Together with nearly 10 000 other people, the comedian Richard Lewis died the other day in the US. The media, of course, was gushing. About his talent. About him being a comic’s comic. About his legacy. Like him or hate him (or even wonder who he was), this piece really has nothing directly to do with Lewis, but with the gushing of the media instead.
We all know that the job of the media is not to report the facts, but rather to get us to believe their interpretation of them. Or at least of the facts they choose to present to us. This has been true ever since Adam and Eve gave an interview about that apple conspiracy and has only accelerated in the past couple of years with the rise of social media. As bad as all that is, it seems like the media is no longer even trying to break a sweat in doing so.
For example, take the commemoration video for Lewis made by CNN, which serves as the motivation for this entry and is entitled “These 4 clips show why Richard Lewis was a master comedian.”
I’m still waiting to be shown …
None of the four clips are either that funny or even that clever, and none more painfully so than the two bookending ones from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Even the example clip of him getting “huge laughs in real-life interviews” got only mediocre chuckles from the audience. And none whatsoever from Dr. Ruth. (Now, apart from the obvious, if there is something that Dr. Ruth is known for, it’s that she loves to laugh.)
Again, this really has nothing whatsoever to do with Lewis in particular or even with Curb Your Enthusiasm. But if you want to convince us that Lewis was a master comedian then perhaps try choosing some examples of him actually being comedic. And, if he perhaps wasn’t a master comedian in the first place, then don’t try to convince us that he was. (Unfortunately, the latter amounts to saying that the media shouldn’t engage in hyperbole. Now wouldn’t that be a historic event …)
Welcome to the bonehead commemoration of the day …
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