We Interrupt Your Life....

If you can somehow ignore the fact that commercials intrude on whatever pleasure is being derived at the moment, and are meant to sell you something you very likely don't need, it becomes possible to perceive the best of them as genuine surrealist art. Perhaps they are the truest art this culture has to offer, and I don't mean that disparagingly or sarcastically. They are to today's world what a Raphael alterpiece was to the Renaissance, which after all was also intended to keep its message front and center in the minds of its viewers. The 16th century man was reminded to be pious. We're reminded to go out and buy something. The best of commercials are to be found outside the U.S., which in fact, is true of most art. My all-time favorite was a documentary-style European commercial in which three elderly couples faced the camera and spoke quietly and sincerely about how misunderstood their wonderful, beloved sons were. Subitles translated their words. The first were the parents of the Panamanian dictator Noriega, the second were Roumanian dictator Ceaucescu's parents, and the third were the parents of Marcos. It was all very low-key, and horrifyingly believable. I watched increasingly appalled at the bad taste, until it came to an end and a final title revealed the product: a brand of condoms.

I'm excited to share with you that I'm now the featured cartoonist on a new and terrific website, www.ComedyPop.com, stand-up routines, satire, videos. As Johnny Carson used to say, "funny stuff." Tell 'em I sent you.