What I loved about the Jerry Springer show was he’d have some insane fight break out between somebody’s baby daddy and their actual daddy and their uncle and then grandma throws a chair and the crowd is cheering for blood. And then at the end he’d have this somber monologue and always end with “Take care of yourself, and each other.”
The juxtaposition of chaos and care was wonderful.
As someone who has never seen the show, and someone who is too lazy to look it up…was the show real?
Like real real? Not “WWE WrestleMania” real?
I know that reality shows aren’t fully real but they are real adjacent.
I’m not sure and the opinion I’ve found on the Internet is mixed. Some blame the guests for making up stories, others blame the producers for creating drama. Jerry himself said it was 98% real.
Real people encouraged to lose control on camera.
And also liars looking for fifteen minutes of fame, who took less encouragement to lose control on camera
And iirc he died full of regret that he eroded the world’s intelligence and culture
That feels…fair.
I always find myself at a crossroads with someone regretting their actions at the end of their lives/careers. should I feel happy knowing this person became self aware enough to realize their actions were wrong, or do I feel angry at the fact this person had enough reflection with their actions and did nothing to try and prevent it form happening again?
in this case, I feel neutral. I had a Jerry springer phase growing up, and realized the people on this TV show are not good people. I viewed the show like a window into what I never want to aspire to be, so in a way, he helped me lol.
JER-RY JER-RY JER-RY
He also hired a sex worker and paid with a check. Dude had so much confidence in anything he did, it was inspirational.
But she never cashed/deposited it, so it was actually free! Other than costing him his reelection campaign for mayor and ending his political career, that is.
Looking back, it’s so odd to think that something like that would be a political death sentence. I don’t think he even committed fraud or tried to cover it up.
Jerry Springer:… Any job I’ve ever had it’s been the same constituency, it’s been middle and low-income people that need a voice, that need help, that need whatever. So, even in my entertainment, that’s my base. In politics, it certainly was my base. When I practiced law, it was my base. This is who I am.
54 years ago, this week, I came to America. I was five years old. Most of my family had been killed in the holocaust in the camps in Germany and Austria during World War II.
[Podcast host] Alex Blumberg: The speech that you’re hearing now is one Springer delivered back in January of 2003 to a group of Ohio Democratic county chairs. There was no press there. And the only reason we have it on tape is because an audience member recorded the whole thing on a personal tape machine from his chair. He probably thought that it’d be a joke, but he was so moved by the speech that he took the tape and had it duplicated at his own expense. He sent it around to all the county chairmen around the state, the idea being, here’s a guy with a message for us.
In the speech, Springer gives his standard economic spiel and also condemns America’s current foreign policy as arrogant and bullying. And then he ends with his own story of first coming to America with his refugee parents on a boat from Europe.
Jerry Springer: We came over on the Queen Mary, January 19th to January 24th, a five day voyage over to America in 1949. And, when we arrived, my very first memory was my mom waking me up and saying, “Jerald, we have to go up on the top deck there.” One of the decks of the Queen Mary. And all I remember-- because the rest has been told to me. I was only five-- but I vividly remember everyone standing out on top of the ship and the deck there-- there were about 2,000 passengers on board-- packed together, packed together. And what I remember, other than being freezing, is that nobody said a word. It was absolute quiet.
And we were passing the Statue of Liberty. And my mother told me later on, as I got older because, obviously, I wouldn’t remember exactly what I’d said, but she remembers me asking her what are looking at and what does it mean? And she said, in German, eines tages, alles. One day, everything.
The Statue of Liberty means everything. We take it for granted today. We take it for granted. Remember, the Statue of Liberty stands for what America is. We, as Democrats, have to remind ourselves and remind the country the great principles we stand for. This is a place of protection. This is not a country of bullies. We are not an empire. We are the light. We are the Statue of Liberty. Thank you for having me.
[APPLAUSE]
The poem written on Lady Liberty’s base bears repeating, I think.
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
It is a shame he paid for that massage with a check.
WELP today I learned…all of those things as well.
Just gonna leave some of Weird Al’s greatness here
Lol. I also just posted his song, but attached to an AMV from back in the long, long, ago.
Time for a throwback.
