PopPolitics Weblog
a weekly roundup of pop culture and
politics in the news

Quote of the Week:
"The whole premise from the beginning was that either one of these guys
totally sucks, so it’ll really works either way." 
-Trey Parker, co-creator of South Park, commenting on the indeterminacy
of the recent election and how it will effect their upcoming TV series for
Comedy Central - a satiric, contemporaneous look at the "real" life of
the next President.
source: Salon

How To Look Presidential (Even If You Don’t Have The Votes!)
In a flurry of cultural commentary during Election Week, several film and
television critics decided to dissect recent and classic representations of the
Big Guy.  Little did these critics know that our hallowed election is
turning into more a public relations war than a vote count.  Whether it’s
calling premature Cabinet meetings or playing a symbolic game of family touch
football in Washington, it’s turning out to be a contest of who can look
presidential.  In this extraordinary case, any advice from the small and
silver screen could very much be appreciated.

Michael Wilmington of the Chicago
Tribune creates his own Top
15 list of the best political movies of all time, emphasizing how the
President comes off much better in movies than in real life: "Al Gore,
George W. Bush and their lackluster brawl may be the logical result of a
political system dominated by big-time media treasure chests and vitriolic
attack strategies, by image above substance, cash above idealism, and the demand
that a candidate must, above all, look like a movie president to get elected as
a real one. Yet how stiff and monotonous both men seem next to vintage movie
politicos: the heroes of films like The Best Man, State of the Union
or The Last Hurrah."

Reviewing the recent movie The
Contender, however, A.O. Scott of The New York Times comes
to a different conclusion: "Movie presidents have a way of appearing
blander, and better looking, than the real thing. Hollywood still loves the pomp
and luster of the office, but the presidency, real and imaginary, seems more at
home on television, where the inhabitants of the office are ritually subjected
to late-night ridicule and Sunday morning dissection. The success of The West
Wing proves that politics, like the law, medicine, and police work, is a
profession best served by the overlapping plots and ensemble rhythms of the
one-hour weekly drama."

Whatever our conclusion might be,
Comedy Central seems to have the answer.  In a
wide-ranging article about the flurry of recent cinematic and TV portrayals of
the President, David Ansen of the Associated Press reports: "The
creators of the bawdy South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, just
announced they are launching a presidential sitcom called Family First
for Comedy Central.  The live-action series, to debut in February, will
focus on either Al Gore or George W. Bush, depending on who wins. It will try to
inject some life and personality into ‘one of these two extremely boring and
cardboard cutout kind of guys,’ Stone said. ‘We want to take it above caricature
and make them likable, because they’re not.’"

Carino Chocano of Salon
briefly interviews
Trey Parker and Matt Stone about the series.  Perhaps the most
revealing aspect of the interview is their admission that they didn’t vote.

More
Bamboozling TV
Continuing the conversation on representations of minorities on TV, Chuck
Barney of the Contra Costa Times uses the challenge presented in Spike
Lee’s recent film Bamboozled to take a fresh look at African Americans on
the small screen.  Although he has heard many critics say that Lee’s satire
is dated because networks have already addressed the lack of diversity in their
programs, Barney disagrees and still feels a sense of urgency:

"But the images of
African-Americans in television today continue to be limited in scope and
largely marginalized. Think about it: When you see a black person on your TV
screen — especially a black man — he is usually a criminal and/or a gang
member. Or a wily player only interested in easy sex. Or a gullible buffoon. Or
subservient hired help. So maybe Lee’s minstrel-show fantasy isn’t as outdated
as we’d like to believe. The situation becomes all the more unfortunate when you
consider that African-American children, on the average, watch about six hours
of TV a day — more than any other group, according to a Nielsen report. So
they’re being constantly bombarded with images in scripted programs, music
videos, movies and commercials that don’t exactly present their people in the
best be-all-you-can-be scenarios."

In a
review of several recent Halloween episodes of the UPN series Moesha, The
Parkers, The Hughleys and Girlfriends as well as Lee’s Bamboozled,
Marc D. Allan of the Indianapolis Star confirms many of Barney’s
conclusions:

"For every positive image –
Moesha and the Parkers attending college, the Hughleys living in an
upper-middle-class neighborhood, the women from Girlfriends holding good
jobs — there are many more situations where the characters are dancing, horny
and not terribly bright."

