Boycott Bing Bang!

Dear Sir:

The Russian people are devastated by your cavalier expressions of contempt for them.  If you want to hate Trump, that is your right as a red-blooded American.  But please leave foreign affairs to more seasoned diplomats.  And please stop insulting Russia.  I call upon red-blooded Russians and pro-Russians and just about everyone else to stop watching your cheesy shows.  In conclusion, Dear Sir, drop dead!

Sincerely yours,
yalensis

---

–

---

That, Dear Readers, is my imaginary letter, in the heat of the moment, to Chuck Lorre, Producer of several popular American sitcoms, including The Big Bang Theory.  A show which is actually very popular in Russia and has many Russian fans, who “get” its goofy ensemble humor.

So, what did Chuck do that was so bad?  Well, he recently insulted the Russian people and all of Russian history, for starters.

Chuck Lorre: “Was it something I said?”

It came to my attention just yesterday what Chuck did, when I read a comment on Mark Chapman’s “Kremlin Stooge” blog, the comment was penned by my own dear colleague, Lyttenburgh.  Whom, in the heat of the moment (I just decided 10 minutes ago to write this post) I omitted to ask permission to republish his comment.  But I’m pretty sure he’s cool with it, especially since it’s a really good comment and sums up the Angst of your typical Russian TV viewer in search of mindless and harmless entertainment which will not insult his inner psyche.  Although… as was clarified in later comments, Russian viewers do not generally pay to see Mr. Lorre’s shows, they watch pirated versions on youtube.  Therefore, their feelings and concerns are irrelevant.

Here is Lyt’s comment:

Say hi to the typical vignette by Chuck Lorre , the creator of the “Grace Under Fire”, “2 and a half Men” and “The Big Bang Theory”. Such vignettes (he calls them “vanity cards”) are left as a “bonus material” at the end of each episode he makes, but are also available on his show’s site. Like this one, airing at the end of the 2nd episode (11 season) of “The Big Bang Theory”, a comedy show with rather big following in Russia:

CHUCK LORRE PRODUCTIONS, #563

“When I was a little boy the Russians were coming. At least once a week, I was instructed to hide in the school basement because the Russians were coming. I actually spent six years learning to speak Russian because when they got here, I wanted to know how to say, “Don’t shoot!” (не стрелять!) And now, more than half a century later, after their dumbass system of government imploded, the friggin’ Russians are still coming. How is that possible? How are we still being tormented by a nation that has yet to build a decent refrigerator or toaster, let alone a cell phone or a car? By a culture that thinks borscht is a good idea? By the people who somehow managed to contribute less to rock music than the French? I mean, sure, kudos on vodka, but how is it that these people are still making us miserable? And more importantly, why? Is world domination still a thing? And if it is, let’s say they succeed. What then? The future supreme rulers of planet Earth are gonna rock the casbah with balalaikas? Forgive me, but in the words of their favorite son, Orange Julius, that is “sad.””

Dear Mr. Lorre (let’s pretend he will actually read me here)! I’ve read the account of your Cold War era childhood with great amusement. The generation of my parents growing up at the same time in the USSR did not experience anything like that. They were not taught to duck and cover below their desks in order to (somehow!) survive the nuclear blast. They were not tormented with constant alarm drills. They were not taught how to say “не стреляйте!” (don’t shoot) in the case the American invaders would finally invade our country.

My parents and their generation had happy unblemished childhood.

Meanwhile, while you and your generation were doing the drills the military of your country, the USA, was depriving children in various parts of the globe of their own happy childhood. They were often depriving them of their livelihood and even their lives. Compared to what your military did to their countries your own “childhood trauma” was nothing.

But, judging from your latest vanity card, should we accept without question everything you say, then we have to come to the following conclusions:

– If the country does not have a “dumbass system of government” (i.e. they are so-called “liberal democracies”) – the can have the right to come and interfere into other people’s lives – but not the other way round.

– Only a country that “build a decent refrigerator or toaster, let alone a cell phone or a car” can “torment” other countries.

– Russian culture (sic) thinks that borscht is a good idea. Not Ukrainian. Not Byelarussian – only Russian. And that’s a no-no.

– Russian rock bands (“Kino”, “Akvarium”, “Maschina Vremeni”, “Krematoriy”, “Chizh &Co” and many, many others) SOMEHOW “contribute less to rock music than the French”. Ergo, only the nations, who contributed a lot to the rock music have the right to subjugate the world and diss Murika [nod, nod].

– Putin does everything he does in the name of the world domination (see – making life uncomfortable in the mind of some Murikan kreakls = World Domination) in order to “rock the casbah with balalaikas” (c).

