Remembering Phyllis: Women in Comedy

When I heard that Cloris Leachman died last Thursday, I thought of her role in The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  Starring as Phyllis Lindrom, Mary's snobby landlord and downstairs neighbor, Leachman delivered outstanding comedy whenever she appeared.  In fact, two other women on the show did the same: Moore as Mary Richards and Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern.  Together they created a world of funny women who made me laugh week after week, from 1970 - 1977.

Phyllis, Mary, and Rhoda's House

They weren't the first, of course.  Lucille Ball's I Love Lucy, beginning in 1951, aired as reruns when I was a kid in the 60s.  I also liked Carol Burnett.  Her late-night shows were perfect for babysitting jobs; she came on at 10:00 after the kids were in bed, and I would laugh at her hilarious sketches.  Like Mary Tyler Moore, both Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett starred in shows named for themselves, unusual for women at that time.

Carol Burnett

In fact, I remember my mother taking me to a program in 1970 when I was 14 that featured a slideshow of stereotypical roles held by women: housewives, teachers, nurses, secretaries, and stewardesses (as they were called then).  These images appeared everywhere, as the presentation demonstrated--in advertising, children's literature, and popular culture.  I no doubt remember this program because it marked the realization of something new: women could become more than the five roles that marked my childhood. 

Around this same time came The Mary Tyler Moore Show.  I had already grown to love Moore from her performance as Laura Petrie in The Dick Van Dyke Show, but now she had her own series.  As the single adult Mary Richards living in Minneapolis, she became an example of a woman who could live on her own.  She enjoyed her career and supported herself.  Valerie Harper as Rhoda did the same.  Though Phyllis (Leachman) was married, her husband Lars never appeared, and we often saw Phyllis as the refreshingly flawed mother of Bess (in contrast to the idealized mothers of June Cleaver in Leave It To Beaver and Margaret Anderson in Father Knows Best).

Bess & Mary

Beyond the new role models that these characters portrayed, though, was the notion that women could be funny.  This wasn't obvious then with comedians like Bob Hope, George Burns, Jack Benny, Don Rickles, and Johnny Carson prominent on TV.  Frankly, women weren't even supposed to be funny; they might upstage men or appear unfeminine.  At most they should laugh at men's jokes, not the other way around.  But Mary Tyler Moore and her co-stars began to unravel yet another stereotype and brought women's voices to comedy, opening up the possibility for others to follow.

And best of all, they made me laugh. 

Audacity and Humor Unleashed: Moments from Inauguration Day

What was it about Lady Gaga, Bernie Sanders, and Katy Perry that made such a difference last week?  The inauguration certainly featured many poignant moments: the swearing-in of Kamala Harris, the calming speech of Joe Biden, the poetry of Amanda Gorman, and perhaps most of all the setting--the US Capitol in all of its beauty, still standing and dignified, recovering from January 6.

I rang my cowbell on the porch after our new president was sworn in on Wednesday, and my husband banged on pots.  "Our long national nightmare is over," President Gerald Ford said over 46 years ago when he became our 38th president, describing my feelings about this inauguration.  Huge problems persist, of course, but at least, as President Biden made clear, we'll be led by competence and ethics.

As reassuring as the formal inauguration was in its presentation, though, I found myself most moved by some of the supporting characters.  When Lady Gaga emerged from inside the Capitol on the arm of Capt. Evan Campbell to sing our national anthem, she created an unforgettable moment.  Her full red skirt, billowing and trailing on that cold morning, sent an unmistakable message: Go big and go bold.  If "America is back," as many world leaders tweeted that day, it will be because President Biden acts with courage and vision and because the majority of our citizens follow his lead.  There's no room for fear and timidity, as Lady Gaga well knows.

While Bernie Sanders began Inauguration Day as an unassuming elder statesman dressed for the cold, he ended up in a starring role.  The image of him seated in a folding chair, arms crossed, wrapped in a brown parka and wearing thick, wooly mittens captured the imagination of creators everywhere.  His image appeared on the moon, in The Wizard of Oz, with workers in "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper," and in Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks."  The memes made me laugh out loud with more images appearing, it seemed, by the hour.  Finally, we could laugh again, as four years of pent-up anxiety broke free.  This latest Bernie Sanders meme is what we needed.

The day's crowning moment came at the finale of Celebrating America, the evening's entertainment; Katy Perry stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and sang "Firework" as a spectacular display lit up the sky.  With her usual passion, she, too, seemed to unleash a moment.  The opening lyrics alone capture the feelings of many of us living under Donald Trump's reign: "Did you ever feel like a plastic bag/Drifting through the wind, wanting to start again."  As the song builds in momentum, however, it becomes one of hope, where Perry--not unlike Lady Gaga--urges boldness, to "own the night/Like the Fourth of July."  The fireworks overhead served only to underscore the intensity of Perry's message.

Perhaps there's satisfaction in knowing that Donald Trump could have never commanded the talent that performed that day, including Jennifer Lopez, Garth Brooks, Bruce Springsteen, and John Legend.  Nor could his mean-spirited attitude towards his enemies foster the good humor that arose from Senator Sanders in his chair.  No, the stewing rage of Trump's supporters that boiled over on January 6 is no match for the exhilaration that characterized Inauguration Day--when music and humor, ideas and ideals erupted with joyful audacity.