Not
Even a Sporting Chance
These troubling representations of
African Americans in TV series should be partially countered by the many
positive representations of African Americans in sports.  Unfortunately, as
Peter Noel of the Village Voice notes in his look at the representations
of the tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, many white sports
commentators and fans apparently cannot handle successful and strong black
female athletes:

"Although they are idolized by
many African Americans, backhanded bad-mouthing of the broad-shouldered,
long-legged, and attractive Williams sisters is not uncommon among the blueblood
cabals, who imply in their running commentary that poor Venus and Serena just
seem out of place in the lily-white world of professional tennis. They criticize
the sisters’ game (the way they rush the net”only souped-up niggers could be
that good, suggesting that Venus and Serena should be tested for steroids and
other performance-enhancing drugs); their walk (a ghettoized swagger is
unbecoming); their attitude (too moody, withdrawn); their nappy tresses (the
colorful beads are deemed "childish"); even their clothing (too FuBu,
and Serena is much too obsessed with the color purple); and, of course, their
parents (overprotective, amateur psychologists).  Says Harlem street
basketball legend Pee Wee Kirkland: ‘I think the Williams sisters intentionally
fight against the obstinate evil of racism. It’s almost unbelievable what black
athletes must go through to compete with people that the tennis world wants to
accept as their great players.’"

Briefly Noted:
Byron Beck of Willamette Week does
not appreciate the representations of gay men in Fox’s new series Normal,
Ohio, featuring John Goodman of Roseanne fame: "The
biggest crime this show perpetrates, though, is that it makes you feel bad for
being gay - and God help you if you’re poor and fat to boot. The whole shtick
spins on Goodman’s awkwardness in his own skin."
Conservative magazine The Weekly Standard takes a crack at feminism in
Jessica Gavora’s critical
review of Colette Dowling’s new book, The Frailty Myth: Women Approaching
Physical Equality and in Lauren Weiner’s thoughts on why
Henry James’ view of American women is still relevant today.

 - Bernie
Heidkamp

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PopPolitics Weblog
a weekly roundup of pop culture and
politics in the news

Quote of the Week:
"The Simpsons is the ultimate metaphorical archetype of our time,
and an insufficient number of budding Platos, Descartes, and Hegels are looking
there for fodder for their latest argumentum ad ignorantiam."   
- TV critic David Roberts‘ one-sentence summary of The Simpsons, Hyper-irony,
and the Meaning of Life by Carl Matheson, head of the philosophy department
at the University of Manitoba

source: The
Globe and Mail

Everybody’s
a Comedian!
Caryn James of The New York Times discusses the intricate convergence
of popular culture and politics in a review of two pre-election TV specials - Saturday
Night Live’s "Presidential Bash 2000" and "Hollywood
D.C." airing on Bravo. The presidential candidates’ appearances on an SNL
program is significant, according to James, because this is the very type of
show that has mocked them throughout the campaign. 

"What is most notable about these
self-mocking appearances is that they do not represent some mind-boggling shift,
just politics as usual today," writes James. "The candidates turning
up on a show that has savaged them for months is simply an extension of doing
Top 10 lists with David Letterman."

Bravo’s special looks at  the convergence
from the opposite but equally intriguing perspective: how Hollywood has
attempted to find its own place in the political realm. James discusses the special’s
most revealing moments:   

"Countering the idea that Hollywood today is
overwhelmingly liberal, the outspokenly liberal actor Martin Sheen says the
industry still produces ‘the most nationalistic films you’ve ever seen.’ His
comments are among the documentary’s most cogent. Discussing Jane Fonda’s
protests against the war in Vietnam, he says, ‘The reason Hollywood could not
get behind Jane Fonda is that Hollywood is predominantly male and she made us
realize what sissies we were. She had more guts.’"

"Whether or not that is the reason,"
continues James, "the idea brings the discussion to a more thoughtful
level. Patrick Caddell, once Jimmy Carter’s adviser, adds: ‘Jane Fonda was doing
something. Politics now is a joke: let’s have a photo op and pretend we’re doing
something.’"

