Friday CJ Funnies: Razzle Dazzle 'Em

I was thinking the other day about how long it's been since I've seen a stage production. Given my love of musical theatre, this is most distressing to me. So, I decided that this Friday CJ Funny would come courtesy of the Great White Way.

Originally I wanted to post ""The Crime of the Century" from Ragtime, a terrific menage-a-trois-and-murder-themed song from one of my all-time favorite musicals. ("Oh! Oh!/Harry's a jealous man/Bang! Bang!/That was the end of Stan!") Alas, I could not find a video of the Broadway cast performing this number, though I did find this clip of a summer theatre group performing it so you can at least hear the song.*

Instead, I decided to post a different (but equally great) menage-a-trois-and-murder-themed song from another one of my favorite shows: ""We Both Reached for the Gun" from Chicago. A synopsis for those who (gasp!) are unfamiliar with the plot:

Chorus girl Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger, here in the 2002 movie version) has murdered her lover and hired slick, handsome defense attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) to represent her. At a press conference, Billy spins an alternate (and false) version of the murder in which Roxie acted in self-defense (because, you know, she and her ex "both reached for the gun"). This number is staged as a ventriloquist act in which Billy supplies the words coming from the mouth of his "dummy," Roxie. Naturally, the gullible press corps -- powerless before Billy's substantial charm -- gleefully laps up his story.

So please enjoy the clip, but be warned: you'll be singing this song for the rest of the day. Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes, oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes! Oh yes, you will!

*To get a taste of just how amazing Ragtime is, watch the Broadway cast perform the show's opening number at the 1998 Tony Awards (at which it won Best Original Score) here.

Woot!

The new season of Project Runway starts in an hour! And one of the designers this season, Joe Faris, is from The D! Represent!

That is all.

Friday CJ Funnies: NSFW Edition!

I've been feeling surly lately. Maybe it's the crappy weather we've been having that foiled our plans to go up north this weekend. Or maybe it's the shamelessly racist and sexist coverage of Michelle Obama (a.k.a. Barack's "Baby Mama" a.k.a. the "Angry Black Woman") over on Fox News that's got me so grumpy. Or maybe it's pent-up angst over the decision to move the upcoming season of Project Runway from NY to LA. Who knows? Whatever the cause, no fluffy piece of CJ humor was going to tickle my funny bone today. Not even the wicked wit of my beloved Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert could satisfy me. Instead, I craved comedy that's as surly as I feel, and only one person can provide it: Chris Rock.*

Below is a link to one of my favorite bits from the Chris Rock Show: "How not to get your ass kicked by the police". Be warned: it is entirely NSFW, which is why I linked to the video instead of embedding it. It contains strong language (multiple f-bombs!), simulated beatings, and drug references...but it's also viciously funny in typical Rock fashion.

Watch the clip on YouTube here.

*Of course, Dave Chappelle offers equally surly comedy. Perhaps next week's Friday CJ Funny post will be courtesy of Mr. Chappelle...

Friday CJ Funnies: Gitmo's World

This video from the June 10th episode of the Daily Show had me laughing so hard I was crying. Turns out even the war on terror is hysterical when it involves subversive muppets. Folks who have (or who spend time with) Elmo-obsessed young children should particularly enjoy this clip...

I heart Lost

Did anyone else get super excited when they heard the mention of Jeremy Bentham on Lost? This is one of many literary and historical references on the show, but by far my favorite.

I actually shouted out "Panopticon!" when hubby asked me why I was so excited. I truly love being a prison nerd. If you are a fan of the show, try out Sawyer's nickname generator. Sawyer would call me "Stretch" - something I have heard many times.

This Conference is Right Up Our Alley!

The other day I received in my inbox a call for papers for the following conference:

CRIME AND POPULAR CULTURE:
A Multi-Disciplinary Exploration
An International Academic Conference
October 28-30, 2008

Institute of Justice & International Studies
Department of Criminal Justice
University of Central Missouri

"This academic conference will examine policy, practice, legal, and theoretical issues concerning the interaction between crime and popular culture." Click here for more information.

