blog disected (with strippers)
Purpose: To anallyze a blog post by Scott Adams called "Chinese Striptease Funeral."
Background: In his new book, Stick to Drawing Comics Monkey Brain!, Scott Adams (Dilbert cartoonist) apparently has collected his blog posts into a hardback format suitable for permanent preservation in the Library of Congress. It's an entertaining, easy-to-read-in-the-bathroom, book that is as auto-biographical as any blog. (not G rated)
Subject: Chinese Striptease Funeral, chapter on pages 187-188.
Link: I think this chapter was a blog entry on the Dilbertblog, and is no longer accesible here: http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/08/chinese_stripte.html
Title: "Chinese Striptease Funeral" is a perfect blog post title, if your aim is to get as many readers as possible. "Striptease" promises titilation, and that's the middle name of the World Wide Web. "Funeral" links to Death, a destiny shared, feared and probed by all humans. Death is one of the great themes of literature along with Love. Someone once said the two great themes of Love and Death are more often see as Sex and Violence. So in one title, you get 'em both!
Title, continued: "Chinese" adds that extra spice to the mix. It promises something exotic and foriegn. It also permits gentlemen and women of society to excuse their viewing of the post as a cultural and educational exploration. Call it the National Geographic effect.
Form: The post follows the classic blog form of presenting a news item, reacting to it, linking associated pop culture references, and making a joke.
Content, the news: It's unverified by me, but he claims that in the effort to increase attendance at funerals, some Chinese are hiring strippers to perform. This news-of-the-wierd item alone is sure to catch anyone's attention.
Content, the reaction: Adams of course ridicules the practice, but also admits that it's enticing. It's a way to prove the corpse is dead. The name of the location, Donghai county, can be made into a crude joke. It's effective, because "at the age of fourteen, I would have been willing to kill a cousin to look at at stripper," says Adams, once again scoring the themes of Sex, Violence and Death.
Content, the pop culture reference: He mentions a Rolling Stones song.
Conclusion, the joke: This is the delicious part of the brew. It's where Adams shows his comic genius, and left me LOL for several minutes. The previous reactions were funny enough--amusing, but this punch line was deceptively effective. It hit me as a cliche at first--the obvious go-to association for a comedian. But then it snuck up on me. It works on more levels. It's like the drink with an aftertaste or a delayed kick. I don't know if it will work here, without the build up, but Adams says,
"The Chinese have given us gunpowder, fireworks, chopsticks, and now this idea. I hope it starts catching on in the States. I don't know what it would feel like to be sad and aroused at the same time, but I'm willing to give it a try.
"Unfortunately, we ruin everything over here. We'll probably start having mimes at funerals instead of strippers. But I have to admit it would be funny watching a mime do his impression of being trapped underground in a pine box."
Evaluation: Ouch.
Labels: dilbert
posted by uc @ 11:33 AM
