by hilzoy
And since they do, I have no choice but to cash in on any credibility I may have earned on this blog and issue a direct order:
If you are somewhere where it won't be a problem for you to burst out laughing, or say "Oh. My. God." loudly, or scream, watch Connie Chung go batsh*t insane. If you are not in such a place, get to one immediately, and watch it there.
And consider that this took preparation. That dress. The piano. What I suppose I have to call the choreography. There's really no way to see this except as someone taking careful, deliberate aim at her career, her future employability, her marriage, and her status as not-yet-a-national-joke, and squeezing the trigger.
Wow.
h/t Steve Clemons.
Personally I think it's hilarious, not in a "she's drunk and crazy" sense (I suspect she was neither) but in a "wow, that's one weird piece of self-reflective parody/performance art" sense. The fact that the pianist is only pretending to play, and never takes his eyes off her with that cheesy Vegas grin on his face, is a brilliant touch. My hat is off to her.
Posted by: jaron | June 20, 2006 at 01:26 PM
My hat is off to her for her courage and self-confidence and self-deprecating humor, as long as I don't ever have to watch that again. Ouch.
Posted by: Tully | June 20, 2006 at 01:45 PM
That little grunt she makes as she clambers off the piano kills me.
Posted by: Mary | June 20, 2006 at 01:45 PM
She's had her career. At 60, she's probably wouldn't be adding much to the resume no matter what, not in the MSM. Perhaps she should try to fight that, with some remote possibility of success. But I suspect that there is a certain satisfaction in burning a bridge that you'll likely be prevented from crossing in any case.
As for her marriage, one can only wonder (though I intend to spend as little time as possible doing that).
Posted by: modus potus | June 20, 2006 at 01:47 PM
Is it possible for anyone to sing that badly by accident?
I saw that last night and was perplexed by it. As humor, it left a lot to be desired; as a serious performance, it was pathetic. So I wasn't sure how to take it.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | June 20, 2006 at 01:50 PM
I have to believe that this was the raw footage that was never supposed to be aired. Please, tell me they were planning on dubbing over her screeching and adding a real piano background??!! Please, tell me that this wasn't planned this way for broadcast?!
I want to believe that someone released the raw footage to embarrass her rather than Connie actually thinking she could sing... Even then, though, the movements and the grunt as she climbed off the piano... $*#(&%#(&(&!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: manyoso | June 20, 2006 at 01:52 PM
I have to believe that this was the raw footage that was never supposed to be aired. Please, tell me they were planning on dubbing over her screeching and adding a real piano background??!! Please, tell me that this wasn't planned this way for broadcast?!
I'm pretty sure that what you are seeing/hearing is exactly what its creators intended to put forth.
I want to believe that someone released the raw footage to embarrass her rather than Connie actually thinking she could sing...
These are not the only options.
Posted by: jaron | June 20, 2006 at 02:05 PM
Yeesh, and I thought I was a bad singer.
Posted by: Sebastian Holsclaw | June 20, 2006 at 02:13 PM
It's the footage of Dan Rather in the same dress, doing the same number, that's the *real* reason behind his leaving CBS.
Posted by: Anderson | June 20, 2006 at 03:09 PM
damn...that is a trip.
Posted by: SomeOtherDude | June 20, 2006 at 03:30 PM
I made it through about six bars before I had to stop watching (the words "Maury, what a guy!" are echoing in my head, so that's where I stopped.) I estimate there were still nearly seven more minutes to go.
Sorry, but it is just too painful. I don't know Connie Chung, have never watched her shows, but it's just sad to see human beings humiliate themselves. Not something I can watch for pleasure.
Now--watching Stephen Colbert humiliate the Georgia Peach who doesn't know his Commandments? That I can watch. That had me laughing.
Posted by: a | June 20, 2006 at 04:58 PM
Eh. People started blogging this all over, but being on dial-up, I didn't bother loading it until the fuss here. I don't have cable, so haven't seen the show, but it looks to me simply like someone making a little of fun of themselves (particularly with the spin/collapse at the end). Good for her.
"There's really no way to see this except as someone taking careful, deliberate aim at her career, her future employability, her marriage, and her status as not-yet-a-national-joke, and squeezing the trigger."
I don't know how you mean this; if you mean a bit of harmless mockery of one's self, sure; I think it can only help. If you mean you think it will seriously hurt her career -- as what, someone hosting a non-serious cable tv program with her husband, who never had a serious rep in the first place? -- I'm curious what career you think it will hurt and why (but not very curious, simply because since I don't see cable stuff, it's not very important to me).
"batsh*t insane" seems extremely exaggerated. People do far sillier things on daytime tv all the time. I watch little myself, but I do know that. Ellen DeGeneres, who hosts a talk show these days, not long ago did a show (or more?) in bedclothes from barcaloungers. Late night, Jimmy Kimmel did a show the other week from a hospital bed, with guests dressed in nurses/doctors outfits.
People do all sorts of things attempted to be amusming. It's why they call it "entertainment." It's why they put it on tv, an insatiable maw.
Not remarkable, per se.
Today was Dan Rather's last day at CBS, incidentally.
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 20, 2006 at 05:04 PM
There was a small clip of this last night on the Daily Show, and that's quite enough for me. To think I once admired her... (back when she was a local newsperson in DC; she came out of the Watergate hearing room and greeted each of us penned in to the waiting-to-go-in area like an actual human being).
Posted by: Nell | June 20, 2006 at 05:26 PM
I admire her MORE now, for having the nerve and 'nads to publicly mock herself like that. As long as I don't ever have to watch it again.
I'm sure she's laughing at home, saying to Maury, "Eff 'em if they can't take a joke."
