The Very, Very Important Words of Deborah Solomon

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Brian Moylan

09/14/09 03:26PM

Filed to: Charts

Deboroah Solomon's Seth MacFarlane interview for her NY Times Magazine "Questions With..." column was a landmark not only of hostility toward a subject, but she has chosen that readers would rather hear what she has to say than her subjects.

Over the past 10 weeks, she's come close a couple of times to surpassing but this is the first instance during that time period when she has more words on the page (310) than the person who the interview is supposedly about (305). When interviewing Benjamin Todd Jealous, Solomon clocked in at 303 words, while Jealous only had 357, and when interviewing Howard Dean, she got off 278 words and 395. Doesn't that mean that the column is now officially about Solomon? Maybe that's why It's called "Questions With..." instead of "Answers From..."

Each of Solomon's columns bears the tag "Interview has been condensed and edited," a tag that was added after a dust up concerning the accuracy of her questions and answers. It is now well known that Solomon finesses what both she and her subject say in any given interview. That means that, rather than running a transcript and dealing with a taciturn subject, Solomon has chosen to give herself more column inches than who she was interviewing. Family Guy may be painfully unfunny, but that's a little harsh, even for the acid-tongued Solomon.

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HowardRoarkLaughed Brian Moylan 09/14/09 03:37PM

I agree - this was just a bizarre interview. Made me feel uncomfortable just reading it. And I happened to be on the toilet at the time.

Magister HowardRoarkLaughed 09/14/09 04:17PM

@HowardRoarkLaughed: "Why is that funny?"

Heywoodjablome Brian Moylan 09/14/09 04:40PM

You can feel the tension through the lines on the page...palpable. Seth did a very long interview on Howard Stern, and I have listened to his DVD commentary, and generally I think he is a thoughtful, intelligent person with a dark sense of humor. Ms. Solomon's hostility is almost immediately apparent and I think Seth handles it appropriately. Full disclosure: I love Seth and his cartoons (yea, don't really care what anyone thinks.)

PaisleyPajamas Heywoodjablome 09/14/09 05:27PM

@Heywoodjablome: I like him, too. I think his "method" of comedy is a a new approach that not everyone gets.

Banjo Sea Kitten Heywoodjablome 09/14/09 05:57PM

@Heywoodjablome: Family Guy is funny. Inappropriate and shocking too. Don't watch it with your moms.

This interview is more about McFarlane's no-frills brevity than her loquacity. He wins. He doesn't want to waste his time with any flowery analysis nor does he feel the need to defend his show and sensibilities. He's like, here I am, take it or leave it, Lady Who Doesn't Understand It.

Halo_Override Heywoodjablome 09/14/09 08:45PM

@Heywoodjablome: I'm presuming they had sex immediately afterward. Or possibly during.

OrneryBabe Banjo Sea Kitten 09/14/09 08:48PM

@Banjo-Sea Kitten: I love his irreverent, unapologetic humor, and that he offends all groups equally without unfairly targeting anyone.

Okay, now I've got to grab the magazine and read this interview.

GooberSaysHey Brian Moylan 09/14/09 03:37PM

To be fair (and I'm not defending her really ... this Q&A was crap) the way she gives herself "more column inches" as you put it is not quite as bad as Jimmy Fallon's style of interviewing: talk about yourself and tell an anecdote about your own life for 5 minutes before even asking the guest one question.

This chick's tone is prejudged for sure, but she's not making it so much about her that there's nothing for him to answer. Garbage in, garbage out. She just asked shitty questions, so his answers are short and blah.

Muggs GooberSaysHey 09/14/09 03:39PM

@GooberSaysHey: I think it's one thing to take that tone, in front of a camera, on your first talk show, and it's an entirely different tone that comes across when you do a simple Q&A and assume that somebody (anybody) is curious about what you think about the subject matter. Focus on your assignment, not on what you think of it.

lacieca01 GooberSaysHey 09/14/09 03:41PM

@GooberSaysHey: Yeah, when I die, I want my obituary to say, "His interviewing skills were marginally better than Jimmy Fallon's."

GooberSaysHey Muggs 09/14/09 03:52PM

@Muggs Bigglesworth: My point is, there are two issues being pointed out here. 1) She gave herself more words and 2) her questions were ridiculously biased. I'll agree to #2, but she only has more words because his answers were short (and considering the questions, understandably so). It's not as though she talked about herself for a while before asking each question, which is what Fallon does. Still.

PaisleyPajamas Brian Moylan 09/14/09 05:25PM

Q: Why won't you go to the MoMA with me?

A: No, I never had any desire to do that. I cannot tell good art from bad art. I have no eye for it.

(Actual Presumptuous Question: You attended the Rhode Island School of Design and presumably had some interest in becoming a fine artist?)

Phyllis Nefler PaisleyPajamas 09/14/09 07:05PM

@PaisleyPajamas: (giggling at these)

That's it right there: "presumably" is SUCH a Solomon word. So passive-aggressive. So knowing.

GooberSaysHey PaisleyPajamas 09/14/09 07:49PM

@PaisleyPajamas: The funny thing is (if I remember an old interview correctly), it was Seth's MOTHER who applied him to RISD, even. (And for animation, not fine art.)

PaisleyPajamas GooberSaysHey 09/14/09 07:54PM

@GooberSaysHey: That is an interesting bit of info.