Thursday, December 09, 2010

Obama's Approach To Middle East Peace Not Unlike Abbott & Costello's Approach To Baseball

...OK, that's being a little harsh. On Lou & Bud. At least they were intentionally funny, and the routine was even better once you were in on the joke. This scene, from a press conference by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowly, is only funny in a black-humor~ish, "Dr Strangelove" kind of way. Except instead of nuclear war, the conversation was on the Middle East "peace process", which is probabalyonly a few short years removed from nuclear war.

Start the circus music:

....Crowley himself was a little vague about where this is headed:


QUESTION: … you didn’t really say the direction you’re going.

MR. CROWLEY: Well, no. There’s a clear plan for this direction, Lach.


QUESTION: You have a plan?
MR. CROWLEY: No. I mean we think we have the right plan. We think we have the right strategy. We are just adapting the tactics in support of that strategy.

QUESTION: Sorry. What’s the plan again?

Crowley explained that the “moratorium avenue” had not borne fruit, so the administration was now “pursuing a different avenue, but the destination is still the same”:

QUESTION: Okay. What’s the avenue then? If we don’t ask about the plan, what about the avenue. What’s — I mean you seem to be leaving a gap here as to how you get from here to there.

MR. CROWLEY: That’s what we’re trying to figure out.

These are the folks the media repeatedly tells us are our intellectual superiors, and more equipped than any statists in their lifetimes to handle the myriad of crises now facing this nation, and the world.


Me? I prefer
the comedy stylings of Abbot & Costello, although it is hard to tell the difference...the lines in red seem to have been stolen by PJ Crowley for his use in the aforementioned presser...:


Bud Abbott: Well, let's see, we have on the bags, Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know is on third...

Lou Costello: That's what I want to find out.

Bud Abbott: I say Who's on first, What's on second, I Don't Know's on third.

Lou Costello: Are you the manager?

Bud Abbott: Yes.

Lou Costello: Well then who's on first?

Bud Abbott: Yes.

Lou Costello: I mean the fellow's name.

Bud Abbott: Who.

Lou Costello: The guy on first.

Bud Abbott: Who.

Lou Costello: The first baseman.

Bud Abbott: Who.

Lou Costello: The guy playing...

Bud Abbott: Who is on first!

Lou Costello: I'm asking YOU who's on first.

Bud Abbott: That's the man's name.

Lou Costello: That's who's name?

Bud Abbott: Yes.

Lou Costello: Well go ahead and tell me.

Bud Abbott: That's it!




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

might want to change that "Laurel & Hardy" thing, especially since you posted the classic Abbott & Costello routine.

The JerseyNut said...

Ugh. Title changed. Thanks. Mixed my comedic metaphors...