After a striking battle of “good teacher” v. “bad teacher,” staring Dr. Mouser and Jenny respectively, Jenny dressed in jeans and heels ducked and shimmied to watch an idol wreak havoc on this over-indulged world in which we all live. She brought 6 of her fellow humans to such an event, wondering if their souls would too be sucked into the critical thinking such an idol requires to be found funny. Is that the high expectations that teachers talk about? Do we really want our students to be exposed to the crassest and most brash idiocies of our world? To be plummeted into a place where even Oprah is not a deity and all gossipy, bitchy, and hilarious inanities of our world are not only not only allowed but, encouraged?
I took my students there last night. I felt exposed, vulnerable, and at the same time, as if I was illuminating something about myself. As if I was saying, “See, it isn’t just me with the oppositional relationship to the universe! See, you can stand up and do it too!"
Why do I have this need to shock students into life? Why do I feel like they need saving from the arduous walk to become like everyone else, to bring them back from the brink of personal inquiry death?
The one indispensable weapon I learned to use early on was sarcasm. I’m sure my mother could tell stories regarding my mockery that would baffle and beleaguer any mom today. My penchant for smartass remarks still does not make me beloved of authority figures, who wonder if I am a bit "too sarcastic" or "overly left," or (this is a favorite) that I have a "bad attitude." So be it. Maybe I am, but is wanting people to think and laugh about the ways our world works a bad attitude? I mean, who allowed this person to “be in charge” of me anyway? I mean, the only way someone can be in charge is if the others let her, right? So, I don’t let them. I will let them lead, but not lead me over a cliff that I wonder if is nearby. But, I digress…my sardonic turn of mind at least enabled me to, to the best of my ability, see the world as it is, while at the same time hold on to my sanity and my individuality in a world where not many are who they say they are, and even fewer recognize that they send their representative to their life most of the time. And that's Kathy Griffin, the lady we watched in shock and awe last night, with smiles and leg slaps...
The bad teacher (myself) took her students to last night to see Kathy Griffin, the comedienne. Like her, I also suspect I learned very early on how to use irony and sarcasm as a weapon. I can't think of many environments in the United States that are as profoundly hostile to women as are Hollywood and the entertainment industry. Like me, she has a sharp mind and a caustic wit and has plunked herself smack dab in the middle of one of the most ironic and misogynistic careers there is. What could possibly be more fascinating, or more naturally dramatic? Teaching and Hollywood are so similar.
See, here's what I love about the show: it's about being a serious, hard-working professional woman fighting an uphill battle to make it -- or sometimes just trying make it out alive-- in an industry that is notoriously misogynist. I mean, how often do you see a TV show, a movie, anything in our culture that, more than anything else, is about a woman's love of, and devotion to, her craft? Even such chick-friendly fare as Sex and the City was all about sex, romance, and friendship and completely shied away of any realistic portrayal of the working world.
Why the love for Kathy Griffin? The reasons are many. I'll start with the blatantly narcissistic ones. We Kathy G.'s have to stick together, for one thing, but it goes beyond that. I'm a loyal fan of her Bravo reality TV show, My Life on the D List, and from watching it I have learned that we have more than a few things in common. The right-wing parents? Check. A family who tries to portray the DuPonts, but has not exactly hit the mark? Double check. Kathy and I also love dogs, hate Bush, enjoy fashion, and are très gay-friendly.
At some level, like all of us sarcastic, life-questioning souls, Kathy really does seem to ache for a seat at the cool kids' table, a slot on the A list. Yet at the same time, she can't repress the urge to mock. Even in circumstances when it's important for her to be on her best behavior, she'll get a gleam in her eye, and you just know that in no time at all she will indeed be, “Going There”, the consequences be damned. I think my colleagues see that same gleam, that same irreverence for "the rules” in me. Perhaps that is why no one wants to sit by me in meetings? In her fascinating ambivalence, the push-and-pull relationship between her longing to be accepted and her need to rebel, she enacts a form of a drama that is familiar to many women: to what extent do I reject the trappings of patriarchy, and to what extent do I knuckle under to them? This drama plays itself out in countless ways in women's lives, from questions like should I diet? and should I wear heels?, to dilemmas such as should I take my husband's name? and should I speak up for myself at work and risk being labeled a bitch and a troublemaker, or stay silent and pay the price of continuing unfair treatment?
