1) On The Colbert Report this evening, Colbert asked his guest, Woody Harrelson, if he could shave his head to show support for the troops. When Harrelson said yes, Colbert flashed this priceless, I-can't-believe-I-get-to-do-this look at the camera, before breaking character and reaching across the table to verify, "Are you serious?"
He ends up shaving the bit in the middle of Harrelson's head which has already started thinning which I assume was Colbert's way of cutting him a break. He stopped, and sat back down..laughed a bit and told Harrelson who he now resembled. (I really wish I remember who that was.)
Colbert spent much of the interview harping on Harrelson for being against the war and for starring in a new film that showed war to be so horrible that people at home would start realizing how bad it is and maybe want less to declare war on this thing and that.
So...it was much to my utter DELIGHT and SURPRIZE when, after the commercial break when Colbert usually says something obscure and finishes with, "G'night everybody!", we see him behind Harrelson's chair again, finishing the job.
Not only do I love that they're going the whole nine but they're singing the American National Anthem while doing it. This is the part where the cultural impact ends and but my personal entertainment continues and is amped up. They're singing in harmony -well, Colbert's singing a harmony, a really interesting one that I am guessing he learned as a boy - and Harrelson is a fine singer! As in, he holds that melody down TITE, son.
I'm amazed that he looks so calm (and proud!) while Colbert is actually doing a good job of buzzing and singing fine. I suppose the fact that they're both performers means they might not find things like this as difficult as say, those who don't perform for a living. OOf. I enjoyed it.
I'm forced to note how this scene makes perfect sense. One man calls another out, bravado on the line and the second accepts the challenge. They show solidarity with their soldiers in the armed forces and they show pride in the glory of their nation by singing its rousing praises.
Would ANY other country (culture) in the world do this? (Would we?)
Even if they did do it, would it mean the same? Would it be lofty and commonplace in the same moment? Would it be a statement and a laugh rolled up in one?
2) I was watching a PBS documentary called The Man Who Studies Murder and at one point the narrator mentions that the US is an "especially provincial kind of country and [it] tend[s] to know almost nothing about the rest of the world so most American people in Crime are shocked to even be told that their homicide rates are completely out of wak with the rest of the world."
He makes his point very effectively but possibly sneakily (in the same way Rick Mercer sometimes makes his points). He's at a firing range, a sort of training grounds for civilians who want to learn to handle firearms properly, and he shows a few clips of people talking about how violence in the US compares to violence in other countries around the world, and talking about why they decided to get the training that they're on the range for. They sound provincial, yes and they sound ridiculous -- maybe even deluded.
(I make the comparison to the Rick Mercer Report implying that great editing and selection of spokespeople can make a much tighter case than perhaps what reality and proper sampling would render.)
So I'm sitting there thinking, "Yep, I see the world reputation is entirely backed up by these people speaking for themselves. Do they not realize that the people they're talking about defending their property, family and selves against are...fellow Americans?" Why do they talk about their theoretical assailant as if they're not a real person or like this is a problem that's been externally imposed? A paper bag of poop left on your doorstep? Man, they aint even sound like they want violence or crime to decrease because they're happy to wield a gun.
Anyhow, this was the piece de resistance:
It's a monologue given by Dr. Ignatius A. Piazza II from the Training Institute at Front Sight Firearms (that's the "firing range" I was talking about before) to a room of maybe 20 to 30 people, some of which are young boys, maybe 13 at the oldest and very few (if not none - I didn't notice) of which were women.
"Now, we do not live in a violent society here in the United States. When's the last time you heard of a family being pulled from their home in broad daylight? The woman and daughter raped in the street; the man shot in the head. You ever hear of that happening in the United States? I never have.
"Does it happen in other parts of the world? All the time. But because we don't live in that kind of society, because MOST of you will die in your beds, fat and happy at a ripe old age, never having experienced someone trying to take your life.
"Now, when violence does occur, how much physical damage or humiliation are you willing to accept or to witness occur to another before you'll step up and stop it, using lethal force if necessary?
"What I want you to do is raise your hand up when you've made the decision to shoot - not talk - shoot.
[narrating]"'He reaches into his pocket and he takes out some shotgun shells [one guy raises his hand; about 8 others raise their hand, seeing his] and he starts putting them into the magazine tube. [a few more raise their hands] He racks the action and he's looking around and he says, "There you are, you S.O.--[the final hands go up] BOOM-shh-ch, BOOM-shh-ch, BOOM-shh-ch..."' OK, all your hands are up. ...That's good."
For the record, his tone was pretty even, unexcited; not seeming like he was being manipulative. This would be the first time in my life I would correctly identify propaganda without the help of anyone else. I was disgusted and still am.
("shh-ch" is how I write the sound of racking the action...or...I don't know terminology.)
So now I have these two contrasting excerpts (almost opposing) and I don't even know what to do.
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