I just watched Dylan Ratigan as a guest on “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, and WOW! :eek: The “interview” or rabid soliliquy (as I would call it) with him was hard to watch. He was clearly geeked up on something pretty hard and ranting incoherently like a lunatic; not even giving Rachel a chance to get a word in edgewise.
Now I know his show features him being pretty geeked up and rant-filled but this was something different. Rachel Maddow was almost speechless at the end. And Dylan Ratigan apologized and said he needed a cigarette. Dude’s got some problems…
I watched George Carlin live in one of the last shows he did, and I got a very similar feeling at the time. He was funny as hell, but hoppin’ like Tom Cruise on Oprah’s couch.
I’m about to stop watching his program. I love his panels, especially Jimmy Williams, but I’m getting tired of hearing him beat his hobbyhorses to a bloody pulp. EVERY single discussion has to lead to one of them.
In his last shows? When he was in his early 70s? He was definitely a cocaine user earlier in his career, but the heart attacks put a stop to that eventually. In the last few years of his life he briefly went into rehab for an addiction to wine and painkillers, but that would be a different situation- and he kicked that habit as far as I know.
Ratigan is a blowhard. I don’t know if that’s because of drugs or something else, but it does occur naturally, too.
I don’t know if he was coked up or just naturally exuberant. I’d seen and heard him perform elsewhere before, though, and he wasn’t nearly as hyper as he was the night of the performance.
Oh, I agree; he is a major blowhard and he has been that way for a long time. But this Rachel Maddow interview was something special. I really would like to hear from someone else who’s seen it. I’m very familiar with Ratigan’s schtick and this was different. He wasn’t even in control of the shit coming out of his mouth; he was ranting about “the foundational systematic energy systems” and “the essence of this union that is our great democracy and blah blah FINANCIAL CHICANERY!!!” :eek:
When he finally realized he had stopped his rant, I don’t even think he had any fuckin’ idea what the hell he had even begun talking about. And like I said, he was apologetic, rambling and “in need of a cigarette” after Rachel Maddow thanked him for appearing.
Yeah, he’s been getting into the “zone” lately, spewing a word salad - sort of a bastard stepchild of Howard Beale and Sarah Palin. I agree with him about the importance of the issues he’s ranting about, but I think the stress of ranting five days a week is getting to him. I saw it, but frankly I tuned it out, reading the Dope at the same time as I was already familiar with his rant having heard it a couple of hours before.
Dude’s got some problems…
