Seoulscapade

Haw. Haw. Haw. Jolly good show!

At first I thought this guy might be a complete tosser—the one on the left, not the one on the right. (The one on the right looks like a tippling old codger rather than a tosser.) The one on the left is named Andrew, and a bad impression of him welled up in me when I stumbled across his blog.

It was full of conservative sentiment, a glorification of the Catholic Church, a devotion to monarchy, melancholic musings on passing traditions, rosy cheeked Norman Rockwell images . . . Hang on a minute, is this guy for real? Look at him: the paleness of the skin, untested by the elements, the softness of the hand, untrained for the operation of any tool (save the corkscrew and cigar lighter), the easy smile, uninhibited due to the smooth years of a sheltered upbringing—it should have clinched it for me that he really was a tosser.

I wasn’t convinced, however. There was something too . . . I don’t know . . . laughable about his content. That’s when it hit me. Of course! This is a parody site—this guy is a satirist! At that moment, my estimations of young Andrew soared. Suddenly I was appreciating the impeccable subtlety of his wit, the exquisite nuances in his observations, the comedy in his close-ups of the Pope. It was exceptional work, walking the finest of lines between satire and shame with such deft control, drawing out the conceit with such sustained poise. Nowhere were there any spoilers, nowhere the rehearsed hints, constant asides, or explained irony you get with blundering mainstream comics.

No, this was of a higher order. This guy’s talent was on another level—or so I thought. Then doubts crept in. Even in a work of such refinement, you’d expect to uncover at least one in-joke or two somewhere. But like I said, I couldn’t detect any sure sign or confirmation it was satire. And too much was adding up against that. On the left of his site were links to other sites advocating conservatism. The articles on religion and monarchy were too numerous, going on almost it seemed beyond a joke. All of it, in fact, was not even near a joke, I had to conclude.

My delight at stumbling across comic genius turned to despair. In realizing he was serious, I was jolted back across the line to the perception of lunacy again. With that shift in subjectivity, from apprehending lunacy to genius and back to lunacy again, in finally realizing he was serious, I was witness to how close an author, and indeed his work, can be to either genius or madness—naught but a hairsbreadth, a pinch, or a gnat’s twat. And how easy it was to cross from one side to the other, depending on the packaging. I doubt he realizes how close he is to producing sublime parody. Nor would he realize how easy it would be to redeem himself, by simply declaring somehow that his work is satire. Instead, he ruins its potential and puts it all to ill cause.

Yet what use has he of satire, of going against the grain? None, come to think of it. A life of pampered advances and easy choices combined with citizenship of the millennial generation must surely have resulted in endowing young Andrew with a gargantuan sense of entitlement. Why go against the flow? It is certain he orgasms daily at the thought of the enormity of the social machinery guaranteeing his current and future life of privilege. His is a world upheld by God, its great chain of being, fixed and immutable, allowing him to secure a rightful place on some lofty rung.

It it not just me who loathes his kind. I think there may be a whole world of loathing out there for Andrew, judging by the hilarious forward to his comment box. Never have I seen any blog provide such an elaborate guide for plebeians on how one should conduct one’s self when one is viewing a blog site. It is a most revealing and hilarious advisory.

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING:

• Do not leave comments that are rude, unconstructive, tawdry, name-calling, or that constitute ad-hominen attacks.

• If you notice an inaccuracy or something in need of correction, please either post a comment or send an email.

• If you have complaints about the content, nature, style, or tone of this website, please desist from visiting it and maintain a safe distance.

At all times, remember that you are a guest on this site and behave accordingly.

Right you are! I confess I came across this plea for propriety while looking for the nearest comment box, so that I could pour venom into it. When I saw this message, and after I had stopped laughing, I felt sorry for the guy. He has obviously been horribly harassed in the past. I declined to add my invective to the mix, since he’s heard it all before.

One thing I should concede, though. His writing is good. I certainly won’t take that away from him. At the end of day, however, he is just a pompous prat, the worse so for willfully pursuing a life of cliche, for not rising above the banal, for not seizing the opportunity to be a parody of himself.

You can visit Andrew’s site via the Morons menu.