From: jocelyn@dewittec.net
Date: Fri, 16 Jul 1999 18:52:18 -0700
Fwd Date: Sat, 17 Jul 1999 08:54:16 -0400
Subject: [rense_e-news] Jeff Rense Weekly E-News 7-16-99
----------------------------------------------------------------
Jeff Rense Weekly E-News
----------------------------------------------------------------
The Week Ahead
7-18-99 thru 7-23-99
Guests, Announcements, Week's Top Stories
From sightings.com
Jeff Rense E-News is distributed
exclusively by Free Subscription.
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
* From Jeff's Desk *
The first time I realized popular American 'humour' was under
assault by the manipulators was back in the early 70's in college.
I recall watching a sitcom, couldn't tell you which one, and
noticing that something wasn't quite right. It was the laughter...
which sounded rather odd at various times during the program.
Listening closely, it became apparent the live studio audience
hadn't laughed as much as the producers wanted during taping, so
their modest chuckles and tittering had been 'enhanced' with
previously recorded laughter. This was, of course, an early use
of that staple of mind-conditioning magic called the 'laugh
track.' Presto: no more 'bad audiences' to worry producers and
actors into ulcers and gray hair. No more risk...humour could
now be certified and guaranteed...it was hi-tech 'product.'
It was obvious even back then that not only were we about to be
told exactly *what* was 'funny.' Furthermore, we were even going
to be conditioned to know precisely *how* funny a gag line or
situation was supposed to be...according to the volume of canned
laughter.
What's so funny?
Sit through most any contemporary film 'comedy' in a theater and
observe how much of the audience laughs on cue, and how loudly, at
some of the allegedly humourous lines and situations. Ask yourself:
'Was that really funny?" This can be a very sobering experience.
It is true, of course, that comedy is subjective and is often
linked to misfortune...certainly, slapstick was doing that back
in the silent film era. And there certainly ARE genuinely funny
films around today. However, for the most part, today's pop
culture 'humour' has sunk to an alarmingly primitive, desultory,
scatalogical, and often cruel state. People laugh at death, laugh
at filthy language, laugh at pain, laugh at belittlement, laugh
at bodily functions, laugh at meanness, laugh at...nothing. And
they do so, on cue, with great vigor and gusto.
Mass America has been *told* what is funny. And mass America is
laughing on command. To wit, here is an article which further
illustrates the often unhumourous state of what much of America
considers 'funny'...
The Joke of the Butt
By Rip Rense
WorldNetDaily.com
7-14-99
It's not every day that someone just comes out and announces, "I
am an ignorant, unsophisticated, crass, arrogant buffoon."
Yet that, in effect, is what "writer" A.J. Jacobs did recently in
an issue of Entertainment Weekly. For reasons known only to the EW
editor, Jacobs was given a couple of pages to tell the world about
his taste in comedy. Why anyone should be interested in his taste
in comedy was not clear. Give the editor the benefit of the doubt
and chalk it up to being provocative.
In an article bearing the '90s-banale-speak headline, "Everything
Old Blows," A.J. begins by proclaiming that all black-and-white
comedy films are not funny. Color, he avers, is a requisite for
laughter.
The drooling idiocy of this statement should require no elucidation.
Further, A.J. declares that Chaplin wasn't funny ("I just think he
sucks," he so eloquently offers.) Neither was W.C. Fields (boring),
Jackie Gleason (too loud), The Marx Brothers (too much music),
Lucy and Desi, Jack Benny, Abbott and Costello, Sid Caesar, Phil
Silvers, Gracie Allen. ...
A.J. didn't bother to mention Laurel and Hardy, presumably because
they are so dull as to be beneath contempt.
All right, you say, let's give this guy a break. Everyone, after
all, has his or her own taste. I never really liked Abbott and
Costello, for instance. But sympathy for A.J. fades quickly as
one encounters the crux of the Jacobs Theory of Comedy: "There's
nothing funnier," he writes, "than a well-placed, well-timed,
well-earned use of the word ass."
What's more: "In my opinion, too many butts are better than no
butts at all. Butts, after all, are a part of life. ... Did
Steamboat Willie ever emit a flaming fart?"
Disregarding the fact that "Steamboat Willie" is a sound-pioneering
Disney cartoon, not a comedy, A.J.'s point is clear. The essence of
witticism, the epitome of amusement, the very fundament of all
things funny (so to speak) in the world of A.J. Jacobs is. ...
