An assault on the idea of wackiness. And then, an appreciation of wackiness, and an analysis of wackiness in American culture. Thirteen ways to describe wackiness.
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Prologue
Ira and the movie Fast, Cheap & Out of Control. Advertised as wacky, it is anything but. (6 minutes)
Act One
Negative
David Sedaris tells true stories of photographers who try to take pictures of him which will make him seem more "wacky" than in fact he is, interlaced with a fictional depiction of what one of these photographers is like. (14 minutes)
Act Two
The Good, The Bad, And The Wacky
Ira talks with Josh Glenn, editor of Hermenaut, who explains the difference between Good Wacky and Bad Wacky. (5 minutes)
Act Three
The Politics Of Wackiness
Ira with Michael Lewis, author of Losers: The Road to Everyplace but the White House and many other books, who says that in the '96 Presidential Election all the candidates with new ideas, all the candidates capable of talking the way real people act in their real lives, were shunned by the media as "wacky." (10 minutes)
Act Eleven
Self-Made Wacky
Ira talks with Maria, who took out a personals ad in the Chicago Reader advertising herself as "wacky and warm." (5 minutes)
Act Twelve
Evading Wacky And Serious
Robert Krulwich's stories, on NPR, CBS and ABC, are neither wacky nor pompously serious. He explains, though, that if you try to occupy the territory between wacky and serious, there are dangers. (6 minutes)
Act Thirteen
Dr. Jeckyl And Mr. Wacky
Sarah Vowell with Jim Nayder, host of Magnificent Obsession and The Annoying Music Show, who personifies our culture's split between seriousness and wackiness as well as anyone. (11 minutes)
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