orNew Manly Hugh vs.
Old Rubbery Hugh
- - - - - - - - - - - -
This is about me, see, me. Not other people, because if it were, then not only would it be passive-aggressive and sad, it'd be about people I love and am related to, and see--it's not.
Here's the point: I am not feeling this big nouveau cultural American TV Schwärm for Hugh Laurie. I hate it! I resent it! I hate it! HE WAS MINE FIRST. In the very most decorous and understanding and non-psychotic way, but MINE FIRST. I never thought I was going to marry him, but ohhhh. And yuck.
I have been having sexual fantasies about that man since he played Lord Monty on The Young Ones! I have been scouring the web for Hugh information since I first had access (the internet was actually a better resource for Laurienalia, say 12 years ago, before worries about copyright restrictions and when it was more directly ruled by BritCom-loving geeks); downloading scripts from A Bit of Fry and Laurie, reading first-hand accounts of his first show at The Fringe. I have the entire boxed set of Jeeves and Wooster. I even found ways to fantasize about him and Imelda Staunton in Peter's Friends, and I'm sorry that movie sucks, same with Maybe Baby. I've dived into every ancillary thing I can think of: partly just Anglophilic prediliction, but sometimes just for Laurie context: Ben Elton novels, Elton plays, bad video tape copies of TV series like Comic Strip Presents and Thompson, Stephen Fry's books. Okay, I haven't read The Gun Seller--HELLO PEOPLE, it wasn't released in America because it was thought too Anti-American at the time--but I read every UK review when it came out.And now there's this new sardonic heartthrob American Hugh Laurie. I'm not quite sure what to even think! It's hard not to feel that he's pulling this enormous hoodwink on touchy-feely Americans (whom he dislikes); financing his kids' education or a new second home in Majorca with 3-4 years on a TV show that wouldn't run more than a couple years in England since they are much more humane about putting shows out of their misery before they outstay their welcome.
I mean, it's not that I always/only like the nerd before we've taken off his glasses to reveal the Hunk Beneath, but if there ever were somebody whose appeal lay partly in his lightness of touch, it's this guy. That, and his sense of the absurd, and all this heartthrobby HughFandom seems very absurd.This is my problem, and I must deal with it. Maybe I got a little haterism in my game. He is a good enough actor to pull this off and this new brusque manly doctory Hugh (I know, I know, his father was a doctor...I probably knew it before you!) is Hugh too, somewhere, and I must accept it. .38 Special tells us we must hold on loosely and not let go--so I will. This proprietary feeling is not healthy. And how much of this is self-hatin' jealous snobbery, you might well ask, if I think I have a better sense of how he dislikes Americans than others? No, forget it, it wasn't all snobbery, it wasn't. Dammit, I liked him. He makes me giggle, he's smart and weird and hilarious and talented. Sigh. Anyhow.
The new surge in AmericanHughitude that sent me over the edge recently was everyone kvelling (nicely) about his appearance on Saturday Night Live, as if he had just pulled off a neat little trick. This guy is a major comedian and done TV comedy since the early 80s...why are we so surprised? We are we always so myopic about things in America, things so far up our noses they're touching olifactory receptors?
It's a strange row to hoe, being a pervy heterosexual Anglophile. Maybe I should try actually watching House. Hah! Shuddup.
6 comments:
Apparently Zach Braff shared the stage with HL at an awards show and was surprised and gave HL a hard time "Oh so British now, are we?" he said. "I am British," he said. Americans really do live on our own island, we are acting as if we've discovered him--I would have tuned into SNL to see him. He's got chops--and yeah, we're all so surprised. Well, hopefully, he's laughing all the way to the bank.
Oh, come on. Some of us were culturally disadvantaged enough that we had to discover his genius via Fox network and are currently working our way back through the Laurie catalog.
House kind of sucks, but I'm addicted--there's really not that much going on, but that means there's not a lot to distract from Hugh Laurie being awesome. Besides, there's an Anglophilic undercurrent what with it being inspired by/referencing Sherlock Holmes.
Also the rediscovery of Robert Sean Leonard is a bonus.
Quick note on Zach Braff: isn't it, well, *weird* that he only got popular after John Ritter died? There are no coincidences.
Oh, & bringing in David Morse as the bad guy was also a genius move. Trust me, it's an enjoyable show.
Indeed, David Morse matches up well with Hugh. It makes me fondly remember Hack.
Ach, you mean I need to be an adult and see this program before I, um, dismiss it? Fug.
Dude, I dunno (about RSLeonard). Is he anything other than earnest and bemused? He suffered from too much of that in the past...I picture him now being the "oh, HOUSE, you wacky guy" guy.
Ehhh...nerts. I guess I have to see. I stand by my ground, though, about general American cluelessness and the fact that in the complicated system of precedence/calling dibs/cultural order I get to marry him first.
See, that's the genius of casting RS Leonard--he's all "oh, House, you're so wacky" until he's like "oh, s**t."
It's pop cheese--the creators have admitted that it's just Law and Order with doctors. But Hugh Laurie as House is *way cooler* than any of the stiffs at L&O--he can deliver a good line well, obviously, but he can take a bad line and toy with it until it's funny, however.
Post a Comment