I’m surprised anyone was taking this seriously. Was it really not obvious that he was riffing on that quote from the Times?
No.
Which quote?
I don’t think it was obvious. If you look at the Politico article, the first couple of paragraphs are completely factual, reporting the original “stench” comment from Craig Robinson. This was a real comment that Robinson really made.
Then there’s a paragraph with the Peggy Noon finger sandwich stuff. This feels like satire. So, OK, maybe the intro stuff was just the launching point for a satirical piece.
But then the article mentions Ryan’s AARP appearance, at which he gave a PowerPoint presentation and got booed. This is again entirely factual. He really did appear at the AARP, he really gave a PowerPoint presentation, and he really got booed.
The story continues on this way, presenting comedic material that would normally be obvious satire, mixed in with actual events that really happened. I know that often satire does incorporate elements of truth, but this particular article read really weirdly to me, like someone wrote a straight-up news article and then decided to comedy it up with some fake dialogue and anti-PowerPoint humor. Like I said earlier, I can’t fault anyone for being confused.
The finger sandwich thing is obviously a joke, but its supposedly a quote of Ryan actually making a joke. So it doesn’t really make it any more obvious that it was satire.
Didn’t help that that the piece wasn’t that funny.
Check out the author’s official bio. It says that when he dies, “he intends to be buried in Chicago, so he can still participate in the politics of that city.” A pretty good joke.
So I can only assume his whole bio is satire, he never studied English, and couldn’t locate Saudi Arabia on a map (much less write a dispatch from there!).
Ryan has a nice cushion - his Congressional seat that he is running very hard for.
In my estimation, the surrounding info in the article (about Ryan “breaking free”) seem to fit the reality of the situation. SOMETHING happened, and he probably doesn’t want to go down with the ship.
It’s satire, more correctly it’s “Gonzo.” It wouldn’t be any more obvious if he had titled his piece Fear and Loathing on the Ryan Bus. Roger Simon is old enough and in the right business, that he has–doubtlessly–read, re-read and memorized vast swaths of Hunter S. Thompson’s writing. To my eye, it’s a credible, perhaps even well done, riff on HST.
The real stench is Politico.com.
Actually, that would have been a lot more obvious, and helpful as well. Politico is a news and opinion site, not a satire site. Publishing the article with no note that it was satire was irresponsible. And worse, it’s just more bullshit ammunition for the right to claim media bias.
First I’ve ever heard of that. Googling “crazy legs reagan” or “crazylegs reagan” doesn’t return anything which suggests that to be the case.
“Crazylegs” was the nickname of Elroy Hirsch, who played end for the University of Wisconsin (and later the Los Angeles Rams).
Yes, but what wasn’t clear to me— and still isn’t— is whether the entire story is an invention or he was riffing on actual events. Did Ryan actually appear before the AARP? If so was he heckled, or was that all fiction? Was there a town hall meeting at the University of Central Florida and did he really show a Power Point presentation? For that matter, is the “stench” quote from Craig Robinson real or not?
He was the first flanker in the NFL.
Crazy legs was a Hirsch trademark. I recall he won a suit against a women’s (nylon / shaving?) product that used the same name.
Great guy to bend an elbow with.
Reagan was the Gipper from his movie.
The Craig Robinson line about Ryan distancing himself from the stench. As MsWhatsit says, that was a real comment from Robinson*, who was formerly the political director of the Iowa Republican Party. The author made some jokes about that, then went on to make further jokes about the results if Ryan were to take that advice immediately and start doing his own thing during the campaign (with powerpointedly uninspiring results).
It’s hardly the most subtle satire. I called it “poetic license” back in post #5. By which I meant, “He’s making shit up for the sake of the joke.” Has Poe’s Law brought us to this?
*Here’s an article written by the man himself where he owns the quote and says he doesn’t regret it, but that he could have found a more diplomatic way to say it.
He was indeed booed at the AARP. And he did do that Power Point at the University of Central Florida.
So where does the satire start?
Well, we’re not entirely sure of the veracity of the “Reportedly” in the following:
Sounds more like if this was actually said, Ryan was just joking around with his staffers.
Nevertheless, once your opposition stops railing against you and starts laughing at you, that may be seen to be the beginning of the end.
I think we now have clear and convincing evidence that Mitt Romney is some sort of a humor black hole.
At a safe distance (beyond the suck-horizon), humor accelerates as it nears the Romney… [Stewart, Colbert 2011/2012], until it gets TOO close and goes over the suck-horizon, [Politico 9/2012] where it immediately becomes confusing and fails so completely that it can no longer be recognized as humor [Romney 2012].
Is this a late addition to the article or something?