Page lVpliraskan
6 Arts & Entertainment
Billy fills in for his vacationing father
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Brian Shellito/Daiiy Nebraskan
As you may know, I previously
have expressed my professional
admiration for the unparalleled comic
talents of Bil Keane, creator of the
riotous Family Circus cartoon strip.
Perhaps many of you have noticed
strong Keanian influences in my own
writing style.
Even with all of my respect for
Keane and his transcendent comic
insight into the human condition, I
have never stooped so far as to bla
tantly copy his witty gimmicks.
Not that the temptation hasn’t been
there, mind you. How 1 wish 1 had the
awe-inspiring ability to come up with
the “follow-Billy-all-around-lhc
ncighborhood-along-a-black-dotted
linc” concept. Genius! Unadulterated
Genius! Or how about the 4 ‘Who broke
this lamp?” routine. ‘‘Not Me” or
“Ida Know" arc invariably the cul
prits, and it is invariably funny.
But perhaps my all-time favorite
Bil Keane idea that gets more funny
every time it’s repeated is the sce
nario wherein Keane takes a vacation
and Billy has to fill in. A colleague of
mine here at the Daily Nebraskan just
threw a dictionary at me because l am
laughing so loud envisioning Billy’s
uproarious drawings.
I finally have given in to the temp
tation,and I now openly will swipe an
idea from my mentor and hero Bil
Keane.
Many of you may not be aware of
this, but seven years ago, just al ter my
ninth-grade year, I became a father to
a blond-haired, blue-eyed bundle of
joy that I named Billy.
It’snot important just now who the
mother is, or how 1 came to be a
father. All that matters is that Billy
now is 7 years old and eager to follow
in his old man’s footsteps.
So 1 now will allow my son to lake
over this week’s column. His humor
is not quite as advanced as his pop’s,
but I think you’ll agree that he is very
funny for a second grader.
Here it is: Billy James Hanna’s
first ever humor column.
Uh ... OK ... urn ... once, I was
sitting behind this girl in Mrs. Wilson’s
homeroom and I reached over and
pulled her hair and then threw a spit
wad at her.
Isn’t that funny?
Then, I was in P.E. class and we
were standing up against the wall so
we could pick teams for floor hockey
and I stood behind Mike ... he’s my
best friend and once we threw a fire
cracker down an anthill and it was
rcallycoolcspccially when their body
parts llcw up into the air ... so I was
standing behind Mike and I made this
farting noise under my arm and we
laughed a bunch but Mr. Fahlus
couldn’t figure out who it was and,
and, and this one girl, Lisa .. . she’s
kinda stupid ... she started going
"Oooh, that’s gross, sick!" But I
didn’t care and I just did it louder in
her face.
Then there was this time in the
lunchrtxxn and me and Mike and Steve
and Pat and Richie and Lisa... she’s
a girl but she doesn’t act like one so
she’s OK ... and Mark and Derek, we
started mixing all of the food we
See HANNA on 7
New O’Connor LP characterized by diversity
By Robert Richardson
Staff Reporter
Sinead O’Connor
‘‘I Do Not Want What I Haven’t
Got”
Chrysalis
“God gram me the serenity to accept
the things I can, courage to change
the things I can, and the wisdom to
know the difference.”
Sinead O’Connor (pronounced Sha
nayd) begins her latest release with
the Serenity Prayer, used in Alcohol
ics Anonymous treatment.
And the multi-fariousncss she
appeals for in the Serenity Prayer is
seen in what may be the most diverse
album this year, “I Do Not Want
What 1 Haven’t Got.”
O’Connor’s voice really can in
trigue the listener with its different
styles. In several songs, O’Connor
takes her soft, sweet angelic voice
and IcLs it transform into a raspy woman
with an altitude furor, and then trans
forms it back again.
But it’s surprisingly appropriate.
For O’Connor, being musically
diverse is being musically diverse in
all aspects. O’Connor showcases
Crazy People’ switches
between hilarious, boring
By John Payne
Senior Reporter
‘‘Crazy People,” a hit and miss
comedy starring Dudley Moore and
Daryl Hannah, covers familiar ground,
yet manages to produce enough funny
material to win audiences over.
Poking fun at advertising and at
moviV
the mental health field, it overcomes
its lackluster moments to finally re
deem itself.
Moore plays Emory Lecson, a New
York City advertising executive who
is cracking up under the strain of
several account deadlines. He is so
burned out from creating new ad slo
gans day after day that suddenly a
bold new idea comes to him - blatant
honesty. His presentations include ads
for an airline that read “Sure, a lot of
people die in airline crashes every
year, bu* most of our passengers sur
vive.”
His realization of the absolute,
unbiased truth about products mysti
Hcs his colleague played by Paul Reiser
and enrages his boss, played by J.T.
Walsh.
Convinced that Lccson has gone
mad, the advertising company sends
him away to a sanitarium to recuper
ate. While Moore is engaging in a
rather silly romance with fellow pa
tient Hannah, the advertising world is
rocked by his ad slogans, which mis
takenly have been unleashed on
American consumers.
Ads like Jaguar’s catch phrase,
“For Men Who’d Like Hand jobs From
Beautiful Women They Don’t Even
Know,” cuts right through all the
masked sexual innuendo that comes
with car advertisements. The frank
ness of the ads are such a hit with the
public, that sales skyrocket.
The unabashed deception of ad
vertising that “Crazy People’’ exam
ines is the best thing about the movie.
Particularly good is a scene where the
group executives rack their brains to
emulate Lccson’s work, trying to come
up with one truthful statement about a
product they’ve been lying about for
See CRAZY on 7
herself by playing the acoustic guitar,
electric guitar, keyboards, percussion
and electronic drums all on one al
bum. O’Connor even helped arrange
her own music.
Give her a Grammy and 10 votes
for Superwoman.
There is no doubt that O’Connor’s
most popular song currently is “Noth
ing Compares 2 U.” The only doubt
is whether or not she is sincere on this
song, but because it obviously is writ
ten by Prince (notice the stupid num
ber letter combination in the title) one
can assume that a cool sound and not
sincerity was the desired affect. This
is a great song that could have re
tained some respectability if O’Con
nor hadn’t shown so much doubtful
emotion.
O’Connor is going to have two
songs besides “Nothing Compares 2
U,“ that arc musical sleepers, or take
a while to become hits. “Feel So
Different” and “Jump In The River”
arc two songs that will help her achieve
greatness and leap to her place in
history.
But the song lhalcon tains the most
meaning is the title track, “I Do Not
Want What I Haven’t Got.” In the
only song without accompaniment,
O’Connor sings a self-portrait of
herself. The intense meaning of the
song is like O’Connor’s attractive
and expressive eyes.
“I have all that I requested, and I
do not want what I haven’t got.”
Courtesy of Paramount
Dudley Moore and Daryl Hannah star In the Paramount comedy “Crazy People."