Posted by: Tully | June 20, 2006 at 07:02 PM
"That little grunt she makes as she clambers off the piano kills me."
Up until that point I was trying to rationalize it all. Then I almost peed myself while laughing hysterically.
How about the leg kicks while on the piano? HAHA
She must have known she was a horrible singer. I have to believe she at least practiced (words were memorized) and people wouldn't have responded well. It's got to be an "Eff'em" move. Maybe she wants their ratings to plummet?
On a laughing scale of 1 to 10, I give this an 11.
Posted by: IntricateHelix | June 20, 2006 at 07:29 PM
I am not sure how to take this. Managed to watch half. It really didn't seem to me like she was trying to be intentionally bad, or that she realized how bad or funny it looked.
Or maybe that more people would be laughing at her than laughing with her. It is weird, like something very private that got leaked.
Since I don't quite know how to interpret it, I can't see why it would damage my opinion of her. She & Maury were not at the top of my list of classy dignified folk.
Posted by: bob mcmanus | June 20, 2006 at 07:42 PM
"Maybe she wants their ratings to plummet?"
Y'know, I've never seen the show, and yet it was perfectly clear that it was the last show. Kinda the point.
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 20, 2006 at 08:11 PM
This had to be a parody. Nobody is that bad a singer (and I'm close).
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov | June 20, 2006 at 08:45 PM
Oh, yeah, it's an up-yours. I'm just not sure who it's an up-yours to, though.
Posted by: CaseyL | June 20, 2006 at 09:14 PM
Does anyone not get that this is a parody of Bette Midler on the last Carson show?
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 20, 2006 at 10:36 PM
See also here.
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 20, 2006 at 10:37 PM
God, that made me hot.
Posted by: jpe | June 20, 2006 at 10:57 PM
Does anyone not get that this is a parody of Bette Midler on the last Carson show?
Umm... it appears to me that you're the only person on this thread who 'gets' that, Gary.
As so often, our puny understandings are as nothing against your superior grasp of popular culture.
Posted by: Nell | June 20, 2006 at 11:44 PM
What's the Carson show? Who's Bette Midler? 8^)
Posted by: liberal japonicus | June 21, 2006 at 12:01 AM
"As so often, our puny understandings are as nothing against your superior grasp of popular culture."
But I don't even have cable tv. :-)
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 21, 2006 at 12:20 AM
Regendered.">http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/06/words_fail_me.html">Regendered. :-)
Posted by: Jesurgislac | June 21, 2006 at 06:22 AM
Fascinating, Jes. Also of interest is that they use capital letters in the algorithm, because bob is untouched.
Posted by: liberal japonicus | June 21, 2006 at 06:39 AM
Also of interest is that they use capital letters in the algorithm, because bob is untouched.
I thought that was a tribute to his strength of personality. :-)
Posted by: Jesurgislac | June 21, 2006 at 07:13 AM
There is no way that skit is not fully intentional. Bad singing, the kicks, the grunt, the fall - all intentional.
Why?
She's 60, eh? I can well imagine a human being, creative, passionate, stifled, taking one last shot at EVERYBODY before her name disappeared off the radar screen. This was a KMA and FU, all rolled up with a challenge to her closest companions to accept that she was moving on, and they could go with her or not, their choice.
It was totally cool, and totally riveting.
Jake
Posted by: Jake - but not the one | June 21, 2006 at 12:05 PM
I do feel a cringe for her, not because she was sincere, but because it was obviously an attempt to be funny, and it was obviously hugely unsuccessful. Oh, maybe the occasional illuminatus "got it," and will say so frequently on message boards, but most everybody else saw someone trying very hard to be cute and funny, but falling flat in a big way. Nothing in Ms. Chung's career has suggested that she is some kind of secretly brilliant metacomedian; she has always struck me anyway as kind of dull, and her show, which I watched for about 10 minutes one night, did nothing to dispel that impression. She thought it would be funny if she went out with a torch song (okay, Gary, like Bette Midler to JC), but intended to mock herself by doing so, because she knows she's a bad singer. Only problem is it fell utterly flat and left her looking like a dope.
When someone tells a joke and it falls with such a resounding clunk, I feel bad for, and cringe in sympathy for, the comic who just got pantsed. It doesn't mean I suddenly don't understand that she was joking.
But in the end she had her best revenge - at age 60, man, she looked f**king great in that dress, and whether in disbelief, pity, horror, or appreciation, everyone in America has been staring at her in it all week.
Posted by: st | June 21, 2006 at 01:10 PM
Thank you, hilzoy, for the warning, or I might have made the mistake of trying to watch this at the office. As it is I am (like so many up-thread) flabbergasted.
For Connie Chung's sake, I have got to believe that st is right and that this was an attempt at being funny. I mean, she HAS to know she can't sing, right?
And did anybody catch the pianist's facial expression? The word "rictus" comes to mind.
Posted by: javelina | June 21, 2006 at 04:21 PM
"I mean, she HAS to know she can't sing, right?"
You didn't read the piece I linked to, I take it.
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 21, 2006 at 04:47 PM
You didn't read the piece I linked to, I take it.
Right you were, Gary. Thanks for the link. I have now read it, and stand corrected. Not that I'm not still appalled, but it's at least clear what she was attempting to do ...
Posted by: javelina | June 21, 2006 at 10:12 PM
"Right you were, Gary. Thanks for the link."
I live to serve.
Posted by: Gary Farber | June 21, 2006 at 10:27 PM
I saw it first, and then I heard it on the radio a day or two. I cringed while looking at it, but then when I was just listening to her, I started cracking up. In some weird way, what she did was really funny. And unforgettable. Kind of like when Tin Cup hit the ball into the hole for a 13.
Posted by: Charles Bird | June 23, 2006 at 08:14 PM