March 9, 2011--Duh, Winning
I have been restraining myself from weighing in about Charlie Sheen, thinking I am above such things. What with the looming debt crisis, the threats to shut down the government, and of course Libya, I have been too busy paying attention to loftier matters.
Or at least that's what I've been pretending. Actually, in addition to going off the wagon and renewing my addiction to American Idol (and looking forward to the resumption of Dancing With the Stars on the 21st), I have been riveted to my TV and computer screen where I have been ingesting as much Charlie Sheen as I can. But now that the New York Times is covering him more and more extensively, I feel permitted to come out of the popular culture closet.
My decision was made easier by a quote from Charlie in the Times on the day he was fired by Warner Brothers, the owners of his hot show, Two and a Half Men. Up to then, he had only been suspended for the rest of this current season. (See linked article.)
When he learned of the news of his firing, Charlie released a statement to TMZ (the gossip show I also occasionally check out): “This is very good news. They continue to be in breach, like so many whales. It is a day of big gladness at the Sober Valley Lodge [his house] because now I can take all of their bazillions, never have to look at whatshiscock again and I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this warlock exists in this terrestrial dimension.”
How can you not love the guy?
He's as popular now as he has been on his show. Charlie set up a Twitter site this week and almost instantly 2.0 million linked to it. He got to the 2.0 million faster, according to Guinness World Records, than anyone or anything ever. Faster than either Kim Kardashian or Jersey Shore's Snooki.
Yes, there is that schadenfreudean aspect to Sheen's circumstances--the guilty pleasure of watching someone so high (this is not a drug pun) come crashing down. But he to me doesn't feel as if he is toppling from his pedestal of success. He is crazily even more successful than when he was rolling merrily along through the recent season of Two and a Half. I barely knew who he was, yet here I am unable to stop watching him. I even tuned into his Podcast over the weekend where he set himself up in a homemade studio and, surrounded by his posse and assorted pornstars, rattled on joyfully for hours and hours. Hey, CBS and Warner Brothers are sort of like whales.
The more I think about him, the phenomenon of him, and I am trying to think about him/it as well as taking prurient pleasure, the more he seems the perfect emblem or, if you will, metaphor for our complicated times. He represents, is a living example of having success and riches beyond imagining from, what, a sort of silly, smutty TV sitcom, which he basically walks though.
CBS will lose at least $250 million this year and next as a result of canceling the show and untold millions more from having fewer episodes to sell in syndication--it's that big a deal. And Charlie will lose about $2.0 million an episode. That's what he gets paid for mugging for 22 minutes a week on the half-hour show.
It's obscene that teachers in Wisconsin on average about $45,000 a year and are in danger of having their salaries as well as their benefits cut while Charlie Sheen pockets many millions a month.
So when he looks directly into the camera and points to himself while saying directly and knowingly to America, "Duh, winning," he's perversely got it right. This is what to too many winning looks like.
Or at least that's what I've been pretending. Actually, in addition to going off the wagon and renewing my addiction to American Idol (and looking forward to the resumption of Dancing With the Stars on the 21st), I have been riveted to my TV and computer screen where I have been ingesting as much Charlie Sheen as I can. But now that the New York Times is covering him more and more extensively, I feel permitted to come out of the popular culture closet.
My decision was made easier by a quote from Charlie in the Times on the day he was fired by Warner Brothers, the owners of his hot show, Two and a Half Men. Up to then, he had only been suspended for the rest of this current season. (See linked article.)
When he learned of the news of his firing, Charlie released a statement to TMZ (the gossip show I also occasionally check out): “This is very good news. They continue to be in breach, like so many whales. It is a day of big gladness at the Sober Valley Lodge [his house] because now I can take all of their bazillions, never have to look at whatshiscock again and I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this warlock exists in this terrestrial dimension.”
How can you not love the guy?
He's as popular now as he has been on his show. Charlie set up a Twitter site this week and almost instantly 2.0 million linked to it. He got to the 2.0 million faster, according to Guinness World Records, than anyone or anything ever. Faster than either Kim Kardashian or Jersey Shore's Snooki.
Yes, there is that schadenfreudean aspect to Sheen's circumstances--the guilty pleasure of watching someone so high (this is not a drug pun) come crashing down. But he to me doesn't feel as if he is toppling from his pedestal of success. He is crazily even more successful than when he was rolling merrily along through the recent season of Two and a Half. I barely knew who he was, yet here I am unable to stop watching him. I even tuned into his Podcast over the weekend where he set himself up in a homemade studio and, surrounded by his posse and assorted pornstars, rattled on joyfully for hours and hours. Hey, CBS and Warner Brothers are sort of like whales.
The more I think about him, the phenomenon of him, and I am trying to think about him/it as well as taking prurient pleasure, the more he seems the perfect emblem or, if you will, metaphor for our complicated times. He represents, is a living example of having success and riches beyond imagining from, what, a sort of silly, smutty TV sitcom, which he basically walks though.
CBS will lose at least $250 million this year and next as a result of canceling the show and untold millions more from having fewer episodes to sell in syndication--it's that big a deal. And Charlie will lose about $2.0 million an episode. That's what he gets paid for mugging for 22 minutes a week on the half-hour show.
It's obscene that teachers in Wisconsin on average about $45,000 a year and are in danger of having their salaries as well as their benefits cut while Charlie Sheen pockets many millions a month.
So when he looks directly into the camera and points to himself while saying directly and knowingly to America, "Duh, winning," he's perversely got it right. This is what to too many winning looks like.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:02 AM
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