Facetious Symmetry

President Pryor's Convictions

I just watched a clip from The Richard Pryor Show where Pryor portrays himself as Jimmy Carter's successor-in-POTUS. I was struck not only by how many not-yet-stars there were (can you spot Robin Williams?), but also how the jokes had aged.

Set-up 1 (0:32): The worsening situation in the mid-east

• Punchline: There isn't any (ha-ha, Richard Pryor was being SERIOUS)
• Metapunch: It's 33 years later and this premise still works. Let's face it: it will always work. -_-

Set-up 2 (0:57): SALT/Neutron Bombs

• Punchline: Either Pryor misread his prompter, or something funny happened off-screen.
• Metapunch: Despite few ERWs, the US still has arms reduction talks with Russia and still has a President that can't go off-prompter. ZING!

Set-up 3 (1:43): ≤5% Unemployment

• Punchline: For minorities it's 45%! ...Ha?
• Metapunch: Annual-avg-unemployment wouldn't dip below 5% for another 20 years, since when it has nigh-doubled. The unemployment rate for Black people in America hovers 'round double the general population's, but in March it was "only" 7-tenths higher. So, yeah, way to play the race card over nothing, President Pryor.

Set-Up 4 (2:20): You just okayed a $250m increase in our space program

• Punchline: I think it's time Black people went to space. White people have been going to space for years, and "spacing out" on us, you might say. [blahblah] Miles Davis.
• Metapunch: First of all, wow, John Witherspoon in a suit. Second of all, three years later a Black person did reach space...a cosmonaut.[1] Thirdly, the current-POTUS still has plans for space travel, if not extra-galaxial.

Set-Up 5 (3:17): On your list of candidates for director of the FBI, are you including Huey Newton?

• Punchline: "Yes...he knows the ins and outs of the FBI."
• Metapunch: Newton's most lasting contribution to the next 33 years was probably being the inspiration for Huey Freeman.

Set-Up 6 (3:41): Blacks in the labor force

• Punchline: "I plan not only to have lots of Black quarterbacks, but we gon' have Black coaches and Black owners of teams...I'm tired of this mess that's been goin' down; ever since the Rams got rid of James Harris my jaw's been uptight. You know what I'm talkin' 'bout?"
• Metapunch: While Blackness isn't exactly a non-issue in the NFL, there have been lots of Black QBs and coaches. I don't think there have been any Black owners, though. Of course, the real president has better things to do than worry about professional American football...like worry about amateur American football.[2]

Set-up 7 (4:37): Mississipi Herald

• Punchline: President Pryor refuses to answer a journalist's question on the assumption he's from a racist organization.
• Metapunch: Obama obviously feels Ailes is out to get him, but even he recently sat down with Fox News.

Set-up 8 (4:48): A Christian Woman's News reporter asks if President Pryor will keep "courting" white women

• Punchline: "As long as I can keep it up. I mean, why you think they call it the White House?"
• Metapunch: The chick who asked this question was kinda hot.

Set-up 9 (5:34): Yo MOMMA

• Punchline: When you say bad things about a Black man's mother, he becomes angry.
• Metapunch: Obama had a teenage mother named Stanley who married an older man that was already married, then she dumped her kid off with her parents and ran off to Indonesia to further her career...YET THIS WASN'T AN ISSUE!

[1] I'm not saying it was better to be Black in the Soviet Union or Cuba than it was in America...I'm just sayin'. p_o

[2] The whole idea of Ebony sending a Black Muslim journalist — who then calls a silent Sarah Sandra Bernhard "Snow White" — to ask Obama about helping Black people get jobs...this sequence could just never happen today. I mean, really, Ebony having journalists? ¿Amirite? ^_^

Pride Cometh Before the Autumn

My latest favest TvTropes, fresh for [two]oh-ten, suckaz!

• Ever seen an invisible character beat the crap out of antagonists, even when they know s/he's coming? But, wait, how can you see someone that's invisible? The Badass Blink. (e.g. The only time you can see Batman is when he is kicking your ass.)
• When a supposedly awesome attack ends up effecting negligible damage, what you have isn't awesome: it's a Worf Barrage. The trope's named after Star Trek: TNG's resident Klingon warrior Worf, who can't win a fight for his life.
• Shows are often criticized for worsening over time, i.e. "jumping the shark." But some shows gets better over time. This is called "growing the beard." Again, this is named after Star Trek, but the most important example in my memory is the growth of the The Daily Show after Jon Stewart took over for Criag Kilborn.
• Deadpool. Just a hilarious read.[1]
• Villains like to brag and show-off, but sometimes they bite off more than they can chew — say, an evil frog who wants to be an ox — and end up paying the price. Derived from an Æsop fable, this gets my love for its real world example of Reggie Miller!

Miller is a guy who posted game winners over Michael Jordan, utterly annihilated the Knicks, and even taunted Spike Lee with a choking gesture... but the Pacers have never-ever-EVER won a championship.

PONÊD!

[1] Honorable mention to the Candlejack entr—...

What Measure is a Trope?

In the vein of the last post, here are 5 TvTropes entries I like:[1]

• You enter a dungeon, get past several devious puzzles, and avoid all sorts of nasty traps through your psychic powers and reflexes. As you you walk through the final door you find... your love interest lying on the ground and her kid brother on crutches mourning over her. How did they get there? They Took A Shortcut.
• You can shoot fast-moving vehicles with you missiles, but can't attack stationary buildings. Some building time and resources later, You Have Researched Breathing, and you can do that. Also prone to happen in any other type of game with character customization or unlockables (you can't wear boots until you play enough...).
• A seemingly trivial obstacle cannot be circumvented or removed with brute force. There are several variations of the Insurmountable Waist Height Fence, such as: The Adamantium Door,The Impassable Forest, The Gentle Slope of Unlclimability, and The Ledge of Instant Death.
• No matter how urgent your quest is, you can always take your time achieving unnecessary goals before finishing the main one. On a smaller scale, even the most pressing, immediate tasks, such as rescuing a fellow character who is dangling off a ledge at five hundred feet in the air, can be done at one's leisure.[2]
• Hot Skitty on Wailord Action (HSOWA). Any work of fiction in which two grossly dissimilar species are somehow capable of interbreeding. This pretty much misses the point of the term "species", which is supposed to indicate which animals can breed successfully.

My interest in the site actually derived from the HSOWA entry on Bulbapedia.

[1] In general I avoid TvTropes because it is the most sticky of wikis.

[2] But see: Timed Mission