Also:  Tom Shales of the Washington
Post previews
"Presidential Bash 2000" and Paul Brownfield of the LA
Times reports that two
minutes of Bush’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno were
edited out of the broadcast, apparently because they weren’t funny or
entertaining enough.

Selling
(With) Sexuality
Rob Walker of Slate delivers an "Ad Report Card" on the use of
gay images in television marketing.  He focuses on a ground-breaking ad by Giggo.com
that features a confrontation between a gay son and his father and a less
remarkable one from Visa
that simply uses homophobia as the basis for its humor.

"Obviously the days of simply ignoring gay
and lesbian consumers have faded fast, and we’ll continue to see advertisers
stumble around the issue, sometimes more successfully, sometimes less so. To the
extent that ad culture is a barometer of culture in general, this seems like a
net plus: It’s better than pretending homosexuality doesn’t exist or is somehow
too embarrassing or controversial to mention."

See the
follow-up to his first "Report Card" for more ads from Kia,
Dockers
and Hyundai.

A
Sign Of Things To Come?
Gail Shister of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes about Aaron Sorkin’s
latest addition to NBC’s West Wing: Ainsley Hayes (played by Emily
Procter). 

"Hayes is a composite, according to Sorkin,
of real-life Republican sage-ettes Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter and South
Jersey’s Kellyanne Fitzpatrick, a pollster," writes Shister. "By sheer
coincidence, they all happen to be young, blond, conservative and leggy."

This addition occurs on the heels of the hiring
of Marlin Fitzwater, press secretary to Presidents Reagan and Bush, and Peggy
Noonan, Reagan and Bush speechwriter, as consultants. But TV execs weren’t just
looking to increase ratings among Republicans. Shister writes, "NBC had
asked Sorkin to introduce a 20-ish, ’sexy-looking,’ female character to attract
more young female viewers to The West Wing."

Zen
and the Art of the Simpsons
David Roberts of The Globe and Mail discusses the philosophical
significance of our favorite cartoon with Carl Matheson, head of the philosophy
department at the University of Manitoba.  A selected piece of wisdom from
Matheson:

"Despite the fact that the show strips away
any semblance of value, despite the fact that, week after week, it offers us
little comfort, it still manages to convey the raw power of the irrational (or
arational) love of human beings for other human beings, and it makes us play
along by loving these flickering bits of paint on celluloid who live in a
flickering, hollow world. Now that’s comedy entertainment."

Life, I guess, is not hell, after all.

Zen
and the Art of the Boss
Jon Pareles of The New York Times writes on the increasing popularity
of Bruce Springsteen as a subject of study in higher education.  His appeal
develops from many sources, but maybe the most significant is Springsteen’s
portrayal of the working class.  Cornell University professor Jefferson
Cowie explains:

"As race and gender and sexuality have
become the dominant modes of understanding our world, class has fallen out of
the picture …. There is nowhere else to turn in popular culture for such an
explicit and provocative analysis of blue-collar life"

Pareles also writes that historians, sociologists
and psychologists - as well as English professors - find a powerful depth in the
subtle simplicity of Springsteen’s lyricism.

Robert
Redford’s Minstrel Show
On the heels of Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, film reviewers took a look
at issues of race again this week with the release of The Legend of Bagger
Vance, which stars Will Smith as a guardian angel/golf guru to a
struggling golfer played by Matt Damon.

Critiquing Smith’s character, film critic A.O.
Scott of The New York Times writes:

"Mr. Smith, speaking in exaggerated Southern
black dialect, seems to have strolled out of the last five minutes of Spike
Lee’s Bamboozled, a brief, painful anthology of the ways African-American
performers have been mocked and demeaned in the movies of the past. His
character, with no history and no connections, exists for the sole purpose of
serving a white man’s needs"

In Lisa
Schwarzbaum’s equally scathing review in Entertainment Weekly she
writes:

"The similarity between Smith’s role and
that of Michael Clarke Duncan in The Green Mile is conversation for a
different dinner party; suffice it to say, they’re both Magical Negroes put on
earth to help white folk. What’s of greater interest -
maybe for white folk -
is how this par for the course fable, with its hero’s journey from despair to
triumph to hubris and back to faith, fits in with myths of American manhood that
enchant the director of Bagger Vance, Robert Redford."

Ouch.

 - Bernie
Heidkamp

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