So Long, Farewell, Aufwiedersehn, Goodbye!

We've almost made it.  Four awful years with President Trump whittled down to barely three remaining days.  

Here are some of the people I won't miss:

De facto advisors like the MyPillow guy and the Fox and Friends team.

Pseudo-lawyers like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.

Nepotistic heirs, you know their names.

Deceitful press secretaries like Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany.

Destructive cabinet secretaries like Betsy DeVos and Mike Pompeo.

Here are some of the qualities I won't miss:

A president who separated families.

A president who ignored science.

A president who lied.

A president who mocked his people.

A president who fostered white supremacy.

When Joe Biden takes the oath of office at noon on Wednesday, January 20, we get to start over.  Sort of.  We can't forget the last four years or banish these unfortunate characters and the values they espoused, but we can expect a new standard of governing.  And with it, a renewed pride in our country.

A Wink and a Nod?

How will Republican lawmakers censure Donald Trump for his incendiary role in Wednesday's attack on the US Capitol?  Will they encourage the use of the 25th Amendment?  Pressure him to resign?  Support impeachment?

So far, as the Washington Post reported yesterday, "Republicans [are] largely silent about [the] consequences of [the] deadly attack and Trump's role in inciting it . . . Republican leaders [have] yet to hold anyone accountable."  True, Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania have called for Trump's resignation, and Politico notes that several Republicans have expressed private support for Trump's removal.  Still, the collective response is silence . . . 

. . . for which Eliana Johnson, guest host of today's edition of the newsletter "Politico Playbook," offers an answer.  She describes a strategy one Republican operative called "wink, wink, nod, nod," in which "lawmakers simply treat VP Mike Pence as president."  It's already been used, she notes, when Congressional leaders on Wednesday called Pence, not Trump, to employ the National Guard.  Moreover, Mitch McConnell has apparently told others that "he does not plan to speak to Trump again."

Big whoop. 

McConnell has enabled Donald Trump's malfeasance since the start of this presidency.  He's winked and nodded for four years so that he could secure judgeships and tax cuts for the rich.  Congressional Republicans, a few notable exceptions notwithstanding, have joined him.  When Joe Biden won the election in November, these same Republicans once again remained silent.  What harm, they asked, in allowing Trump to claim a fraudulent, stolen election?

I hope they found out.

Remaining silent, winking and nodding at Mike Pence, should not be an option for Republicans, certainly not for their leadership.  They should be speaking on talk shows, posting to social media, and interviewing with newspapers--wherever they might reach uninformed citizens--to tell them the truth: Joe Biden won this election.  No fraud.  No steal.  They should further speak out against their president: Donald Trump was wrong to incite violence.  Finally, they should be doing whatever they can to get Trump out of office and to speak publicly about their efforts.

Clear, consistent messages could make a difference, at least for the future.  If Republicans can't get rid of Trump now, maybe they can undo some of the damage they've caused.  For we cannot expect to preserve our democracy as long as election results remain in doubt for so many citizens.  The angry, armed mob already broke through the gates, and we can't afford for them to do so again.

Epiphany

Three days from now, on Wednesday, January 6, the United States Congress will meet to certify the winner of the 2020 presidential race.  President-elect Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in November by over 7 million votes in the popular election and by 74 votes in the Electoral College.  The Trump campaign's efforts to sue several states for voter fraud have failed in over 40 cases.  District Court Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of Pennsylvania said, in dismissing one of the cases, that "this claim, like Frankenstein's monster, has been haphazardly stitched together . . . This court has been presented with strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations . . . unsupported by evidence."

Frankenstein's monster indeed.  

It's what the Republican Party has created repeatedly in its subservience to Donald Trump, and it's what brings us now to the latest outrage:  the group of 12 Republican senators and over 100 representatives who plan to oppose the count of votes on January 6.  What an interesting coincidence that this disgraceful devilry will occur on Epiphany, the Christian celebration of the Magi's visit.  Epiphany has also come to mean "a moment of sudden revelation or insight."

Can we count on any of these spineless senators and representatives to experience epiphany, to see the danger of their actions?  Not likely, when their circular logic spins on its own deceit.  Senator Ted Cruz, leader of the twelve senators, said today, "We've seen in the last two months unprecedented allegations of voter fraud . . . We have an obligation to protect the integrity of the democratic system."  Allegations, yes.  Proof, no.  The courts have ruled; the democratic system was upheld.  That the likes of Cruz and his comrades continue to hoodwink Trump supporters doesn't validate the false narrative.  

Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night, also a reference to Epiphany, offers us two quotes as we contemplate these Republicans' actions.  In Act 2, Scene ii, Viola says,

"O time, thou must untangle this, not I.
It is too hard a knot for me t'untie."

Who will untie this knot that Republicans have created?  Certainly not Mitch McConnell, who enabled his corrupt president from the start.  Certainly not the so-called moderate Republicans--Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, or Ben Sasse--whose actions rarely support their words of protest.  Certainly not the the right-wing media that continues to promote lies and foment discord.  New leadership under Joe Biden will make a difference, of course, as he will begin to restore integrity and respect.  But William Shakespeare may have it right in the end: time may be our only salvation.

Finally, again from Viola, Act 2, Scene i, a lament for all of us: 

"What country, friends, is this?"