the day no one bothers to become outraged about him any more.
Not sure the problem with think pieces about interesting/creative/smart television. Even if tinged with criticism. Making something doesn’t mean it’s unassailable. TV has gotten smarter and better, hence the criticisms of it, as well. Yea, there’s always a bellowing of gutter buttholes and solipsistic clods around a cultural product but despite it, discourse around most mediums has been heightened and I think it’s worthwhile.
Who is Alanis Morissette?
HOW DID YOU KNOW I HAD A BLACK FLY IN MY CHARDONNAY ARE YOU A WIZARD
I AM. I AM ALSO A SEX MAGICIAN.
Wow, this is some tedious, cliché-ridden, moralistic, scoldy shit. Maybe the guy’s a brilliant comedian (don’t know, haven’t seen him), but he’s a dreary columnist.
Can’t believe you gave him his gig back.
Ian who?
I’m so outraged I’m outrageous.
Hey tregaws,
“Wow, this is some tedious, cliché-ridden, moralistic, scoldy shit. Maybe the guy’s a brilliant comedian (don’t know, haven’t seen him), but he’s a dreary columnist.
Can’t believe you gave him his gig back.”
Is just fancy talk for “This guy blows.”
You’re just a typical, heckling nothing.
Andy Gold FTWFTW!
(Fuck the world for the win!)
What happened in L.A.?
Welcome back. If everyone is not fawning at your feet it means you are most likely right. Good luck
I won’t be criticized by the type of boring dumbass who picks a screen name by spelling their name backwards, ytregaws.
Here at last is a man of principle: I salute you.
Also, best to you in your career.