Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Another Fritzi Wednesday

I have all kinds of crackpot theories about media, like how STAR WARS and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK are basically the same thing, and how SNL is no worse than it was when it started. One thing that sounds insane to many people is that I think Ernie Bushmiller and Jerry Lewis are similar. What I mean by that is that both are looked at by most as junk but they miss the point.

We've all heard the shibboleth about how the French think Jerry Lewis is a genius. That doesn't mean that the average French person goes to a Jerry Lewis movie and thinks he's the funniest person they've ever seen. It means it's admired that he does of all aspects of filmmaking and has control over his material.

I don't need to tell anyone reading this of the merits of either. When I explain Nancy to the uninitiated, they don't understand the appeal. It's not a “so bad it's good” aesthetic. It's not just a cartoonist thing. But it helps.







4 comments:

  1. Sam, I really like your blog, and this post is spot-on! The comparison between Lewis and Bushmiller is very apt. Thank God for both of 'em!

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  2. I have to say, I find Bushmiller a puzzle... One thing in his favor i recently learned: he and Milt Gross were very close friends... Gotta be something there...

    I am also a huge, huge fan of THE MAGIC WHISTLE, Dirty Danny, The 'Brube, TV Made Me Do It, and generally all your stuff. Laugh like a loon whenever I see it.

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  3. I don't know the exact issue but a search on Google Books will have the issue of LIFE with Bushmiller and other cartoonists at a party tattooing girls with markers.

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  4. I think too many miss just how difficult it was for Jerry Lewis to do what he did.

    Cheers!

    Steven G. Willis
    XOWComics.com

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