Harry Shearer’s Le Show: Sonic Portal to News, Satire, Memory, History

"Reading the Trades"

No Le Show segment better illustrates Shearer's vocation for information sharing and extemporaneous language play than the long-running "Reading the Trades" segment of Le Show, which occurs across the entire history of Le Show.

The following two examples span the segment's development over the decades: from criticizing cultural trends by making fun of them to sharing vital health and ecological information listeners are likely not learning elsewhere. Shearer often reminds listeners of the reason he reads such magazines, riffing on a common joke about Playboy Magazine in the 1970s and 1980s, "I read it for the interviews." Differences between the bumper music for the 1980s version and the 2010s version reflect changes in audio recording and production technologies, and affordances for sonic composition.

Reading the "Limo Scene" section of Limousine & Chauffeur magazine (1987)

This is the current issue, I guess the July/August edition, of Limousine & shafer, Chauffeur — let me pronounce the name of the magazine right before I subject them to ridicule. OK: Limousine & Chauffeur magazine, "the magazine for the limousine industry." I'll be reading that particular trade for you. We have to, because of reasons of time only, skip "the operator interview," "the interior and accessory survey," and an article called "The Question of Length." Time alone — or time alone — either one prohibit us from delving that deep into Limousine & shafer, Chauffeur magazine — and also the fact that I'm having incredible trouble pronouncing the second word of its name. But let's go right to the regular feature known as "Limo Scene…."

The luxury car segment ends with a rhetorical question, "Can Robin Leach¹³⁰ give you any more vicarious thrills, ladies and gentlemen, than I do when I read the trades for you?"

Reading the verdict on formaldehyde from Dark Daily¹³¹ (2015)

And now it's time for me to read the trades for you. We're going deep into the dark, a trade publication called Dark Daily, "a concise briefing on timely topics in clinical laboratory and anatomic pathology group management." The story? "National Academy of Sciences confirms formaldehyde can cause cancer."

I'll read it for you, um-hmm.

The consequences of formaldehyde in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers provided for victims of Hurricane Katrina made this chemical a regular focus on Le Show. This public health trade story follows another recurring segment, "Let Us Try," news of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a feature that began after Shearer started research for his documentary The Big Uneasy, about why New Orleans flooded after hurricane Katrina.

Jerry Lewis Telethon

Every Labor Day weekend from 1966 to 2010, comedian, actor, and filmmaker Jerry Lewis hosted a live, star-studded approximately 20-hour long television fund-raiser — "telethon," a portmanteau of "television” and “marathon" — for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. The bathos of the telethon, its reliance on show business commonplaces, and its annual recurrence combined to make it a regular object of Shearer's attention.

"Jerry is a ferociously contradictory personality, and that’s what makes him fascinating to watch," Shearer told the Associated Press in 2011.¹³² Covering the telethon for Film Comment magazine, Shearer described the Jerry Lewis Telethon as "a Jewish-Puritan spectacle. You should enjoy; then you should feel bad; then you should give money to feel good again."¹³³

"Muscular dystrophy is a relatively rare and usually hereditary disease of muscle deterioration," Shearer explained. Before the Telethon, Shearer wrote, muscular dystrophy "received as much media attention as spotted aphids or bovine brucellosis. Then Jerry Lewis, for reasons unknown and unknowable, became the public spokesman for the fledgling Muscular Dystrophy Association. Since then, Lewis had pleaded, cajoled, shamed, noodged, pestered, and clowned his way into the single most successful annual fund-raising event in the history of charity. Pushing through the always crowded field of diseases, Jerry Lewis has made muscular dystrophy a star."¹³⁴

Children with muscular dystrophy appearing on The Jerry Lewis Telethon were known as "Jerry's Kids."¹³⁵

Le Show's 1989 version of "Telethon Memories" consists of Telethon excerpts across the years recorded by Shearer.¹³⁶ "I here propound the theory, propounded here once before, I believe, that the golden age of the Jerry Lewis Telethon is past. It's in, it lies in those percodan mists of years gone by. And while the Telethon still does a bang-up job and the Love Network is intact, you may be aware, through reading the current issue of Spy magazine or otherwise, that I'm sort of an archivist, a collector type-nut.¹³⁷ And so welcome to a very extra-ultra-special "Telethon Memories" edition of, hello welcome to Le Show."

