{"id":9433,"date":"2012-08-02T01:23:23","date_gmt":"2012-08-02T05:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=9433"},"modified":"2012-10-20T16:48:41","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T20:48:41","slug":"clowns-prophets-and-the-chick-fil-a-flustercluck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/08\/02\/clowns-prophets-and-the-chick-fil-a-flustercluck\/","title":{"rendered":"Clowns, prophets and the Chick-fil-A Flustercluck"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I suspect James McGrath is probably right<\/a> when he says, regarding Chick-fil-A: \u201cSatire is likely to be a more effective weapon in the controversy \u2026 than protests and boycotts.\u201d<\/p>\n

That calls to mind an exchange from Robert Wiede\u2019s Directors Guild\u00a0 interview with Mel Brooks<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Q:<\/strong> On the surface, The Producers<\/em> is simply good, silly fun. But do you take personal pleasure in the subversive element of making fun of Nazis? There are Nazi jokes in many of your movies.<\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Yeah. If you can make them seem foolish and silly, then you\u2019ve won. But if you get on a soapbox and go head to head with Herr Hitler and Goebbels, you\u2019re not going to win. They\u2019re good at that [stuff]. But they\u2019re not good at comedy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It isn\u2019t just The Producers,<\/em> Brooks is always<\/em> making fun of Nazis \u2014 in everything from Blazing Saddles<\/em> to his bittersweet remake of To Be Or Not To Be.<\/em><\/p>\n

But Brooks applies the same approach to other targets as well, because the same principle that holds for superlatively evil tyrants also holds for incomparably lesser bullies and bigots, prudes and scolds, Comstocks and corporate overlords. None of them is any good at comedy. \u201cIf you can make them seem foolish and silly, then you\u2019ve won.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the good news in all such cases is that you don\u2019t need to do much to \u201cmake them seem foolish and silly.\u201d Since they are<\/em> foolish and silly, sometimes all you really need to do is point and laugh.<\/p>\n

As the flustercluck swept through the news this week, Conan O\u2019Brien introduced us to Chaz the Intolerant Chick-fil-A Chicken:<\/p>\n