NY Times: Knives Come Out for ‘The Goode Family’
by John Nolte
In the closing sentence of her New York Times review, Ginia Bellafante damns Mike Judge’s new series, “The Goode Family” — which appears to mercilessly mock everything anyone employed at the Times holds dear — with the harshest of criticisms:
Mr. Judge, who remains obsessed with the insanities of political correctness, still has his head very much in the Clinton years, and it is possible to watch “The Goode Family” feeling so thoroughly transported back to another time that you wonder where all the Monica Lewinsky jokes. Sometimes you’ve just got to move on.
Ouch.
In the world of pop culture-dom, to be accused of not being cutting-edge is bad enough, but the Times engages the nuclear option by dismissing the new series as passé, outdated, antiquated, behind the times… Pick your poison.
If the goal here is to strangle this ideological apostate of a cartoon in the crib, withholding outrage, confessing it’s funny and then burying it as dull and out of touch is a pretty genius way to go about it.
Most interesting is the sentence just before the closing haymaker:
But the show feels aggressively off-zeitgeist, as if it had been incubated in the early to mid-’90s when it was still possible to find global-warming skeptics among even the reasonable and informed. But who really thinks of wind power – an allusion to which is a running visual gag in the show – as mindless, left-wing nonsense anymore?
The politics here are obvious, as is the tactic. One of the great leftist propaganda tools is to repeat the lie until it sounds true. But all the better if a matter-of-fact delivery can be added for effect: ”Ho-hum … water’s wet, the sky’s blue, and today the reasonable all believe global-warming is real…”
Now some may want to give the reviewer the benefit of the doubt. After all, she may live in one of those precious New York Times/Manhattan bubbles where such nonsense actually sounds true. Fine. But then you have to ask yourself when the left changed the rules about what is and is not “cutting edge.”
According to Bellafante, leftist environmentalism, which is personified by a belief in global warming, is now no longer a political issue – it’s now a conventional wisdom held by all reasonable Americans.
Well, if that’s the case, doesn’t that mean that what Judge is really doing with “The Goode Family” is mocking the mainstream values of a majority of Americans who share the same beliefs as his cartoon clan?
And if so, when exactly did the left stop defining the mocking of mainstream American values as the very essence of cutting edge?
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469 Comments
Sure, this review had the typical NY Times nonsense in it, but I'm surprised it wasn't more critical. I hope this doesn't mean "The Goode Family" takes it easy on environmental extremism and political correctness. Don't let us down, Mike Judge!
Just from the teasers this looks like an incredibly, stupendously stupid series that I have no desire whatsoever to watch.
My argument is that by calling the series "so 90s" the review couldn't have been harsher…
Passe, out-dated, antiquated, behind-the-times. Anyone absolutely sure Gina Bellafante isn't describing her employer?
"But who really thinks of wind power – an allusion to which is a running visual gag in the show – as mindless, left-wing nonsense anymore?"
You couldn't be more right in your critique. This was something Noam Chomsky perfected decades ago and continues to this day (why should he stop?!). Listen to Chomsky (if you can stand it) and to how many times he'll legitimize and advance a totally false premise with a throwaway line such as …"but that's common knowledge…" "of course, by we all know this to be an obvious truth…" "that's obviously beyond dispute.." "who would dispute that?".
To answer the question "who really thinks of wind power as Mindless left-wing nonsense anymore?" I heartily respond "why I do, of course!" It is rare I would agree with anything written in the Times.
I can't wait for this show. Mike Judge is hilarious.
On a side note, I am going to miss King of the Hill. Their last episode was great. A Canadian family movies in next door and constantly makes jokes about Americans and American culture. Hank gets into an argument with the Canadian father and they wind up in jail. Hank gets out and decides to let the other guy sit in jail but eventually bails him out. In return he gets no thank from his neighbor just more insults.
The show ends with Hank and the guys standing by the fence talking about America doing the dirty work and bailing out it's neighbors. She doesn't do it for the thanks. She does it because she is the only one who will get its hands dirty. That kind of message just doesn't belong with The simpsons, Family Guy or American Dad. So it gets axed. It's a damn dirty shame.
