Brilliant, hilarious, and pointed. The experience of reading this is a series of switches between laughing out loud and muttering “damn” under my breath.
Rest in peace, Iron Sheik. We hardly knew you, which was always the point.
As someone who grew up in the Iran Hostage era, it still makes me laugh to remember how earnestly the news commentary people wanted America assured that calling American “The Great Satan” was just a type of everyday Persian hyperbole. It’s still the best nickname we’ve ever received.
Truly, no article or commentary that so seemlessly mixes obscure biography, social commentary, history, and popular entertainment can really be complete without reference to Bruce Campbell’s chin! Burn Notice is a great show.
Distinctly reminded of @fugitivecaesar's take on Twitter: war with Israel is a much or more kayfabe for Iran as it is for the US or Israel. Also, uh…. funny how Bibi seems to get bailed out of domestic politics by a conflict conveniently starting at just the right moment.
Anyways, the BBB passed, no Americans are going to die over Iran's nuclear program, & Nothing Ever Happens. All's well that ends well.
Kayfabe is not to be disregarded. As to Persia, great country, good people. I have met quite a few of them. All of them were smart and capable and rich enough to leave Iran for good, so that may have weighted my impression. I have a couple of close friends I have met before I was eighteen years old. I didn't establish many friendships after that. One of the exceptions was a guy who told me he had been a paratrooper under the shah, gotten imprisoned for oppositional stuff, freed after revolution, imprisoned again and somehow released to flee to germany. We really liked each other but he was a gambler and after he owed me money and got imprisoned (probably for trying to pay other debts), I gave up on him. I told that to an Iranian colleague and he said I had been dumb to trust a Persian, being himself Kurdish. The first woman I lived with was married to a Persian guy and left him because of his catastrophic cocain use. We visited him in jail one time. He looked fine and didn't show much issue about me being with his wife. I also met Persian opiod addicts, really nice people. One of them told me that opium works like beer over there. If you use it and get your life together, it's no problem. One complained about being on a no fly list after attending to set himself on fire at some embassy.
Altogether I have a very positive view of Persians. High on openness and charity, prone to chaos-my kind of people.
Nerd note: pre Vince McMahan pro wrestling had plenty of fakery but it wasn't quite as blatant. They would have matches between face characters that actually looked like a real competition. And it was only heel characters would would punch and throw elbows. Most importantly, they would have sequences where the wrestlers would be evenly matched, struggling with half and full Nelsons and whatnot. This was particularly true for the wrestling in Florida, where they had a world champion known for his Figure 4 Leg Lock.
The Richmond VA wrestling was sillier. It even had brass knuckle wrestling. And lotsof Ric Flair appearances. But even there, there were sequences of even matching.
The WWF/WWE matches that I have seen were ridiculously overscripted. One wrestler would utterly dominate for a while. Then, the should be defeated wrestler would shake his head and make a surprise move and utterly dominate for a while. Quite boring.
I laughed. I cried. It was better than CATS.
Thank you for closing with the Sheik from the top rope on Caillou - needed that today.
Brilliant, hilarious, and pointed. The experience of reading this is a series of switches between laughing out loud and muttering “damn” under my breath.
Rest in peace, Iron Sheik. We hardly knew you, which was always the point.
The Iran take I didn't know I needed.
We're all either actors or audience, mostly audience. The Bard would be proud.
"If it's on TV, it's a TV show"
-- Marshal McLuhan
As someone who grew up in the Iran Hostage era, it still makes me laugh to remember how earnestly the news commentary people wanted America assured that calling American “The Great Satan” was just a type of everyday Persian hyperbole. It’s still the best nickname we’ve ever received.
l don't understand half of it, but l haven't laughed this much in a while
The more of the references you know and understand, the better this is.
In toto, it is a masterpiece.
l readily agree…since l ve already screen-shot four passages that are priceless
"Politics is the entertainment branch of industry," after all. We're all rubes underneath.
How do you do it? Just how? A work of genius and a work of art! In writing!
If I could shake your hand I'd rip your arm off with the sheer enthusiasm of it.
The best stacker by miles.
Truly, no article or commentary that so seemlessly mixes obscure biography, social commentary, history, and popular entertainment can really be complete without reference to Bruce Campbell’s chin! Burn Notice is a great show.
Epic, just epic…best finishing move of all time, the camel clutch…it would make you huuuumble.
Perhaps there were no Viet Cong kayfabe icons because the Viet Cong won?
Also perhaps because Vietnamese are tiny, & you have sell the visual spectacle of wrestling.
I just got triggered by Caillou. I hate that little bastard.
Great read!
Distinctly reminded of @fugitivecaesar's take on Twitter: war with Israel is a much or more kayfabe for Iran as it is for the US or Israel. Also, uh…. funny how Bibi seems to get bailed out of domestic politics by a conflict conveniently starting at just the right moment.
Anyways, the BBB passed, no Americans are going to die over Iran's nuclear program, & Nothing Ever Happens. All's well that ends well.
Kayfabe is not to be disregarded. As to Persia, great country, good people. I have met quite a few of them. All of them were smart and capable and rich enough to leave Iran for good, so that may have weighted my impression. I have a couple of close friends I have met before I was eighteen years old. I didn't establish many friendships after that. One of the exceptions was a guy who told me he had been a paratrooper under the shah, gotten imprisoned for oppositional stuff, freed after revolution, imprisoned again and somehow released to flee to germany. We really liked each other but he was a gambler and after he owed me money and got imprisoned (probably for trying to pay other debts), I gave up on him. I told that to an Iranian colleague and he said I had been dumb to trust a Persian, being himself Kurdish. The first woman I lived with was married to a Persian guy and left him because of his catastrophic cocain use. We visited him in jail one time. He looked fine and didn't show much issue about me being with his wife. I also met Persian opiod addicts, really nice people. One of them told me that opium works like beer over there. If you use it and get your life together, it's no problem. One complained about being on a no fly list after attending to set himself on fire at some embassy.
Altogether I have a very positive view of Persians. High on openness and charity, prone to chaos-my kind of people.
BHAHAHAHA…wait, WHAT!
Does that mean JD Vance is going to start dressing like Hillbilly Jim?
Much funnier if he went with Goldust.
That was fun!
Nerd note: pre Vince McMahan pro wrestling had plenty of fakery but it wasn't quite as blatant. They would have matches between face characters that actually looked like a real competition. And it was only heel characters would would punch and throw elbows. Most importantly, they would have sequences where the wrestlers would be evenly matched, struggling with half and full Nelsons and whatnot. This was particularly true for the wrestling in Florida, where they had a world champion known for his Figure 4 Leg Lock.
The Richmond VA wrestling was sillier. It even had brass knuckle wrestling. And lotsof Ric Flair appearances. But even there, there were sequences of even matching.
The WWF/WWE matches that I have seen were ridiculously overscripted. One wrestler would utterly dominate for a while. Then, the should be defeated wrestler would shake his head and make a surprise move and utterly dominate for a while. Quite boring.
Like politicians