OPENING STATEMENT FROM BROCKET 99 CREATOR ERNIE SCAR

One of the great things about Frank's satire is that he picks targets that can't stand to be

laughed at; and that's a real great secret of humour: you've got to pick the people who get

Simpsons creator Matt Groening on Frank Zappa's use of satire.

I was happy to outrage anybody that liked to be outraged.

F.Z.

In these troubled times, where everyone seems to be getting so righteously outraged by everyone else... a few words about Brocket 99.

I appreciate people who get a joke, and who can take a joke. I like people that can exercise a little self-depreciating humour once in a while. And most importantly, I like it when someone can understand when something is a joke and when it isn't. But we are living in a period of what Globe and Mail television writer John Doyle calls "...knee-jerk outrage." These are dangerous days to challenge previously accepted levels of sarcasm and satire. But good satire is like a mirror held up to reflect absurdities. Thirty years ago, All In The Family used the same technique and wound up igniting the same misplaced indignation among the humourless and the fatuous. In most cases these people just need a good dose of Archie Bunker 101. Mr. Doyle says that humour that appeals to the child in the adult viewer (or listener) is certain to invoke horror... that's why "investigations" into insults and alleged indecency on TV and radio (look at Howard Stern) are rampant. A plastic puppet makes a few zany remarks on the Conan O' Brien show a few weeks ago and the outrage was unbelievable. The Shock... The Horror... Oh, The Humanity. The Oxford dictionary defines satire as ridicule and irony being used to expose folly or vice, and parody as a humorous, exaggerated imitation of something... to mimic something humorously, just in case you've never been bothered to look it up. A new television show in Quebec called Les Bougon has everyone's panties in a twist because it parodies unemployed welfare cheats. But good comedy always makes someone or something the butt of a joke. I understand the Sinatra family got righteously pissed every time Phil Hartman parodied Ol' Blue Eyes on Saturday Night Live... they thought it was mean. Millions of other people thought it was funny. Many comedians of every stripe have used parody and satire as a backbone of their acts over the years. I personally don't find Brocket 99 any more or less racist or offensive than Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor or Maclean and Maclean's old bit The Mo Fo Brothers that targeted stereotypical black mannerisms.

There have been many great radio satires and satirists over the years, and Brocket 99 stacks up pretty well against the likes of the Greaseman and other people with a sense of humour and the absurd that have entertained and outraged countless audiences over time back in the days when radio used to be radio. Many times one form of parody gives birth to another... and Brocket 99 has also spawned its share of imitators and tributes. In terms of parody eating itself, for what its worth, I happen to think the character Lenny Red-Nuts and his CD Tough Buck From Brocket is absolutely brilliant. If you don't get the myriad of references to the show that inspired it, there's no way you can get the joke... and it is a joke. It would be interesting to see the results of a study into why people find these type of things funny... not just Brocket 99 itself alone, but this whole genere of humour. You really cannot take this program outside of the context with everything else that relates to it, because it is a part of that specific genere or type of comedy/humour/satire.

Sorry if I burst some bubbles here, but I can tell you what Brocket 99 is not. This program in and of itself really has nothing to do with Natives at all. That's not what it's about. The Native Indian content was just the vehicle. Now, you can get loaded and enjoy it on the level of the stereotypical jokes, the profanities and the AC/DC music if you want to... but that's not really what it's about, and the subject matter is really of secondary importance -- for really, Brocket 99 is not a parody of Native life at all. It is a parody on radio itself. The subject matter could just as easily have been about Hutterites or Mormons or two or three other things that are always a permanent feature of the Southern Alberta social and geographical landscape. The program/parody Brocket 99 is, rather, a complete send-up of the way Taber and Lethbridge radio sounded in those days 20 years ago; yes... Brocket 99 really is that old. Truth of the matter is that it really is an "inside joke" for us radio guys who worked in that part of the country at that time. To fully get the suttle, less blatant humour that pervades the whole program you really have to have lived in Southern Alberta, and listened to the radio there every day... or better yet, have actually worked at one of those stations. But being unable to see beyond the immediate surface of it, some people assume that its this great, racist, broad-brushed "attack on Natives". That's not it at all. They're just too stupid to get a joke that was never meant for them, and that they were never "in on" in the first place. I'm terribly sorry if anyone was offended by this, but the formula is a simple one: Lenny Red-Nuts = a parody of Brocket 99 = a parody of mid 80's Southern Alberta radio = nothing. That's all. It ends there. Go home. And if you can't lighten up and take a joke Adolf, then Fuck Ya. It was never meant for you to hear in the first place.

It is a rare moment indeed when someone "outside the loop" as it were, can see beyond the surface layer and understand what really lies underneath. Our friend Lori, at her website lori.isamazing.com, wrote what is probably the most succinct, insightful summary of what the Brocket 99 program is that I have seen to date, some months ago. I think it bears repeating here:

Having taken on a life of its own long ago, I can see that its long been too late to erase or recall Brocket 99.  But I would make these statements here so that if I cannot stop others from taking this thing and running with it, let's at least have the correct version of the story going out.  It was not meant to offend anyone, or cause difficulty for anyone's life or status in their community.  But people perceive the world only from the perspective of how they see it, not necessarily how it actually is.  I'm sorry if some people have taken it the wrong way over the years, but it brings me back to my original argument again that no one outside the inner circle of maybe a half-dozen people were ever meant to hear this thing anyway.  Quite the opposite of being a deliberate act of racial terrorism, its really just a private conversation between a few people that thousands of others have just happened to eavesdrop upon.  Let's just all lighten up a little and stop taking everything so goddamed seriously, for "...none of us are any different than Clayton Magnet."

Your Humble Producer.

You've heard from Ernie. Now Ernie wants to hear from you. You can interrogate Ernie Scar yourself. Brocket99.net wants you to get involved in the examination of the "real" Ernie Scar. Ernie has agreed to work with us and let you ask him questions about Brocket 99. That's right! Ask Ernie about the story of Clayton Magnet. Find out how many people actually know about his "dirty little secret" and what happened. If there's something you've been dying to know about Brocket 99, now's your chance to ask. The sky's the limit. Interrogate Ernie Scar Now! Email his ass!

NOW ON TO YOUR LETTERS OF INTERROGATION