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The Man Show (GEMS - from program # 03-09-28-A: A MAN'S WORLD)

Joyous Chauvinism

The following two segments are excerpts from the Public Radio International Show called To the Best of Our Knowledge. In the first, Steve Paulson interviews Doug Stanhope, the new co-host (with Joe Rogan) of Comedy Central's The Man Show which was created by Jimmy Kimmel. Stanhope says the premise of the show is simple: Men are idiots. The show features dancing women, a.k.a "juggies" dressed in sexy costumes, comedy skits, and what it calls "joyous chauvinism."

In the second, Anne Strainchamps interviews Richard Goldstein. Richard Goldstein is an executive editor at The Village Voice. He's been tracking the rise of what he calls "neo-macho," a cultural trend expressed in "bitch- slapping" rap, the rise of fundamentalism, the election of George Bush, and The Man Show.

DOUG STANHOPE (THE MAN SHOW)

Steve Paulson: Let me just ask you about one your skits, The Man Shopping Network. From what I've seen of it, it's you and Joe Rogan, your co-host, selling sex toys, beer drinking machines, porn, all kinds of naughty stuff. Just for laughs?

Doug Stanhope: Yeah, just for laughs. Laughs.. Are you trying to find the deeper meaning The Man Show?

Steve Paulson: Yeah, actually I am.

Doug Stanhope: I'm not sure if there is a meaning. This was not my creation. It was a goof show. The whole point of The Man Show is not to have a point.

Steve Paulson: You've said that this is a show that basically makes men look like idiots, and you can't understand why women would get upset. Because there have been women who've said this is misogynistic...

Doug Stanhope: Those people are idiots. And they come with both genitals. To sum up half the human race on either side as being "like this..." I loathe watching stand-ups that go: "Guys, we hate shopping with the ladies at the mall." I mean, no I don't. I'm in a relationship where, if I don't like where I am, I go, "Honey I'll be over there in the car," or "I'll be out smoking a cigarette." Guys aren't like that, YOU'RE like that, and stop trying to sum up all of one gender. I'm a fan of the individual.

Steve Paulson: Now, I saw one skit which was a take-off on Dr. Phil, and he's signing books. There are all these women coming up expecting feel-good advice, and he's snarling at them and making them look ridiculous. He tells one woman: "Women need to learn how to take a punch."

Doug Stanhope: Laughs. That's funny.

Steve Paulson: What makes that funny?

Doug Stanhope: What makes that funny? Dr. Phil would be last guy to say that. These people think they're about to see Dr. Phil, and now he's saying just the opposite of what he would be saying.

Steve Paulson: But you can see why some women would get pretty upset by a line like that, right?

Doug Stanhope: Not in the least.

Steve Paulson: No?

Doug Stanhope: No. Is that in some way promoting the beating of women? How deranged would you have to be to think that? The joke is, it's Dr. Phil, he's the opposite, so if he were to say that... Laughs. I'd love to meet a woman who's upset about that.

RICHARD GOLDSTEIN - THE VILLAGE VOICE

Anne Strainchamps; What's your take on The Man Show?

Richard Goldstein: It's sort of right up there with somebody eating maggots on Fear Factor. Its tone actually makes Howard Stern look like Charlie Rose. It's a really bottom-feeding show and I can't say that its funny. I mean I find it poignant if anything, to look at these skits involving men acting out their fears of women by being aggressive. And then claiming it's all a joke. They call it "joyous chauvinism." That's a real oxymoron. I don't know how chauvinism is ever not joyous; it's about supremacy, of course its joyous. But the fact is, here you have a real attempt to get people not to think about what they're watching. One of the great advantages of irony is that it allows people to experience pleasures that they otherwise might feel guilty about.

Anne Strainchamps: But how seriously can you take it if it's all done as a tongue-in-cheek parody? If a show calls its female cast members "juggies" and has them jumping up and down on trampolines wearing sexy negligees, how seriously can you take it?

Richard Goldstein: I think you should take it seriously and actually examine what emotions are going on there. Comedy shouldn't become an excuse to stop thinking seriously. If that's how you react to it, then it's really done it's job. Because it's inhibited serious thinking. I guess the worst thing you can call an American these days is serious. And that show, and a lot of what's on television, has that ironic tone that is designed to inhibit you from looking at it straight-forwardly and from examining your own reactions.

Anne Strainchamps: You're suggesting that irony functions as a kind of get- out-of-jail-free card?

Richard Goldstein: It's a shelter for liberals that allows liberals to have these feelings and think that they're in on the joke. The feelings, on the other hand, are really out there. And they're really being expressed. I'm not for censorship in any way, but I am for examination and criticism. If you don't examine these things, and if you don't give a critique of your own reactions, then they actually form the way you behave; and there's such an overwhelming consensus in the culture about these things that eventually they become part of our political reality.

The Man Show (GEMS - from program # 03-09-28-A: A MAN'S WORLD)

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