As in, what has he done to make me care about his opinions on pennies and junk mail? Was he famous or respected before 60 Minutes?
According to the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) he was a reporter for Stars & Stripes during WWII.
I still don’t give shit what he thinks about anything.
On preview I see Revtim’s posted almost exactly what I was going to say. I might add that he had a newspaper column at one point (and might still, I don’t know.)
I find him annoying. My brother, who hates him, often quotes the “Beavis and Butt-head” episode where Beavis was making fun of Andy Rooney. Too funny.
I’ve always found him interesting and entertaining. But then, I’ve seen his little bit on 60 minutes a total of twice, max. 
“Do ya ever wonder why…”
Yup. He was part of the “writing 69th” or somesuch during world war II; along with Walter Cronkite. They accompanied a few bombing missions over europe, figuring if they were going to report on the bombing effort they might want to see what it’s really all about.
He’s a cranky OB, for sure. He’s excellent, and unfortunately geting up there in years. I’ll miss him when he’s gone. His semi-weekly column can usually be found in the opinion section at http://www.nando.com
OB? Orange buffalo? Obese bicycle? Orangutan bivalve?
Or are you calling him a tampon?
Probably meant SOB.
I remember when he dissed anyone who mourned Kurt Cobain’s death and that we were ungrateful bastards because we didn’t live through a Depression and fight in Double-U Double-U Two. Basically came off as an ill-informed jerk.
He’s like any other three-times-a-week columnist, desperate for anything to fill the dead air.
Like the Earth, mostly harmless.
At least he is himself but now Charles Groding does his Andy Rooney impression on 60 minutes II. Now that I do not understand.
Rooney was a long-time reporter and commentator for CBS. His two specials “Mr. Rooney Goes to Washington” and “Mr. Rooney Goes to Dinner” are among the most entertaining news specials ever. He also did a nice little investigative piece on the AARP on 60 Minutes before becoming a commentator.
I don’t watch 60 Minutes any more, but Rooney’s commentaries used to be pretty clever and usually amusing (he screwed up on Cobain, but, really, he admitted it the next week, so what’s the point of holding the grudge?) He’s better than Point/Counterpoint version II (Kirkpatrick/Alexander), where Shana always made a fool of herself. I should have agreed with her position (and I did when Nicholas Von Hoffman was holding the liberal chair), but she always got it wrong.
“How come they call it TAKING a dump, and not LEAVING a dump? I mean, after all, you’re not really TAKING it anywhere. Funk dat!”
I took it as meaning “Old Bastard.” But that’s just me.
Ugh. I caught Grodin by mistake once when I was flipping channels and the end of 60 Minutes II was on. Bleah! I didn’t like him when he had his talk show and I think he’s a talentless, unfunny hack with his commentary. Personally, I think his best role ever was in The Great Muppet Caper. Everything else has been crap.
I’ll take 10 tons of Rooney over 10 minutes of Grodin any day…
jayjay
I liked Andy Rooney in that movie “Wild Orchid.”
:d&r:
Before he was on 60 Minutes I remember seeing a piece he did called “I Hate New York”.
Of Course, he’s still living there, so he couldn’t have hated it too much…
(“Did you ever notice that I have this high, whiny voise? Why is that, anyway? And isn’t 60 Minutes supposed to be a newsmagazine – whatever that’s supposed to mean on TV. So why do they have this old codger come out and grouse about thing? If I really wanted to listen to somebody complain, I wouldn’t have to turn on the TV set.”)
At least you have to watch him only on 60 Minutes.
We have a local car dealership that uses a look- and sound-alike for their one-minute commercials, all of them starting with “Didja ever wonder…” continuing with a diatribe about small print, ‘volume pricing’, pushy salespeople, misleading ads, etc., none of which you would find at THIS dealership (can’t remember the name, since I click it off the minute it comes on).
IIRC, the dealership was in some sort of legal tussle with AR about using celebrity look-alikes, so for a time, the actor’s name and “Celebrity Impersonator” appeared at the beginning of the commercial.
In that same episode he also bitched about the work ethic of kids in Curt’s generation, the lack of moral standards they hold, and why people like Curt should have served humanity better by getting a real job like he and his friends had done.
He proclaimed Curt’s fans as being spoiled, coddled, and morally reprehenisble sloths. He went on to complain that our opinions aren’t worth shit because we haven’t been through what his generation had been through- that his generation set the standards for the rest to follow and until a generation matched what his has done, and continues to do, they need to keep their opinions to themselves- On and on, ad naseum.
I remember watching the show and being completely blown away by not only his outright arrogance and self-righteousness, but more by his utter and complete ignorance.
It was sickening.
What partly made up for the horseshit, and completely out of line comments he made about these people, was a comment I heard later that week on MTV. Yeah, I know, MTV. But hey, it was the best comeback I’d seen from these guys to date.
Kurt Loder, MTV’s journalistic equivalent of Walter Crondike, showed the more offensive parts of Andy’s diatribe. Instead of going off and ranting and raving himself, he simply looked into the camera and said dryly, “All this coming from a guy that makes his living, a considerable sum no less, working a mere five minutes a week.”
I doubt I’ve captured how sweet the payoff was, but it was. MTV replayed this clip about fifty times a day for the next week or so.
It all kind of made up for assholish statements Andy made. Kinda, but not totally. Ever since then, I’ll never watch or listen or read or acknowledge or (You get the picture) anything that that prick Andy has to say.
Up yours Andy- It’s about time you died already.
Well, the amount of hair-rending and teeth gnashing resulting from Kurt Cobain’s suicide was pretty disgusting to watch.
As for who is he to grace us with his opinion: Couldn’t this question reasonably be asked of every opinion columnist and social critic out there?
All of them found somebody to pay them for spouting opinions. Sounds like good work to me if you can get it. And none of them are more qualified to do it than most of us.
Still, it’s difficult to find sympathy for someone who found success on such a large scale who couldn’t deal… What a waste. I didn’t mourn his suicide, while I enjoyed the Seattle grunge scene having lived there before it became the Next Big Thing, my first thought on hearing of his suicide was “What an idiot.”
Guin, you rule.
He works in New York. He actually LIVES in Connecticut, as so many of them do.