Monday, February 23, 2009

All Those Nice People In All Their Fancy Clothes


I just noticed that there's an audio component to the Manohla Dargis article about Jerry Lewis - you can push a button and hear her talk about what she likes about Jerry. She suggests that one reason to tune in to the Oscars is to see if he'll "embarrass all those nice people in all their fancy clothes," and then she adds, "I hope he does." Well, to me, this beautifully sums up Jerryness. The embarrassment IS what's great about him and it's also what drives some people away. She hits on something really essential there, and that final embrace of embarrassment - "I hope he does" - is epiphanic. Listen to Dargis, I say.