Has Abraham Lincoln jumped the shark?

Monte Smith · February-13th-2009, 06:08 PM

It's evidently been the 200th birthday of our 16th President? All the bookstores are stuffed with Lincoln titles, C-Span is going crazy--it's like Abe porn, and the current President is making like there are legitimate comparisons between the Republican Civil War martyr and himself. I can barely stomach the portrait on a penny anymore and so I ask you,

Has Abraham Lincoln jumped the shark?

Scott Dolan · February-13th-2009, 06:18 PM

The cat has fucking sold out, plain and simple.

He's like a Hair Metal band without the hair, music, drugs, and groupies.

Dr Dave · February-13th-2009, 07:43 PM

Lincoln is clearly in deep with Vested Interests.

tippy · February-13th-2009, 07:53 PM

Monte, this thread is shocking. Completely uncharitable.

Let me put things in perspective for you guys: Jesus Christ Superstar.

Gentle Giant · February-13th-2009, 09:20 PM

Lincoln never goes out of style.

patricia · February-13th-2009, 11:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gentle Giant

Lincoln never goes out of style.

Proof positive that Aretha's hat goes with everything. It's elegant without being gaudy.

tristano's ghost · February-14th-2009, 05:53 PM

Lincoln? That dude was the original RINO!

Monte Smith · February-14th-2009, 06:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tristano's ghost

Lincoln? That dude was the original RINO!

I know! Fucking closet Whig.

Gentle Giant · February-14th-2009, 08:19 PM

...and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not jump the shark.

Pete C · February-14th-2009, 08:37 PM

The phrase "jump the shark" has enjoyed such a vogue in recent months, I'm surprised it didn't turn up on the list of overused words and expressions put out by Lake Superior State University this month. Yet, your friendly neighborhood TV critic feels compelled to point out that one of the reasons the term is used so much is it's just so useful. Coined by Jon Hein at the University of Michigan back in the '80s, it refers to the moment when something — particularly a TV series — peaks and begins to go downhill into self-parody and decay. It originally referred to the "Happy Days" episode in which Fonzie literally tried to jump a shark in a daredevil water-skiing stunt.
Me, I think "Happy Days" jumped the shark a lot earlier than that — like when Richie's older brother, Chuck, conveniently disappeared after the first season — but "lose the brother" would be even more difficult to explain than "jump the shark."
Anyway, it's obvious to see why the phrase is such a natural for critics. And the concept of if or when a certain series jumped the shark is such a natural source of debate, it has produced a cottage industry for Hein in the form of a trademarked Web site and now a companion book, "Jump the Shark: When Good Things Go Bad." (My favorite notation on the site is the Chicago viewer who suggested "Bozo's Circus" jumped the shark when Sandy the Tramp left to produce "The Banana Splits.")
So, it being a new year and all, now seems a good time to review the current prime-time programs and which have jumped the shark and when. The official jumptheshark.com Web site helps out with handy categories, such as "I Do" (see weddings, as on "I Dream of Jeannie"), "Exit ... Stage Left" (departures, like Suzanne Somers leaving "Three's Company"), "Same Character, Different Actor" (Dick Sargent replacing Dick York on "Bewitched") and "A Very Special..." as in "A very special 'Blossom'."
—Ted Cox, "Jumping the shark," Chicago Daily Herald, January 23, 2003

walto · February-14th-2009, 11:27 PM

Thus has the expression "jump the shark" jumped the shark. I personally think it did this when it was first applied to anything other than a tv series, but it may have done so earlier, as, perhaps, when it was applied to the second tv series to which it was applied.

GoodSpeak · February-15th-2009, 09:43 PM

Uh.

Jumped the Shark...?

WTF is that all about?

tristano's ghost · February-16th-2009, 09:04 AM

Pete C · February-16th-2009, 09:11 AM

As long as Monte's around, nobody, no matter how iconic, will be able to dodge the snark.

Root Doctor · February-16th-2009, 11:15 AM

David Denby is tailor-made for snark. The receiving end of it, that is.

