Word: absurd
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...line that snaked up Newbury Street and into the aisles of the store itself. When Flav’s limousine finally arrived, there was more than the typical excitement surrounding a celebrity sighting in the air. There floated a tense uncertainty, as if those present wondered whether such an absurd character could exist in real life. One trademark shout later, though—a gravelly “FLAVOR FLAAAAAAAAAV”—and all such fears were put to rest. For the televised William Drayton is not a caricature at all. The line to meet Flav...
Moreover, conspicuous consumption, the second force fueling the creation of McMansions, leads to absurd designs and uses of space. Most American families do not need formal sitting rooms, studies, and formal dining rooms. They also do not need 50-foot high Palladian windows, unless they are conducting church services in their great room on Sundays instead of watching football on a 70-inch plasma TV. And are cathedral ceilings really necessary—especially when they extend to a foyer big enough to hold the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree? Unless these people are having foreign leaders and royalty over...
Hell, even Billy Joel got in on the act with his trumped-out prole anthems “Allentown” and “The Downeaster Alexa,” conjuring up infinitely absurd images of Joel working in a steel mill, or relying on “the rod and the reel” to feed his family. Predating the Killers’ similar appropriation by several decades, Joel’s irony may have been unintended, but the best of the genre, and its musical ancestors, relied on a self-conscious tension between catchiness and acerbity...
Another example of absurd and alienating tactics from the opposite end of the spectrum was SLAM’s stunt of taking janitors’ children trick-or-treating at former University President Lawrence H. Summers’ home last Halloween to demand higher wages and increased benefits. Rather than advocating in a professional manner, a possibility given the ongoing bargaining between the janitors union and the University, the group decided that the best way to convince Summers that janitors need higher wages was to invade Summers’ personal life. This is akin to the students from Social Analysis...
...slightly higher wages—the median was $52,792 per year in the 2000 census for the metropolitan area—but whatever benchmark is used, SLAM’s figure is inflated. While many on campus agree that Harvard ought to value its workers, it is absurd to claim that Harvard must pay far above the market wage. Because of its unwavering commitment to these ridiculous demands, SLAM drives moderate sympathizers away...