"…you wonder where all the Monica Lewinsky jokes. Sometimes you’ve just got to move on."
Funny, we can't say that about the late-night comedians that still bash Bush. It's Ginia Bellafante that needs to move on. Most people don't believe in the Global Warming crap. Only the ones who live in heavily populated places where the world does look gloomy (giving exception to those who do live in heavily populated places and don't mind).
If the NY Times dislikes it, isn't it a compliment?
I accept the New York Times opinion of the show exactly the same way I accept all their other political views. Which is to say, not at all.
I'm actually excited about this series. From the jokes I've seen in the teasers, it looks like a competent and genuinely funny mockery of left-wing values, unlike certain previous attempts (*cough*Half-Hour News Hour*cough*).
I think another interesting thing about the article is that it attempts to equivocate the Hill family and the Goode family in terms of parody. Now, unlike this writer, I haven't actually seen the pilot, so I can't speak conclusively. But from what I've seen in the teasers, that doesn't seem to be the case. From what I've seen of King of the Hill, I got the impression that the series was surprisingly respectful of Hank Hill and his values. The episode that subtly suggested Hank made the "right" choice in voting for George W. Bush comes to mind (at the same time, it poked fun at his concern with "manliness"; his conflict came from the fact that Bush had a softer handshake than Gore). Conversely, this new series looks as if it sets out to thoroughly skewer the left-wing values of the Goode family, if not the family itself.
– " But who really thinks of wind power – an allusion to which is a running visual gag in the show – as mindless, left-wing nonsense anymore?"
It may be that the batwingers (the batty extreme leftwing) are due for a rude awakening when they realize that all that green weenie propaganda has not worked so well.
Wow, she's really deeply committed to the Big Lie isn't she.
There are significantly MORE people (both layfolk and actual environmental scientists) publicly expressing skepticism of global warming TODAY than there were at any time in the 90s. Yet she's still dragging the "consensus" bovine scat out.
Would be funny if it weren't so sad.
Where's the TIVO !?!
Ginia Bellafante, if that is her real name, couldn't think any differently than if she religiusly read Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Natl Geographic, Vogue, This Old House, Western Whining, W, Smithsonian, etc.,etc., ad nauseum, ad infinitum. All these media types are so deeply embedded in the dark hell that is Gore's backside, they'll never come out of their brown dreams. The smug arrogance of almost everything that the NYT puts out is once again put on the front burner. Thank God there is reason for it, that we have a primetime show poking fun at the greenies is prize enough for me. Now let's see 'em skew the ratings and try to dump it.
I think she meant, "Sometimes you’ve just got to moveon.org"
So far, it looks like it.
I read this review directly off Google news- and then I immediately came here to see if the review had been commented on (of course it had!!)..What a clever piece of propaganda disguised as a banal television critique. Ginia Bellafante deserves a top post at the Ministry of Truth.
Ms. Bellafante displays what Rush Limbaugh correctly identified about liberals; condescending arrogance; with this quote: "when it was still possible to find global-warming skeptics among even the reasonable and informed." Translation: anyone who DOESN'T buy this it is an ignorant fool. I'll believe in man-made global warming when winters in the midwest don't include record cold spells.
Let's see–wind power has ranked second only to natural gas in new electric generating capacity installed in the U.S. for the past 4 years in a row, and last year, at 42% of new capacity, was nip and tuck for #1. Dismissing it seems like being stuck in the past.–Regards, Tom Gray, American Wind Energy Association
I predict that in two years, Mike Judge will still be in business.
Ginia Bellafante and the NY Times – not so much.
And Obama's "I've always said…" Yeah. Idiots all.
What's the New York Times?
Looks like another Mike Judge triumph. I never liked B&B, but pretty much everything else he's done since then has been great. Not only has he been consistently funny, but he's been consistently un-PC. Sure he poked a lot of fun at small town Texans in King of the Hill, but he almost never made fun of them. Hank was one of the most consistently decent, honest, ethical people on TV. Basically everytime Hank had a choice between good and bad, right and wrong, helping and not-helping, he almost always chose right.
