The Stand Up

We had entertainment of a sort on the Red Line this morning. A guy got on at Central and started talking to himself real loud. It sounded at first like a potential stand up comedy routine, "What has ever come out of Texas besides cattle and crooked politicians? Just wondering." This was followed by philosophical/political musings "Hamilton was right, the masses are idiots. And it kills me to say that." A girl sitting in front of me doing the crossword found it all amusing and caught his eye. Soon, however, he was turning on his audience "We're all slaves to the pharaoh. Shut up slave and dance like you're supposed to." I guess that's what the slaves in ancient Egypt did in between building the pyramids. The crossword girl and I did start cracking up at the absudity of it all. It seems we were all idiots, we don't question things, we just do what Bush tells us to do. "You stay up at night wondering 'why do they call us ugly Americans...'" "All you care about is reality TV and the Red Sox." It's not as if I found anything he said offensive, but he kept insisting it was satire. Satire, sadly, requires wit...which is why not everyone is good at it. He was just ranting, but it was among the more entertaining rants I've heard on the subway. He finally de-trained with the line "Have a bourgeois day." Hey, you have a bourgeois day too.