Mr. Show
I just watched a skit from an episode of that old HBO program, “Mr. Show”. The premise of the skit was that NASA, in their infinite wisdom, had decided to blow up the moon. They had the technology and by god they were going to do it. Blow up the moon fever spread across America. The effort was seen as a show of national pride. The scenes were the obligatory pro-blow up the moon montage: a suburban couple talking about having a “Blow up the Moon” party, a school girl holding up a drawing of the moon exploding, an old man talking about how he dreamed as a young boy of blowing up the moon and now it was “science fact”. There was also a scene from a country music video titled “Blew Moon” in which the singer praised American righteousness in blowing up the moon (can we say Toby Keith?).
NASA laid out their plan. Launch a rocket at the moon loaded with enough dynamite and nuclear explosives to blow up the moon 50 times over (obviously a jab at America’s tendency for overkill). A chimp named Galileo, the grandson of the first chimp to travel in space would push the launch button. Throughout the skit, no one questioned the absurdity of the idea. Except Galileo. This chimp, through sign language, dared to ask the question of why. Suddenly everyone was asking the question. There was a scene of protesters picketing the effort, claiming there are enough places on earth to blow up like Mount Everest or Antarctica. That same couple talked about how that monkey had ruined their party plans. Another music video, this one called “Dumb Ape” in which the singer bellows about how no one, not even a monkey, should question American pride.
Finally NASA had a solution. Replace Galileo with a circus chimp (and one that didn’t know sign language). The moon was seen blowing up at the end of the skit.
Now I bring up this skit for a couple reasons. First because this skit seems to illustrate the irrationality with which some people are willing to pursue a course of action without really discussing it in detail. It was definitely an ideological satire. It was a lesson of how you can get everyone to go along with something, no matter how absurd, so long as you give it the appearance of being an act of civic pride or patriotism. And it seems like something the Bush administration would do. That is to say I don’t think they would actually proclaim it was our solemn duty to blow up the moon (although I wouldn’t put anything past the Bush administration). But what I am saying is that you could replace “blowing up the moon” with whatever cause you wish. With a bit of tweaking (and better directing) this could easily have been a pro-“insert cause here” ad for the Bush administration. And it seems a little too ironic that the Bushies would probably do the same thing that NASA did in the sketch.
When asked the tough questions, replace the monkey that asked them.
(Originally posted on Yahoo360)
NASA laid out their plan. Launch a rocket at the moon loaded with enough dynamite and nuclear explosives to blow up the moon 50 times over (obviously a jab at America’s tendency for overkill). A chimp named Galileo, the grandson of the first chimp to travel in space would push the launch button. Throughout the skit, no one questioned the absurdity of the idea. Except Galileo. This chimp, through sign language, dared to ask the question of why. Suddenly everyone was asking the question. There was a scene of protesters picketing the effort, claiming there are enough places on earth to blow up like Mount Everest or Antarctica. That same couple talked about how that monkey had ruined their party plans. Another music video, this one called “Dumb Ape” in which the singer bellows about how no one, not even a monkey, should question American pride.
Finally NASA had a solution. Replace Galileo with a circus chimp (and one that didn’t know sign language). The moon was seen blowing up at the end of the skit.
Now I bring up this skit for a couple reasons. First because this skit seems to illustrate the irrationality with which some people are willing to pursue a course of action without really discussing it in detail. It was definitely an ideological satire. It was a lesson of how you can get everyone to go along with something, no matter how absurd, so long as you give it the appearance of being an act of civic pride or patriotism. And it seems like something the Bush administration would do. That is to say I don’t think they would actually proclaim it was our solemn duty to blow up the moon (although I wouldn’t put anything past the Bush administration). But what I am saying is that you could replace “blowing up the moon” with whatever cause you wish. With a bit of tweaking (and better directing) this could easily have been a pro-“insert cause here” ad for the Bush administration. And it seems a little too ironic that the Bushies would probably do the same thing that NASA did in the sketch.
When asked the tough questions, replace the monkey that asked them.
(Originally posted on Yahoo360)
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