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Moving forward to the 20th century, comedian Andy Kaufman played the role of 1970's ultimate asshole by wrestling women, taking to the airwaves on a regular basis to claim that no female could best him in the ring -- enraging people everywhere in the process. On top of that -- unbeknownst to most everyone at the time -- Kaufman was also known to go out in public disguised as the fake stand-up comedian Tony Clifton, a character who made a reputation for insulting audience members and leaving the stage before his act was finished.
Fast-forward to the 1980s and you see assholes like talk show host Morton Downey Jr., shock jocks like Howard Stern ... and basically all the characters in the acclaimed film Glengarry Glen Ross.
In the early part of this century, we saw the rise of one of pop culture's most loved (and hated) assholes -- American Idol's Simon Cowell.
But here in the present, we're witnessing an asshole explosion. We've got Kanye West stealing Taylor Swift's thunder at this year's MTV Video Music Awards; health care opponents loudly disrupting town hall meetings across the country; Serena Williams threatening a line judge at a tennis match; Glenn Beck saying president Obama is anti-white; Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina calling Obama a liar during a presidential address; plus the popularity of TV shows like Tool Academy and Is She Really Going Out With Him? ... among many other ass-flavored moments.
In the recently published book The Quotable Douchebag (which includes classic lines like this one by Sean Hannity: "I'll tell you who should be tortured and killed at Guantanamo: every filthy Democrat in the U.S. Congress"), author Margaret McGuire writes: "All Fox News anchors are douchebags" and "John Mayer is a douchebag."
And of course, that's just scratching the surface when it comes to assholes of the present and recent past -- I could go on and on. The fact is, as writer Alex Wagner wrote in an article published Sept. 15 on the news Web site PoliticsDaily.com, " ... these are jackassy times."
So, enjoying TheDirty as a pure, unadulterated guilty pleasure in front of a computer in the privacy of your own home is not such a bad thing. But when so many folks have decided to conduct themselves in such uncivil ways, we find ourselves living in the Wild West. Does that mean that Richie should close up shop and go back to banking (his first career)? Well, I'd much rather see Glenn Beck disappear from basic cable first.
In a recent telephone interview with Creative Loafing, Richie explained the origins of TheDirty like this: "I kind of stumbled upon this. It wasn't something I was serious about. I was just doing it as a joke between a couple buddies of mine. Then I really thought to myself, 'You know, maybe I do have a business model.' Because reality TV is so successful, no one [had] really started 'reality Internet.'"
He's even created his own language of sorts to use on the site; his "Dirty Dictionary" is filled with shart-inducing words like "Himstitute" (a tranny prostitute) and "Bissues" (a "bitch" with issues).
And, not surprisingly, Richie doesn't think of himself as a bad guy.
"I just say what I think. You can take it however you want to take it, but I'm just gonna be true to myself and say what I think," he says. "People find the humor in it, and sometimes I am a little bit sarcastic -- but this is what I really think. And I know I have a warped sense of reality, but I think that's why the site is so successful -- people take what I say and take it to heart.
"The majority of the people that look at the site just come to look at the pictures, read the comments, kill time at work and," he says, "have a laugh."
The big question is -- if the contention about Richie being harmless is to be believed -- how do we come to make distinctions between the assholes living among us? For me, it's all a question of competence.
Think back to Simon Cowell. The guy is a self-styled ass, but he became a star in the eyes of America because he is actually right about the talent on American Idol. No, he doesn't sugarcoat his quips -- and sometimes he is mean -- but he usually says what most of us are saying at home.
On the other hand, look at a guy like Glenn Beck; his statements about Obama being anti-white cost him dozens of advertisers because no one bought what he was saying. His pronouncement, to the general public, did not seem based in reality. Same thing with Don Imus -- when, years ago, he said his statement about "nappy-headed hoes" -- it just wasn't funny.