The Texas Tiger Chronicles

Monday, December 12, 2005

The Politics of Humor and why I can't take Bill Cosby right now

Mood: Still slightly magical, though I put a pin to the pimple.
Mode: Today I woke up feeling like I'd been here before. So I naturally went to the section of my closet where I house the vintage. Now wearing a brown and green checkered-butterfly collar shirt with some bell-bottom blue jeans. Is the crew at work slightly confusued yet intrigued? You bet they are. I can see their various interests perk up and I keep accidentally dropping my pen and pad and picking them up in front of camera #1.
Munchies: Breakfast taquitos with too-mild picante sauce. My second plate was bacon and ham with OJ, coffee and water. I was going to get something else from the bread group but my hands were full and ain't nothing else fitting int hese pants so the pockets were off limits.
Motif: What is your struggle?
Song that started me on my way today: "Magnifique" by the Scissor Sisters (from their live DVD)

Yesterday I went to the famed Apollo theatre to see Bill Cosby in concert.


Though Mr. Cosby was funny (at times) and has clearly been a great influence on EVERY African American in entertainment (he also influenced EVERY other race and creed of entertainer AND television viewer), at this point in my life his comedy routine is just a little too-family oriented. And since I left the great big ole red state of Texas to come chase my dreams and fantasies on the big ole blue state of New York, I have purposely rejected everything that is conservative, family-oriented, and haughtily religious. Not to mention my aversion to all things heteronormative.

Mr. Cosby keep on and on and on and on about his wife, his family, his childhood and what it feels like to be old. Though those stories often prove fascinating when you are sitting on your grandfather's knee at age 8 or sitting in your grandfather's office at age 15, or sitting with your grandfather at a bar at age 22, it's really not a conversation I am interested in having on a Sunday night after a long day at work here in my late 20s. At least not when I'm sober.

Not to mention that every ten minutes or so he talked about what is means to be a husband and what it means to be a wife and how those things change and blah blah blah (I was so disinterested I can't even finish my thought on that one). I'll be honest with you, I can't take the whole family-oriented, red-state morals and conservative Christian values routine. Without two martinis and a shot of Cuervo I am just not that interested.






Give me Sheryl Underwood as she reconciles the stressing dichotomy of being a staunch Black conservative republican with her need to disclose to audiences her oral sex talents with men who aren't husband. Give me Margaret Cho as she openly struggles with being an former drug-addicted ostracized minority fag hag with a history of bullemia. Give me Eddie Murphy in Raw as he struts around the stage TIGHT blue/black leather while addressing the perils of the American Black male and using humor to deal with his own secret homosexual tendencies. Give me Sandra Bernhard, the big-lipped Jewish woman who hilariously lampoons the excesses of the rich and famous and self-absorbed while simultaneously indulging in those same very tendencies herself (but leaving that part out). This is the grit that real comedy is made of. The comic giving up their own struggle and holding up a mirror to make us confront our own issues.



Take Eddie for example, he used the word faggot several times in Raw, made fun of effieminate men and gay-bashed homosexuals around the country. Yet years later he found himself married to a woman who looks like a lite-skinned man with a strong jawbone and goes to bed with a man who looks like Johnny Gill. It's about the struggle people. Confronting those inner demons. That's a comic. I just can't deal with the clean-grandpa humor. Give me XXX - Redd Foxx, Lawanda Page and Rudy Ray Moore. But if you think I am going to get excited about some old Sunday porch stories for $55 you can think again.

TODAY's NEWS

I prepared an entire news section for you today with both domestic and international aspects. But it got deleted as I was trying to locate a picture of rachael and clare wallmeyer, the world's most famous skinny twins. So, you won't any news today but besides Tookie Williams, the fire in London, the crash in Chicago and the race riots in Australia...it was business as usual. People dying, oil companies stealing, Senators laundering money, no Bush-administration exit strategy to back up the "Victory" campaign and Michael Jackson is still a hot mess.

But what I want to share with you today is this lil nuggest from today's Good Morning America. Meet Rachael and Clare Wallmeyer. They are twins from Australia and they both stopped eating at age 14. They are on the cusp of death and have had bouts with drugs and kleptomania. Apparently, kleptomania and drug use are closely associated with the disease. My friend Soled has written a haiku for them and we'd like to debut it here on the Texas Tiger of New York blog.

Don't you think I'm thin

See how my rib cage shows
skipping dinner pays



And one evil lil GOSSIP item. Today's Page Six included a holiday jiggle written about Katie COuric by a TODAY show staffer. I'll share with you:


A SCROOGE-LIKE TAKE ON KATIE

SOME wit at NBC has penned a parody of Clement Clarke Moore's classic "A Visit from St. Nicholas," which made its way to PAGE SIX. For your enjoyment, here's most of it:
'Tis right before seven, On the set of 'Today,'
There struts a smug diva, Who wants things her way.

Her cheeks are quite rosy, With layers of rouge,
Eyeliner so heavy, She looks like a stooge.

She positions herself, High up on a stool,
Then maneuvers her legs, As if they are tools.

Her plan is to showcase, Her new Jimmy Choos,
Oblivious to, Those who really need shoes . . .

The flirting is blatant, With men in the chair,
The touching is frequent, Restraint is so rare.

She considers her singing, A treat to behold,
But if she were on Broadway, That show would soon fold . . .

Innuendo abounds, Boundaries are crossed,
Content is R-rated, Millions, that costs?

It is now being rumored, That this diva's views,
Will soon be transported, To CBS News.

As NBC viewers, We say with delight,
Oh please let that rumor, Be one hundred percent right."

As seen on the streets of New York:

On the #2 train headed uptown. A caucasian male in late 20s gets on train. His blonde hair is corn-rowed, he wears old break-dancing sneakers, dingy jeans and a hoodie that says "struggle continues"
Question: What is the white male struggle?
your thoughts....................

Posted by Texas Tiger in NYC :: 6:35 AM :: 2 Comments:

Post / Read Comments

---------------oOo---------------