Revisiting a Problematic Favorite of Mine
The dub of Ghost Stories is practically a masterpiece of improv comedy. Unfortunately, there are enough jokes that now draw more nervous chuckles than laughs.
A specific time and place primed me to relish something like Ghost Stories, and fate delivered the dub into my hands. It was during President Obama’s first term in office, just as the well of civil discourse was being poisoned. Most people had an idea of how bad the discourse had gotten, but we didn’t fully know. People like me could understand how low it could go, even if we couldn’t find the right words for the feeling. I certainly thought long and hard about the viciousness of those who are self-righteous and proud of their apathy.
Then again, I personally was incapable of truly thinking about the really dark thoughts in high school. But one thing was for certain: for most Americans at least, there was historical amnesia about everything that went wrong during the second Bush administration. Those that did remember struggled to break through the cable news chatter. My parents claimed they opposed the Iraq War, but only years after the fact.
