What was overlooked in the Michael Richards racial slur fiasco (yes, he's a racist) was the salient point made by the two, ahem, African-Americans, that the alleged comedian was just not funny. Without having actually seen Kramer's stand-up routine, I'd still conclude that the impromptu critics were correct because there are no comedians today who make me laugh. Anyone who saw the bathetic performances on the latest HBO Comic Relief, ostensibly to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, would surely agree.
Oh, sure, Chris Rock has a good comedy special from time-to-time, and Jim Carrey is a remarkable physical comedian who nowadays makes bad movies. However, Rock, without the opportunity to prepare, is rudderless (check out his last appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, where Rock for a full hour brought no useful insights to the table. However, this was expected, because the worst panel guests on Real Time are usually comedians.) As for Carrey, Bruce Almighty. 'Nuff said.
Comedians used to be so thoughtful in the past. Lenny Bruce, the Firesign Theatre, Bill Cosby, and George Carlin, among others, broke new ground with deep, thought-out monologues that commented on society, or just told a funny tale. Today, comedy just depends on one-liners about easy targets, appropriate for the lack of attention span of the public. How many Britney-K Fed jokes must one hear?
However, flawed marriages between two shallow people come-and-go, but Tom Cruise gay jokes are forever, because they are always guaranteed to get a laugh. Why, I don't know. Far as I can tell, Tom Cruise is a good-looking, intelligent man and father who married two very attractive women. Cruise, although ultimately limited in front of the screen, is a savvy actor who selects his roles wisely. He picks commercially successful projects requiring little acting (The Mission Impossible series, Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Risky Business), projects where he surrounds himself with better actors (The Color of Money, Rainman), and intelligent movies perfectly suited to his skill set (Born on the 4th of July, Jerry Maguire, A Few Good Men). Jerry Maguire has two famous lines ("Show me the money!" and "You had me from hello.") that are still used in popular culture today. Tell me what Jay Leno's cultural contributions are?
Okay, so Cruise is a devotee of a faith many people still do not understand. I found his performance on Oprah's couch endearing. He was correct about Brooke Shields, his mea culpa aside. His public stock is down, but if Cruise finds the role that reinforces his earlier image, as Joe Queenan so wonderfully put it, as a "true-blue, wave-the-flag, let's-go-for-it-on-fourth-and-inches, clean-cut American kid," all will be forgiven. I'm already in his corner.
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