William Hung and the Rebirth of Irony
On the day protesters were alleging ousted leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide was a victim of a coup d'etat in Haiti, William Hung was set to make his triumphant return to American Idol.
Hung is a singer who cannot sing, a dancer who cannot dance, an entertainer devoid of personality. Yet he has become an ironic rallying point for many Americans too tired to protest or to care.
I remember clearly for the entire week after 9/11 I thought we had finally seen the death of irony. The event would finally and forever wipe that smirk off our American faces.
Now irony is back, that smirk has become a shit-eating grin. Up is down. Black is white. Bad is good. There are WMD; there are no WMD.
Here is a nation that trusts Comedy Central's Daily Show as a reliable source for news. Where NPR is seen as the last bastion of journalistic integrity. Please shoot me if I waddle into retirement listening to Prairie Home Companion.
I can't see day for night. John Kerry is a democratic clone of George Bush. John Edwards isn't any better. People put faith in Edwards because he looks presidential; and because he guided us to safety in all those dinosaur movies. Oh, sorry, that was actor, Sam Neill. Well, they do bare a resemblance. AND, Neill played the President in one of his movies - the Omen III. Wait a minute, in the Omen III the President was the devil.
Oh, I'm so confused.
Colin Powell says it is a lie that Aristide was forced into a helicopter. Powell is a man of integrity. I don't believe a word he says. It's not that I particularly care about the situation in Haiti, I just can trust what I see and what I'm being told.
So keep singing William Hung. If people say you're a star, then why not, let it be so. I'm too tired to even care.
posted by John Allore @ 3/02/2004 12:11:00 PM
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