| Let me be blunt.
Today's actors and comedians are low rent
pretenders. They aren't funny or
talented. They aren't gifted. They are
snowflakes.
I have essentially eschewed watching organized television
(and movies) because the actors are more interested in their pay
than actually producing talented performances.
I have what I call the "UV 15 minute
test". I will watch something new for 15
minutes and determine whether the rest of my life is worth
spending watching it or to consign the 15 minutes into the
"worthless shit" movement and be done with
it. I might have to revise this standard to 5
minutes in the future since most modern media is not worth more
than wasting 5 minutes of my life watching.
I have had several tests of the "UV test" - the
first being watching "Austin Powers" and finding it
trival and trifling in the first viewing. I ended up
by mistake watching it several years later and seeing it from
the start (something I hadn't done the first time as I watched
it in progress). I have grown to respect
"Austin Powers" and the sequel. Another
test that changed my mind was watching the Hulu series
"Handmaid's" something and hated it the first time
watching from the start. I then did another viewing
allowing the episode to gather steam and I was
hooked. But the "UV Test" is more often
than not spot on and a recent test of some network's
"Marvelous Miss Mapehole" was 15 minutes that I wish I
could get back with interest.
It is thus that I am no pushover for anything on the
media. Actors and Actresses have to earn my respect
through actual talent - and not some recommendation by some
pundit.
As I was born in the early 1960's so much of my early television and
movie viewing was at the direction of my parents. It
is because of this that I never really knew of Betty White until
the "Golden Girls" during its first-run
run. That show was one of my favorites of my life
and Betty was remarkable even as I found Dorothy a bit
trifling. And since the series went off the air and
my life continued into the "digital age", I have
managed to see more of the life story of Betty
White. Betty was truly gifted in many roles and was
a woman who managed her own career with tenacity and a
reinvention of herself. It was that Betty White never fell
victim to my "UV Test" in anything she did. I
was captivated immediately and once in my heart, I craved for
more from her.
Betty White to me is an under-rated comedian. As
she aged, she developed a sauciness to her that was endearing
and filthy. Not swear word filthy. But
in wordsmith and pacing filthy. She would paint a
picture and the words allowed you to assemble the randy nature
of her words in your mind. She had a profound gift
of pacing. And she exploited her age for her
benefit. While many of her contemporaries were rancid and
stale malcontents who couldn't adapt to changing times, Betty
was the queen of adaptation. And with this
adaptability, Betty knew how her age gave her comfort in naughty
and knowledge she'd get away with it.
Betty White also had a wholesomeness about her and you could
see this in her candor on "Password" and some other
shows. She was the woman next door in her
persona. And while women of her age are now
exploiting their slutiness for profit, Betty let her estrogen
age like a fine wine - at an age when most women have used up
their estrogen and have ceased to ovulate, it seemed that Betty
was ready to ride any man dirty at any moment (at least with her
mind and words); yet she didn't do so with a mouth like a
slut. She let you assemble the pieces of the slut
puppy puzzle in your mind. And somehow her wholesome
nature made her into your Grandma who at times could also show
some leg other than to scratch her blue veins. In a
tasteful way of straddling the wholesomeness with her fine aged
filthy nature, we see her in her 88 1/2 year old "Saturday
Night Live" skits that are a total riot culminating with a
taste of non-yeasty muffin.
My feelings now are best described as losing another early
adulthood friend that I've known for nearly 40 years and there
is a profound hole in my heart - another reminder of how
precious life is and how fast it goes in the end.
And I combine this with the recent loss of John Madden and my
boat has been rocked just a bit. Precious few
celebrities and big names affect me much as they croak, but the
death of these two have made me feel profoundly
mortal. Rest in Peace Betty and John.
You left the world in a better place upon your exit and no one
can take your place. |
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