Randy Rainbow: "Maybe when this is all over, Kellyanne [Conway] and I can have a drink together." [View all]

[Fritz Walter]

DU has many, many Randy Rainbow fans, so I'm delighted to share this great article from the Washington Post. If you're stuck at the WaPo pay-wall, I would highly recommend you find a way -- borrow a friend's device, create a one-time phantom account, actually pony up a few coins -- to read the full article. It's that good.

Randy Rainbow’s Witty World
How a musical theater nerd reinvented political satire for the YouTube age

Here are some excerpts:

It’s no secret that in 21st-century America, power over public opinion doesn’t reside exclusively with editorialists or news anchors. We are now Entertainment Nation, and society’s jesters — Stephen Colbert, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Trevor Noah, Bill Maher, etc. — have become as influential as the Walter Cronkites and David Brinkleys of yore...
...Rainbow, with his snappy riffs on the politics of the day, is a prominent part of this new and influential group, but he offers something distinct: a very old tradition of musical satire updated for the YouTube age. Think of him as a modern-day Gilbert and Sullivan, or the millennial version of the piano-playing Mark Russell or Tom Lehrer — the key difference being that his get-it-out-fast production marathons and savvy use of social media bring his commentary to the public quickly, directly and with no filter. Competitors like the Capitol Steps strive to put the mock in democracy as fast as possible, but with multiple writers and cast members, they can’t equal Rainbow’s speed. In a world on hyperdrive, he delivers near-instant gratification: Within minutes of Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s appearance before members of Congress, for instance, Rainbow was taking song requests from fans on Twitter. Three days after Roger Stone was arrested in January, Rainbow posted a video parody of a number from the musical “Chicago.”

A sampling of Rainbow’s hot takes includes “Desperate Cheeto” (a take on Luis Fonsi’s “Despacito”), “Border Lies” (Madonna’s “Borderline”), “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Korea?” (“Maria” from “The Sound of Music”) and “GOP Dropout” (“Beauty School Dropout” from “Grease”). Actor-comedian Steve Martin told Rainbow that “A Very Stable Genius” — a takedown of you-know-who sung to Gilbert and Sullivan’s “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” — is a favorite ditty in the Martin household:

He is the very model of a very stable genius.
Of all the U.S. presidents he is the Mussoliniest.
He learned a lot of things according to his Wikipedia.
And demonstrates his ample intellect on social media.
When people are in need he is the best at making fun of them.
He knows 11 words although he can’t spell even one of them.

Fellow Randy fans who have WaPo accounts: please to share their favorite excerpts here. I would be hard-pressed to select a favorite of his YouTube videos (please subscribe!), other than to say I love it when he releases a new one. Very fresh, very topical, very pointed.