I finally figured out what I should call this blog. It came to me last night while I was watching a Netflix offering entitled "Jerry Before Seinfeld." The title is self-evident, and the show was very funny, with lots of clips from Jerry's childhood and some of his early appearances. But mostly it was him as he is today, hearkening back to his start in show business. It was a good time.Still, some things bothered me. One in particular was how much he mocked his aging parents who live in Florida. This is of course standard fare for any comic, especially the younger ones. They make fun of old people and get lots of laughs from their young audiences. Jerry, no spring chicken himself at 65, comes down pretty hard on his father and his golf cronies at the retirement village. There's the usual stuff about sagging bodies and failing memory, and how his mother can't see very well but she still drives so he installed a cataract lens windshield in her car. (Ha ha.)
These days comics -- or anyone -- can't say a whole lot of words, like squaw, fatso, moron, slut, bimbo, redskin, retard, cripple, midget and nigger (a.k.a. the N-word), but they can say geezer, codger, coot, granny and old fogey without even a slap on the wrist. It's odd, since anyone who is smart enough to live a healthy life and attentive enough to avoid debilitating accidents will eventually become old as well, so you'd think that the elderly would be deserving of a high-five from everyone else.
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