Now I finally have an outlet to present my (long-gestating and as-yet-unwritten) paper about the criminological implications of Johnny Cash's music! Perhaps we can all submit papers and turn it into a group visit with Velma!

Friday CJ Funnies: Guttenberg Fans, Unite!

For today's Friday CJ Funny, allow me to share a clip from the pinnacle of police-centered comedies, Police Academy. Just try and tell me that your weekend is not looking a little brighter now that you've gotten a glimpse of The Gute in all his 80s glory!

Just Nod if You Can Hear Me...

My goodness, the blog's been quiet lately! Perhaps a fun little exercise will entice some of you away from your end-of-semester duties long enough to comment here?

The good folks over at scatterplot also endured a bit of a blogging dry spell recently, broken by belle lettre's post requesting readers' favorite songs about sociology. I have shamelessly stolen borrowed this idea for use here.

So, tell me: Do you have any good songs that illustrate criminological topics/theories/concepts? (Velma hinted about this very topic a few months ago, and I seem to recall that Patch was working on compiling such a list at one time. Is that still true, Patch?)

Me? I'd say that pretty much the entire discography of Johnny Cash is relevant to criminologists. In fact, on my mental list of "things I'd like to write a published article about after I am tenured," the relevance of Johnny Cash's music to the study of crime is at the top of my list. (This paper even has a working title: "The Man in Black: Popular Culture's Foremost Criminologist".) A small sample, by topic:

Murder/Capital Punishment:
"25 minutes to Go"
"Joe Bean"
"Long Black Veil"

Incarceration:
"Folsom Prison Blues"
"I Got Stripes"
"San Quentin"
"Starkville City Jail"

Drug Abuse:
"Cocaine Blues"

Domestic Violence
"Delia's Gone"
(and, of course, "Cocaine Blues")

And those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head!

OK, so now it's your turn: what's your favorite criminological song? It can be pop, rock, country, hip-hop, Broadway -- whatever springs to mind. (And feel free to link to the lyrics and/or video on YouTube if one is available.) Perhaps if we get enough good suggestions we can create a compilation CD!

P.S. Speaking of music, hopefully everybody got the reference in the post title...

Gender, Politics, and Music Industry Hypocrisy

This clip from hip-hop vlogger Jay Smooth (of hiphopmusic.com and WBAI in New York) succinctly calls out the gender-based hypocrisy of the music industry. He's absolutely right: industry execs fall over themselves to give record contracts to male rappers who are confessed drug dealers and murderers, but a woman who has traded sex for money? Never!



His message is completely on target. Plus, as Jessica at Feministing observes, dude throws in a sly reference to one of the greatest hip-hop songs of all time.

P.S. Is it just me, or does Jay Smooth bear an uncanny resemblance to The NY Kid? Must be a Queens thing?

Friday CJ Funnies: Colbertian Justice

To help everyone celebrate TGIF and ease into the weekend, I thought I'd share this video of The Colbert Report's new segment about the criminal justice system: "Nailed 'Em". Enjoy, punks!



P.S. Welcome to our new contributor, Jaydee Toobee! (Say it out loud.) Looking forward to your first post!

Hello? Kitty!!!

I know I am strange - here is a picture of the pink Hello Kitty gun. For the record, I am not for this type of gun as it likely increases confusion for law enforcement. Having bedazzled guns may make it harder for officers to discern the risk of a citizen (particularly youth) on the street.

Crime & Justice Images in Advertising

I've been thinking lately about advertisers' use of crime-and-justice images to sell their products.

It all started when I saw this Swiffer television commercial the other day:



Certainly, the concept's not very original (note the heavy reliance upon Hollywood courtroom cliches: the suspenseful music, the judge's slight head cock to indicate her intent listening, the exaggerated "Objection!" and "Please point to the defendant!" phrases). But I was intrigued by the following sentencing pun: "Put your broom away for life". Witty, eh?

This made me think about another commercial from years ago for a bar soap alternative (exactly which product it was I can't remember for the life of me...Neutrogena? Noxema?) that made a similar pun: "Get out from behind bars".

