{"id":4345,"date":"2005-12-10T13:22:51","date_gmt":"2005-12-10T17:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/httpblogslawharvardeduceerock4\/2005\/12\/10\/shocking-silve"},"modified":"2005-12-10T13:22:51","modified_gmt":"2005-12-10T17:22:51","slug":"shocking-silverman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/2005\/12\/10\/shocking-silverman\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Silverman"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks to Duff <\/a>for pointing out that at least one other person<\/a>
\nis not impressed with Sara Silverman’s schtick. I especially agree with
\nthe observation that there’s nothing behind her simple shock value:<\/p>\n

As a comedian doing edgy material she lacks Chris Rock’s
\nstamina and energy and is further hindered by the fact that there’s not
\nvery much going on behind her jokes beyond the element of surprise.  I
\nleft wanting something a little more.  For all the talk of her material
\nbeing “transgressive” (a bullshit artist term) or of it challenging the
\naudience’s hypocrisy, there’s not a trace of either motive to be found
\nin her act.  Much of her stage persona is merely an acknowledgement
\nthat the standard comedic approach to controversial subjects is no
\nlonger very fresh or relevant because these subjects have been
\nendlessly trivialized by sanctimonious PC nags.  And therein lies the
\nappeal – generations following the sanctimonious Boomer cohort have
\ngotten sick of the exquisite sensitivities of the permanently aggrieved
\nand find some kind of relief in material that tramples on them.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
 <\/div>\n

One thing that does bug me about Silverman is the tendency of pompous
\nmagazine writers to describe her act as if it is the most outrageously
\ndaring thing ever conceived.  “Silverman crosses boundaries that it
\nwould not occur to most people even to have,” bleats The New Yorker<\/em> in a typically meaningless formulation (re-read it:  it is in fact meaningless).  If by most people The New Yorker<\/em>
\nmeans the average peasant, then some variation of that bleat could be
\ntrue, but in that case it would also be true of thousands of other
\ncomedians today.  This of course isn’t Silverman’s fault, but it’s an
\nassessment that could grow to overshadow her act.  Boundary Crossing
\nGirl is a comedic dead end.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Duff for pointing out that at least one other person is not impressed with Sara Silverman’s schtick. I especially agree with the observation that there’s nothing behind her simple shock value: As a comedian doing edgy material she lacks Chris Rock’s stamina and energy and is further hindered by the fact that there’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p58QoK-185","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4345\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ceerock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}