October 6, 2006

Interview I enjoyed so much I bought the book on line before it ended.

David Rakoff on "The Daily Show."

The book is "Don't Get Too Comfortable," and hell, yeah, I bought the MP3 version. The author who amused me so much reads it, and I want to be free to walk around while I'm "reading." So go ahead and criticize me from your comfy chair.

8 comments:

chuck b. said...

He promoted the same book on the show last year, and you can find it on YouTube by searching on David Rakoff...

Joseph said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Joseph said...

I just watched the old Daily Show clip with Rakoff and I'd recommend it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AuTrKj1xpjQ

But I'll warn you I doubt he'd agree with the oh-c'mon-Bush-isn't-really-that-hostile-to-gays meme that seems favored on this blog from time to time.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

I liked how he jokingly referred to Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton as "apathetic whores."

Palladian said...

Funny how someone gets rich by going on a talk show hawking a book where "greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity" are so "mercilessly and wittily skewered".

It's a new genre, ironic irony.

Revenant said...

It's a new genre, ironic irony.

It is hardly new. Millionaire filmmakers, for example, have been making movies about the plight of the poor for eighty years or so. And then poor people buy tickets to see them, and the filmmakers spend the money on important social projects like mansions, drugs, and trophy wives.

docweasel said...

ugh. You rarely steer me so wrong Ann, but bad tip. The guy is as snarky as Stewart, sure, and says a lot of idiotic and despicable stuff right off the bat, but its funny because its bashing Republicans.

You know, I see how defensive you get when the lefty blogs accuse you of being Republican, and sometimes you seem to bend over backwards to show you are a moderate or straddler. This guy is not even remotely funny by my lights, and he takes the occasion to completely kiss up to Stewart by bashing the Republicans, and not even in a funny way.

I'd like to see a comedian totally take on the Dems in front of Stewart and see how they do (if he would even have them on) They are the ones being HUGE hypocrites in this Foley matter and no one calls them on it. They've also had Dem congresspeople involved in actual SEX instead of just IM's with people above the age of consent. Yeah sure, its creepy. If its so fucking creepy, there's a little function called "BLOCK USER" on AIM, or almost any chat prog.

HELLO THERE WAS NO ABUSE HERE: these guys were chatting because they wanted to chat: either to goof on the congressman, or because they were enjoying it. Period. They weren't forced to stay on the line with him. At minimum, you can turn the computer off. Voila, terrible abuse ended.

This whole affair is bullshit and I have zero patience for all the continued discussion about it. The pages themselves perhaps didn't invite it, but they allowed it to go on past one sentence. If anything is creepy, they are party to it and creepy themselves- these are dialogues, not monologues in these IM transcripts. And hacks like Stewart and this Ratkoff are cheap, unfunny opportunists going for the easy laugh by completely distorting the truth of the matter to once again bash the evil GOP. Its so trite is the laziest "comic" trope to come along lately, but latest in the long line of "Bush is Dumb, Bush I is wimpy, Reagan is old" crap that so-called professional funnymen use as joke fodder. I for one am pretty sick of it, and really sick of people pushing this crap on others as if it had merit.

Jesus Ms. Althouse, I usually consider you 'discerning'. Bum steer this time. This guy sucks donkeys. I don't care if he did throw in a couple lines about Hillary and Pelosi. You shouldn't have to dig through a routine for bones friendly to 'our side'. This is what "comedy" has come to. The shit just ain't funny.

Ann Althouse said...

docweasel: "I'd like to see a comedian totally take on the Dems in front of Stewart and see how they do (if he would even have them on)..."

He did a good interview with Dennis Miller this week, and Miller did not back down from his hawkish position.

"And hacks like Stewart and this Ratkoff are cheap, unfunny opportunists going for the easy laugh by completely distorting the truth of the matter to once again bash the evil GOP."

It's Rakoff... Anyway, that describes comedians generally as they go after whatever target.