It's led to some great television moments. Since forever, I've been irritated by the way so many stars thank God or Jesus when they win some award. I'm not sure what I hate more about it: the sanctimony (as in the implication that the award was won because of the star's superior religious faith or moral virtue), the shallow trivialization of religion (don't you think Jesus has more important things to worry about than who wins some crappy little award?), or the narcissism (the notion that, yes indeed, Jesus does care who wins, and he made me win because I'm the most special, dammit!). I've dreamed about someone walking up there one day to collect one of those fucking awards that no teacher gets and saying something like, "God must really not give a shit about who wins this award because I won and I'm an atheist."
Well, last year, as she collected her Emmy, Kathy Griffin pretty much said just that. The exact quote is as follows:
“Can you believe this shit? I guess hell froze over. … a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. So, all I can say is, "Suck it, Jesus!" This award is my god now.”
Her comments as spoken were much funnier than they read on the page. In this instance as in so many others, Kathy's humor is attitudinal and contextual; outside the context of that awards ceremony, and minus her inimitable timing, delivery, and facial expressions, those remarks may not seem that funny. But given where and how she said them, they were outrageously hilarious. Context is everything like Vygotsky posited. Don’t judge my class until you’ve taken it yourself. Then—judge away. It is your right.
Kathy's gimlet eye and no-bullshit sense of the absurd spares no one, least of all herself. One of the things I love about her is her utter frankness about qualities in herself that women are supposed to hide. I too am honest to my students. I try very hard to allow them to see the humor in being a teacher, in attempting to teach others how to do something that no one has the answers to, least of all you! To think that we should corral young minds and make them like us is so funny to me! We don't know and often if we do, don't like, who we are!
I think that like me though, underneath Kathy's self-deprecation lies a savvy, tough-minded professional with a healthy sense of self-respect and a shrewd appreciation of her own talent. She's perennially the underdog, it is true. And yet, while she's far from stuck-up or full of herself, she doesn't accept the second-rate niche Hollywood has carved out for her, either. She always tries to do her best, and she's forever trying to kick up her career up to the next level. She finds herself in many situations that are unworthy of her, humiliating, even -- for example, performing at 9:30 in the morning to trade shows full of un-hip, middle-aged straight guys who don't have a prayer of getting her humor. Even so, she plunges bravely ahead and gives it her best shot. She bombs and admits it. She has the heart and soul of a true human trooper, and I, for one, love her for that. I too don’t want to be mediocre, to settle for less, to let myself off the hook because something is hard or I “might get fired.”
Most of the time, though, Kathy keeps shit real by deploying her wicked sense of humor. She uses her penetrating wit to puncture the overstuffed egos and sense of entitlement of those reigning (in her world celebrities and in mine, administrators), and to call bullshit on such pieties as religion, compulsory chastity, mandatory ass-kissing of anyone, and not mocking the mockery we call government, to name a few. Kathy's honesty has alienated many people in the industry she works in, but she refuses to play nice, and she refuses to back down. The world could use a lot more like her and I want every student to get that. I want them to get that it isn’t about Kathy’s foul mouth, political agendas, or racy comments. It is about her right and ability to say them, to be a stand for who she is and what she thinks—to question the world in ways that make others think.
Did the “bad” teacher do something she shouldn’t have? Maybe--For some. For others, welcome to the far left, where nothing is off limits and, well the world is fucking hilarious. Play the game, people, or get off the fucking road. Here in SA, you drive too slow.
