Comedians may be taking over American politics. Or so hopes John Avlon in The Daily Beast. And that does not mean that all USA politicians are clowns. Actually ‘I forgot to duck’ uttered by the shot Ronald Reagan were the last words of a President that made me laugh – but then again, and according to Gore Vidal, Reagan was a professional actor ‘hired to impersonate a president’ so he doesn’t count. Avlon reckons that ‘laughter and satire is the only sane response to the sickening spin cycle we’re subjected to on a daily basis’ To which I say: ‘Congruence at last!’
Comedians and satirists have philanthropically been doing their best for humanity for centuries. Think Shakespeare, Swift, Mark Twain, Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks and our very own Chris Morris and Howard Jacobson. However such comic prophets have been far outnumbered by the ludicrously rich, mind-numbing, ‘Have you ever noticed?’, socially irrelevant blabbermouth ‘funnymen’ who are irritatingly ubiquitous. Maybe this is about to change in America. Two men are leading the Comic Revolution, John Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
John Stewart,voted ‘most trusted man in news’ last year plans a pre-election ‘Rally to Restore Sanity’ in which he has advised people to wear banners saying “9/11 was an Outside Job” and “I disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler”.
My personal favourite Che Guevara of comedy is Stephen (“Keep your facts, I’m going with the truth”) Colbert who also plans a ‘Keep Fear Alive’ rally which as a Provocative Therapist, I might feel obliged to attend! Just watch him testify at a real Government Congressional Immigration Hearing which explains why the ‘audience’ only chuckled while I cried with laughter.
Comedy has the capacity to mirror truth in medicine as well a politics. Anyone want to invite me to testify to a select committee on Health in the House of Commons? Accept it dear readers, America is always going to be two steps ahead of us in everything.
Provocative Therapists know the power of satire in counselling. When patients get their Inner Joke (the joke of how they are preventing themselves from finding happiness) they change. And people can change. And America can change. And it wasn’t a comedian who said that, it was President Barack Obama.* Hear! Hear! and Ha! Ha!
* Well he was only a presidential candidate when he carved the word ‘change’ in stone but that’s not important as long as he doesn’t lose his sense of humo(u)r now.
another great post. I believe that America is having an unfair hard time. Life is meant to laugh at everybody and especially yourself. I like how you used Shakespeare and Lenny Bruce in the same sentence I have never heard that in my life. I really think that your blog’s are brilliant and your videos are even better. Please make some more hilarious videos and post them on line. Have you ever written a book on provocative therapy if so please send me a link so I can buy the book and have a lot of laughter reading it. I know it will be good if it is as good as your posts.
@ Charles: How kind of you! Actually I’m nearing the end of a wonderful book on Provocative Therapy – but as yet no publisher. They are far too scared of the avante garde and the new
to publish a book on an unknown form of psychotherapy. I’ll get it published one day though, that’s for sure. Nothing can stop this process. Humour and reverse psychology, when responsibly used, really do provoke people to sort out their lives. It’s coming but perhaps after my lifetime – and that is really using Provocative Therapy on myself!
Dr.Kaplan-Another brilliant exposition from Brian’s Blog having succeeded in restoring sanity of recognition in the business of supporting human health with the alternative Homeo System. As rightly observed ‘comedy and humour mirrors Truth’impersonally through the medium of comedian and seeks to dilute inner pathos with external sharing of laughter.
Business big or small is only transacted by human beings in ‘support’ of living but not meant to’stake’life itself for its sake. It is only with enlightend minds of humour and wisdom that the parity between living and life can be purposefully maintained. Depression of mind can be common to the rich and poor with different reasons and may result in retarded health as well as economic status. But the courage to face it with the sense of a comedians humour keeping to the truth with sacrificing positive efforts and freeing onself from fear of threatening exploitation succumbing to self indulged abandonment can only help bring about a real ‘change’. What is seen presently in America is symbolic of regressing past the economic depression into the golden twenties of comedy and satire of last century with a sense of awakening to the realities sufferd by the europeans in the wake of ww-1 and the rise of Hitler to power gaining popularity with the present day evils in comparison.