Some memorable Hank Hill quotes :
(referring to Ronald Reagan)
I miss voting for that man
After a day of fishing, for example, he exults, "I caught more fish today than I did in the '80s, and those were the Reagan years."
I wouldn't expect Judge to skewer and roast liberals, not that I would mind it, they'll probably be good(e) hearted, but misguided people. Still, it should be great.
What is the total percentage of US energy generated by wind power? What are the rosiest estimates of how much power it can generate?
===In the closing sentence of her New York Times review, Ginia Bellafante damns Mike Judge’s new series, “The Goode Family” — which appears to mercilessly mock everything anyone employed at the Times holds dear===
I already love it.
=== Sometimes you’ve just got to move on.===
Oh the irony coming from these perpetual Bush bashers.
I wonder what that twit at the New York Times would say if he/she/it knew I watched The Andy Griffith show and gained more information/meaning from it than I do most of the popular shows currently on TV? I wonder how confused he/she/it would be if this new show actually became a mainstream hit?
As an electrical enigineer (who works in the power transmission industry), let me be the first to let you guys know that wind power in its current state is not economically viable. The only reason anyone builds those gigantic wind generators is because they are subsidised by the government. The real sad fact of the matter is that often it is foreign companies who win the contract, so not only is our taxpayer money funding this nonsense, the money often goes overseas. And to add insult to injury, after the construction is complete those same foreign companies will then sell our own subsidised generators back to us.
but that is global warming, or gobal climate change or solar system warming or what ever
Now more than ever I want to see it.
See my post earlier about government subsidy of wind energy. Furthermore its unreliable.
Mike Judge, you've p*ssed off the Old York Times. You've done good!!!
Yup, KelsG, therein lies the rub-a-dub roped-a-dope known as Bellanfante: an apparent statute of limitations defined by a (D) or (R) after the President's name.
Me, like most Judge fans, cannot wait for The Goode Family and her review only upped my excitement.
That ultra-arrogant New York Times Review only makes my excitement for the show even greater. If liberals are out to destroy the show it must be great
Generating how many kilowatts compared to the base load?
First ABC's Jake Tapper becomes the first and only White House presser to ask difficult questions of the Obama Admin, and now ABC is airing a Mike Judge show making fun of Greenunists? Maybe the good people at Disney are starting to see a trend – I can't wait for this show!
I'll be watching with ya, brother.
The Grey Lady has dementia.
Not only is it not viable, but we're already the world's leader in wind power. How's that working out for us again?
Simply put: you can't run them when it's too windy as it easily gets many days on the Great Plains which is where many people think the vast majority of them should go. And when it isn't windy enough, you have to use gas to run them.
They're the official paper of plagarism.
Yes, Another Carolyn- if the New York "Let's Help To Destroy America With Obama Power, And Call It Macaroni " Times dislikes it, it should be considered one of the best compliments it can receive.
Mike Judge would do well to have these characters here and there quoting some idiocy from said rag.
I was going to buy the NYT but my birds won't crap on it.
Love it ,I'm sure their hybrid will have an Obama sticker on it maybe one of those No War for Oil Stickers.
As long as they don't water down the humor it will fly.
This lady is really insulated in her little city bubble. Just for kicks, my husband and I have been slipping Global Warming into conversations with random strangers out here in the Heartland. We have yet to run into someone who doesn't snort and roll their eyes at it. Our power guy even said something the effect of "Oh, Global Warming – only guy making money off that is Al Gore!" But then, we live out with the farming folk who make their living being in touch with the land. People like Ms. Bellefante … not so much. My theory is that the more you live in the city, the easier it is to believe that the world is going to hell because of people.
Did you bother to read the article? The author does not mention the merits of the show in any way, shape or form. He only points out how the review from the can't die quickly enough NY Times is full of low blows & inanities. Maybe you could stoop to discussing what the rest of us are discussing.
The Times is a dinosaur spewing leftist dogma, trying to "save the word". Maybe they'll save us all from logic, reason & sanity. Thank god that reality always intrudes…
"But who really thinks of wind power – an allusion to which is a running visual gag in the show – as mindless, left-wing nonsense anymore?"
