August 26, 2007
It was like watching a dog play the piano.
Like many people, I’m in love with “Mad Men,” the show on AMC (of all places) about the sexual and moral politics of advertising in 1960. I just watched this week’s episode, which was my favorite so far. The men are such dreadful creeps, though they don’t seem to know any better. The show, it seems, is all about showing how dreadful they are, and why, and how permeated the culture was back then with sexism, racism, gorgeous clothes, and flattering lighting. This week, after one of the copywriters hears some poetic language about lipstick from a secretary, he’s shocked. So, so shocked. And when he tells the secretary’s boss, the “hero” of the show, the copywriter says, “It was like watching a dog play the piano.” Which is such a great line. That guy should be a copywriter! So, now it’s my tagline.
2 Responses to 'It was like watching a dog play the piano.'
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I too thought that it was one of the best lines I have heard in a long time if not ever. The other thing was how it was delivered, that guy is superb but you will never see him with an Emmy nomination. I am hooked on that series not because it was how business was done in the 60′s but the fact that it was still the way business was done into the 70′s and did not start to come apart so to speak until the early 80′s. Thank sexual harassment litigation and shattering glass ceilings for that. No I am not complaining, the time had come to get civilized and dispense of the office shenanigans, three Martini lunches and unlimited expense accounts that were for entertaining “us” more so than clients. Born in ’53 I came into the sordid world of downtown MKE business life in the mid-70′s. I was not in advertising but I was definitely part of the “Mad Men” group. What a life!
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God I love that line. It’s just so brilliant – I don’t know what to do with myself.
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User
Mark
18 Sep 07 at 6:20 am