The human hindquarters.
Yes, one "butt" or "fart" joke and old A.J. is on the floor,
busting a gut, lips peeled back, tears streaming. Hee-hawwww!
Hee-hawwww!
Now, notwithstanding the rich history of scatology in humor (from
Chaucer to the tokus-infused routines of the Catskills), I must
insist that there is more to eliciting merriment and mirth in the
human psyche than speaking the word, "butt."
Yes, it is true that horse-laughing hordes in Las Vegas hotels and
HBO comedy specials go berserk at the faintest suggestion of the
cloven configuration resting atop the legs. But then, these folks
aren't exactly in the market for subtlety. They're like the
groundlings of Shakespeare's day, whom the Bard always remembered
with token references to things derriere. No doubt A.J. would
pronounce this slight aspect (no pun intended) of Shakespearean
comedy to be its very pinnacle.
Yes, according to A.J., if Laurel and Hardy had just broken wind
a lot, they would be funny (provided their films were colorized,
of course). W.C. Fields? Should have just said "butt" every minute
or two. (To his "credit," he does address a woman as "Mrs.
Broadbottom" in one film, and in another remarks, "Isn't it
wonderful how everything always rounds itself out nicely in the
end?") Gleason? If he'd changed "To the moooooon, Alice!" to "I'm
gonna moooooon you, Alice," A.J. would have been happy. This is a
guy, after all, who complains of the great Buster Keaton -- as
innovative and clever a comedic filmmaker as ever to get behind a
camera -- he "never talked out of his buttocks, now did he?"
Furthermore, "I need the joke-a-second pace of South Park or
Friends," A.J. writes, thus confessing to being the victim of a
psychotically fractured attention span, like much of the
TV-mainlining public. Yes, A.J. is haplessly primed for kneejerk
yucks in response to jokes, jokes, jokes -- by his own admission
-- as long as they come fast and furious. "Call me an MTV-bred
Philistine," he writes.
OK.
And here is the most dreadful part of A.J.'s "argument": "All the
actors are dead. Lucy? Dead. Desi? Dead. That guy who hangs from
the clock? Dead. I'm sorry, but I don't want to be reminded of my
mortality. ..."
This is where Jacobs' appropriated Paul Reiser/Howard Stern
bitchiness becomes asinine (again, no pun intended) to the point
of, well, hilarity. This guy is actually dismissing the worth of
artists because they are dead! Take that, John Belushi, Gilda
Radner, and Phil Hartman! I wonder if this prejudice extends to
other professions, such as science or music, for instance. Perhaps
A.J. would not have much use for Einstein, Beethoven, Salk. ...
What this puerile glib-meister has forgotten, or tragically seems
never to have learned -- like so many people today -- are things
called irony, satire, subtlety, social commentary, incisiveness,
comedy that aims a little higher than the belt -- say, somewhere
around the head.
Oh, and then there's a little item called context. Listen, A.J.,
you might never find Fields or Chaplin as funny as "The Buttmans"
from In Living Color, but does it occur to you that the world was
very different in the pre-A.J. period of human history? Perhaps if
you could understand something of the time of Fields, Chaplin, et
al., you might be embarrassed by the pomposity of your currently
held opinions. But probably not. I think you would sneer at Edison
for not owning a cell phone.
The real tragedy of Jacobs' article is not the point of view per se,
but the fact that he was given a platform in a national magazine to
present it. Why not just invite some twelve-year-old kid off the
street to rant and rave? (To be fair, the always-thoughtful Ken
Tucker was allowed to, pardon the expression, rebut -- in less
space.) A.J.'s piece was devoid of perspective and evidenced no
understanding of anything other than that which pleased A.J. What
criteria exist at this magazine (and the media in general) for
allowing people to spout off? Traditionally, writers have had to
claim some sort of expertise in a subject in order to hold forth
about it. A.J. has all the credentials of kids in the "Cultural
Revolution" of China. Given absolute power, those tykes and teens
promptly dismissed as irrelevant and evil anything they couldn't
understand. As with A.J., everything "old" was bad.
"Butts," writes A.J. Jacobs, "after all, are a part of life."
Yes, and so are brains. And they're really a lot more interesting.
Try using yours sometime, A.J. When you're not too busy chortling
at somebody saying "buttcrack" on Friends or South Park.
