This email discussion is based on a web site (http://www.mchawking.com) which portrays Steven Hawking, the famous scientist, as having a side career as a gangsta rapper. The three participants in the discussion are each musicians and writers of various sorts. For your convenience, I've rearranged the messages from the earliest to the most recent.
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 08:17:31
From: Christopher Weingarten
To: "Ned Davis", "M. David Hornbuckle"
Subject: Satire & the Politics of Hyperbole
Christopher R. Weingarten wrote:
I hoped it wouldn't come to this, but here is a brief dissertation on why MC Hawking isn't funny.
Gangsta Rap Satire and the Politics of Hyperbole
By Christopher R. Weingarten
In example 1, seminal Compton, California rap group Niggaz With Attitude (N.W.A.) present one of the many lines in the revered gangsta rap missive "Straight Outta Compton" that helped propel the group and the art form into mainstream culture in ways that proto-gangsta artists like Ice T and Schooly D could not.
ex.1
"So, when I'm in your neighborhood
You better duck,
'Cause Ice Cube
Is crazy as fuck."
- "Straight Outta Compton," N.W.A. - 1988.
In this, N.W.A. artist Ice Cube uses hyperbole and over-exaggeration to get his point across. In the same way that speed-metal group Slayer found brief bouts with mainstream popularity through vivid descriptions of gore, Ice Cube and N.W.A. use exaggeration as a way to show "reality."
This hyper-"reality" is obviously exaggeration (should we really duck if Ice Cube comes to our neighborhood? Is he really crazy as "fuck"?), and the result is actually quite humorous and ironic. Dre, Yella, Ice Cube, Eazy-E, and MC Ren use ironic exaggeration as a tongue-in-cheek way to keep hip-hop fans entertained, and adults, who don't understand the humor, scared. This also adds to the appeal of N.W.A. and gangsta rap.
In example 2, MC Hawking (an artist with a popular "parody" web site) uses a computer-generated voice resembling Stephen Hawking's voice to "parody" N.W.A. and the gangsta rap genre.
ex. 2
"So if you see me coming
you better duck,
'cause Stephen Hawking
is crazy as fuck."
- "Crazy as Fuck" - MC Hawking, 2000
This alleged parody of gangsta rap is not funny because: a) It merely mimics pre-existing lyrics. b) It attempts to satirize a genre already steeped in irony and humor. Given these facts, Ice Cube's original lyric is much funnier.
To correctly parody gangsta rap, and especially specific lyrics, one needs to take the following into consideration: Gangsta rap is rooted in hyperbole, so to create parody, you need to create a humorous form of "ultra-hyperbole" or "super-exaggeration."
Note ex.3 for a correct, and hilarious, parody of the same line, done by Chris Rock in the 1994 "mock-umentary" CB4, a riotous film about a non-existent rap group.
ex. 3
"When I'm in your neighborhood
You better dig a moat,
'Cause I'm coming to slit
Your motherfucking throat"
- "Straight Outta Locash" - CB4, 1994.
This is funny in ways that MC Hawking isn't because it parodies Ice Cube's hyperbole by over-emphasizing both the intended reaction [dig a moat], the ultra-violent cause [I'm going to slit your ... throat], and the heavy use of expletive [motherfucking]. Mere repeating of existent humorous (and political) lines does not translate into comedy. Using their effect to create an exaggerated form the existing genre does.
Bibliography
Straight Outta Compton, N.W.A.
CB4 Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
MC Hawking's Crib
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 10:35:22
From: Ned Davis
To: "Christopher R. Weingarten", "M. David Hornbuckle"
Subject: Re: Fundamental disagreement about comedy
Ned Davis wrote:
Christopher,
Your brief dissertation, and disputation, on the brilliance or lack thereof of the MC Hawking site, while interesting and properly supported with several good examples, is wrong. Here is why:
Comedy is a big tent. 'Parody' and 'Satire' are but two small clowns running amuck beneath that tent. And within those clowns run various even-smaller clowns of different styles of satire and parody. Dispensing with this clown metaphor, the real issue is your contention that
"This alleged parody of gangsta rap is not funny because: a) It merely mimics pre-existing lyrics. b) It attempts to satirize a genre already steeped in irony and humor. Given these facts, Ice Cube's original lyric is much funnier."
This assertion is patently untrue, as is belied by the entire oeuvre of Herbert Kornfeld, Accounts Receivable Supervisor at Midstate Office Supply. By your logic, Ice Cube writing a column about his office troubles would be 'much funnier', and I think we all know this is untrue...besides, 'mimicking' or 'quoting' or 'appropriating' or 'stealing' another MC's rhymes is a common, legitimate and in fact encouraged practice in hiphop music, so no light is shed on this point by your dismissal of MC Hawking's 'tribute' to Ice Cube's lyrics.
