#5 January 19, 2009 Fun, Games, and Laughter

First on the agenda for today was Al Gore. He spoke (for a VERY long time) on the subject of the challenges the government faces, and (of course!) global warming. Seeing Al Gore live was very, very interesting. It meant that when we saw the political satire group Capitol Steps portray him, I laughed so hard I nearly peed my pants.


After Gore, we went on a dinner cruise on the Potomac River. The views were awesome, and there was some major dancing on the boat. There were two serious dance competitions, although I wasn't in either of them.

Then we went to the DAR building and saw Reduced Shakespeare and Capitol Steps.

I probably laughed more tonight than I have ever laughed at one single thing in my entire life.

Reduced Shakespeare did American History Abridged. There were some crude jokes, and there were some physical jokes, but the funniest part was the cynicism of the whole thing. Some of the best parts were the Bill of Rights (All men created equal? Hahahaha!) as well as the Bill of Wrongs (people you barely know are not allowed to send you "amusing" emails). Then there was WWI, complete with modern weapons of mass destruction (super-soaker squirt guns) which they then turned on the audience. Lucky for me I was seated far enough away.

Capitol Steps is a musical company! Everything they did was not only political satire, but also a parody of a song. The best were, How Do You Solve a Problem like Korea?, Obama-Mia, There's a Hole in the Middle of the Ozone, Proud to Be An American (Where at least I have an SUV), Shamlet (starring the Queen of York, Hillary), and of course, Huckabee (to the tune of Let it Be).

The lines to Al Gore's "There's a Hole in the Middle of the Ozone" go like this:

There's a hole in the middle of the ozone,
There's a hole in the middle of the ozone,
There's a hole, there's a hole,
There's a hole in the middle of the ozone.

There's a ice cap melting from the hole in the middle of the ozone,
There's an ice cap melting from the hole in the middle of the ozone,
There's a hole, there's a hole,
There's a hole in the middle of the ozone.

And so on, continuing with lines like, "There's an ocean rising because the ice cap's melting from the hole in the middle of the ozone," "There's coastal land being lost from the ocean rising because the ice cap's melting from the hole in the middle of the ozone," "There's a state called Florida that will be gone with the coastal land being lost from the ocean rising because the ice cap's melting from the hole in the middle of the ozone."

And the best line: "There's a guy named Al Gore who would've been president and really wouldn't hate to see Florida disappear with the coastal land being lost from the ocean rising because the ice cap's melting from the hole in the middle of the ozone, so heck, who cares anyway?"

If you don't get that, sorry, it may just be a "had to be there thing." Sorry you couldn't. Be here, that is.

It was the funniest night of my life. And I'm sorry I can't tell you all the jokes right now.

So, gadies and lentlemen, this is Merienne EcCray, signing off.
God Bless,
Erienne

P.S. The video below is one I took while Al Gore was speaking. Sorry about the quality, I was taking it on my cell phone.