Wind Power is Especially Left Wing Nonsense these days now that the facts continue to pour in on its true costs and the fact it can not be counted on in a grid. I think the Ethanol foolishness is Also more clear these days than it was in the 90s.
Liberals to Leftists are guided far more by PopCulture, PopPolitics, and its PopNonsense than conservatives are. "What's In" one year is all important to Leftys, until the next alarm is conjured. I've never seen such contempt for 'old hat' than what spews from the bellies of these self-anointed.
Global Warming isn't about settled science. It's about settled politics, which is really what the aim is. The ultimate truth on 'Global Warming' doesn't matter a hill of beans to its backers. It's ALL about the Scheme itself, the one in which WE who have become rich on the backs of the world's oppressed, start to 'repay' those we stole from. This underlying theme has been around since Before the 'Days of Global Cooling'. It was easier to laugh at these folks back then, before they had indoctrinated new generations in the ways of Lockstep Environ-Mentalism. These days, many don't even THINK to question Any position on the "environment" as long as it is called Environmentalism. It would be akin to voters swallowing whole the notion that what Democrats do is 'Reason' Politics, while the Republicans do something else. Ok, bad example.
____________
Not to get all religious on anyone, but….. 'Declaring themselves wise, they became foolish', glaringly so.
P.S. It's a great round of BigHollywood articles today.
Let's see you survive without government subsidies…if you can't make it in the free market, then everything you are doing is a giant scam.
Wow. That's amazing. I mentioned in a previous posting that King of the Hill also did a great episode that destroyed carbon credits.
I guess your birds are too smart….unlike the imbeciles at the times…
"-wind power has ranked second
Oh yeah. More garbage statistics disguised as science, spewing out of the lying mouth of a shill, bought and paid for by "Big Wind."
Your post makes about as much sense, as a paper on Climate Change written by the CEO of Exxon.
Sucking on the government biddy, huh?
Must… watch… this… show!
It should be noted that wind-generated electricity is a GOOD thing. I don't subscribe to the AGW Al Gore Journal, but I fully support non-polluting electricity sources that irritate Teddy Kennedy and Nor'east libruls.
There's something graceful about the big mills turning out here in West Texas. And something profitable. Too bad there aren't a lot of those mills manufactured in our country. That's a left-wing hobby horse I could get aboard — made in the U.S.A.
Maybe I can bend over and you can kiss my butt instead.
LOL wow. Did wind energy rape your mother or something? Just imagine if conservatives would channel all their rage into something that actually benefitted society.
You gotta love that pic of The Goode Family. The liberal white boy is sporting his Africa shirt and muslim cap, the daughter is a tramp [and airhead to be sure], the mom looks like she spent the afternoon throwing back vicodin’s with vodka chasers and the dad is sporting his reusable shopping which seems to be full of nuts like the family. The rainbow and pandas are a nice touch; a unicorn galloping in the background may have been a bit much.
I hope they do their laundry by urinating on it and letting it air dry; that would be the most environmentally friendly way of course. The preview I saw on tv had one of these liberal airheads separating the 2-ply toilet paper; hilarious. They should have Algore make special appearances and each time it should snow.
So excited about this show. I have a horrible feeling, though, that ABC will cancel it after one season and then refuse to release it on DVD after receiving a letter from Congress threatening to pull their license.
But I must be crazy. That could never happen. This is America.
I agree. Can you judge something or someone by the people who oppose it? Often, yes.
"All these media types are so deeply embedded in the dark hell that is Gore's backside, they'll never come out of their brown dreams. "
hmmm I wonder if they found manbearpig in there too.
So long as she doesn't get offered the top kick at the Ministry of Silly Walks; I've been beefing up my resume for that one.
Indeed; their writers have been crapping all over it for decades.
It's not rage stupe. How come you fascist liberals always cry rage or hate when you can't argue a point? Probably because you have no ammo. Do you mean rage like the left when they portrayed Bush getting assassinated in books and movies? Do you mean rage when the left when they called Bush a Nazi? Boy you have selective memory syndrome and you don't appear to be bright. But you are a fascist in your thinking. You'd get a better debate going if you weren't so dumb. Sorry about the rage Auntie
I'm sure Mr. Judge and the rest of his crew will lose sleep over your non-viewership. I just hope you favor me with the same type of clever response you gave to logic 101.