And in the spirit of generosity, let me close by giving you just
what you asked for, a well-placed, well-timed, well-earned use of
the word:
Ass.
You can read Rip's weekly commentaries on Joe Farah's
WorldNetDaily.com each Wednesday. Use the WND search engine
to pull up a list. You can also read a large number of them
under 'Rip Files' at Sightings.com
Rip Rense is writer and columnist whose work has appeared in many
newspapers and magazines, including the Philadelphia Inquirer,
Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Emmy Magazine, TV Guide, and
China Review.
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
In case you missed the website of July 13th guest, Howard Martin,
you can now find it under Guest Links on sightings.com or at
http://www.immunotex.com/rense/ under Guest webpages.
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
* TOP STORIES *
Just a few of last week's most intriguing!
http://www.jeffrense.com
Have You Reloaded This Page? You May Be Missing An Update!!
* Of Visiting ETs, Wormholes, Sightings, Electricity And Crop
Circles
* Neuro-Technology Revolution - Mind Machines Doing Many Things
* Grey Whales Dying - Scientists Seeking Answers
* Y2K - Computer Viruses Said Being Readied To Add To Chaos
* Y2K - US Banks Making Secret Lists Of Non-Compliant Companies
* China To Test New Mobile Nuke ICBM Shortly
* Russians Want Part Of Alaska Back!
* Increasing Jet Contrail Volume May Change Climate
* Taiwan Sticks To Sovereignty Declaration - Much To US Chagrin
* How The Serbs Outfoxed NATO
* The Dismemberment Of Yugoslavia - Next Step An 'Independent'
Montenegro
* Nostradamus 1999 And The 'King Of Terror' Quatrain
* Y2K - 10,000 Arkansas National Guard Troops To Be On Duty
* Y2K - Polish Airline Grounds January 1 Flights
* Y2K - San Diego Police Told To Prepare For Family Survival
* Regarding Some Apollo Astronauts Allegedly Seeing UFOs On
The Moon....
* NASA Cancels One Comet Mission - Announces Another For Same
Comet
* Computer Monitor Radiation Blamed For 1/3 Employee Sickness
* Tinkering With The DNA On Your Dinner Plate
* Wrong Moves Can Be Deadly With Lightning
* Some Plants Found To Have Nervous Systems Like Humans
* Chile Documents Expose Criminal Role Of US Foreign Policy
* Sahara Desert Born Suddenly Only 4,000 Years Ago
* UPDATE Robin Hood Preferred 'Merrie Men' To Maid Marian
Claims Professor
* Cell Phone On Your Belt Brings Radiation To Liver And Kidneys
* Breast Milk Said 'Most Contaminated' Of All Human Foods
* The Week's UFO Sightings - Crop Circle Eyewitness?
* 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski Was CIA Mind Control Subject!
* Mystery Flight Attendant Sickness Baffles Air Industry
Read the entire text of these stories and more at
http://www.sightings.com
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
* EDITOR'S CORNER *
What a response! Over 500 people responded to my question about
the polls. Of that, 23 people (fewer than 5%) preferred not to
have them but were incredibly generous about it just the same.
So... polls it is. A dash of reality, though - they're are fun
but they are not scientific. They can only measure the respondents,
they do not a represent a cross section of the population or even
this group. So really, they simply measure how many of this (now)
6,200 felt strongly enough about the issue to click and vote.
One of the gentleman who disliked polls raised a very good point.
He said he was against them because they artificially shaped
opinions. Yes, I must concur - he is right. However, I am ever
amazed at the depth of the intelligence and discernment of the
people I've been so fortunate as to be in contact with in this
group.
So let's just have some fun with them. The first question -
tomorrow - will cover what over 50% of the submitted questions
have asked about, UFO's.
Keep those questions coming! mailto:jocelyn@dewittec.net?Subject=Poll_Q
uestion
Jocelyn
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
What's under the pyramid, really?
Hidden Mysteries of the Pyramids - Not been to this website yet?
Go take a look. Bookmark it if you're not ready for it. This book
genuinely would be a unique and valuable addition to your
knowledge and understanding about this planet we are planted on.
http://www.immunotex.com/pyramid/
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
* THIS WEEK'S GUESTS *
6-27-99 thru 7-02-99
(Please note Jeff's Guest schedule can change due to late breaking
stories, etc)
SUN 7-18-99
Constance Clear: Extraordinary ET Encounters
MON 7-19-99
Ed Fouche': US Military Flying Triangles
Sherman Skolnick: Attempted Gore Assassination??
