There were some cries yesterday to ignore the sweaty, out of breath one-man show performed by Friday Night Lights author Buzz Bissinger. Yeah, ignoring him would be cool. Nothing more fun than denying someone the attention they so badly crave. But this was a train wreck you couldn't look away from. And when I awoke this morning to sift through the rubble, I quickly discovered that the destruction was still in progress.
In case you missed it: Bissinger was apparently upset after receiving a bad review in the Morning News and then scant local attention for his new book. He took to Twitter to dust off every stereotype ever uttered about Dallas, and to cram them into a series of 140-character seizures
Some of Bissinger's new Tweets are below; you can read his whole performance here. In it, you'll find references to "having fun" and a criticism of Dallas' lack of good "zingers," which gives a little insight into what ol' Buzz was going for: comedy. Laughs. Hey, we're talking shit, isn't this fun?
He's right: Making fun of cities can be fun, and funny. Really, really funny. And Buzz had the material: our sea of freeways, our shitty public schools, etc. He just forgot the jokes. Brutal honesty is only funny when it's wrapped snugly in a blanket of actual comedy, and Bissinger's just not that skilled a humorist. Smart dude, big thinker, great writer whose work goes well beyond FNL (check out A Prayer for the City). But he's just not that funny.
Which is why, when he set off on his rant yesterday armed with nothing but bitterness and cliche -- his chamber fully devoid of anything nearing a joke -- we ended up enduring what was basically a less clever version of GCB. The difference is, Buzz's Twitter account won't get canceled.