Wow..I think I'll be first to TIVO it….I mean…..that review just makes it more important that I watch. But thanks Old Grey Lady, its good to know you aren't shy over there about not wanting people to take you seriously anymore.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh sounds, slicing and dicing bird 24/hrs a day- want to live by them?. Square miles of land covered in windmills to generate what any coal, gas, nuclear power plant can produce covering a few 10's of acres. BTW those other plants still need to be built because the wind does not blow reliably and so those plants will be on standby which means ON
Cite your statistics, Tom Gray. Back up your assertion with something other than hot air.
I drive across Wyoming frequently. Watching a coal train pass another coal train carrying hundreds and hundreds of full coal cars, and then seeing four of five of those a day… yeah, wind power will replace that. In your dreams.
The ULTIMATE endoresment to watch this program! A thumbs down from the Leftist NY Times. Thanks for th update!
Tom disappeared. Probably caught in a windmill. Birds have that problem too.
I believe Tom Gray meant to say that 23% of the bottom 50% of the upper 33% of power generators in wind alleys produce .005% of the nation's power…when the wind is blowing. Now, sucka, which walnut is the pea under? Baffle 'em with BS.
Then again, with places like California outlawing energy production by anything other than wind, it's easy to see how producing 42 watts occasionally would count as 42% of "new capacity."
Is there anything less relevant than the NY Times?
I just started watching King of the Hill about three months ago, after reading your comments I am inclined to spend this weekend hunting down every season i can get my hands on!
That line there alone made it worth the read.
Isn't it more than a little hypocritical for anyone at the NY Times to lecture anyone else on being out of date.
After all reading the NY times is much like going to the down town of a major city one block off from the high rises and listening to an old gray bag lady ramble off unintelligible nonsense.
Isn't it more than a little hypocritical for anyone at the NY Times to lecture anyone else on being out of date.
After all reading the NY times is much like going to the down town of a major city one block off from the high rises and listening to an old gray bag lady ramble off unintelligible nonsense.
The world may never know because the Kennedy's won't allow us to build enough of them.
That would be on the left side. The right side would say, "Coexist."
http://www.aweo.org/faq.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/wind/power/prweb420...
Dude,
My post to Blue jade includes a link to AWEO website which completely debunks what you ahve just posted.
LMAO!!!!
Wait, how can Rush Limbaugh criticize anyone of condescending arrogance? I mean seriously? Are you even listening to the man? Wow…
And don't forget about the remake of V, either! Any bets on how many ABC execs' homes will get eminent domained in the next two years?
B&B had some great moments, though — Judge and his writers utterly skewering the zeitgeist. There was one classic moment where the protagonists go to an open-mike poetry night and Beavis's caffeine-induced ravings are applauded as brilliant performance art; there was plenty of that kind of thing, these two idiots being mistaken for geniuses by people who (and here's the point) really should have known better, if only their standards weren't so screwed up.
And David van Driessen is an obvious predecessor to Gerald Goode (he's even got the same voice — I guess Mike missed him that badly).
There's a priceless shot in the trailer where you can clearly see one of their bumper stickers reading SUPPORT OUR TROOPS — AND THEIR OPPONENTS.
Typical left-wing fascistic stuff — "there is no debate"….."this is common knowledge"…….the NYT reviewer proves Mike Judge's point — that liberals are intolerant, angry, screechy, immature, immodest and full of you-know-what. What she does not "get" is the fact that Mike Judge is making fun of people like her!! What delicious irony!!! More power to Mr. Judge and ABC. What next, NYT?!! Are you going to send your hitman, Tom Friedman to attack Judge??!! Go Mike go!! These snooty, self-righteous bozos need to eat some humble-pie!!!
It's funnier than that. The daughter may look like a tramp, but she's the only one in the house who feels any pangs of doubt about their lifestyle. And the "liberal white kid" is a South African orphan — they adopted him sight unseen on the assumption that he'd be black.