TUE 7-20-99
Val Valerian: Creator of www.trufax.com
WED 7-21-99
Michael Lindemann: Weekly UFO/ET World Update
Peter Davenport: Latest UFO Eyewitness Recordings
THU 7-22-99
Mike Adams: www.y2knewswire.com Report
Skip Goebel: Home Steam Electric Generators
FRI 7-23-99
Doc Marquis: Occult Societies
Live Real Audio Broadcasts & Archives: http://www.jeffrense.com
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
* GUEST QUOTE *
"Since the majority of our life journey seems to involve dealing
with the unknown, from whence all comes, the more we address that
issue, the less it matters what happens or when. In effect, we are
then to a degree prepared for anything, because understanding the
unknown, to whatever degree, brings the realization that we are,
as spiritual beings exploring life in polaric experience, immortal
- that this is just one in a long line of lives in the continuum
of our individual and collective existence. Change? Bring it on.
It is one of the only constants in the universe. Everything around
us in society is synthetic - the computer systems, the money, the
calendar .. programmed consensus reality is so far removed from
what matters. Y2K, coronal mass ejections, total economic collapse
-- none of this really matters except to those thoroughly entangled
in the drama of a synthetic life in a dysfunctional paradigm.
Ultimately, people are preoccupied and worried about the future to
the degree that they have not make the attempt to harmonize with
their inner life and become comfortable with the unknown."
Val Valerian, June 1999
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
Do ~NOT~ buy these books!
...unless you're prepared for the upheaval of every
religious doctrine you've ever been taught.
Proceed with caution - you may never be the same.
"The Greatest Story Never Told"
The Key to Unlocking the Mystery of God
"Opening The Seven Seals of Revelation"
The Methodology of Decrypting Hidden Messages in the Bible
http://www.immunotex.com/sophia/
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
* PROGRAM INFORMATION *
Program Show Times
Live Coast-To-Coast
Monday-Friday 7-10pm Pacific 10-1am Eastern
Sundays 8-11pm Pacific 11-2am Eastern
Call in Line:
800 850-5043
Program Transcripts at
http://www.immunotex.com/rense/
Program Audio Tapes
888 456-4340
Live Real Audio Broadcasts & Archives
http://www.jeffrense.com
Advertising - Over 3 MILLION visitors to sightings.com
Cost effective exposure for YOUR product or service
mailto:jocelyn@dewittec.net?Subject=Advertising
Sightings.com info/email center
http://www.jeffrense.com/1.mail/infocenter.html
Jeff Rense Y2K RESOURCE CENTER
http://www.jeffrense.com/y2kresource/y2k1r.html
RenseWorld! Don't miss it!
http://www.jeffrense.com
DISCUSSION FORUM
http://www3.bravenet.com/forum/show.asp?userid=hj135985
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Share with your friends!
Please feel free to forward this issue of the Jeff Rense Weekly
E-Newsletter to any and all who are interested... but please
forward in its entirety and do not modify it in any fashion
without permission. Thank you!
Past issues are archived at http://www.immunotex.com/rense/
-------------------------
To subscribe:
mailto:rense_e-news-subscribe@egroups.com
To unsubscribe:
mailto:rense_e-news-unsubscribe@egroups.com
--------------------------
Jeff Rense Weekly E-News is independently produced by ImmunoTex
in cooperation with Jeff Rense. The material and views expressed
herein do not necessarily reflect those of Jeff Rense,
sightings.com, or the Jeff Rense - Sightings Radio Program,
except for the *From Jeff's Desk* segment.
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
Get Paid to surf: http://alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=AMR609
--<>-- --<<<+>>>-- --<>--
UFO UpDates - Toronto -
updates@globalserve.net
Operated by Errol Bruce-Knapp - ++ 416-696-0304
A Hand-Operated E-Mail Subscription Service for the Study of UFO Related
Phenomena.
To subscribe please send your first and last name to
updates@globalserve.net
Message submissions should be sent to the same address.
|
Link it to the appropriate Ufologist or UFO Topic page. |
Archived as a public service by Area 51 Research Center which is not
responsible for content.
Financial support for this web server is provided by the
Research Center Catalog.
Software by Glenn Campbell.
Technical contact:
webmaster@ufomind.com