Links to stuff mentioned:
This is part of my so-called "Scripted Review" series, in which I make a Youtube video based on an old blogpost. For more information on what this is and why I'm doing it, see HERE:
In this case, the old blog post is here: https://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2013/11/television-addiction-part-4.html
This is also part of my Television Addiction series. For my explanation of what the Television Addiction series is and why I'm doing it, see: https://youtu.be/T5CEQ9-35xA and http://joelswagman.blogspot.com/2021/04/television-addiction-article-on.html
Michael Moore’s The Awful Truth
This wasn’t my first encounter with The Awful Truth. I’ve seen it before back in the day. But when I saw the DVDs in the store, I decided to buy them and work through the series again anyway.
Parts of The Awful Truth I remembered very well. Parts of it I didn’t remember at all. (I’m not sure if that’s because I never saw the whole thing, or if it’s just because my memory is so lousy). But anyway, I’ve now worked my way through the entire series.
Like most liberals, I have a lot of ambivalence towards Michael Moore (something - I’ve- expressed in this blog before). I sympathize with his politics, but I believe that anything that misinforms or misleads does a disservice to the political discourse.
(The extent to which Michael Moore’s movies are misleading is always a source of controversy. Part of the problem is that most of the right-wing hatchet men who attack Moore ’s movies are seldom any more honest than Moore is, and this leads to a lot of claims and counterclaims that just make my head spin.)
However, the great thing about The Awful Truth is that it isn’t a documentary—it’s just pure political theater, so you don’t need to worry about fact checking it, you just enjoy the theater. Michael Moore does some great political stunts like getting throat cancer victims to sing Christmas carols at Philip Morris, for instance. Or driving around a Sodom mobile to every state where sodomy is still illegal.
In the course of the show, Michael Moore of course manages to really piss off a lot of rich and powerful people—making me a little bit suspicious about the fact that the show was mysteriously cancelled after two seasons despite getting good ratings.
And yet, much of the format of The Awful Truth—sending correspondents out to conduct satirical interviews with people who don’t realize they’re being satirized until it’s too late—is what The Daily Show is still doing.
And in fact, considering The Daily Show manages to produce 4 episodes a week (compared to The Awful Truth’s 12 episodes a season) The Daily Show is arguably doing Michael Moore’s job a lot more efficiently than Michael Moore ever did.
Related Playlists:
Scripted Reviews Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x5BKcEIufNKlS58JHU_glyL&si=Pje0KQqIqOgWGGUI
Television Addiction: Oh, the TV Shows I've Seen: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x5dG-fZus5AmF1kQSDBfSDJ
Television Addiction Part 4: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x7tGOeUw5E7xQBVO_DQ3xcn&si=lM1iMgfWSgaA3Bzf
Michael Moore Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOY-0V_l_9x7Q2-IdGDFod4kbbQjU0EBe&si=RBU3uU4boK64XMAV
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