The bankers actually did learn something. They learned that the government, the Fed, and the IMF would help them rob foreign banks blind and fund their wild betting in derivatives and bundles of worthless mortages. Hence why they repeated it over and over again for the next 20 years.

Remember the collapse of the peso in Mexico in the 90's? Taxpayers took care of the banks that decided to throw money at the country on wild lending sprees and currency trades. We repeated this across Latin America. It's why George Soros started singing Amazing Grace and condemned the entire process.

I loved how SNL Russell's entire song just consisted of Ross Perot's name repeated over and over.

I'm telling ya, that's the deficit,
They really made a mess of it,
That's the deficit raaaaaaaaaag!

I'd submit the video, but fuck Hulu.

The ironic thing about that Simpsons reference? Harry Shearer's political humour is almost as painful as Mark Russell's. It's 2012, and he's still doing Richard Nixon impressions - hell, he even sold a Nixon-centric special to Sky, as the concept's too 'subtle' for American audiences.

Naw, Nixon was really just that evil.

If it's similar to his stuff on "Le Show," his Nixon bits are called "Nixon In Heaven," where he's in the afterlife, on a kind of probation, reacting to current events. This was especially prescient given how many of his former colleagues (or defendants) went to work for the Bush Administration.

Also, REAL conversation I just had, with a friend who is from Buffalo:

FRIEND: Mark Russell is from Buffalo.

ME: I think you're thinking of Mark Ruffalo.

FRIEND: Maybe I am.

hahaha!!

Tom Lehrer dedicated some of his shows to 'The Wiemar cabaret musicians who did so much to stop Hitler and the rise of Nazism'.

I think that if you have the insight to be a good satirist, eventually you will either burn out into being a nihilist, crank, or cynical hack as it becomes increasingly obvious that what you're doing boils down to helping people who agree with you already feel superior.

I think you're confusing actual satire with the likes of Dennis Miller when you talk about making people feel superior.

Mark Russell and the Capitol Steps aren't really satirical, in my opinion. They take whoever is in power or whatever is going on in the news and try to set their exploits to old showtunes with "jokes" that wouldn't even be accepted by the Bazooka Bubble Gum comics editor. Nobody feels superior thanks to those songs, unless it gives them a boost about being aware of a possibly current event.

I was thinking of a line from Tom Lehrer in an interview where he said "I wasn't even preaching to the converted, I was titillating the converted", or the line on Mencken ""Every Babbitt read him gleefully and pronounced his neighbor a Babbitt" -- they permitted a circular firing squad of self-righteous viciousness.".

My point is that as most people don't like to see themselves satirized, eventually a popular satirist's audience is going to consist of people who don't see their behaviour as being implicated. Anyone sharp enough to do satire in the first place is going to notice this, and it usually seems to affect their work.