Saturday, December 14, 2013

The lighter side of the Mandela memorial


The inimitable Mark Steyn brings the snark to last Tuesday's ceremonies.

... the star of the show was undoubtedly Thamsanqa Jantjie, the sign-language interpreter who stood alongside the world’s leaders and translated their eulogies for the deaf. Unfortunately, he translated them into total gibberish, reduced by the time of President Obama’s appearance to making random hand gestures, as who has not felt the urge to do during the great man’s speeches. Mr. Jantjie has now pleaded in mitigation that he was having a sudden hallucination because he is a violent schizophrenic. It has not been established whether he is, in fact, a violent schizophrenic, or, as with his claim to be a sign-language interpreter, merely purporting to be one. Asked how often he has been violent, he replied, somewhat cryptically, “A lot.”

. . .

That would never happen in Washington, of course. But how heartening, as one watches the viral video of Obama droning on while a mere foot and a half away Mr. Jantjie rubs his belly and tickles his ear, to think that the White House’s usual money-no-object security operation went to the trouble of flying in Air Force One, plus the “decoy” Air Force One, plus support aircraft, plus the 120-vehicle motorcade or whatever it’s up to by now, plus a bazillion Secret Service agents with reflector shades and telephone wire dangling from their ears, to shepherd POTUS into the secured venue and then stand him onstage next to an $85-a-day violent schizophrenic. In the movie version—In the Sign of Fire—grizzled maverick Clint Eastwood will be the only guy to figure it out at the last minute and hurl himself at John Malkovich, as they roll into the orchestra pit with Malkovich furiously signing “Ow!” and “Eek!” But in real life I expect they’ll just double the motorcade to 240 vehicles and order up even more expensive reflector shades.

There's more at the link.  Giggle-worthy!





Peter

6 comments:

Murphy's Law said...

It's probably wrong, but if the schizophrenic had reached up and given Barry a slap to the back of the head, I'd have laughed.

Charlie Foxtrot said...

Incredibly scary. Especially as the result of a schizophrenic episode could be "President Biden".

Anonymous said...

The trifecta of masqueraders,
Mandela, Obama and Jantjie. A fitting joke to Obama's speech and this cause.

Anonymous said...

A most fitting bumper sticker for this occasion:

http://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/12/15/domari-nolo-sends/

Sunnybrook Farm said...

The sad thing is that the translator may have been the one who had the best grasp on reality.

Stuart Garfath, Sydney. said...

Peter,
I believe the 1991 Columbia Pictures film referred to here is correctly titled: Ín the Line of Fire'.

I still use the MK#1 spellcheck I was born with, not or ever, the MK#2 electronic one, which has many pitfalls.