ITCHY BOTTOM! Andrew Sullivan on "Real Time"
ITCHY BOTTOM! Andrew Sullivan on "Real Time"
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#0ITCHY BOTTOM! Andrew Sullivan on "Real Time"
Posted: 11/8/04 at 5:23pm
From Slate.com
Was anyone except me and James Wolcott watching last Friday's hallucinatory season finale of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO? Maher's guests included Alan Simpson, the former Republican Senator from Wyoming, and Andrew Sullivan, the well-known gay conservative blogger who recently startled his readership by reluctantly endorsing Kerry. Let's skim over Simpson's baffling interview with Maher, in which the senator, who is pro-choice and pro-gay rights, railed at Maher for making people laugh before advancing the odd argument that Wyoming as a state is progressive on gay issues because "Matthew Shepard was killed in this state, and the people of this state were offended." We'll also fast-forward past Sullivan's frothing rage toward Noam Chomsky, who had appeared earlier on the show in a taped interview. Chomsky, Sullivan insisted, had bilked the country for "millions" by criticizing US policy on the academic lecture circuit. Are we to understand that Sullivan himself commands no fee for his speaking engagements?
But the true high point of Friday's Real Time was one of those moments that only live television can offer, more humiliating than Ashlee Simpson's lip-synching debacle on SNL, more mysterious than the bulge under Bush's jacket in the first debate. When the roundtable guests (who also included actor D.L. Hughley and former US representative Pat Schroeder) rose to shake hands and chat in the last few minutes of the show, why was Andrew Sullivan – there's no polite way to put this -- rubbing his own ass, in full view of the cameras and for what seemed like an eternity? (This screen capture fails to do justice to the sheer duration of the event.) Anyone who had ever been caught in a social blunder – picking their nose on the train, say – could only look on in horrified identification: imagine being caught on live TV fondling one's own tush! I know bloggers aren't known for their social graces, but what problem was Sullivan addressing with his not-so-furtive adjustments? Numb buns? Atomic wedgie? Or just nervous fidgeting? Real Time will be replaying on HBO throughout this week. I welcome reader speculation on Mr. Sullivan's dilemma. But please, people … keep it clean.
Dana Stevens (aka Liz Penn) writes on television for Slate and on film and culture for the High Sign.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#1andy's gluteal morse code
Posted: 11/9/04 at 8:05am
see it here!
http://homepage.mac.com/njenson/movies/sullivan.html
r.i.p. marco, my guardian angel.
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
...global warming can manifest itself as heat, cool, precipitation, storms, drought, wind, or any other phenomenon, much like a shapeshifter. -- jim geraghty
pray to st. jude
i'm a sonic reducer
he was the gimmicky sort
fenchurch=mejusthavingfun=magwildwood=mmousefan=bkcollector=bradmajors=somethingtotalkabout: the fenchurch mpd collective
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#2Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:29am
Thanks, Borstal. I actually watched the Maher show on "On Demand" last night, and found it as fascinating and bizarre as you did. (What was up with Simpson, suddenly invoking Mathew Shepherd and chastising Maher?)
But Sullivan was the odd centerpice of the show. His personal politics are all over the map now, shaking his finger at Maher for not understanding Those Who Understand Jesus, getting all runny inside about red state folk, most of whom would zealously pass laws to keep Andrew out of their neighborhoods, schools, and houses of worship--unless he's there to denounce whatever it was that make his bum need scratchin'. But then, Itchy Bottom might be the perfect name for the flip-flopping fop.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
CurtainUp2
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/8/04
#3Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:38amYes! I saw it! I couldn't believe he was caught picking his ass on national television! Hilarious! As for the show, it truly was surreal at times. There's nothing like live T.V.!
There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
- Nelson Mandela
#4Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:40amItchy Bottom is perfect. On Datalounge they call him Milky Loads, but that's a little crass for mixed company.
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#5Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:43amYeah well, Datalounge hate us, so what do we care right?
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
broadwayguy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/03
#6Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:44am
Itchy bottom.
such a misleading thread title.
Updated On: 11/9/04 at 09:44 AM
popcultureboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/23/03
#7Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:44amUm, how so?
Nothing precious, plain to see, don't make a fuss over me. Not loud, not soft, but somewhere inbetween. Say sorry, just let it be the word you mean.
broadwayguy2
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/18/03
#8Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:46amthink about it, hun. Every gay man on the board should get it right away.
Auggie27
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/13/03
#9Itchy Bottom Seeks Red State Jock -- no fats, fems, or agnostics
Posted: 11/9/04 at 10:14amI do wonder what Sullivan believes the Bush base thinks of him. I mean, really, where does he imagine himself fitting in? He endorsed Kerry, but then quickly reverted back to his gushy appreciation of Traditional Values. Alas, his mixture of unbridled patriotism and Neo-Log Cabin activism is lost on that crowd, who think he's goin' to hell. Maybe he'll just gag himself (!), you know, sorta "Oh, Mary (Cheney), don't ask!" mode.
"I'm a comedian, but in my spare time, things bother me." Garry Shandling
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