What is John Mayer saying? John Mayer has blogged once again and this blog is part 1 of a 129-part series so we will definitely be seeing many more of these weird blogs. I sorta like them. He's funny!
Death to Douchebag
1 of a 129-part series on the year that was 2007,
By John Mayer
"Douchebag. "
"What a douchebag. "
It feels good to say, "douchebag. " It's got two different plosive sounds, the "D" and "B", and nicely wedged between is a wonderful "sh" sound (technically known as a voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant, at the risk of coming off douchey ) that, when preceded with "oooooh", give your lips the sensation of sliding on a hardwood floor in a pair of woolen socks.
And "douchebag " was on the vinegary tips of everyone's tongues this year. Trouble is, I'm not really clear on what it means, and I don't know that anyone does. I know that I get called one. Pete Wentz from Fallout Boy, by measure of a google search, is a douchebag 11,100 times over, or the number of results that the search engine says exist. Zach Braff, who himself wrote one of the better films I've seen in the last decade is also frequently 'bagged, as is some guy named Brody Jenner. In fact, if you want to go big, so is Michael Stipe, Bono ("supreme douchebag"), Thom Yorke, Will Smith and Brad Pitt.
Are you as confused as I am as to what the common denominator of douchiness is? Is it someone that comes off obnoxious? Self aggrandizing? Ignorant? Or is it just someone who exists out of another person's comfort zone? And doesn't that account for almost everyone in the world, celebrity or otherwise? Don't most people, given the fact that they're NOT US lie somewhere outside our comfort zone? Ohhhhh...OR...is being a douchebag actually all about having a bigger smile than someone else deems you deserve to in life? I think I'm onto something here. Stick with me.
In the case of Pete Wentz, whom I can comment on personally, I think the guy's got the job description of musician down pretty damn well. True, it's not your dad's rock star template, but he'd be inauthentic if he tried to fit inside it. Pete Wentz has a truckload of ideas. Big, bold, colorful ideas. They're ideas that have never once had their edges sanded down, and for that reason some people might find him or his band too much to swallow. You know who else had that going for them in their day? Frank Zappa. And David Bowie. And Peter Gabriel. And Elton John. And the Doors. Pretty much every rock band from A-Z existed because of their ignoring conventional boundaries. Pete's going to keep pretending. Because that's all art really is. You puff up your sense of pretend as big as you can and then try and live up to it. (Maybe that's what people think being a douchebag is?)
I personally don't mind being called a douchebag. I've met my fair share of bloggers, and I'm much, much taller than them. It's also because I need there to be some push on the castle walls, so to speak. I'm not happy when people agree. (Don't make me start listing the names of seminal artists that weren't either.) I think it's easier to call "douchebag " than to confront the possibility that:
THERE ARE OTHER PERSONALITIES IN THIS WORLD THAT ARE NOT INHERENTLY SYMPATHETIC TO OUR OWN.
Maybe I should take this opportunity to define douchebag once and for all; I think if enjoying your life as you choose happens to spill over into treating others without respect, then you're a total, world-class douchebag.
But then wouldn't that also serve as a fitting description of the boy who cried "douche"?
Maybe it's just really fun to say.