I don’t think that Chuck Lorre was paid to write anything of this. Given that Wikipedia’a article mentions, that he “publicly admitted his decades of struggle with the autoimmune disease ulcerative colitis, and other mild health struggles with depression, worry, and anger/rage” I thinks that all of these sentiments are genuine. But that doesn’t make them less of a propaganda of the unhigned hate by someone, who has the means to reach (and influence) thousands of people across the globe.

Indeed – “sad”, is the only thing I have to say about this once favorite show of mine.

---

–

---

That was Lyt’s rant, and now back to me, yalensis.

Full disclosure:  I have never watched any of those other Chuck Lorre shows, but was a regular watcher of Bing Bang.  WAS, I said.  Which I now intend to stop watching.  Which is sad, because now I will never find out if Sheldon and Amy actually go through with the wedding and, if so, how long before their inevitable divorce?

And, for starters, I had never known about these “Vanity Cards” before, and it seems pretty stupid to me that a bigtime Hollywood producer would put this sort of thing online (not just the Russian stuff, but his other political rants) and risk alienating a chunk of his American viewers.  Well, you know what the Bible has to say about vanity.

Fair and Balanced

In my due diligence as a respectable blogger, I just popped onto google to see if there was perhaps some explanation, or mitigating circumstance.  Still holding out hope that it was all just a ghastly misunderstanding, and I could go back to watching Bang with a clean conscience.  Like I said, I had never even known about these “Vanity Cards” of Lorre’s, or that he has left quite a paper trail of his personal opinions.

I googled something like “Chuck Lorre on Russia” and got a bunch of stuff.  Including this actually very interesting link, this was Chuck in a earlier and happier time (March 2017), and include the lyrics to a beautiful and popular Russian song, “Moscow Nights”.  My first thought was:  “Ah!  Chuck likes Russian music, so he can’t be all bad!”  But then remembering:  This was still post-Trump, after all, so he probably meant something sarcastic by it.  Like, Trump was singing tunes in Moscow, or something.  One highly interesting point, though:  Alonso del Arte, the writer of that link, quoted a previous Chuck rant from a month earlier, in which (if I am reading this correctly) Chuck basically does a live vivisection on Rachel Maddow:

Rachel, with her Ricky Nelson pompadour

If the free press is the enemy of the people, and I’m part of the people, it would follow that Rachel Maddow is out to get me. Now I don’t mean to diminish her intellect, which is considerable, but as enemies go, with that Ricky Nelson pompadour and big, goofy grin, she doesn’t exactly strike terror in my heart. On the other hand, Little Stevie Van Breitbart, who I assume is a friend of the people and looks like he just woke up from a three-day bender, scares the$#!+ out of me.

And I reckon anybody who trashes Maddow (especially a fellow Liberal Jewish Hollywood-type person??) can’t be all bad.

But let’s face it:  All of this is really about Trump.  Trump is what went terribly wrong for the American Liberal elite.  And they need to blame somebody, so they blame Russia!

This other link shows (maybe — remember that I wrote this entire post in great haste) Chuck’s evolution into madness (post-Trump election) with his “open letter” to Julian Assange.  Putting on my Freud-Psychiatrist hat, I see a Hollywood Liberal who was terribly shattered by the election, lost all his illusions, like little Hedwig in Ibsen’s Vildanden, maybe he even used to have some lingering respect for Russia, which was all flushed down the toilet, due to Putin’s despicable actions in stealing the American election!

An Open Letter to Julian Assange

Dear Jules,

Julian: Neo-Morlock do

Belated congrats on your whole Mr. Robot thing. You promised to use the Internet to expose and bring down all the corrupt bastards ruining our world, and boy did you almost follow through. Julie baby! Boychick! The job’s only half-way done! You need to show us you’re not just another gun for hire and hose down the other mosh pit. You know what I’m talking about. The tax returns, the out-takes, maybe even some freaky-deaky-golden-leaky beauty pageant video action. Time to step up, J-man. If you wanna be a cyber Fidel, or a digital Che, or a virtual Ho, you’ve gotta stop stuffing your face with arroz con pollo and get to work. It’s time to go all Talking Heads on this situation. Burning down the house, bubelah! You’re one wikiwacky-leak away from being a hero. Or maybe a martyr. Ecuadorean potato soup, Ecuadorean puhtahto soup, they’re usually the same thing.

Hugs to Vlad,
Chuck

P.S. Love your hair, very nouveau Morlock

That “Vlad” thingie is the true indicator of Chuck’s increasing dementia in regard to Russia.  See, it was “Vlad Putin” who brought about the Triumph of Evil in the U.S.

And here Chuck badly insults a man he used to respect, namely Julian Assange.  Although I have to admit that “Morlock” comment is right on target!

And in conclusion, Dear Readers, what to make of all this madness?  Who is to blame, and what should be done?  Should we boycott Chuck’s shows?  I say Yes!  Unless he makes a sincere apology to all the humans, animals, and clowns involved in this ghastly farce!