The One Thing You Can't Replace

This is not off topic...in fact it still shocks me, as a person who treasures photographs. He asks, "How f----d up is that?" And the answer is very, very, very f----d up.

This contains some swear words so don't listen at work or at school. Hope everyone can get it. If you can't, search for the title on YouTube, maybe there's another version.

John Mulaney used to be a writer for "Saturday Night Live."

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Stephen Gilbert: "It took a while to get there, but was definitely worth the trip. Thanks."

gary isaacs: "Horrors of the First World...."

Ken James: "Could not, cannot listen to such vulgarity. Why do people laugh at such stuff?"

Andrew Molitor: "I thought the story was hilarious. Awful too, obviously. But I laughed and laughed. Humor's funny like that."

Mike adds: Although I sympathize—it's never pleasant to be offended, no matter what offends you—I wonder if those who are offended by John Mulaney's vulgarity listen to much stand-up comedy. (I enjoy it, so I hear a lot of it, although I don't think there's much that's very good.) He doesn't really even peg the middle of the scale on the Vulgarity Meter. Seems kind of clean-cut and PG by comparison to a lot of comics, actually....

Michel: "That is indeed f----d up. As is this story. Back up your stuff people."

Mike replies: That's really troubling. Sincere condolences to Jacques.

mike plews: "Over the years I have interviewed people [Mike is a TV cameraman —Ed.] who have lost their homes to floods, fires and tornadoes and you keep hearing 'we saved the pictures, we can start over.' I've seen people standing in a field of rubble no higher than their ankles clutching the family photo album and weeping with joy that it was spared.

"I'm sure many TOP readers have good photo restoration skills. If you are one of those folks it might be a nice idea to drop by the fire department or Red Cross and offer up those skills as a volunteer. You could do more good than you know."

Comments

[James Weekes]

What a sad monologue. The saddest part is the audience that thinks stealing irreplaceable pictures is funny. Thinks defecating on someone else's property is funny. That doesn't really laugh until he goes potty mouth. Believes that anything you do to a teacher's property is OK. Karma suggest that their iPhones will fall and erase all of their pictures.

[John Camp]

I couldn't understand why people were laughing.

[Bryce Lee]

On the one hand, the world is probably f--ked as the commentator, on the other hand what passed even fifty years ago as polite conversation has sailed so far out the window, I really doubt if it will ever return. What was once a dirty word is now so very common in daily language, what have we gained?
Or lost?

As to the two years later and the stolen photographs; maybe that is why the individuals who did these things should be hung out to dry.

Photographs of who "we" were and the people who populated our lves and are no longer with us; those missing photographs would break my heart. I think of those whose homes are totally incinerated in fires, or destroyed by tornados or even actual war in their homeland; all they have is memories. And isn't that is what it is about? Memories "were" made of this and as we age those happy memories (in most cases) will fade, as we too are to fade and die in time.

Mike this posting is so very sad;
it is verbal garbage. I was not raised in this fashion, neither were you. Spend time with your mother, even with dementia, she is still your mother and shall be until she too transitions. My own mother died in June 2011 and she is there in my thoughts every day.

[Nigel]

Actually, not strictly true.
The other thing you can't replace is the old relatives...

... but that story is even more ****ed up - and is probably John Camp's next book.

[Mike R]

not on this topic.

Rather, who knew that Lewis Carroll was a portrait photographer?

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2015/09/03/charles_lutwidge_dodgson_s_photographs_are_collected_in_the_photographs.html?wpisrc=obnetwork

[aaronL]

That's why you should scan and archive all your 'antique' photos!

[phil]

The difference is between someone making fun of his younger self, and someone saying he thinks these things would be cool for an adult to do.

[Gordon Lewis]

I don't claim to be an expert on humor, but in my opinion the reason the audience was laughing was because of they understood the real point of Mulaney's story: That supposedly "good" middle-class white kids (Mulaney's point, not mine) are capable of horrifically stupid and callous acts that, for many, have no consequences. They laughed because although the way he told the story was clearly exaggerated, there was enough truth in it to make them uncomfortable. Laughing helped relieve the discomfort. They laughed at his revealing the mindset (or lack of same) of people who would do something so f-ed up.

[Greg]

Let's go trash Alex's house.

[Rich Reusser]

wow, tough crowd. I thought it was funny. Didn't get the feeling he was advocating stealing pictures, crapping on computers... just recalling how messed up and shallow a lot of us were when young.

[Alan Carmody]

Mike R,

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson alias Lewis Carroll was the kind of absurdly multi-talented genius/eccentric the Victorian era in Britain seemed to produce effortlessly and often.

In addition to his famous books and his portraits of children of the Liddell family, he is known to mathematicians as one of the principal developers (along with George Boole) of symbolic logic, which is the foundation of digital computing.

A huge, huge talent.

Modern biographers have twisted themselves into knots though over this single man's fascination with children, ultimately unable to view it except through a 21st perspective, and usually unable to recreate the Victorian pre-Freudian mindset that viewed his kindly interest and friendship with them as being wholly admirable and healthy.

[MikeR]

This is supposed to be funny?

If you ask me, *all* of those people are f----d up

[Xpanded]

"This contains some swear words so don't listen at work or at school."

How about: when you are at school or at work you are effectively being paid by others so do not waste their money on listening to this. Do it in your free time.

[Ari]

This reminds me of a scene in "Blood Meridian" by Cormack McCarthy: As the band of desperadoes trek across the desert of the Mexican-American borderlands area, they camp among the ruins of an ancient Anasazi site. The character representing the avatar of Satan picks up a couple of particularly fine archaeological artifacts, makes detailed drawings of them in his notebook -- and then smashes them, so that nobody else can ever have the pleasure of experiencing their beauty.
There's a certain perfection of concept and execution in such an act, the mere imagining of which (by some variant of the ontological argument) almost proves the existence of evil.

[Robert Roaldi]

I guess people don't watch much live stand-up. That was tame.

He wasn't advocating destroying priceless pictures, he was exaggerating, telling tall tales for a laugh. Lots of people do it.

[Dennis]

I gave up at 2:48. It wasn't funny, and I don't give a damn about the language. I know I'm on the fringe, but I don't understand people getting bend out of shape about language versus the 14 year old in Texas getting ARRESTED for bring a homemade clock to school. Now that's vulgar, but hey it's the fascist state of Texas.

[phageghost]

I'm surprised that such a mild stand-up routine would invoke such condemnation. I imagine that exposure to a Sam Kinison bit would cause cranial detonation in such folks.

Much of the best comedy is transgressive. It fulfills its social and psychological function best when it shines a light on the dark side of human nature. And I think it is superior to drama in producing catharsis.

[AHC McDonald]

That was great! As an occasional stand-up myself, I thought he told it very well. But, as Richard said, "Tough Crowd here!"

Got about as much support as a digitally colourised Capa shot. Am I right? Am I right? Is this mic working?

I'm here all week. Try the Nikons.

[Tim Auger]

The punchline is thought-provoking, but the rest of it is pretty depressing - not just because of the language, but because the audience was lapping all that stuff up. Breaking someone's pool table, shitting on their computer … hilarious.

[David Comdico]

OK, the punchline is: trashing someone's property is not nearly as f-ed up as stealing someone's irreplaceable photographs. Maybe. One helluva wind up for such a mediocre pitch.