Fran Lebowitz: caustic wit or boring complainer?

Love the moment in ep 1 where she talks about being on the subway and observing her fellow man

Felt her 90 mins in the movie previously translated better than several episodes

best thing about it is scorsese’s uncontrollable laughter at every single thing she says

A friend has been bugging me to watch this.

I only saw the first ep a few months ago and I’m still thinking about some of the things she said

https://cultmtl.com/2022/03/fran-lebowitz-on-will-smith-chris-rock-and-the-slap-heard-round-the-world/

“No one should hit people because they don’t like a joke. First of all, this is a terrible precedent because most comedians tell lots of jokes that are bad, most jokes are not funny, most people are not that good at their job.

Thank you for posting that here and not in the will smith thread

Author Fran Lebowitz is in attendance for tonight’s game. #WNBATwitter pic.twitter.com/jFhQ5UfFeW

— Her Hoop Stats (@herhoopstats) August 28, 2023

I saw her live and she made a sincere parallel between that Will Smith slap and Putin invading Ukraine.

I think of when authors like Mark Twain spent as much time on lecture tours and the Chautauqua circuit as they did actually writing. She's making her living in a job that hasn't existed in 100 years.

the slap heard round the caucasus

I saw her live and she made a sincere parallel between that Will Smith slap and Putin invading Ukraine.

― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, August 29, 2023 3:56 AM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i feel like you have to explain more

As best I can remember: Leibowitz was talking about Ukraine, and making it very clear she thinks Putin is a tyrant and the war an act of unprovoked aggression, "there are no two sides to this!". And this then segued directly into "just as there are no two sides when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, there is no two sides to this", delivered without the slightest hint of irony. I found the idea that I should bring the same amount of moral clarity and conviction to an actual war and some silly showbiz event puzzling.

i feel like launching into some baudrillardian thing about the surreality of both events and their identical function in the american media as a locus for the affirmation of certain kinds of moral convictions but i won't do that actually, even if i kind of think that

which wouldn't make the FL thing any less silly but idk