Lightning Rod Gets The Zot

The Poet's Eye ^ | Lightning Rod

[Lrod]

A character like Christine O'Donnell presents a unique problem for a humorist. Few elaborations are called for since the caricature is self-embodied. All that is needed is a dead-pan Jack Benny look. You know, the one where he just stares blankly at the audience without saying a word and eventually someone titters and before you know it the whole place is in hysterics? Her very existence as a major party candidate for US Senate is the kind of comedy which arrives ready-written and would only be spoiled by embellishment. I mean, what can you add to rabidantimasturbationtarianism, rats with fully-functioning human brains and her famous Witches of Eastwick campaign ad that looks like it was produced by Tim Burton? I had fully intended to leave Ms. O'Donnell to the other comedians and the pundits who were wearing her out on cable TV. But then came the most recent revelation that she has claimed that her father was Bozo the Clown. Here I had to break my silence, not in the name of humor, but in the cause of veracity. This is a subject I happen to know something about.

Long ago, for one magic season, I was related by marriage to Bozo the Clown. I'm not making this up. My father was a semi-notorious lothario in the television and advertising business. Sometime after he turned 50, he married the 17 year-old daughter of one of his professional colleagues, Larry Harmon, the guy who owned the franchise to Bozo, the Most Famous Clown in the World. He was Bozo Primero, not one of the many FauxZos who were franchised in every major media market. I was much closer to the power center of the Bozo world than Ms. O'Donnell ever dreamed of being. It gave me an intimate glimpse into the backstage life of clowns. I knew little of the inside workings of the clown business in those days. Like a naive child, I had assumed that, you know, Bozo was Bozo. It never occurred to me that there was a school, like a Bozo boot-camp, where imposters went to learn how to walk like a Bozo and talk like a Bozo and draw the red rictus of a smile on their faces with greasepaint. It was like learning a dirty family secret and it was a big disappointment. When you go to see Bozo, you want it to really be Bozo, not some guy dressed up in a Bozo costume.

I hadn't thought about my brief inclusion in greasepaint royalty for years until Ms. O'D surfaced with her claims of actually being a blood relative of Bozo the Clown. The marriage between my father and Princess Bozo, which was chronologically challenged to begin with, barely outlasted the honeymoon. They had about as much in common as Christine would have in common with the 99 other US Senators. Suddenly the whole subject bubbled from my subconscious and made me wonder about franchises and politicians and the authenticity of clowns.

Since John Quincy Adams carried forth his father's political legacy, American politicians have campaigned on the richness of their family's past public service. Roosevelt and Kennedy and Bush all represent minor dynasties and it is entirely in keeping with this tradition for Ms. O'D to claim descent from Bozo. Clowning is as present in the current of American politics as populism, liberalism or conservatism. But in light of Ms. O'D's penchant for resume enhancement, she fibbed about her college career and has downplayed her wiccan studies, her claims to clownly ancestry are also suspect. While she seems like a natural and can certainly get a laugh and works well in the side-shows, one has to wonder if she is really ready for the Big Top, the center ring.

The US Senate is the Big League of Buffoonery. Even pros like Colbert have trouble hanging there. It's a tough room. Notice that Al Franken, even with all his years of practical comic experience, has been keeping mum in deference to the mime-masters of the Senate. These clowns can juggle, ride unicycles, do pratfalls and get shot from cannons, all with the perfect dead-pan of their painted-on media faces. They are consummate clowns adept with all the tricks, the seltzer bottle, the pie-in-the-face, the filibuster. I don't want to get all Stephen King on you but these aren't nice clowns. Ms. O'D should think twice before she alienates her witch constituency, she may need some strong juju to avoid the dunking stool. They'll make her the senator-punk-clown. Every troupe of clowns has one, the smallest clown, bottom of the pecking order, the one who all the other clowns slap and when there is no smaller clown for her to slap, she turns to the audience with her out-turned palms and pitiful Emmett Kelly frown and says, "I am you."

Two of the greatest Senatorial Clowns, Lloyd Bentson and Dan Quayle, in their famous vice-presidential debate in 1988 demonstrated the type of cut-throat comedy these jokers are capable of. When Quayle set the joke up by comparing his inexperience to the inexperience of Jack Kennedy, Bentson spiked it with this punch-line, "Senator," he said, "I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you are no Jack Kennedy."

The Poet's Eye would like to say to Christine O'Donnell in this same spirit, "Ms. O'Donnell, you say your father is Bozo. Well, I knew Bozo. Bozo was briefly my step-grand-father-in-law. Christine, your father was no Bozo."

Yes I’m stuck in the middle with you, and I’m wondering what it is I should do. It’s so hard to keep this smile from my face. Losing control yeah I'm all over the place.

Clowns to the left of me! Jokers to the right! Here I am stuck in the middle with you. ---Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty

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[Tax-chick]

Jake likes pie, too.

[sionnsar]

Interesting.

[ColdOne]

Good Morning this Tuesday!

[Tax-chick]

Good afternoon! 67 and sunny, time to go to Walmart. AGain.

[Monkey Face]

Chapter 7,853 in the Continuing Stor-r-ry of Miss Daisy.

If all goes well, and the carburetor gets here in time, Miss Daisy will be on the road again next week. Wish me luck!

[ColdOne]

G-day! Have a safe trip! 34F here.

[ColdOne]

Of course...best of luck!

[sionnsar]

I do.

[Monkey Face]

Thanks!

:o])

[Tax-chick]

We had to get some undergarments for Tom for his backpacking trip. This was harder than it would have been for a boy not quite so Churchillian in figure.

Tom is going to do his performance piece from January for a speech competition next weekend, but he’ll need a new one for the tournament in January, because he can’t use the same piece twice at the same venue. I’m going to encourage him to choose a selection from Winston Churchill!

During his presentation, he reads a passage from Martin Gilbert’s “First World War” about the Armistice. I’m going to have him read it for my Cub Scouts on Thursday, since it’s Veteran’s Day. It’s only about 2 minutes long, but quite impressive when Tom is “in form.”

[ColdOne]

Churchill sounds good.

[Tax-chick]

I have three volumes of his colonial wars correspondence: India, Sudan, and South Africa. A nice skirmish in the dark and pouring rain in the Himalayas would be a good piece for Tom. His current blood-and-guts performance includes parts of the Iliad and “The Killer Angels,” as well as WWI.

[sionnsar]

I stepped out at lunch today — what a shock! It was cold (compared to what it has been), with a quite cold rain coming down. I guess winter has arrived.

[ColdOne]

He is going to recite this to a group you say?

[Tax-chick]

He reads it for a judge in competition. Debate tournaments usually include other public-speaking competitions, and one is Poetry and Prose Reading.

[ColdOne]

I agree, winter is here. The high will be 35F today for us.

[ColdOne]

How wonderful he does this. You must be proud! Just do not let him know you told us about.. his ......new...... “undergarments!”

[Tax-chick]

Tom has a lot of verbal facility. Maybe he’ll be a lawyer or politician or teacher. ‘Face has been here and even seen our laundry, so nothing is too private ;-).

[ColdOne]

Just teasing you! :0)

[Not A Snowbird]

You stepped out?! I’m hiding in my building. Cold wet things are falling from the sky.