Post-Post Modernity and America's Funniest Videos

When "America's Funniest Home Videos" premiered on ABC in 1989 I was 7 years old, single, living in Brookfield, 8 minutes to the west of Milwaukee, under the watchful and Lutheran eyes of my parents. It is now 2006 and I am 25 years old, married, living in St. Paul, 8 minutes to the west of Woodbury, under the watchful and perverted eyes of the Level III sex offenders who live in the apartment building across the street.

Communism has fallen in Eastern Europe. Two Gulf Wars have been fought. A new millennium has started. Jesus Jones, EMF, and Eve 6, came and went, unceremoniously. I graduated elementary school, then junior high, then high school, then college.

America's Funniest Home Videos is still on the air.

It is less a television show and more a social institution. Irrepressible. Ancient. Forever. No beginning and no end.

Its impact on our cultural world is deceptive. Its about more than the face value, the sledding accidents, the funny dogs, the stupid babies tripping all over themselves. There is something significant underneath it all related to how we view human creation. It's about a new way of looking at the world called post-post modernism.

Let's take a closer look by examining first the common perceptions of AFV.

Perception #1: AFV is 100% Horrible

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I could/should poke fun at AFV (*ed. note: the show was changed to an acronym in the early 2000s in the interest of greater efficiency). You're thinking that the humor is simple, infantile, predictable. You're thinking that the host (Saget, Fuentes, Bergeron - take your pick) and their riffing and quipping are rote, safe, and unfunny. You're thinking I'm going to rip AFV the proverbial new asshole.

You are kind of right.

Perception #2: AFV is 100% Hilarious Due to the Fact that it is Horrible

I know what else you're thinking. You're thinking that I could/should talk about how AFV is actually quite hilarious because of just how ridiculous it is. You're thinking it is an ironic-comedic gem, what with the zany sound effects, bizarre "funny" voices from the host and horrible theme song with its awkward and obvious refrain: "America, This Is You."

You are kind of right.



Perception #3: AFV is 100% Sincerely Great

I know the final thing you're thinking. You're thinking that I could/should cut AFV a break because in all sincerity it is a funny TV show filled to the brim with funny videos that are actually funny for real reasons related to the fact that they're funny in reality for real. You're thinking that there is something undeniably compelling about watching a man get hit in the penis with a baseball, and you're thinking that you are tired of feeling guilty and/or unsophisticated for thinking so.

You are also thinking that this singing cat is better than most things on television.

You are kind of right.



The Real Shit

The real shit, the heart of the matter, is that you are right on all three accounts.

1) AFV is horrible.

2) AFV is so horrible that its hilarious.

3) AFV is actually really great.

Reading those statements, do any of them strike you as inaccurate? More likely now than ever before, none of them will, despite the fact that they're contradictory to one another.

How can this be?

This can be, my friends, because we have evolved as a society to the final stage of arts and entertainment appreciation: post-post modernity. We are beginning to see that all human creation can be understood on no less than three levels simultaneously, with levels contradicting each other but still working in concert. It's post-post modernity. A subtle and nuanced experience. That's the real shit.

The Real, Real Shit

And the real, real shit here, the key to post-post modernity, lies in the exploding resurgence of sincerity. It's back. And it's better than ever, a newer and more evolved level of sincerity forged in the flames of what's come before.

It is again okay to genuinely and honestly appreciate human creations despite the fact that much of society shits upon them. This can be done without fear of retribution from our cultural elite (i.e. writers for Pitchfork, your cool cousin with the tortoise-shell glasses) because post-post modern appreciation is coupled with a healthy appreciation for irony and critical thinking. It is the perfect amalgamation of the naive sincerity of modernity and the unrelenting, exhuasting irony and detachment of post-modernity.

It is the Post-Post Modern Age of Enlightened Sincerity. We are finally able to recognize the ugly and uninspired and awkward, and the pure and graceful and daring -- all in the same places and at the same times, with equal reverence given to each.

That's the real, real shit.

America's Funniest Videos is but one example. Everything can and should be viewed with enightened sincerity.

Here are but a few other examples of cultural items that can be easily appreciated using the post-post modernist approach:

My Chemical Romance
Top Chef
Coldplay
Michael Bay Films
The VFW Bar on Lyndale and 28th, The One with Karaoke

I am no established cultural theorist, mind you. No semiotic credentials. But its unmistakable. Post-post modernity is here, and here to stay.

Throw away your ironic mesh trucker hat and throw on your ironic-and-sincere-at-the-same-time mesh trucker hat. AFV is up next.

++++++++++++

Post-Script
Some Additional Thoughts on AFV and Bob Saget



In 1989, when AFV hit the air on ABC, The Oakland Athletics were in the process of dismantling the San Francisco Giants in a four game sweep of the famous Battle of the Bay Series, hiccuped and sutured in the middle by the massive Loma Prieta earthquake that shook the entire Bay Area just as Game 3 started. A huge fan of the Bash Brothers and the dominant Cy Young season of Dave Stewart, I held a rabid interest in the series, as well as the San Francisco metropolitan area. Moreso than most 7 year olds from the Upper Midwest, at the least.

This poster hung above my bed:



Another equally enthralling and socially important event at this time was Full House, an extremely popular television show about a bunch of middle-aged dudes with feathered mullets (related? they might have been related, but maybe not) taking care of three precocious and annoying children (retarded? was the baby retarded? the baby might have had down syndrome, I can't remember) in a large row house on a steep San Francisco hill overlooking the city.

I absolutely fucking loved this show. My brother and I did not miss an episode. The Friday night adventures of Michelle ("Don't Have a Cow, Man"), Stephanie ("How Rude"), Uncle Jesse ("Have Mercy"), Uncle Joey ("Cut. It. Out."), DJ (no catch phrase) and Danny (ditto) were heart-warming, charming.



Between the earthquakes, the baseball, the large-muscled (probably steroid-juiced) baseball players who hit many home runs and dressed like SNL characters I had never seen, the Tanners and their wacky neighbor Kimmy, the milkman, the paperboy, the evening TV, shibidoop dwop dwa dow, it's easy to see that the San Francisco Bay Area loomed large in my conscience at this time.

As such, when Bob Saget, Danny Tanner, host of Wake Up San Francisco, was tapped to host the maiden edition of AFV, the show could not miss in the eyes of this towheaded and rambunctious Cream City sprite.

The key point here is that I may be somewhat biased about the greatness of AFV due to my own personal history.

Please take my endorsement with a grain of salt.