I never thought much of Fielder as a comedian until I saw how many people he has pissed off in this thread. Well played, Nathan.
And that’s the arrogance. He’s highbrow for the lowbrow.
Fair point. I think I always prefer to assume simple ignorance rather than malice, especially with someone like Fielder who may be neurodivergent. But it’s hard to excuse any of it with him.
Like I said early, I am completely over the casually informed who are convinced they know more than the experts. It’s why measles are back and why we have a game show host for president. Because people “are doing their own research.”
If Fielder wants to put on a silly show that convinces a certain type that it’s brilliant because it’s obtuse, fine. But when he goes on real shows and spouts nonsense that about real issues. Then he’s crossed from pretentious to harmful. It’d be like the host of Fear Factor being able to influence our politics.
I don’t think he expects people to take any of it seriously. It’s all utterly ridiculous. I enjoy it because I love absurdist humor and I admire people who can create it because it’s something I can’t do. I marvel at each kooky thing he does to push the scenario even further into inanity. How can you think that a guy who dressed like a baby and breastfed from a giant robot to get into Sully’s mindset is actually serious about what’s he’s doing? It’s all a big joke. Part of the joke is how far he takes things, like getting a pilot’s license and building gigantic sets that are used for just a few minutes. He’s a smart person with an extremely weird sense of humor. That’s it. He never intended to improve aviation safety.
I thought that too, until he gave that interview on CNN I linked above about airline safety. The one where he misrepresented what FAA training on the subject entails.
One of his things is that he’s always in character and is fully committed to the bit. Interviewers try to get him to break character but I haven’t seen any succeed. I think that if we knew that he’s not really like the character on his shows it might ruin the fun.
He reminds me of Andy Kaufman in this way. Fully committed but also not quite sure that he is 100% mentally competent. That being said I enjoy both.