All of this made me contemplate how entrenched the criminal justice system is in our public consciousness, to the point where images and phrases associated with it are used in everyday advertising. I was thinking that other examples of commercials using these types of crime-and-justice images might be useful for demonstrating to students how important an institution the criminal justice system is in our society. Anybody else have other examples? All I could come up with was the Hamburglar (he of the inmate stripes and burglar mask, natch).

Happy Gilmore, Crimefighter!

An article in today's New York Times discussed a recent study that yielded sure-to-be controversial findings: Rather than affirming the conventional wisdom that violent movies, TV shows, music, and video games promote violent behavior, the study -- conducted by two economists and presented at the American Economics Association annual meeting this weekend -- suggests that violent movies actually reduce violent crime:

[The authors concluded] that violent films prevent violent crime by attracting would-be assailants and keeping them cloistered in darkened, alcohol-free environs. Instead of fueling up at bars and then roaming around looking for trouble, potential criminals pass the prime hours for mayhem eating popcorn and watching celluloid villains slay in their stead.

The article describes the two competing schools of thought (i.e., violent entertainment begets violent behavior vs. violent entertainment diverts violent behavior), and offers analysis from experts on both sides.

Interested in the researchers' data and methodology? Here you go:

The study’s authors acknowledge that their research does not...address the long-term effects of exposure to violent media, an influence they view as pernicious. Rather, the research uses a decade of national crime reports, cinema ratings and movie audience data to examine what has happened to rates of violent crime during and immediately after violent films are shown.

This article leaves me with some methodological questions, most of which cannot be sufficiently answered without seeing the original study. However, this parting comment from one of the study's co-authors had me chuckling so much I forgot my methodological queries:

In other words, Professor Dahl suggested, Hollywood could help cut crime in more palatable fashion by cutting out the gore while making movies that still attract male teenagers and 20-somethings.

“We need more Adam Sandler movies,” he said. “Even though I’m not a big fan of Adam Sandler, that’s the implication.”

I tell you one thing: I am in the wrong line of work. I need to become an economist so that I can produce research with policy implications like "make more Adam Sandler movies"!

Thanks to EW.com for the heads up.

P.S. I wonder whether Bob Barker would agree with Dr. Dahl's categorization of Adam Sandler movies as non-violent? Ha Ha!

Get Back to Work!

Welcome back. I didn't get any nominations for great articles for 2007, and I am looking for suggestions as I update my syllabi. I also plan on playing a bit more music in my classes as that seemed to work last semester (I only tried it twice).

Here is the video from one of my favorite songs of 2007. I know it is a cheesy representation of the struggles of young black males in the inner city, and that most mainstream rap music is marketed to people like me. That said, I hear a lot of similar sentiments in the song to those raised by offenders in our jail interviews*.



For those looking for a more scholarly representation of the code of the street, look to this video of germantown avenue the inspiration and context of Anderson's work.

*I have an article coming out on this topic and I will share results soon.

Year-in-Review: Memorable Quotes Edition

From the Associated Press:

It was the plea heard round the world.

"Don't tase me, bro" - shouted by a Florida college student as officers removed him from a speech by Sen. John Kerry - tops this year's list of most memorable quotes, compiled by the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations.

Because the number one most memorable quote of 2007 stems from an incident involving (questionably appropriate) police use of force, I thought it was worth mentioning here. Says Professor Fred Shapiro of Yale Law School, who compiles the annual list of memorable quotes: "It's not Shakespeare, but there is a kind of folk eloquence in that. It wouldn't be a quote if he didn't say 'bro'...That had just the right rhythm to make it memorable."

You can read the full article here and see the list of the top ten most memorable quotes here.

My pick for quote of the year doesn't make the list, though a variant of it does. "I don't recall," uttered ad infinitum by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his role in the U.S. Attorney firings, comes in at a solid #5. However, I prefer this somewhat more serpentine, substantially more absurd, and infinitely more humorous version of Mr. Gonzales' mantra: "I don't recall remembering." Priceless!



What's your choice for quote of the year?

P.S. God, I miss The Daily Show.

Ugh

Why does this bug me so much?

Why are people surprised when they are pregnant? I know this is not crime related and I need to get back to my paper with Shockprof, but I just had to tell someone (and the dogs didn't seem to care).