And the original Amos and Andy offered a brilliant critique of whiteness!
By Project Runway is mildly upset today that no one else appreciates the deconstructive, feminist comic genius of Andrew “Dice” Clay. Having taken my past critics somewhat to heart on the ethics of driving up Althouse’s site traffic, I’m not going to link to her — but here she is, quoting herself on what she evidently wrote about the Diceman last year:
The first time I saw Andrew Dice Clay, I took him to be a brilliant critic of masculinity. Then everybody just got mad at him and made him go away.
And ever since, the world has been punished immensely for this senseless cultural assault. Had Clay not been wrongly dismissed as a talentless, monotonous hack — instead of the billiant satirist of manly foibles, cleverly disguised as cheap jokes about analingus and yeast infections — his career might not have been unfustly cut short by Ford Fairlane. Now he’s trying to make a comeback, Althouse tells us, but it appears the world is still unprepared for these comic stylings:
Andrew Dice Clay: Jack and Jill went up the hill, each with a buck and a quarter. Jill came down with two-fifty, OOOOOOOOOOOOH!
Audience: WHAT A FUCKING WHORE!
Indeed. You see, this simple, ribald parable articulates a stern rebuke of the cash nexus that continues to overdetermine heteronormative masculinity. Moreover, coupled with Judith Butler’s masterwork Gender Trouble — which also appeared in 1989 — The Diceman Cometh represents a high-water mark in the critique of the ontology of gender. Duh!
Next week: Althouse wonders why Howard the Duck didn’t get a wider hearing.
…UPDATE (BY SL), so if I understand the “feminism” being propounded by Althouse correctly, it entails the following premises:
- Andrew Dice Clay: feminist.
- Supporting Sam Alito for the Supreme Court and claiming he’s a moderate: feminist.
- Attending a meeting with a Bill Clinton while not taping down your breasts: an appalling betrayal of feminism.
How influential this is going to be is unclear.