Mrs. Doubtfire and Subtle Elite Paternalism

Saturday Night, after our early exit from LCD Soundsystem, Marilyn and I came home to find Millie and our babysitter watching the last half of Mrs. Doubtfire. I sat with Millie and watched the rest of the movie with her. I can't remember the last time I saw it. I may have only seen it once when it originally was released in 1993. Would I have seen it in the movie theater? No, probably not. I reckon my family would have rented it from Blockbuster.

I do remember it's cultural impact though. Beyond a silly farce that found Robin Williams at the zenith of his mass appeal, I remember it striking a chord in mass culture as it dealt with the idea of divorce and custody, single dads and the different ways families could exist outside the traditional nuclear model. Wrapped up in its slapstick silliness and Howard Shore's sweeter than sugar score was a message coming down from on high (20th Century Fox) steering hearts and minds around the water coolers. It wasn't as blatant as an Instagram post from Robin and Sally Field explicitly calling for a rethinking of family structure but it served the same purpose. In fact it was much more clever and effective. Mrs. Doubtfire wasn't alone of course. Hollywood regularly pumped out films and tv shows that set the tone for culture, morals and values, masked in digestible and entertaining packages.

Watching Mrs. Doubtfire certified a feeling I've had since the election: All of that's over. It's dead. Celebrities don't matter because the citizenry is sick of hearing from them. It's been dying for years and it will kick around for a while I guess, like The Penguin's mother (spoiler).

That's not to say people don't want entertainment. They just don't really care what the people making the entertainment thinks about anything outside of the entertainment they're making. Jimmy Kimmel, Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, Taylor, Howard Stern, LeBron James... Shut up and dance for us.

This is painfully obvious isn't it? It's a message I've been hearing online for a while... stick to comedy. But we'll get to me later.

From the beginning, our airwaves and movie theaters have always sought to drive and guide culture. Early on it preached conformity and traditional morality (with some exceptions) - but when the boomers came of age and started taking control of the messaging, their idealistic activism of the 60s drove them to inject their ideology into the work - Live Aid, We Are The World etc... But for better or for worse, the internet and social media democratized and flattened out voices of influence and the folks at the top lost their dominant hold on it. Adam Curtis's multi part "Can't Get You Out of My Head" series does a great job of unpacking all of this.

I don't have the data to prove it, but my gut tells me that the collective approach of famous people making direct pitches for Harris had a net negative effect. I think it may have been smarter strategically to just ask Oprah and Bruce and everyone else to sit this one out. I don't think any of them, certainly not me, came from a cynical, craven or selfish place of doing it for the $$$ or because they were compelled to by some Deep State Cabal... no, I think everyone's coming from a righteous, place. But it's paternalistic attitude that, while not intended to be ends up feeling arrogant and elitist. It ends up feeling like "shhh, now now, I know what's best for you." I never thought of myself in the Oprah and Bruce camp, and when I used my voice to advocate for stuff, I always thought I was just doing it as me, the dude who's always cared about it, but now as hundreds of thousands of people paying attention to me. Naturally, most of those people didn't give a fuck what I thought. They just wanted a quick laugh.

Of course, this isn't the only reason I think Trump won, but once I started thinking about it, it kind of unraveled into a self examination of everything I do creatively. At it's core, it all comes from a place of subtle elite paternalism. My comedy, especially the more satirical stuff begins with me having a point of view, deciding something is wrong, stupid or absurd and then finding creative ways to reflect that back to you the audience. It works best when the audience agrees with the point of view. It confirms something to be true about the world that they've sensed already. I don't know if it's a bad thing. I think the idea of Elitism has gotten a bad rap actually! It's a slur now, but don't we need some hierarchy of ideas? We need people smarter than me and you to push things forward. Progress for chrissakes!

But then again, I start thinking: maybe I don't know shit?

Anyway, I'm grateful to as least have this as a new thought bouncing around in my head. It's not going to drive me into comedy retirement, but I think it will have an impact. It'll act as a little governor, the idea of subtle elite paternalism... how overt is it? how much is it driving the idea... Who or what are my targets? How can it be less smug while still interesting?

With all that said... how about Matt Gaetz's weird ass face, eh?

P&L, T