Shearer follows his introduction by playing Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "The Tears of a Clown," an oblique reference to Lewis's 1972 Holocaust film The Day the Clown Cried, which Shearer has seen and about which Shearer was interviewed, also in Spy.¹³⁸

In 2011, a shorter version of the telethon, not involving Lewis, aired, and Shearer noted the change on Le Show with an extended segment, a "very personal collection … of telethon memories," featuring excerpts that Shearer recorded and preserved of Lewis in particularly bizarre moments.

2012 was the first year since 1966 with no Muscular Dystrophy Telethon at all. Shearer opened his program this way that year on Labor Day weekend:

It's Labor Day weekend where you are, and for the first time in the memory of most people alive in the United States there's a certain void on the television screen — not the usual void, not the usual multi-channel void. I'm talking about a particular absence, a vacuum, a place where a thing used to be. And that thing was for, as I say, five decades a telethon. Now, explain to the kids: it's like a marathon except it's on television, without people running. It's just a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long television show. There used to be a lot of them, for raising money for all sorts of ailments and conditions.¹³⁹ But the lone survivor in so many ways was what became known in the 1970s as the Jerry Lewis Telethon. And it was always held on Labor Day so that, you know, the fact that the holiday was originally designed to pay tribute to the rapidly disintegrating labor movement could be ignored for another year….

In 2017, after Lewis died, Shearer paraphrased a People magazine report that Lewis had five years earlier "emphatically cut out all six children he had with his first wife, Patty Palmer, from his will. So they'll inherit exactly zippo. Nada. Zip." A chronicler of hypocrisy in figures from every public walk of life, Shearer reserves some of his sharpest satire for the celebrity sort. In response to the report from People, Shearer invents, performs, and delivers a telethon for Lewis’ actual children: "Love 17 Telethon for Jerry’s Real Kids"

Shearer in video for the song “935 Lies.” Video by Matt Mindlin.

"The Apologies of the Week"

Shearer's enthusiasm for exposing the hypocrisies of politically and culturally powerful individuals is clear across the history of Le Show. No segment highlights that enthusiasm better than "The Apologies of the Week" segment, which has occurred nearly every week since November 2001.

Introduced by a remix of Paul McCartney’s 1971 "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey," with the word "sorry" repeatedly reversed into "see-rah, see-rah, see-rah," the segment features Shearer reading the apologies of public figures and occasionally inserting archival audio of the apologies themselves. Occasionally across the history of the program Shearer has commented on other broadcasters doing apology segments on their news or comedy programs. Shearer thus finishes each week's apologies with the following coda: "The Apologies of the Week, ladies and gentlemen: a copyrighted feature of this broadcast," wry irony as titles cannot be copyrighted.¹⁴⁰

Sometimes ten minutes or more in duration, the "The Apologies of the Week" segment, often the concluding major segment in any week's Le Show, offers a weekly sonic snapshot of the best and worst in so-called public relations. The comedic force of the segment depends on listeners finding risible the claim at the heart of many public apologies, sometimes stated word-for-word, "This is not who I am."

CNN apologizes to David Letterman for quoting the White House

"There's so many apologies, ladies and gentlemen, but let's end with this one for now: You saw probably that David Letterman had the kid on his show who had yawned behind President Bush during a speech.¹⁴¹ CNN apologized on the air to Letterman for having reported Tuesday that the White House said his videotape had been altered to put the boy right behind Bush. Daryn Kagan first reported on CNN that the White House was calling the tape a fake. Kyra Phillips on CNN only later cited her sources as 'they' rather than 'the White House.' CNN retracted that report Tuesday night only after Letterman had called the White House 'a bunch of liars.' Now here's what Daryn Kagan says on the air: 'It turns out due to what we might say a misunderstanding among the folks who are usually so fantastic behind me here in The Newsroom, it turns out that was not true. The White House it turns out — I guess — never did call us about the tape. And we've been looking through our tapes, and apparently, we now see no evidence that it was faked. So Dave, we apologize for the error. I hope that makes things good with us. We apologize.'"

"So," Shearer concludes the segment, "it's not really clear whether the White House called, what the White House said, or whether CNN really ever knows what it's talking about, ladies and gentlemen. The Apologies of the Week: a copyrighted feature of this broadcast."

