Forget about his debating skills (please!). He was (and is) at a huge disadvantage as far as any interactive discussion goes, because he has to lie. He had to sell a 95% tax cut (in a country where only 95% of the population doesn't pay taxes. He had to sell a "net spending cut"--one of the baldest lies since Clinton campaigned on taxing the rich, while constantly lowering the threshhold for "rich". He had to sell not being a socialist, though that at least is easier because, frankly, most Americans are socialists now, even if they don't use the word.
(That's the big lie the left has been successfully pushing for years: Refusing to label socialism for what it is.)
I'm not the only one who has made this Obama-Burgundy connection. VodkaPundit has ripped a page from the script to come up with this plan.
Anyway, a lot of the recent shenanigans and goin's on made me think of this debate.
Ron Burgundy: I'm not a baby, I am a man. I am an anchorman.
Veronica Corningstone: You are not a man. You are a big fat joke.
Ron Burgundy: I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science.
Veronica Corningstone: I will have you know that I have more talent and more intelligence in my little finger than you do in your entire body, sir.
Ron Burgundy: You are a smelly pirate hooker.
Veronica Corningstone: You look like a blueberry.
Ron Burgundy: Why don't you go back to your home on Whore Island?
Veronica Corningstone: Well, you have bad hair.
Ron Burgundy: [insulted] What did you say?
Veronica Corningstone: I said... your hair... looks stupid.
Weren't most pirates gay? So to be a pirate...hooker, meant, what, you were a pretty damn good hooker, right? And smelly? Well, that was true of most people back then anyway...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, a private "hee hee" to Blake. ;-)
ReplyDeleteLove the dialogue. LOL! I take it you recommend this movie, Blake?
Well, I recommend it for people who like this sort of thing. It's really dumb, and a complete caricature of the '70s, but it is best-of-breed.
ReplyDeleteSomebody should post the love scene in honor of Althouse and Meade. Heh.
I watched the first 15 minutes of Anchorman once and couldn't bear to go on.
ReplyDeleteI understand that, Freem. I'm getting a sense of your tastes. This is a problem with the "thumbs down/thumbs up" approach, and why I generally try to write in a way that gives people a sense of the movie rather than just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThere are lots of people I wouldn't recommend Anchorman to.
So, what sort of comedies do you like?
I think you do an excellent job of writing about movies in a way that gives people a real sense of them.
ReplyDeleteVarious comedies I like: Fletch, Bottle Rocket, almost anything with Steven Chow in it, His Girl Friday, Ninotchka, Day for Night, Waiting for Guffman, With a Friend Like Harry, Beverly Hills Cop... there are tons more, but let's see...
Hmmm. Not sure what sort this is adding up to.
One important thing: I don't at all like the current fashion of comedies having no strong story and seeming more like a bunch of SNL sketches strung together with each played until it peters out. A movie should tell a story and tell it well.
And I guess I like my comedy played pretty straight. The more I feel like the people in it are going "Funny, huh? /nudge /nudge Har har! Funny! Am I right or am I right?" to the audience, the less I tend to like it.
That definitely paints a picture, particularly by what you left off. Comedy is probably the diciest thing to make recommendations on. A bad drama can be funny. A bad comedy is just painful.
ReplyDeleteYikes--if what I left off counts, maybe I should list more... :)
ReplyDeleteOr maybe I should list things most people like that I do not like: Adam Sandler comedies, and, here some will cry sacrilege, Christmas Vacation.
(Though I should be clear: I do like Adam Sandler. I think he's an excellent actor. I just don't like his comedies... except Punch Drunk Love, which isn't really an "Adam Sandler comedy.")
ReplyDeleteAnd I did laugh so hard I cried at Borat when he went to the garage sale. And I liked Tom Green's television show when it first started but despised his movie.
ReplyDelete