In all the reaction to Michael Moore’s Oscar acceptance speech, people seem to be focusing on whether he was right or wrong, appropriate in tone or not. I have another question: how is it that Moore - the man who made his career claiming that the liberals are too often humorless and demonstrating through his filmmaking that humor can be the left’s best weapon - came to launch such a predictable and humorless screed at the Academy Awards? As Tony Scott notes, he used the same line at the Independent Spirit awards, to a favorable response. Clearly, he’s used to playing to the home crowd and forgot that his one-liners really aren’t funny to anyone else - they only appeal to those already convinced. By contrast, I found Steve Martin’s performance last night gleefully subversive. I know iconoclasm isn’t everything, but the power to show up the seemingly normal as something strange and funny is an ability that Moore used to bring to the screen in spades. And it’s something the left - caught between a rock and a hard place politically - really could use more of right now.
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