The Ignoramus, Part One

 

To look down at the simpleton, the bumpkin, the knuckle-dragging troglodyte and to proclaim to yourself, or to others, “What an ignoramus,” is to give evidence to the world, and to yourself, that you are in all likelihood an even worse ignoramus than the person whom you’ve just castigated. 

For one of the most salient signs of our own ignorance is our proclivity for distracting ourselves from our own woeful shortcomings. 

The man who scoffs at the easy target, the equivalent of shooting into a barrel of dead fish, betrays his desperate need to keep his psychological warts and carbuncles hidden in darkness. Thus he is eager to judge others while remaining complacently ignorant of his own egregious defects. 

Comedians who poke fun at the insanity and tomfoolery of Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, and other reliable tabloid fodder reveal themselves to be, at best, comedians of a mediocre stripe, for the truly exceptional comedian is an unwelcome prophet whose brutal honesty disarms the most educated audience and makes them take inventory of their own foibles. 

But to laugh with those mediocre minds who spend their idle time launching fusillades at self-destructive celebrities and other obvious targets of their ilk is to partake in the orgiastic bloodbath of ignorance and to reveal yourself a very crude and most likely incurable ignoramus. 

 

 

Comments

[Ed]

Yep, count me as an ignoramus. Life is short; you'll enjoy it more if you lighten up and worry less about what others think of you.

[jeffrey McMahon]

I don't think the post is about worrying about what others think unless there is a subtext you see that I don't see.

[Ed]

I think your post's subtext is about coming off as superior to the rest of us stupid, unwashed, crude, non-mindful-eating slobs... If you can disparage all that, then you must be of a higher level of humanity, no? ("The man... betrays his desperate need to keep his psychological warts and carbuncles hidden in darkness. Thus he is eager to judge others while remaining complacently ignorant of his own egregious defects.") Sounds like projection to me.
Just my opinion.

[jeffrey McMahon]

Projection? You mean am I sometimes the culprit of my own philosophical ruminations? Sadly, the answer is an emphatic yes.

[Angelo]

Actually, I agree about the stand-up comedians. Joking about Michael Jackson, for example, is predictible and stale. With that said, as they say, timing is everything. I remember Eddie Murphy's "Delerious" routine, which was extremely funny. In that routine, he did joke about Michael Jackson---but it was 1984 and Michael Jackson was on top of the world, carrying early MTV on his shoulders. Joking about THAT Michael Jackson was risky. Now, as Jeff says, it's shooting fish in a barrel. Murphy also remarked about Stevie Wonder. He painted a scenario of the two of them in a car, Murphy driving, and lecturing Stevie Wonder about how all the music and stuff "doesn't impress me." "You want to impress me, take the wheel motherfucker." Then Murphy impersonated black people losing their minds over the joke "Don't joke about Stevie Wonder. I'll kill you. Stevie Wonder is a musical genius." Best of all, Murphy talked about people we've never met---his extended family, "Uncle Gus," his cousins, his Aunt with a mustache, etc. Brilliant humor. One of my college professors at the time insisted to us that Richard Pryor was even better, because he was insightful about society. Those college professors seem know it all. Look at Jeff.