John Hodgman To Maddow: Occupy Wall Street, Like Herman Cain, Is An Art Project

Video

by Alex Alvarez | 10:30 pm, November 16th, 2011

» 20 comments

Author and self-described “deranged millionaire” John Hodgman paid a visit to Rachel Maddow‘s show to discuss his new book, whether his mustache is real (it is, poor guy), and the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Hodgman thought it was “good for Bloomie” to have cleared out lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park earlier this week. He also described the movement as being, not unlike Herman Cain, “an art project, a demonstration” based on the idea that it would be interesting to see if anything would change if the people who worked on Wall Street were forced to face, in Hodgman’s words, hippies and drum circles all day, every day. Who would blink first? As it turns out, the blinking was done by a fabulously wealthy mayor acting at the behest of a fabulously wealthy company.

That’s really quite an interesting way of looking at it. Also, this:

Here’s the thing: If you consider it a demonstration, a kind of an art project, I know from years in entertainment, the show goes on too long, it eventually becomes accused of spreading tuberculosis everywhere. That’s why they had to close Cats.

Too right.

Hodgman also offered to take the money the demonstration has collected in donations and become, essentially, the movement’s deranged millionaire CEO.

Watch the interview, via MSNBC:

John Hodgman, msnbc, Occupy Wall Street, OWS, Rachel Maddow

Anonymous

Woah! That Hodgman dude isn’t nearly as cute as Sasha Grey. More Sasha Grey!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_LTOYPBQB46JSMMXS45BT7BLTSA Brian

John Hodgman is the most humoring humorist ever!!!!! I suspect one of these days when he says something funny he’s going to get promoted to full-on comedian!!!!
FunnyTonyMase

He’s the best thing on HBO’s Bored To Death. He’s condescending, and always talks to Jason Schwartzman’s character like he’s writing a negative review of his novel.
FunnyTonyMase

I guess what John Hodgman is trying to say is:

Occupy Wall Street ascot to go.
Anonymous

LOL
Anonymous

He actually gets it right. OWS started their ‘movement’ with no real message or goals … they just wanted to ‘see what would happen’ if they all gathered with some signs, a creative motto (we are the 99%), and camped out on Wall Street. Unfortunately for them, nothing really changed in regards to wall street greed, corporatism, and cronyism.

The lack of a message is what attracted the drug addicts (and subsequent overdose and drug dealing), and the thugs just wanting to incite havoc because their worldview convinces them that our government is controlled by puppet masters and we live in a police state, and other nonsense like that. Once OWS just became one big campsite, hippy party where you could score free drugs and sex, those troublemakers stirred up mayhem based on their false outlook on reality and world affairs.
Rex the Wonder God

Yeah, it’s not the right setting, not yet at least. Working TDS, the atmosphere is already so rich in humor it can bear a heavy dadaist like Hodgman; but the leap from Maddow’s kind of gentle goofy giggle office thin-air to where Hodgman is working is too far.

Can anyone think of a place where punditry mixes with comedians?

Olbermann’s best efforts in this are with the gay guy from the Village Voice, but even those are strained. O’Donnell is smart to just clip to them and leave the stage; Ed Sullivan would go on after with them, sometimes before, and it was almost always excrutiatingly cringeworthy. The one comedian I think who maybe could pull this off is Colbert in character, because he allows the ‘normal world’ gag enough room to breath before he comes in to choke it silly; but that’s because he somehow is able to straddle this illusory world with the quantum comedy world and stay sane. Randy Newman does that in his songs very often, and still people get confused.
Anonymous

Very humorous and enjoyable.
Anonymous

And what I mean is that the many protesters wearing ‘V for Vendetta masks’ and Che Guevera patches were just finally getting to rebel against a system that they believe is corrupt and that they believe owes them something for nothing.

I know that many OWS protesters are the people that believe in the illuminati and Zeitgeist (the group that thinks there is a one world government and 9/11 was an inside job), and OWS and the disorganization and hippy-ness of it all was finally an outlet for them to vent their anger.
http://gregingleright.weebly.com/ Greg

Samantha Bee’s report is amazing…
http://gregingleright.weebly.com/ Greg

Very nice.
Anonymous

Once OWS became one big hippy festival the political protesting became obsolete. It started off as some vague message about wall street greed and income inequality but did not take long to break off into just a community festival where like minded people could come together, listen to music and get high. It was organized by superficial, largely mis-informed college kids with entitlement problems.
Anonymous

I wondered where Howard Sprague had been.
BR

In other words, just a bunch of liberals hanging out.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3SABG5GBR4PCI4CO2IITCSNJO4 Anonymous

Pundits often come from the ranks of the professionally aggrieved (e.g., Al Sharpton), which means their senses of humor are rather stunted.
Anonymous

Understanding must be given to the 10
buck an hour protestor who is forced to masturbate while the 20 buck an hour
guy gets all the women. Understanding must be given to the 10 buck an hour
protestor who has to share a cheap room with other fast food workers, while the
20 buck an hour guy has his own place with a sleep over girlfriend. Understanding
is not wanted by the 10 buck an hour protestor only a 20 buck an hour job.
Anonymous

Howard has aged very well.
Anonymous

Love Randy.
He’s great!
Anonymous

Hey libs: OWS is now DOA!
Darr247

Hey – isn’t that PC Guy? From the mac commercials?