Monday, December 06, 2004

While on the subject of the sexualization of young girls...

The New Yorker, always interested in discovering new talent, has an incredibly unfunny piece by Woody Allen.* It's a transcript of "the Disney trial," and it goes something like this:

Counsel: Will the witness please state his name.
Witness: Mickey Mouse.
C: Please tell the court your occupation.
W: Animated rodent.
C: Were you friendly with Michael Eisner?
W: I wouldn’t say friendly—we had dinner together a number of times. Once he and his wife had Minnie and me to their house.
C: Did you ever discuss business with him?
W: I was present at a breakfast between Mr. Eisner, Roy Disney, Pluto, and Goofy.


And so on.

As I said, not remotely funny. The joke--treating the familiar Disney characters as in-the-flesh celebrities--gets old before it even gets started. I like Sleeper and Bananas, even parts of Annie Hall, and don't wish to begrudge Allen his place among the select few who can probably send their toilet paper to the New Yorker and get it published. But that doesn't make his latest attempt at humor any better.

*Not to hard to guess where Allen would weigh in on the debate over the sexualization of young girls...He actually cast Portman in Everyone Says I Love You, but, if I remember correctly, had the decency not to cast her as the Allen-character's love interest.

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