So you didn't think there were any more comic taboos that could be broken? Then check out the ever-iconoclastic Chris Rock, who's been playing Washington the last couple of days. According to a review of his show in this morning's Post, Rock not only went after the usual political targets but railed against what he called a "crazy George Bush deregulated world."
Deregulated?
You can go clear back to -- I don't know, to the Zeigfeld Follies of 1914 -- without finding a routine that had the word "deregulated" in it. Social democratic wonkistan is not where comics normally go. Regulation, or the lack thereof, isn't typical comic fodder. So take it as a sign of how bad things have become, how crazy and screwed up our economy is, how laissez our normal fare, that Chris Rock now throws "deregulated" into his routine. And take it as a sign of the continuing crisis of conservatism that it's become synonymous with "all f***ed up."
--Harold Meyerson
