Serendoïncidencity

I have been suffering for a couple of days from an ohrwurm that I have finally identified as the "Li'l Rascals" theme song.

I've never cared much for vaudeville-ian slapstick, and it's a commonplace that the humor of its day is too crude for today's more experienced audiences. Consider, for example, The Last Temptation of Krust, wherein Krusty's "flapping dicky" bit at "Laugh 'Til You Care" helped earn him this mention in the paper:

Last night's comedy benefit delivered wall-to-wall laughs without exception. (Phew!) The only exception was the dated humor of Springfield's green haired, red-nosed hack...[turns pages] yeah yeah yeah...[stops] Krusty the Clown!

But I was thinking about Moe's confession in Radioactive Man that he was one of the original Li'l Rascals – Smelly – until the original Alfalfa stole his bit and Moe beat him to death (luckily for Moe, the kid was "an orphan owned by the studio"). I bet today's audiences would watch someone take an automotive backfire in the face. And do you know where they'd see it? America's Funniest Home Videos.

I have never really cared for that show because it is often cruel, playing on the misfortunes and embarrassing moments of others for laughs. But that's exactly what vaudeville did, too. There are, I think, only two differences between the Li'l Rascals and the Three Stooges and today's "reality" comedy: the earlier ones were in black & white while today they're in color, and the earlier ones were staged while today they're inadvertent. The audience hasn't changed as much as we like to think. And, frankly, I've more respect for people that watch reruns of the B&W shows than their modern counterparts.

By the same token, I ran across this article on the BBC's site. It had this picture:


It immediately called to mind a scene from one of the "Star Wars" movies. I couldn't find a screenshot of the particular one, but this is pretty close (imagine it from the right side):


So I must be suggesting that some, if not all, of our civilian police officers are evil, right? But I have never thought of the Star Wars storm troopers as evil. I have always conceived of them as guys doing a job. This is one of the reasons why that short spoof Troops still appeals to me, despite my having seen it several times. Just listening to the way they talk in the movies is what made them seem so to me.

Evil can lie in the means as well as the ends. I don't doubt that using SWAT teams reduces the incidence of violence whenever they are deployed. I bet that would obtain all the way down to using them when issuing traffic citations, too. Assuming we could afford to employ them that way, should we? I wouldn't call it a slippery slope. It seems more like capillary action to me, the way that drug-testing is going to insinuate its way into all workplaces by way of its increasing use in schools. The reason that it's not allowed in all workplaces now is explicitly because most workers would consider it intrusive. Once there is a history of being intruded-upon so, the reason evaporates.

Remember: the Romans sold out their Republic for the promise of homeland security, too.