CommonWealth is a pretty serious publication, one that’s not known for its sense of humor. But recently we tried our hand at comedy, hosting a 15th anniversary celebration called “Serious Fun” at the Kennedy Library that featured politicians and members of the media doing live and taped bits.
Many of my colleagues in the news business had warned against such an event. Quite a few refused to participate. They said it wasn’t appropriate for news people to be yucking it up with a bunch of politicians they cover. They had a point, and I kept worrying about the ethics of what we were doing as we designed the show and wrote the script.
In the end, everything seemed to go well. There were plenty of glitches behind the scenes, but up on stage, with hosts Jim Braude and Marjorie Eagan keeping the show moving, there were a lot of laughs.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino surprised everyone by appearing in a video as The Godfather. Stroking a stuffed kitty and talking in a raspy voice, the mayor lamented the lack of respect from a cannoli-bearing stand-in (my friend and neighbor Bill Green) for developer Don Chiofaro. The video has attracted nearly 25,000 hits on YouTube. Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory later wrote that “the famously prickly mayor” mocked his own governing style in a way that no one expected. “What he was saying, in essence, was that he’s so comfortable, so established, so utterly secure with who he is and what he’s done that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks besides the voters who elect him,” McGrory wrote. “There’s not another politician around like him.”
Yet Menino wasn’t the only politician to show a rarely seen side of him or herself. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray went out to the Public Garden in Boston with a camera crew and asked people passing by if they knew who the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts was. No one did, of course, but Murray turned what could have been a cheap laugh into comic gold with a series of looks that said he didn’t take himself too seriously. Who knew?
I always knew Republican state Rep. Dan Winslow (yes, this was a bipartisan event) was quick on his feet, but I had no idea he could strut/dance down a State House corridor the way he did in another video segment to the tune of Jean Knight’s Mr. Big Stuff. It was priceless.
Some pols were skittish about putting themselves out there for ridicule. But, amazingly, most just went with it. US Rep. Michael Capuano, Gov. Deval Patrick, Auditor Suzanne Bump, Treasurer Steven Grossman, Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral, Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, Democrat Scott Harshbarger, and Republicans Jane Swift, Charlie Baker, Kerry Healey, and Joe Malone made fun of themselves, and seemed to have fun doing it.
Harshbarger sent an email after the event saying everyone enjoyed “being part of a grand and enjoyable evening where politics, public service, and governmental leadership is actually recognized and celebrated in a community where people and leaders may well disagree, but, in general, do so without being disagreeable (except when, as only it can be in Massachusetts, it is ‘personal’).”
Marjorie Arons-Barron, who runs a strategic communications firm and formerly worked as editorial director at WCVB-TV, wrote on her blog that it would be nice if politicians in Washington occasionally got together and poked fun at themselves the way the Massachusetts politicians did that night. “It might take us back to the days when Democrat Tip O’Neill and Republican Congressman Silvio Conte could duke it out on the floor of the House during the day, play poker and drink together at night, and ultimately work out legislative compromises,” she wrote.
Politicians and members of the media all have jobs to do; we all have to keep that in mind. But every now and then it may make sense to take a break from the regular routine and laugh at ourselves. Sometimes it’s eye-opening.
