"Actually it is the first of April but I wasn't home last night, so I'm writing now. Went to see Steve Martin with R-- L-- last night, then went drinking at the Santa Fe Station Club. Went to work about 1:00 am and the pressroom hadn't begun printing papers yet. Computer had broken down. Didn't begin the run till 3:00 am. Got off work about 7:30 am. Writing this after I got home from work. I am tired and am going to bed."
MANHOOD REDO: Steve Martin is a Kennedy Center Honoree this month; there was an article in today's Washington Post about his career. When I saw him -- at Texas Tech University, I think -- he was still in his banjo, white suit, arrow-through-the-head phase. I can't remember whether he'd already been on Saturday Night Live. I appreciated his sense of humor because he didn't wield it like a knife. The only time I can remember him being caustic and cutting during the evening was his reaction to a heckler when he said, "I remember when I had my first beer," and I felt he had good cause.
In the world of traditional masculinity, it's not unusual for humor to be used as weapon, and then when someone complains that it's hurtful, accuse her or him or them of not having a sense of humor. I learned how to wield that weapon, and used it especially in graduate school, but I've never been comfortable with it, which explains why my efforts to be funny have been categorized by others as self-deprecating. In my early teens, I loved reading more than any other the Marvel comics that spoofed Spiderman, X-Men, Daredevil, Ironman, and all the other superheroes who made up the Marvel canon. Later on in high school and college, I drew a comic strip called Starman (before there was a TV show called Starman), a superhero who gained the ability to float and twinkle after sprinkling ashes (he thought they were pepper) from a Grecian urn over his scrambled eggs. It was kind of Charlie Brown becomes part of the superhero world. I used the same formula to create Anti-Rape Man: Henry Niemeyer, a mild-mannered children's book writer, who in the hospital wing with a clandestine feminist laboratory, accidentally gains superpowers to prevent sexual violence while searching for a restroom after drinking too much hospital coffee. What better way to spoof aspects of masculinity as they've been traditionally represented in the comics?
Of course, the sixties Batman did it long before I ever did. I am sure it was an influence on me as well.
You can find the link to "The Saga of Anti-Rape Man" in the links section of this blog.
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1 comment:
Hi, Patrick! I loved Steve Martin as a kid - the "first beer" comment made it to one of his records, so your laughter might have made it, too!
I agree that humor can be used as a weapon. It can also be used to silence dissent - Rush Limbaugh did this most cleverly by creating the word "feminazi."
As a comic actor, I try to use humor to educate, but really I'm trying to silence dissent myself - guys get so damn defensive when we try to talk to them about this stuff. One of the ways they get defensive is to make jokes that trivialize men's violence against women. I figure that if I make them laugh *first*, they'll listen more and *they* won't even have a chance to make the inappropriate joke.
Have a good night!
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