Uneasy Rhetoric

We always knew that presidential candidates and similar public figures could kill their careers with one off-center remark because someone, somewhere, would take it seriously. This is why campaigning candidates are so boring. But now, apparently, even if you are a D List celebrity like Ken Jennings or Melanie Martinez, you’d best consider parody completely off limits.

If you’re a fan of Ken Jennings, the Jeopardy-made man, you’ve probably read on his website about his unending love for the show. However, he recently posted that:

You’re [Jeopardy] like the Dorian Gray of syndication. You seem to think “change” means replacing a blue polyethylene backdrop with a slightly different shade of blue polyethylene backdrop every presidential election or so.

and

Maybe when Art Fleming was alive, America just couldn’t get enough clues about “Botany” and “Ballet” and “The Renaissance,” but come on. Does every freaking category have to be some effete left-coast crap nobody’s heard of, like “Opera,” or, um, “U.S. History” or whatever?

This post was a parody in the form of a letter from an ex-lover. Quite funny really, because it isn’t entirely wrong. Unfortunately, someone took Ken seriously. Not just any someone, a media someone. A New York Post someone.

Okay, maybe the reporter was even in on it, or maybe he just thought he would extend the parody by reporting it as “reality.” Unfortunately, you know where I read it? The AP wire on Yahoo. Fortunately, the AP wire gets the joke, in the end.

But the thing with Melanie Martinez is just sad. She was canned from a children’s television show because seven or so years ago she made a couple of parody (there it is again) videos for a website called technicalvirgin.com (don’t bother going there, they’ll just tell you to go away). She was parodying abstinence public service announcements. One “promotes” anal sex. The other “promotes” vibrators. It wasn’t even porn!

“PBS Kids Sprout has determined that the dialogue in this video is inappropriate for her role as a preschool program host and may undermine her character’s credibility with our audience,” said Sandy Wax, network president.

I’m sorry, but, with all due respect to the people who run them, I seriously doubt 2 to 5 year olds are surfing YouTube or reading Boing Boing. Yes, I know the parents are the real audience but still, need I remind you, Melanie is an actor. You know, people who get paid a lot of money to play pretend?

Oh, and by the way, you say the dialog in the video is inappropriate for her role, blah, blah, as if those the videos were made contemporaneously with the kids show. They weren’t. Just because you can still see them on the Internet doesn’t mean they’re still relevant to who she is today, sevenish years later. And again, who cares? She’s an actor.