Sergio Zamora · February-16th-2009, 11:35 AM

Abraham Lincoln is out

Roosevelt Franklin is in

Monte Smith · February-16th-2009, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete C

As long as Monte's around, nobody, no matter how iconic, will be able to dodge the snark.

Damn skippy.

Rob Damen · February-16th-2009, 01:17 PM

Henry Louis Gates' Lincoln special on PBS was a total bore.

Cheers,

Rob

groover · February-16th-2009, 01:24 PM

I don't think he's completely lost respect for his presidential legacy, but I did lose some admiration for him from what I've recently read about his speaking voice.

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creat...es/speaker.htm

Quote:

Lincoln's voice was, when he first began speaking, shrill, squeaking, piping, unpleasant; his general look, his form, his pose, the color of his flesh, wrinkled and dry, his sensitiveness, and his momentary diffidence, everything seemed to be against him, but he soon recovered.
--William H. Herndon letter, July 19, 1887

But whenever he began to talk his eyes flashed and every facial movement helped express his idea and feeling. Then involuntarily vanished all thought or consciousness of his uncouth appearance, or awkward manner, or even his high keyed, unpleasant voice.
--Abram Bergen in Intimate Memories of Lincoln

The [second] inaugural address was received in most profound silence. Every word was clear and audible as the ringing and somewhat shrill tones of Lincoln's voice sounded over the vast concourse.
--Noah Brooks in Washington in Lincoln's Time

Gentle Giant · February-16th-2009, 02:11 PM

fixed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Damen

Henry Louis Gates is a total bore.

tippy · February-16th-2009, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groover

I don't think he's completely lost respect for his presidential legacy, but I did lose some admiration for him from what I've recently read about his speaking voice.

A Palinesque Republican!

tippy · February-16th-2009, 02:20 PM

I still think many are going to hell because of this thread. (See you there!)

Monte Smith · February-16th-2009, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tippy

I still think many are going to hell because of this thread. (See you there!)

I apologize to no one for asking the hard questions. Except maybe to Goody. Sorry, Goody. Hard question: in today's America, who would win this election--Abraham Lincoln versus Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli? Hard answer: shut up, dickface. Because they are both Republicans. According to Wikipedia, which knows everything that I know, the Fonz endorsed Eisenhower. And people say the media is liberal. People also buy Cheez Whiz. What are you going to do with people?

Sergio Zamora · February-16th-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

According to Wikipedia, which knows everything that I know, the Fonz endorsed Eisenhower.

This is true. I remember the episode. Richie was campaigning for Stevenson.

stonemonkts · February-16th-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by groover

I don't think he's completely lost respect for his presidential legacy, but I did lose some admiration for him from what I've recently read about his speaking voice.

I have the opposite reaction to this, it makes me admire him all the more. The fact that he didn't look or sound like Charles Kean only magnifies his greatness as a leader, at least in my eyes.

EDIT: Oops, I meant his dad, Edmund Kean. Charles suffered from certain "abnormalities of voice" too.

Pete C · February-16th-2009, 05:48 PM

He probably didn't sound as bad as John Hurt in The Elephant Man.

Pete C · February-16th-2009, 06:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Root Doctor

David Denby is tailor-made for snark. The receiving end of it, that is.

Yes, I saw him on Book TV. I just love smug moral arbiters with no sense of history (i.e., those who intone the millenia-old cultural decline trope).

Dr Dave · February-16th-2009, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Monte Smith

And people say the media is liberal.

And you get the David Brooks Beltway Lapdog Award.

Kevin Bresnahan · February-17th-2009, 06:46 AM

I know why Obama loves Lincoln... stick Bin Laden's head cover on him and you got his twin brother. See, everyone knows Obama is a closet Bin Laden buddy. That's all they talk about in DC these days.

GoodSpeak · March-9th-2009, 10:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin Bresnahan

I know why Obama loves Lincoln... stick Bin Laden's head cover on him and you got his twin brother. See, everyone knows Obama is a closet Bin Laden buddy. That's all they talk about in DC these days.

Here's to sincerely hoping that was a joke.