However, Herbert Kornfeld is a constructive example for the branch of 'juxtapositional' comedy that is central to our question (more below).
"To correctly parody gangsta rap, and especially specific lyrics, one needs to take the following into consideration: Gangsta rap is rooted in hyperbole, so to create parody, you need to create a humorous form of 'ultra-hyperbole' or 'super-exaggeration.'"
Leaving aside your fascistic assertion about the one *true* way to parody gangsta rap--I can't believe someone tried to be funny without running the concept by Christopher Weingarten's Authenticity Police first! Could there possibly be funny things that Mr. Weingarten doesn't 'get'?--you are ignoring the crucial component of this parody and indeed why it is so hilarious: the figure at the center is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Oxford, ALS-sufferer and voice-box user Stephen Hawking. While we could certainly debate whether or not it's really 'funny' to make sport of a man crippled by a degenerative disease (well, WE wouldn't really debate-I think we'd both agree it IS funny to make sport of a man crippled by a degenerative disease), if you ignore the fact the Stephen Hawking is a 58-year-old white man with a huge huge brain who is confined to a wheelchair and can only speak with the aid of a voicebox, and is highly, highly unlikely to make albums, especially gangsta rap albums wherein he bases his rhymes on the (allegedly more 'real') street stories of Ice Cube, et. al., you rather seriously miss the entire juxtapositional unlikeliness of the conceit that makes this hilarious.
Now I concede there exists a possibility that you, Mr. Weingarten, are a person truly blind to the very real societal differences between races and classes in our society, and would therefore NOT find any disparity or comical unusualness in the purported 'fact' that Professor Stephen Hawking, widely accepted as the smartest guy living in the field of mathematics and cosmological theory, would also carry on an additional and alternative side career as a 'gangsta rapper'...indeed, Dr. Hawking's own insights into quantum reality support the theoretical possibility/probability of ANY extraordinarily-unlikely-yet-still-within-the-realm-of-statistically-possible, Schroedinger's-Cat-type weirdness up to and including the possibility that you are truly color- and race-blind, but there is a much more likely possibility. When you hear hoofbeats, don't think zebras: the likely explanation for your dismissal of this brilliant comedy is nothing more than that you are just JEALOUS that you didn't think of it first. Your exhaustive attempts (with a bibliography, even!) to not only deny the obvious and apparent humor of MC Hawking but to dismiss the very effort of making the web site point this conclusion up.
Sadly yet gently,
Ned Davis
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 11:19:27
From: M. David Hornbuckle
To: "Christopher R. Weingarten", "Ned Davis"
Subject: Re: Fundamental disagreement about comedy
M. David Hornbuckle wrote:
While I find Mr. Davis's contentions that Mr. Weingarten is possibly "...a person truly blind to the very real societal differences between races and classes in our society, and would therefore NOT find any disparity or comical unusualness in the purported 'fact' that Professor Stephen Hawking, widely accepted as the smartest guy living in the field of mathematics and cosmological theory, would also carry on an additional and alternative side career as a 'gangsta rapper'" and particularly that Mr. Weingarten's oversight of MC Hawking's humor is due to "jealousy" - to be themselves hyperbolic and unnecessary, I agree with Mr. Davis' main point that the humor in MC Hawking lies, not in its general parody of the Gangsta Rap genre, but in the juxtaposition of the cultural character of Dr. Hawking and the cultural character of the typical gangsta rapper.
I would prefer to take a more charitable view of Mr. Weingarten's dissertation, and propose that Mr. Weingarten is perhaps prejudiced by a metaphysical affection for the genre of gangsta rap, which accounts for his oversights on this matter.
However, despite this web site's bounteous achievements, I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated, particularly in "Crazy as Fuck" and "The Mighty Steven Hawking," by the lack of clever references to quantum mechanics and other subjects on which Dr. Hawking is a recognized expert.
"Crazy as Fuck" is, as Mr. Weingarten points out, only a mimicking of the popular NWA song, and contains not a single reference to Dr. Hawking's cultural character in it's content. The one example of a creative leap from a pure juxtaposition of character to a juxtaposition of content in the "Mighty Steven Hawking" is the following verse:
Dr. Dre can suck my dick,
that bitch got no PHD,
I lost count of mine,
I got stupid whack degrees.
