Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 26, 1987)
Page 6 Daily Nebraskan Thursday, February 26, 1987 v BILLIARDS 399 SUN VALLEY BLVD. LINCOLN, NE 68528 474-3545 Play Pool & Party! Wed. 95 Drinks Tues. 85 Imports Thurs. 25 Draws 20 salle AUo a aJWo m D3o 2 a AKCDH H 2 LTCDLP 13 UDEPQ: a HQJD3E3: 2047 "O" St. 435-7722 J LOUNGE C OFF SALE TECATE, CARTA BLANCA B CHIHUAHUA .... s2.00 0 p!t. wcrm OUOCM 0.50 rjcrm ccoo Mi PLAY GHUFFLEDOARD, DARTS, OSLLIAHOS, OOIIEf, PirJOALL, VIDEO GAGV3ES 200 IMPORTS 54 DOMESTICS HOURS: MON.-SAT. 6 a.m.-1 a.m. SUNDAY 6 p.m.-1 1 p.m. AT SUITE 9 YOU HAVE A CHOICE! 2137 CORNHUSKER 477-6410 1 t V) 4 ( I By Charles Lieurance Diversions Welcome to "History of the Primal Scream in Popular Culture," brought to you in part by a grant from Dow Chemicals, making life comforta ble, simple and genetically unpre dictable for over 50 years. (Insert the following excerpt from an early episode of "I Love Lucy. ") Lucy: Ricky, the toaster is broken! Ricky: Well, Lucy, I'm not made of pesos, you'll have to be more careful with the household appliances . . . Lucy: But Ricky. . . Ricky: Donna you 'But Ricky me, Lucy ... Lucy: Waaaaaaaaahhynnah! (End of exerpt.) Lome Greene: This is perhaps the first instance of the primal scream as a response and as a product of popular culture. Although this is certainly not the scream at its most primal and aggravated, more of a primal whine than a scream, really, there is a direct line from the bawl of Lucy in the Golden Age of Televi sion to tonight's subject, the irrev erant, controversial comedian, Sam Kinison. At first the scream was simple, a primitive id reaction begun during childhood as a means to "get one's , own way" or have one's needs ful filled. As society became more complex, an obstacle course riddled with changeling obstacles, with household appliances, McLuhan's third parent, moon landings, the Red Scare, fall-out shelters, chemi cal dumps, hippies, race riots, changing gender roles, deceitful presidents, secret wars, secret break-ins and secret body odors--the scream became louder, more gen eral, less linked with childishness and more linked with survival in the twentieth century. The individual survives by screaming, by staking out his own personality through volume, a momentary conquest over the din of the social contract. Here are some great primal screams leading up to Sam Kinison: (Roger Daltrey screams at the end of the Who 's "Won 'i Get Fooled Again. ") (John Lennon screams on John and Yoko's "Wedding Album. ") (Little Richard screams) (Sam Kinison, on the studio set of "Late Night with David Letter man, " screams.) Lome Green: The man in the beret? That's Sam Kinison . . . comedian. It used to be that come dians were funny because they told jokes. Used to be that a comedian didn't look like he wanted to get you into a back alley, and hold you by your heals to empty your pockets and then pop your head like an over ripe grape. Used to be that comedi ans would ruin their whole appeal by being filled with hate, a ravenous gnawing hatred of the squeamish. Sam Kinison is an ugly, hateful brute of a man who bullies the world into laughing. He laughs at starving children. He laughs at mass mur derers. He laughs at diseases. He" laughs at adultery. He laughs at sex. He laughs at God. But it isn't just a chuckle or a "joke's between you and me" grin. Sam Kinison howls and screams and terrorizes. He doesn't want just your appreciative laughter, he wants you to leave his shows half-paralyzed with paranoid fear and horror. He wants your knees to lock as you get ready to go through the exit door. Sam Kin ison's effect is anatomical. Unlike the other assault comedians of the last twenty or so years (Lenny Bruce, Andy Kaufmann.) Kinison doesn't just place depth charges on your grey matter. He slaps you on the butt like an obstetrician, drains your genitalia like a urologist, piays butt poker like a proctologist, saps your spine like a neurologist and then goes in for the lobotomy. See KINISON on 12