Sam Smith - The other evening I watched, probably for the last time, the latest episode of Glee.
Although the show has long had its fantastical side – such as highly
professional musical performances suddenly appearing in otherwise
realistic contexts – something more fundamental had changed. People
weren’t talking to each other; they were shouting. Rachel was speaking
far too fast and too loud. The school principal, Sue Sylvester, had
transformed herself from amusingly mean cynic into a ludicrous imitation
of herself. And one point, a review noted, “Sue traps Blaine and Kurt
in an ersatz elevator before the Warblers perform and, via a mechanized
robot, tells them that they must passionately kiss if they want to
leave—which they do, after spending over a day in confinement.” Even if
you saw it, it made no sense.
In short, Glee had become a
slapstick version of itself, an example of a dominant style that is not
limited to television series but is leaving its mark on our politics and
culture. Beyond the slapstick humor and poor plot of shows like
Backstrom, for example, we also find ourselves being loudly lectured by
Steven Kornacki, Rachel Maddow and the Fox crew as though we were
students of Sue Sylvester.
Move over to politics and we find
slapstick candidates like Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz,
who seem dreamed up by some second rate script writer.
Almost
every public space we peer into we find the loud, the dumb, the
exaggerated, the boisterous and the super simplistic taking
unprecedented dominance. Sometimes, we can’t even hear music anymore
without it being overwhelmed by theatrical background, including
fireworks and dancing fish. Whether it is a TV show, State of the Union
address, snow storm in New York or half time at the Super Bowl we are
surrounded by media propelled hyperbole while things that really matter –
such as our declining democracy, environment and economy – proceed with
little attention.
Perhaps it helps to explain why we can’t get
out of Mid East conflicts and are on the cusp of another Cold War.
Exaggeration is the language of the day and bombast the favored
lifestyle. Even deflated footballs have become inflated matters of
concern.
The original slapstick was a device described by one
dictionary as “consisting of two paddles hinged together; used by an
actor to make a loud noise without inflicting injury when striking
someone.”
In other words, slapstick creates the sound of action
while not engaging in any real version of it. Which is pretty much the
story of America today; an excess of noise and drama and a paucity of
productive action.
