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TRAGICOMEDY ENSUES
It's commonplace that comedy requires distance to be effec
tive, as opposed to drama's close-up. Mel Brooks said it: "Tragedy
is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open
sewer and die." Woody Allen said it: "Comedy equals tragedy plus
time." Charlie Chaplin said it: "Comedy is tragedy in a long shot."
And much earlier, Henri Bergson said it These days, it's Kanye
West who's doing the talking, with a little help from some indie-
approved friends.
GROUND RULES
I'm sure the idea goes back farther,
but Bergson is as far as I've traced it
back. In his 1901 work Laughter: An Essay
on the Comic, he explicates it at length,
theorizing that laughter serves as a cor
rective by society to the abnormal and
unsocial (it has a shaming function),
especially to anyone who seems to be op
erated by a machine, behaving in a rigid
manner contrary to the flexibility dealing
with other humans requires.
A quick example, perhaps more down-
to-earth than the citations from Moliere
on which Bergson relies, is an episode of
"The Andy Griffith Show" that aired sev
eral weeks ago. It seems to have been the
launching pad for "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.,"
being the episode in which Gomer joins
the Marines, but the point here that
relates to Bergson is why it's comedic.
Gomer, as per usual, behaves exactly the
same in every situation, which is guaranteed to get him
in trouble in the Marines, where you can't just be polite
and chatty and slow. Behaving the same regardless of
situation is behaving rigidly, like an automaton, which
triggers our collective unconscious worries about ap
propriate social interactions and causes laughter. It's an
interesting theory and one that can be borne out in any
number of contexts.
One rule Bergson sets is the same as that proposed
by Brooks, Allen and Chaplin, although he neglects to
examine exactly why it must be the case: "Indifference
is its natural environment, for laughter has no greater
foe than emotion. I do not mean that we could not
laugh at a person who inspires us with pity, for instance,
or even witn affection, but in such a case we must, for
the moment, put our affection out of court and impose
silence upon our pity."
Clearly, pain is minimized the farther from the viewer
it appears. Distance also results in a minimization of the
face, which conveys pain, and not being able to see the
emotion results in dehumanization of the person in pain
and reduction of potential empathy. If the viewer isn't
empathizing, he or she is free to judge the situation un
emotionally, which means, as Bergson says, that there's
often comedy in it. Perhaps the distance from the self
also results in relief; i.e., that is not me in pain and, therefore, I
am reassured of my current state of okayness despite also slightly
recognizing my potential fragility and so I will laugh in a way that
serves as a release of that tension. Basically, it's a rule.
GALIFIANAKIS + OLDHAM + WEST
Now look at Kanye West's newest video for his song "Can't Tell
Me Nothin." Why, then, have West, comedian Zach Galifianakis,
indie rock hero Will Oldham and Michael Blieden (AKA that goofy-
looking dude from Melvin Goes to Dinner) produced something that
is not only thoroughly comedic, but also imbued with pathos?
Having seen Galifianankis' lip-synched video for Anita Baker's
"You Bring Me Joy" (he also did one for Fiona Apple's "Not About
Love"), West decided that he wanted another video version of his
single "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" a move he's made before with, for
example, "Jesus Walks," which had three different takes. So he
called up Galifianakis and asked him to do whatever he wanted to.
The result is one of the finest works of art of the year, the kind of
piece that shocks your senses and reminds you of what the music-
video form can achieve, that makes you force your friends to sit
down and watch it and burns up the Internet for days. But why?
Like Galifianakis' previous videos, it's based around lip-syn
ching, this time with Zach speaking Kanye's words. Will Oldham
gyrates in the background, occasionally echoing the main vocal
Une. Blieden directed the thing, which is set on Galifianakis' farm
in North Carolina, complete with cows and tractors and a lake. So,
yes, it's white guys acting black, an old comedy device that not
only plays into Bergson's ideas about automatism (there seems to
be someone else pulling the strings in the video, acting through
Galifianakis and controlling his motions), but is also fairly boring
by this point. Its other incongruity is between urban (the song)
and rural (the setting) environments; this, too, could make us
laugh. But what's astonishing and a departure from commonplace
is the way it manages to mix comedy with empathy. We're not talk
ing Chaplin here. Chaplin cuts back and
forth between the two and fairly slowly.
This case is more of a true emulsion, the
seemingly incompatible whipped together
quickly until they form a single thing.
The profusion of close-ups alone should
make laughter disappear. It's not that
Galifianakis and Oldham aren't funny
looking guys, but there is great seriousness
when the former stares into the camera.
And there is a sadness underneath the
Kanye West recruited indie comedian Zach Galifianakis (top left) and singer Will Oldham to cre
ate a video for his song “Can’t Tell Me Nothin.”
whole thing, with its lyrics about dealing with fame and money
that recognize the difficulties of doing so. It's neither pro- nor
anti-conspicuous consumption, a smart and thoughtful take on
how money changes your life. Thinking about all this while watch
ing our heroes dance in satin pajamas on a rural path or hump a
tractor should make those antics less funny, but it doesn't. Nor
does the complete gooniness of half of what's going on push the
hilarity out a window.
WHAT'S SO FUNNY?
Like certain moments in Werner Herzog's films (the only non
documentary example I can think of, and even saying this is to
overlook the huge influence of documentary style on Herzog's
filmmaking and his own nonfiction work), there is a connection
between the two facets of pathetic-ness of humanity: one the old
definition that means moving one to pity and the other the newest
definition, meaning "absurd" or "laughable."
So perhaps thi > video for "Can't Tell Me Nothin," in addition
to being highly entertaining, is also a reflection of the direction
in which comedy is headed of late, as reflected in the English
language, a new path opening to new vistas of funny that don't
require us to abandon our capacity to relate to others.
Hillary Brown
Liner Notes is Flagpole's music opinion column. Inv ested in contributing a
piece? Contact music editor Chris Hassiotis at musicQfiagpole.com.
32 FLAGPOLE.COM SEPTEMBER 5,2007
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