Church of England apologizes to Charles Darwin

"The Church of England is conceding in a statement that it was over-defensive and over-emotional in dismissing Charles Darwin's ideas. It will call anti-evolutionary fervor 'an indictment on the church.' The apology has been written by Rev. Dr. Malcolm Brown, the Church's director of mission and public affairs. It says that Christians and their response that Darwin's theory of natural selection repeated the mistakes they made in doubting Galileo's astronomy … in the 17th century. The statement reads, 'Charles Darwin, 200 years from your birth, the Church of England owes you an apology for misunderstanding you and, by getting our first reaction wrong, encouraging others to misunderstand you still. We try to practice the old virtues of "faith seeking understanding" and hope that makes some amends.' The comments are included on a Church of England website. That's how hip they are."

Church of England apologizes to Charles Darwin

Pope Francis apologizes to the Roma

This particular apology follows another recurring feature, "News of the Godly," in which Shearer shares information about sexual abuse and other scandals in various religions. Despite the doctrine of papal infallibility, this time a Pope is apologizing:

"On a related subject, here's Francis the Talking Pope, who has apologized to the Roma people on behalf of the Catholic Church during his visit to Romania. At a meeting with the Roma people on the last day of his visit he asked forgiveness for quote 'all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated, or looked askance at you' unquote. Roma people have faced persecution — hmm, he didn't use that word — in Europe for centuries. Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been killed during the Holocaust. Nowadays Roma live mainly in southern and central Europe, make up 8% of Romania's population, and many live in poverty. Quote 'I ask forgiveness in the name of the church and of the Lord, and I ask forgiveness of you,' the Pope said in the town of Blaj."

Pope Francis apologizes to the Roma
(at 0:46:52)

News of the Olympic Movement

Since 1984, when they were held in Los Angeles, Shearer has regularly covered news of the Olympics on Le Show, highlighting negative economic and environmental consequences of the games as well as attempts to market the Olympics as "a movement." Leading up to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, when sewage was found in bodies of water intended for Olympic events, Shearer's "Said And Done," a parody of public radio "news magazines," featured an item about Shearer's imagined Olympic and Paralympic mascots, "Effluvio" and "Pupi."

"News of the Olympic Movement: Clearing Away the Poor in Rio"

"News of the Olympic Movement: Trying to Keep the Hookers Out of London for 2012"

O.J. Simpson Arrest and Trials

The 1994 slow-speed freeway pursuit, arrest, and subsequent criminal and civil murder trials of football, advertising, and show business icon O. J. Simpson fueled dozens of Shearer's inventions in sound on Le Show.¹⁴² Shearer also covered the Simpson civil trial for the online publication Slate magazine, created in 1996 by former New Republic editor Michael Kinsley.¹⁴³ Simpson was found not guilty of the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in the criminal trial; Simpson was later found responsible for the "wrongful deaths" in the civil trial. Shearer has characterized the civil trial as "the one that worked."¹⁴⁴

Shearer's satires of Simpson began just two days after viewers across the United States watched live television coverage of what the New York Times captioned "The Simpson Case: From Football Hero to Fugitive": "Television viewers nationwide watched last night as a white Ford Bronco carrying O. J. Simpson was chased across the freeways of Southern California by the California Highway Patrol and a fleet of television news helicopters after the vehicle was located by tracing calls from its cellular phone. The unfolding scene was broadcast live by all the television networks…."¹⁴⁵

Hours later, Shearer's first bit of O. J. Simpson satire debuted, with a faux ad for The Simpsons: "Marge's long lost cousin O. J. takes Homer for the ride of his life on an all new Simpsons, Thursday on Fox. Now here's Le Show!"

Shearer tries not to talk about the O. J. spectacle — and fails:

For me, the whole spectacle helped prove once again how fake most of television is. Because, you know, a slow-speed car chase: let's face it, you know, you wouldn't pay — forget $7 — you wouldn't pay $4 to go to a movie that promised a slow-speed car chase, admit it. I mean, what's the name of this new movie — the movie from FOX? Speed. What's the premise? The bus has to go more than 50 miles an hour. Do you think that guy sat in in Joe Roth's office and said, 'Okay, here's the premise: The bus can't go faster than 30 miles an hour or it blows up.' How fast does he get kicked out of that office?

