I’ve always liked jokes that don’t advertise themselves as jokes, so I thoroughly enjoyed John Hodgman’s “Shouts & Murmurs” piece titled Ask Ayn Rand on The New Yorker website in which he pens fake columns from Parade Magazine for Ayn.
Part of the reason I like the “joke in disguise” is that so many things in life that sound like a joke are actually true. (Sex comes immediately to mind as an example.) That the absurd often seems plausible is one of the delights — and one of the lessons — of life.
I also like the “joke in disguise” because I’ve always been interested in just how many ridiculous things you can get away with saying, at least for a while, if you say them with a straight-enough face. This probably explains my continuing interest in politics.
John Hodgman’s piece is a fine example of “the joke in disguise”. My reactions followed the usual life cycle of this humor: This is great! followed by This is funny! followed by Hey, wait a minute followed by Got me, John! When I reached this passage, I knew I had been gotten:
I do not hesitate to say, objectively, definitively, that “Caddyshack” is the year’s best movie. Rodney Dangerfield plays a self-made man who is not ashamed of his ambition, who does not apologize for his success, and who gets excitement from the joyful reality that we are all going to get laid if we are willing to be productively selfish and to stop coddling the weak.
I’m sure I liked Hodgman’s piece because I also like Ayn Rand humor. My Ayn Rand Talks Fantasy Football post remains one of my personal favorites, and as an ambitious and productively selfish blogger, I’m giving it a plug here. Unlike Hodgman’s piece, however, it is obviously a joke from the beginning.
I like your reason for a continuing interest in politics. There’s a tongue in cheek journal here in NZ that really takes the mickey out of the politicians, and I thoroughly enjoy it…
I feel American politicians are particularly good at this, but that might just be lack of familiarity with the day to day discourse of politics in other countries.
The junior senator from Kentucky is well named. And it wouldn’t trouble me, of course, if someone spelled his first name with a “t” instead of a “d”.
Shame in the election he wasn’t an “also rand” but the people of TN have spoken for the next several years.
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Don’t feel too bad, PGM. You may not have realized Hodgman’s column was a joke. But that’s nothing compared to the legion of Rand fans who don’t realize her novels are.