The entertainment industry was a lot more fun when the diversity of philosophical and political viewpoints allowed for the satirization of all the extreme points of view. Since the industry has been taken over by the secularly holier than thou, their product has become flat and dry. Always the same ole, nothing new. At least with Mike Judge we've got a POV large enough to find the humor in all of human nature.
Yes, "All the news that fit to copy". Actually they don't even do that, they just make stuff up. "All the news that never happened"
This criticism would worry me, grain of salt or not, because if the show IS too explicitly political it'd indicate that Judge has made a misstep, taking the easy shot his career up to this point has been defined by NOT taking.
Judge does political/cultural material, but he's seldom gone for the easy joke of pointing at an unpopular or seemingly absurd viewpoint, instead taking the much more difficult but more insightful route of analyzing the sort of character that HOLDS that viewpoint and finding humor in what it says about them. There's nothing INNATELY "funny" about, say, Reagan Nostalgia for exmaple… but the manner in which it fills Hank Hill with misty-eyed reverence is hysterical. Likewise… I agree with the critic to the extent that there ISN'T anything automatically "funny" about wind power. What's funny is someone gazing up at them like Ponce DeLeon gawking at a new spring. I'm hoping that's the show.
Mr Gray, wind power is growing because you guys have figured out how to get generous government subsidies for your product. Sadly you can't compete without the money you fleece from the American taxpayers.
Likewise
I thought GE was building a bunch of them. Isn't that why they've been using the NBC's to kiss Obama's ass?
But he's funnier than this broad.
Getting knifed or ignored by the Times is a good indicator of success.
If they hate something, it probably will appeal to a majority of Americans.
For instance, have they reviewed Mark Levin's book yet ?
I have grown to enjoy King of the Hill in rerun, they do a nice job digging at loopy leftism and conservative flakieness .
The foibles and follies of King of the Hill's conservative families
are a tiny entertainment resource compared to the mountain
of comedy gold that the smug, leftist, bigoted Goode family will provide.
Should be a hit, will ABC continue it ?
Um…don't look now but there's plenty of conservatism at the NY TImes. David Carr, Allesandra Staley, Elisabeth Bumiller, Bill Keller, half the op-ed page, Limbaugh on the cover of the magazine, with the article written by Rush's personal friend.
Enough with the faux pretense that the Times is some liberal rag.
Gee Al Gore said he's contributing all his book profits and speaking engagement money to not-for-profit entities. So maybe your "power guy" needs to stop listening to Hannity so much. Oh and it has been proven scientifically that man-made pollution is raising the earth's temperatures. Just because you don't live near an ocean doesn't mean you don't depend on the earth's oceans to keep you and your family alive.
If they don't copy or make it up, then don't forget "All the news that's fit to liberally spin".
Sadly, its people like you who have driven down the quality of BH to the point where its no longer worth the effort or time to read any of the comments. Its people like you who cause those of us with more intellect to read the articles and only the articles.
I love how alignment with the scientific mainstream is 'leftist environmentalism'. Adorable.
I have a lot of respect for Judge, who is well-regarded in the animation industry. "King of the Hill" was the second-longest running show of Fox and the second-longest running prime time animated program in American TV history. His cadre of memorable characters gave me hours of entertainment and I'll watch the first episode of "The Goode Family" Wednesday. I owe him that much.
"Bush-bashing", when it is grounded in legitimate opposition to the administration and its policies, is still relevant because the effects of the last administration are still being felt.
This whole 'LOL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS SUX OK' *IS* very mid-late nineties.
the anti-pc movement used to be all about being able to call African Americans 'blacks', the mentally disabled 'retards', etc. etc. etc.
eventually, the movement/term devolved into a general rejection of ideas and movements associated with the left.
If anyone, Mike Judge or whoever, wants to pump out a bit-o-satire portraying limousine liberals as more interested in their own image than in making a positive impact in the world, that's a fair shot, because I'll be damned if we're not a little guilty of that (to the same extent as many conservatives are guilty of anti-intellectualism, mind you)… but don't try to pass yourself as so damn cool and "UN-PC". Grow the F up, and join the rest of us in the 2000s…
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