Thursday, January 20, 2011

A shining glimmer of change overshadowed by an old, Black homeless guy

In what may be an unprecedented move, Matt, of the Matt and Crank Show, uttered a profound statement.  In a segment about Crank finding a lost dog, a caller, using a bad Asian accent, tried to claim the dog.  Matt reprimanded the caller for using stale stereotypes of Koreans in a vain attempt at humor.

What a break through!  If only Matt and Crank - and a couple of other DJs - would discard stereotypes when trying to make a point or be funny, the overall programming on WZBH would be more palatable.  For the listener, the change would be like scrapping the McDonald's happy meal for an Olive Garden pasta feast.  Then, if Matt and Crank and a couple of the other DJs moved from scrapping the stereotypes to interjecting originality, for the listener, that would be like moving from the Olive Garden to Chef Ramsey's five-star restaurant.

But, alas, Matt's reprimand for using stale stereotypes to be funny was lost on him an hour later.  He, Crank, and Intern A produced a rap song, "Teach me to be a hippie."  Throughout the morning show, Matt stated he didn't think the song turned out as funny as he imagined it.  Before playing the song, he told listeners to imagine an old, Black homeless man singing.  Why old?  Why Black?  Why homeless?  And why tell the listeners what to imagine as they listened?

Matt was right.  The song sucked.  Something about incest with cousins, hugging trees, and protecting animals.  There were parts of the song where this critic could imagine an aging Cheech spewing his drug-warped philosophy, but that's only because Cheech played the part so well on That 70's Show.  For all of Bill Gate's money combined with all of that FaceBook founder's money, this critic couldn't even pretend to have imagined an old, Black homeless guy rapping the song. 

When listeners started texting praise for the song, Matt commented something to the effect that the rap song wasn't that bad for a bunch of White guys at a rock station.  No.  It wasn't that bad.  It was worse than you thought.  The stereotypes used to preface the song, used throughout the song, and used after the song served no purpose other than to denigrate those who don't belong to the group of  good ol' young White guys down at the local rock station.

Below is the segment about the lost dog and Matt's reprimand to the caller for using stale stereotypes in an attempt to be funny.  Unfortunately, after recording, this critic had to leave for work and was unable to record the rap song segment.





2 comments:

  1. Fantastic work, I'm glad you have been a consistent public critic of Matt Walsh since 2011

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  2. Thank you, but my focus has shifted. A boatload of bigots, racists, sexists, and all the other -ist and -phobic descriptors will ensure Matt Walsh can pay his bills without ever having to do a day's work. I think he's peaked and is destined to be the bitter olf man in a nursing home, alone and forgotten.

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