Complex math it ain't no thing,
I'm mad dope crazy fly,
like Quantum formula,
I'll leave you asking why.
This being said, "Fuck the Creationists" demonstrates a more fully realized inclusion of Dr. Hawking's real-life persona in the parody. Likewise, the "Brief History of MC Hawking" brilliantly conflates Dr. Hawking's real-life history with that of several well-known contemporary gansta rap personalities. Even this, in my opinion, doesn't fully explore the possibilities of the juxtaposition, but it is funny.
Overall, the juxtapositional humor works to a certain degree, but easily falls into the sort of formulaic dross of Saturday Night Live skits that run for too long. I understand Mr. Weingarten's desire to ask for more, but I implore him to recognize the humor that he so quickly dismissed in his dissertation.
M. David Hornbuckle
Cultural Therapist
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 11:42:42
From: Ned Davis
To: "Christopher R. Weingarten", "M. David Hornbuckle"
Subject: Re: Fundamental disagreement about comedy
Ned Davis wrote:
I appreciate Mr. Hornbuckle's sincere efforts at mediation, though I do not agree that my analysis of Mr. Weingarten's manifestly overdetermined reaction and failure to enjoy the MC Hawking site was itself 'hyperbolic and unnecessary': I think if you live by the withering, caustic and sarcastic cultural bon mot (as Mr. Weingarten plainly does), you also die by the withering, caustic and sarcastic cultural bon mot.
Having said that, however, I agree wholeheartedly that 'Fuck The Creationists' is vastly superior to either of the other two songs, and that the site overall is not perhaps as clever and cohesive as it could be--but if I may paraphrase Dr. Johnson on the subject of seeing a dog walking on its hind legs, 'It is not so amazing that it is done well, but that it is done at all.' Frankly, I'm a bit jealous myself at having not thought of it...
Mediatively,
Ned Davis
Master of Arts
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2000 12:56:33
From: Christopher Weingarten
To: "Ned Davis", "M. David Hornbuckle"
Subject: Satire & the Politics of Hyperbole
In my usual haste to lambaste something of questionable humor and relevance, I may have been slightly egregious in my reasoning.
My argument of "MC Hawking isn't funny" was a tad myopic and would be better stated within the confines of the following hypotheses.
1. MC Hawking is a retread of hackneyed concepts.
If intended as parody, it fails on many levels (see my first essay). If intended for juxtapositional purposes, as Mr. Davis suggested, it has been done much better and much more profoundly. As Mr. Davis himself pointed out, Herbert Kornfeld is an absurdist stance on this aesthetic. The film "Office Space" (1997) provided a poignant and pointed view of the office gangsta blasting the overtly violent and misogynistic music of Houston's the Geto Boys, only to sheepishly lock his car door when he sees a black man. This white-on-black humor is as old as Al Jolson's minstrel shows, and that is an apt analogy for the MC Hawking page. Old, tired, potentially dangerous. Mammy, indeed.
2. MC Hawking isn't very funny at all.
When given the potential for humor (as Mr. Hornbuckle eloquently stated), the MC Hawking concept has the making of utter hilarity. Imagine complex theories of space-time continuum stiltedly rapped through a voice box and interjected with "bitch" and "nigga." Sadly, the web site merely retreads old NWA lyrics, assuming that the general public (and obviously Mr. Davis) is gullible enough to believe mere juxtaposition are the basics for brilliant humor. True juxtapositional humor would require accuracy from all sides.
2a) Stephen Hawking would speak much more articulately
2b) A gangsta rapper, even one as unfamiliar with the genre as Stephen Hawking, wouldn't blatantly steal lines. The art of borrowing lines (or "interpolation" as rappers call it) is a subtle art form and should not be dismissed at the mere copycatting that Mr. Davis suggested. (for more info on interpolation, seek recent hits "Cherchez La Ghost" by Ghost Face Killah, "The Way I Am" by Eminem, or even the "Thong Song" by Sisqo.)
2c) Accurate parody/juxtapositional humor shouldn't skimp on production. MC Hawking's beats sound like shitty Casio blurbles that destroy all hopes of getting lost in the juxtapositional wonderland intended.
In conclusion, while the concept of MC Hawking has quite a lot of potential, the execution was ill advised and the focus was trite and hackneyed. Making fun of Stephen Hawking isn't as fun as it was 20 years ago.
I think, however, we can all agree that our extremely hyperbolic dissertations [that are made more hyperbolic by the sheer fact they are about hyperbole] are much funnier and more brilliant than anything on the MC Hawking site.
Christopher R. Weingarten, Esq.
Entertainment Editor