"But it's hard to blame Beck's audience for being fished in. There's no wink and nod, so he's clearly not attempting some sort of obviously satirical character like Stephen Colbert or even a more bizarre character like Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton. He performs this role as seamlessly as any decent character actor, but he never tips his hand... Just an occasional mention of himself as a 'rodeo clown.' There's no crawl at the end listing 'Glenn Beck as 'Glenn Beck.'' It's not a fiction program."
-- Bob Cesca, in his latest column in the Huffington Post
I've made the Beck-Kaufman comparison before because there isn't a shred of doubt in my mind that what Beck's doing is 100% burlesque. But credit to Cesca: He's taking up a gargantuan task and launching an admittedly quixotic crusade to kind of, well, expose Glenn Beck for the charlatan that he is.
Will he be successful? Will it matter one bit? Who the hell knows -- but it'll be fun to watch.
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