Fran Lebowitz: caustic wit or boring complainer?

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Legitimately confused as to whether that's Fran Lebowitz or Sandra Bernhard

the real star of that photo is the wallpaper

Her hilarious takedown of Bernie Sanders ("who leaves New York when they're 18 to go to Vermont?!") on this week's Real Time with Bill Maher was the most Fran Lebowitz thing ever.

haha

Uh, New Yorkers like Fran may think that New York is the omphalos of the world, unsurpassed by any place on earth. I'd guess that most of those New Yorkers are well-to-do, have nice living spaces they can easily afford and they feel their lives have a measure of big-city glamor. Many other people would find it loud, smelly, crowded and ugly compared to Vermont.

You're not a NYer are you

Yes. I share that distinction with 99.9% of the world's population.

lol

"Immigrants make the culture and tourists ruin it."

Great interview from Sydney Opera House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvmRbq-5h-o

For me she is emblematic of a particular type of NYC bore, a person with nothing going for them other than being smart and an avid culture consumer, who thus either lacks the imagination or defensively refuses to acknowledge that there could be anything more to life than living in NYC and consuming culture.

like what?

posting obv

I like her Photos

Frannie Leibovwitz

to the first question "what did you have thought you would have done with your life" she answers, "well, i wanted to be a writer... and now I am" which begs some serious questions.

"what did would you have thought you would have done with your life?", rather.

I kinda like her but I know what man alive means seems like her whole worldview is kinda obsolete

Yeah, thirded

Netflix series with Martin Scorsese premiering January 8.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MClMxqD-HNA

Will watch

Blew through the first three episodes this morning, laughing hard enough to wake my sleeping husband at least twice. I'm as worn down by the world as anyone else right now, but the presence of Lebowitz, Scorsese and, in a few interview clips, Spike Lee just makes me feel overwhelmingly grateful that we have these people right now.

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