Setsuled's Journal

Thursdays are very strange. I get three or four hours sleep in the morning. Then I have to be awake for three or four useless hours. Then I go back to sleep.

Those middle hours are very annoying. I hate being awake while not having the quality of wakefulness necessary to do anything.

Anyway, a few minutes ago, I became rather angry after reading a post on Poppy Z. Brite's journal about Carlos Mencia making stupid, humourless comments about New Orleans. I like Poppy, and I hate seeing people I like being insulted, especially in such a clumsy and boneheaded manner. But I don't think it would have bothered me too much otherwise as I find myself unable to believe that anyone watches Mind of Mencia. The show seemed to me another corporate attempt at bleating out a provocative, fuckhead show without actually expending the mental powers necessary for making anything funny. They've all kind of blended together into a white noise that I ignore while waiting for The Daily Show to start. Things like Drawn Together, The Showbiz Show, and a hundred other titles that have been gone too long for my complete disinterest in to supply me with their names now.

Poppy was urging people to inundate Comedy Central with mail about Mencia, so I wrote this;

I realise that Mind of Mencia is but another attempt to create a show that will appeal to to-day's increasingly jaded audience, and that you cannot manufacture the natural passion and therefore quality of shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. But I feel I should point out that the problems with Mencia's show extend beyond the fact that his "jokes" are merely clumsy, dull rhetoric crafted by individuals lacking real knowledge or interest in the subject manner. There's also a more significant problem in the fact that he often belittles undeserving groups of people in a manner rivalling Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. I'm thinking mainly of his suggestion to the citizens of New Orleans that they not rebuild their city, and that they move two hundred miles inland. While it's obvious to me that he wasn't serious, and didn't actually care very much about what he was saying, I think you'd do well to reconsider renewing his contract, if you planned on doing so. Because as a channel that has set an impressive benchmark for social and political commentary with shows like The Daily Show, I think it would be a shame to alienate that same audience with something as witless as Mind of Mencia.

But I don't for a moment think it'll make any difference. And in the unlikely event that it's read on air, it'll be edited in such a way as to completely negate its meaning. It's tossing words into the mindless bog.

You know, it's interesting to note that the network so quick to bend for the delicate sensibilities of Scientologists doesn't bat an eye at the abuse of people who cannot afford to bribe them.

I do like The Daily Show, Chappelle's Show, and, every once in a while, South Park, particularly the older episodes. And I like the The Colbert Report. I recommend watching Colbert's interview with Michael Brown. It was nice to see that Colbert wasn't exonerating Brown as so much of the news media seems to be doing these days.