Okay, you see what I'm saying. So it's not that. It's just that it was so damn real. And the rest of TV is so damn fake. Just the utter, undeniable reality of it — the utter, unendurably unending reality of it — was what hypnotized people. That's my, you know, that's my theory. But what do I know? I didn’t even think up 'Bowling With Chickens'"

See, here was my theory, ladies and gentlemen — I know, I'm getting back to this now; I can't help it. A guy can't help it. My theory was that, you know, there's this outfit in Los Angeles called Ron Smith Celebrity Look-Alikes, and my theory was — you're ahead of me — O. J. calls Ron Smith Celebrity Look-Alikes and says, 'Get me an O. J. look-alike.' That's who's driving around the freeways. Everybody's watching that. He can go anywhere. See, that was my theory. But then I'm not a Heisman Trophy winner. Let’s get off this."

Clearly, Shearer has not been able to resist the inspiration O. J. Simpson affords. Shearer's most recent O. J. satire aired in 2022 (link below).

In Shearer's earliest O. J. Simpson-related satires, telephony was again a prominent sonic prop — for sound reasons. When Simpson went missing, police located him by tracing calls he was making from a Ford Bronco on the freeway during the pursuit. And then people started calling O. J. back, aided by live radio:

The most, for me, mesmerizing part of the whole thing was the phone calls. I don't know if you heard this around the country, but here in Los Angeles, on the news stations — well, first of all, one of the news stations demonstrated the kind of hubris really normally reserved for show business celebrities. 'Cause here's what they said over and over again when the slow-speed chase was in progress: 'We think there's a very good chance that O. J. might be listening to KNX News Radio right now.' Yeah, right. He's not listening to, you know, the rap, the rap songs to get his juices flowing, he's listening to KNX News Radio. Why? He wants to know what the weather is going to be tomorrow? What are you talking about? Anyway, the premise was, in case he's listening, all these people called up to try to talk him into stopping the white Bronco on the side of the road. You had his ex-coach from USC, and all sorts of people calling up, and they put these calls on the air.

Now, the fact of the matter is, ladies and gentlemen, that they had some calls that they taped that, because the chase ended too soon, they weren't able to use. I don't know if this is going to make any news, but those calls follow.

Shearer then plays scripted and recorded bits, performed by him, of imaginary psychologist Dr. Visquick, comedian Joan Rivers, and radio legend Paul Harvey calling O. J.

After playing "Lilies of the Valley" by David Byrne, offering a Le Show health tip — "If you must have sun exposure, be sure to wear a sunscreen to reduce your chances of skin zephyr" — and reading trade and news stories about 1994 World Cup marketing, Shearer plays two more scripted calls to O. J., one from Saturday Night Live and NBC Sports executive producer Dick Ebersol and the other from radio shock-jock Howard Stern, complaining about "the friggin' F.C.C.".

Shearer sustained his O. J.-fueled sonic satires during Simpson's criminal trial (acquitted) and civil proceeding (found liable for wrongful death and ordered to pay $33.5 million to victims' families) and has returned to that vein each time Simpson has reemerged in public culture.

Kaelin and Tesh: "Peter and the Wolf"

Shearer explains in his set-up to a pop-operatic satire focused on witness Brian "Kato" Kaelin, "One of the most iconic characters, of course, to come out of the criminal trial was a certain witness whose command of the English language seemed to evaporate the moment he got on the stand. Fortunately for him, he enjoyed a rather unique second act after the trial."

Thus follows another of Shearer's alternative scenario playhouses, introduced by Shearer in one of his public television announcer voices over the sound of an orchestra tuning to A440: "Coming next month to your public television station, the outdoor concert spectacle that electrified an entire countryside. It happened only once, but you can see it every night — all through a special pledge-plus month: Master maestro John Tesh teams with master storyteller Brian 'Kato' Kaelin, to bring you and your children an unforgettable performance of 'Peter and The Wolf.'"¹⁴⁶

In 2012, when Kaelin once again made headlines by offering contradictory accounts of whether or not he knew Simpson was guilty of murder, Shearer reprised another sonic masterpiece, the rap-recitative "Kato, Ito, & the Elmo," in a Le Show episode originating from Global Radio studios, just above Leicester Square in London. "So, from the archives, just to review".

"Kato, Ito & The Elmo" originally aired on 4/2/1995, during the criminal trial.

2018: "Christmas Time for O. J."

2022: "BBC's 'News Wheel': O. J. Simpson"

Shearer's most recent sonic O. J. satire arose in the context of news about a member of Simpson's original legal "dream team," Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz's connection to disgraced sexual child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein went unmentioned in a Dershowitz appearance as a legal expert on the BBC. That omission generated a BBC apology and provided material for Shearer to invent and deliver his version of O. J. Simpson as a contestant on an imagined BBC game show, the "News Wheel".

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