“How it feels to bomb Germany” by Andy Rooney in *Stars & Stripes *2/27/43
http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/rooney/wilhelmshaven.html
“I don’t answer the people who write me – they’re not my kind of people.”
What an asshole.
No, why? Who is it?
You mean “Cohen”?
That’s a good clip that shows Rooney in a good light and Ali G. as an unfunny pseudo-buffoon, not worthy of parody.
Sorry, I’m not an Ali G. fan, in any incarnation.
From my twitter feed: “In his 60 Mins. farewell., Andy Rooney basically called Harry Reasoner a lazy drunk, then told fans to piss off. Did you mist up?” @MarkHarrisNYC
I thought Andy was quite complimentary of Reasoner, aside from calling him lazy and a drinker.
He still said working for Harry was way better than writing gags for Arthur Godfrey, who was one of of the least liked men in show business.
Seth Rogan
Ah, Andy’s a good guy. I don’t think I’ll be alive when I’m 92, so there.
I agree with this which almost makes me sad because I’ve never liked Rooney. He realized that Ali G was probably a set-up or possibly an idiot and either way he didn’t want to play. I can’t stand Sasha Baron Cohen’s “let’s humiliate people” humor, even when it’s against Bob Barr or others I don’t like; to me it’s about as funny as running up and making armpit farts in front of them.
While I find Ali G’s pretend-idiot persona kind of funny in itself, I completely agree that Rooney comes of reasonably well in the interview. From Rooney’s perspective, he is being interviewed by someone who is borderline retarded, unprofessional, incompetent, disrespectful, or just an asshole. And while I find Ali G funny, in truth he is certainly an asshole, at the very least borderline unethical, setting up interviews under false pretenses, lying, purposefully deceiving the interviewee and trying to sabotage and invoke response. Sure, it would be ideal if Andy Rooney could be a bit more light-hearted about having his time wasted by a deceptive or incompetent boor, but he has every right to be offended and perturbed.
Gore Vidal also came off well on Ali G. He played it straight for a few questions then clearly caught on and plays along, even rapping to the extent a fat 80 something uber patrician is capable.