Full Circle
You Are Scooter
Brainy and knowledgeable, you are the perfect sidekick.
You're always willing to lend a helping hand.
In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.
"15 seconds to showtime!"
The Muppet Personality Test
Super Bowl Sunday. I care nothing about football, but I am thinking of tuning in just to see the ads. Those are the big, expensive commercial slots which corporations with enough spare change hurry to snap up, before they have all sold out. They unveil their new campaigns and their best concepts; a lot of ad execs must be swigging antacid about now, as zero hour approaches. Tomorrow people will be discussing them, venturing opinions on what worked, what tanked, the boring or the weird.
The triumph of advertising. It's come to this (well, it's been this way for some time now, but I remember when it was different). People are now watching programs that don't interest them just to see the commercials. The pitch has become the entertainment.
Or maybe things are just coming full circle. Back in the 19th century, one of the precursors of saloon shows and vaudeville was the traveling medicine show. Feats of strength to show the triumph of Dr. Humbug's Rejuvenation Potion, or the little old 'granny,' who goes into a jig after a dose of Dr. Pseudo's Pepper Up. A song and music as the wagon rolls into town, to gather the rubes.
'Twas Pirelli's
Magical Elixir,
That's wot did the trick, sir,
True, sir, true.
Was it quick sir?
Did it in a tick, sir,
Just like an elixir
Ought to do!*
It's the same with Jerry Springer and the reality shows. They're the twenty first century's versions of the freak show, carnival, religious camp meetings. Everything old is new again.
*from Sweeney Todd; lyrics by Steven Sondheim
Brainy and knowledgeable, you are the perfect sidekick.
You're always willing to lend a helping hand.
In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going.
"15 seconds to showtime!"
The Muppet Personality Test
Super Bowl Sunday. I care nothing about football, but I am thinking of tuning in just to see the ads. Those are the big, expensive commercial slots which corporations with enough spare change hurry to snap up, before they have all sold out. They unveil their new campaigns and their best concepts; a lot of ad execs must be swigging antacid about now, as zero hour approaches. Tomorrow people will be discussing them, venturing opinions on what worked, what tanked, the boring or the weird.
The triumph of advertising. It's come to this (well, it's been this way for some time now, but I remember when it was different). People are now watching programs that don't interest them just to see the commercials. The pitch has become the entertainment.
Or maybe things are just coming full circle. Back in the 19th century, one of the precursors of saloon shows and vaudeville was the traveling medicine show. Feats of strength to show the triumph of Dr. Humbug's Rejuvenation Potion, or the little old 'granny,' who goes into a jig after a dose of Dr. Pseudo's Pepper Up. A song and music as the wagon rolls into town, to gather the rubes.
'Twas Pirelli's
Magical Elixir,
That's wot did the trick, sir,
True, sir, true.
Was it quick sir?
Did it in a tick, sir,
Just like an elixir
Ought to do!*
It's the same with Jerry Springer and the reality shows. They're the twenty first century's versions of the freak show, carnival, religious camp meetings. Everything old is new again.
*from Sweeney Todd; lyrics by Steven Sondheim