Happy Birthday, Franz Kafka - You Old Joker

Kafka would have been 125 today, and in all the years since the end of his short life, he's gotten a bum rap as dark and humorless. Yet, when I read the Metamorphosis some years ago, I found it hilarious ... in a black comic way, of course. Here's a guy who's spent his whole life trying to be and do what everyone else would not, eating the emotional refuse of the world, and he turns into a giant bug. A friend of mine at the time told me that Kafka actually saw a lot of his work as humor.

It seems that others think so as well. An entry in the Guardian's book blog goes into this very issue:

Kafka's friend, Max Brod, talked of how Kafka found humour in his dark works - especially the chilling "The Trial", which he thought a hoot, laughing so hard while reading the first chapter aloud, that he repeatedly had to stop to collect himself.

He revelled in the comic absurdity of his characters, whether the trapeze artist who never descends, the hunger artist who starves himself to death or the boy who wakes up to discover he has turned into a beetle. "It's terribly funny in a very direct way," says Hans-Gerd Koch, another Kafka specialist. "Gregor Samsa [in The Metamorphosis] turns into a beetle who crawls along the wall and tries to work out how he should pack his suitcase."

See? How could anyone take that overly seriously?

R.I.P. George Carlin

The comic who focused on social satire and a general disappointment with the species died last night of heart failure at 71. His routine "7 words you can't say on television" actually held literary legal weight. It actually became the official list of what broadcasters could not permit out over the air:

Yeah, there are 400,000 words in the English language, and there are seven of them that you can't say on television. What a ratio that is. 399,993 to seven. They must really be bad.

Seeing them in print doesn't do them justice, because Carlin was a spoken word artist. It was the rhythms, the emphasis, the tones that helped make the routines so funny. Here's a link to the text of the original routine. But if you'd like to hear him, try this Youtube link.

Progressive Radio Host Jumps Air America Ship

The so-called progressive radio network Air America last week suspended Randi Rhodes, who was probably its highest profile on-air talent after Al Franken left, for an obscenity laced tirade against Hillary Clinton at an event hosted by the network. But now the temporarily off-air Rhodes has gone on the road to be on-air elsewhere. Try going to therandirhodesshow.com on the web, her erstwhile show's site, and you end up at Nova M Radio, which advertises itself as "Bringing Democracy to the Airwaves!" At least, as is generally true with conservative radio, to the like-minded people who listen and agree in advance.

Air America bounced Rhodes after a stand-up political routine at an event sponsored by a network-affiliated station. Geraldine Ferraro was also a target for her remarks about Barak Obama - taken out of context, according to Ferraro:

“What did they do with Don Imus when he went after the young black team who was playing basketball with kind of the same language? Treat them both the same,” Ferraro told FOX News. “She’s coming at me and Hillary in a … sexist way”

Excuse me? Since when are political figures, who place themselves willingly in the limelight, the same as a group of student athletes? Some of the language isn't what I'd use - though the line "Geraldine Ferraro turned out to be the David Duke in drag. Who knew?” is pretty funny, even if some see it as offensive - but since when do we start censoring political speech, particularly when it's not being broadcast? Is it acceptable to say what you will about a candidate if you don't use a swear word, no matter how calculated and even dishonest the language may be, but not when you do? All the democratic presidential hopefuls must be breathing a sigh of relief; there still might be life after office - if Air American can manage to stay in business that long.

Broadway Studios manager Francesca Valdez confirmed that video posted to YouTube was the show held at her venue, and that the booking had been contracted through Clear Channel Communications. She said that she sat in the audience for Rhodes’ 45-minute performance, which was chock full of “a lot of F-words.”
“I was actually amazed that she used the F-word so many times,” said Valdez, reached by phone in San Francisco.

Hold it, the venue booked an act without checking it out ahead of time? What kind of business idiots are they? Oh, wait, I've got it - they thought they were booking comedienne Kathy Griffin instead. (Ironically, I accidentally typed Kathy Gifford first. Now there's a scary genetic meld concept.)

So, in the spirit of the First Amendment and political freedom, Air America bounced Rhodes. And the final irony, according to the New York Times, is that the station she's joining, KKGN, is an Air America affiliate in San Francisco. According to a New York Daily News article, Air America will have guest hosts while looking for a replacement:

"We will soon announce exciting new talent that will accelerate Air America's growth," said the statement from Kireker and Green.

Oh, yes, anything to keep that raging trickle moving.

Laughs and Death

I started watching the DVD of Death at a Funeral, and, literally, had to stop it on the the fourth line to save the movie for other members of my family as well. A hearse pulls up to an estate in England. Four formally-dressed men come out and bring a casket from the back as someone, obviously a relative has been standing. They all go in. One of the men asks, "Would you..." He addresses the gentleman who had been waiting for them, and means would you like to view the body. The man nods. The first one opens the casket and the other looks down for a few seconds. I'm thinking, "If this were me, I'd have it be the wrong body." But it's taking a long time, and then he looks up and says, "That's not my father." The head of the group from the funeral hall mutters, "Shit, I took the wrong one." The four race back out to the hearse, return the casket to the back, and tear off. It's hard to come up with a comic line that is something you cannot anticipate, particularly when the viewer knows the movie is a comedy and what weirder thing to have in British humor than the wrong body. But to pull that off in such a disarming way that you figure the screenwriter and director are going to play things straight, at least that far, is impressive.