Dignity Jumps The Shark

To look at General ‘Pants-On-The-Ground’ Larry Platt today you would never know that he was an active member in Civil Rights movement in the 1960’s. In fact he marched in Selma and faced fire hoses and police dogs and he was given the name ‘General’ by activists for his courage.  That is why it is especially sad to see him become the Sambo-ized product of white TV producers who think that a man publicly losing his dignity is cute.

I can not speak to why Larry Platt has not caught on to the idea that he has become a national goof, but I can use conjecture to speculate that because the underlying message in his ditty (not a song because it is only one verse), about how young people should pull their pants up and act respectable, he may have thought he was continuing his legacy of fighting the good fight.  Maybe he was even taking a page from President Obama when he said “brothers should pull up their pants.”  But what he has done is to open the door to public humiliation.  No one is laughing with Larry Platt.

I remember when Dave Chappelle walked away from the second season of his tv show and a reported $50 million dollars.  He only gave one reason for leaving. He said that when he was doing a skit where he was playing a minstral-like character for laughs, he looked up at one white crew member and saw that he was laughing.  He said that he was not laughing the same way others were laughing.  Dave did not even finish that episode.

In this clip from the pre-Grammy red carpet show on the E! network, they flew in Mr. Platt to perform his ditty. Since there is only one actual verse to the song, when he gets through it he just starts over and then in an effort to remain entertaining he hops on one leg and does sit ups.  At the 23 second mark I have freeze framed an expression by some onlookers.  Do you think this is the last look Dave Chappelle saw before he walked away from $50 million? Do you think Civil Rights activist Larry Platt will ever see it?