I surely wasn’t going to dignify the apalling Fresh Prince with a blog on this topic and am not doing so here. However, when an obvious copycat threatened comedian David Chappelle this week, my need to (for what is it worth) educate kicked in.
Call the “ Audience Behavior Police”! These nuts are slapping and stabbing at the wrong people! “Shooting the messenger”! Its prime-time for lunatics who need to be in mental institutions! A gun with a knife sticking out of it? What is this, an Austin Powers movie??
A society who increasingly cannot laugh at its imperfections is a society in trouble, which needs a moderation ointment to promote healing.
Its a moral decay in one sense, since the role of comedy historically goes back to Shakespearean time – or further… Back then they might throw a tomato or an egg to express displeasure with an act – or one could always just “boo” or hiss – but never charger the stage!
That… is patently uncivilized behavior! There is such a thing as Theater Etiquette. *
We must appreciate satire, understand and study it from sexual jokes to parody and creative critiques of the issues of the day! I wonder, did this guy who rushed Mr. Chappelle in the midst of his show have “appreciation classes” in grade school? I for one, remember music appreciation, sex education and driver’s education – or have these non-adacemic classes been labeled “too expensive during the past thirty years or so? “Hygiene class” is another example which comes to mind.
Would you run up to the movie screen and slap at or slash it when displeased with the actors or a scene? Next thing you know someone will want to hold the projectionist responsible for the content of a movie (do they still use human projectionists, or is it computerized now?).
Exacerbated by information overkill and the greed-driven catalyzing of extremist hate broadcasting, on and off-line, it feels like a minority of prejudiced, partial-misanthropes are trying to drag us backwards in time, taking away what previous generations (like mine) achieved in the 1960s and 1970s, to better life, such as voting rights, abortion rights and women’s equality while ignoring today’s plagues of gun violence, lenient bail rules, and unjust war in Ukraine and the dumbing-down of citizenry.
I’ve noticed that one of the first signs of a society’s house of cards collapsing is the encroachment of extreme intolerance and anarchy. You can see the backsliding today with the pro-life zealots and increasing, daily gun crime in our largest urban city and people carrying guns in their vehicles; you can notice it on the roads while driving with more speeders and less/misplaced courtesy outside of the traditionally accepted “rules of the road”. We cannot go back to puritanical times, no mater how some pruds might pine for it.
Maybe Chappelle and other comics should take up Marshall Arts; it would be truly hilarious to see one of these stage intruders decked by a defensive “karate kick”, Bruce Lee-style, and fall away from his intended victim, the entertainer! Having tried stand-up comedy for a while during my career, I can tell you that it is an art and its not as easy or cavalier as it looks. Those who do it well and effectively are truly talented.
Due to the signs of the aforementioned upheavals and other’s I’ve probably left out, the biblical saying from Matthew 12:22 comes to mind, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” There are plenty of examples throughout history of this coming to pass.
In order to save society, not become known as the “DSA” (Divided States of America) and maintain a majority of more moderate thinking, a famous quote by our President John F. Kennedy is worth restating, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”
I am encouraged for our reunification because I notice that, as when George Floyd was murdered on-camera for all to see, today’s youth are keenly watching the pending injustices unfold – and seem to be boiling again, raising their voices to oust the zealots who would take us back in time, at the “mid-term” voting polls.
*Suggested reference material: “The Reasonable Audience; Theater Etiquette Behavior Policing and the Live Performance Experience” by Dr. Kirsty Sedgman
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