The internet has failed to do right by Mr. Mike, which is a sad fate for the man who was a mentor to P.J. O'Rourke. The only articles available online are old bitter Michael O'Donoghue pieces, which aren't a patch on young angry Michael O'Donoghue pieces from his National Lampoon days, when his philosophy of humor was, "It's not enough to tickle the ribs. Now you must drive an ice pick into the brain pan. Did I say 'an ice pick?' I meant 'nine hundred ice picks,' of course."
Telling a Child His Parent is DeadMost shock humorists make fun of things like sex and death because they're afraid of what would happen if they took them seriously. An O'Donoghue piece like "The Vietnamese Baby Book" ("Willy Calley, pudding and pie, shoot the boys and make them die...") is fearless about death in a way that, say, American Pie fails to be fearless about sex.
Kid: I'm so hungry that my stomach hurts. We've been walking all day and haven't eaten a thing.
Adult: I know, but I had a reason for not buying you food. Right now you've got ten seconds to choose between al the ice ream you can eat or seeing your parents alive again.
The things people are shocked by are no longer sexual. It's cancer that threatens people now, not blow jobs. So you can be shocking and dangerous, and there is a perimeter that people get very nervous as you move close to. I used to smoke Marlboros and the guy selling them would say, "Soft pack or hard?" I'd say, "Listen, I don't really care as long as it gives me cancer." They'd just go, "Hunnh?"If you've never been "beyond the perimeter," it looks something like this (from the cover of National Lampoon's "Bummer" issue):
No comments:
Post a Comment