Blog: BaronDixon on LiveVideo.com

Gender: Male
Status: Taken
Age: 48
Sign: Pisces
City: Phoenix, AZ
State: Arizona
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The Argent009 "British Urine Drive" ...

MONDAY, JULY 14, 2008 (7:35 PM)

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The Argent009 "British Urine Drive" campaign and controversy.

(I'm feeling thoughtful)

Okay, most of you who know me well enough to have a modicum of respect for me in spite of my various and numerous character flaws also know that I steer away from unnecessary drama and personal controversy whenever possible. But after seeing predominantly hostile bulletins directed at Argent009, I finally had to investigate the video in question for myself.

Fully expecting to see Argent009 pass judgment on someone and say something awful to them--in this case merry olde England--I steeled myself for something patently offensive. Based on the postings and their accompanying "visual aids" I had seen in the bulletins, it HAD to be something pretty fuckin' BAD, right?

Well....it wasn't.

What I viewed was Argent009's attempt at "Observational Humor" centered around the kinds of colloquial anomalies that fueled much of the cleverest humor of the late great George Carlin, coupled with an absurdist's literal interpretation of the colloquialism in question.

It involves one of my favorite UK expressions "[to] take the piss out of [someone]", which basically means to deflate a person's ego. To knock them down a peg. To "take the wind out of their sails". Brits, because of their relationship to the Mother Tongue, can make vulgarities sound absolutely great (Especially when spoken with a brogue! Whenever Victor1st would say "Teck tha PESS ou' of 'im", it made me smile.), whereas from American mouths they tend to sound just plain..well.. vulgar (to me, at least).

It's very different from the American excremental expression "[to] kick the sh*t out of [someone]", which almost means literally what it says, although I've never seen that happen in a fight. The combatants must somehow always manage to void their bowels before their altercation commences.

Argent009 proceeded to feign comedic ignorance by presenting a literal interpretation of "taking the piss out of someone" to mean REMOVING urine from the body, much the way one might siphon blood from a non-consensual donor, thus creating the absurdist's impetus to start a campaign of Red Cross-like mass urine donation. I remember a Monty Python sketch with Eric Idle desperately attempting to donate a pint of urine to a blood bank.

That concept as a comedy bit is actually quite funny, just like a fictitious network news campaign would be to find a matching "feces donor" for some hapless kid who got "the sh*t kicked out of him" by the school bully.

The problem that generated the controversy was not so much WHAT was said, but HOW it was said. Also, as a secondary consideration, WHO said it.

I do NOT believe that Argent009 posted the Vlog with malicious intent. Until he tells me otherwise, I believe that Argent009 wanted to make everyone laugh, American and Brit alike. His delivery, however, came across as dead-serious. I'm certain he was going for dead-PAN delivery of humor, the masters of which are the Brits for whom he explicitly declares his admiration prior to his gag. Taken out of comedic context, it is easy to see how this delivery could result in several people taking knee-jerk offense to the joke. I don't think that was what Argent009 was shooting for, but that was probably the detonator which caused the joke to bomb.

Argent009 is an American. Although it most likely was not his intent, his joke rankled of anti-foreign Nationalism, and disrespect born of culture shock. Argent009 unintentionally presented himself as the textbook caricature of the "Ugly American", which his how much of the rest of the world justifiably sees us. If Englishman John Cleese (Whose "Declaration of Revocation" should be required reading!) were to do the same bit, it would be hilarious, because his audience--both US and UK--would be IN on the joke. Forget John Cleese for a moment!--How about our own TerryBubble, KrisInteract, or WheresTheSea delivering the "Piss Drive" campaign? It would be absolutely hilarious--provided, of course, that they were making their own absurdist observation of their local colloquialism the way I just satirized the "Kick the Sh*t" of my people.

Finally there is the ancient Chinese comic Art of T'ai-Ming in comedy. The timing in Argent009's comedy was off. While he did provide a disclaimer at the beginning ("I'm an Anglophile, etc..."), he did not "warm up" his audience in a way that would usher them into his absurdist comic worldview. Instead, he abruptly came right out of left field with what sounded like 1) an attack on another culture's linguistic metaphors, and 2) a global invitation for the world to micturate en masse upon their nation.

How can I pontificate like this on this subject? Easy: I've BEEN THERE! Ahhh, there's nothing like the cooling moisture of flop-sweat one feels when a joke BOMBS! LOL

This all boils down to yet another LiveVideo "Tempest in a Teapot" born of misunderstanding on BOTH sides of the equation. **sigh** Business as usual.

--Baron

Category: LiveVideo

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Posted Aug 22, 08 by Dragonbrusher

Posted Aug 1, 08 by GUMP (

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Posted Jul 14, 08 by LittleStar (

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We have since been trying to instill some Comedic Timing into Argent's daily routine...as of this point....we are in anticipation of a smile within the next decade...