Via Brian and John, John Cleese's take on genetic determinism:
All the best social commentary comes from comedians, these days.
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+Meet Brian Malow, a science comedian scheduled to perform at the USA Science and Engineering Finale Expo. He will also perform at the Night of Science Comedy before the Expo with two other comedians, Norman Goldblatt and Pete Ludovice.
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Connecting with the general public and hopefully future scientists and engineers is one the major goals of the USA Science & Engineering Festival. We want to light a spark, to convince students that these fields are not only those of the future but just plain fun.
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All the best social commentary has always come from comedians. Take the Court Jester example.
The reason?
If you're going to tell 'em the truth, you have to make them laugh, so they won't kill you.
What Becca said.
The 20th century was an anomaly in that there was insightful, widely read social commentary from people who weren't entertainers. Even then, you had comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, and musicians like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie (folk singers have long been into social commentary as well), who were pushing the boundaries and making it acceptable for non-entertainers to talk about certain subjects.
Billy James Hargis, "a Christian weapon against Communism and its godless allies", blamed his sexual escapades with students of both sexes upon "genes and chromosomes" in October 1974. Trig Palin is simply explained, "non tamen solam intendit interiorem, immo interior nulla est, nisi foris operetur varias carnis mortificationes."
The Bell Curve (1994) is 800 pages of racist diatribe. It is all the more vile for accurately predicting California Academic Performance Index scores for high school students in 2008. Every god-fearing human being is unique and perfect. No genes! No chromosomes!
Physical Review A-E will not be Saved until glossolalia graces its pages. Oh, wait... string theory and SUSY. Never mind.
Thank you, I needed that.