Member-only story
‘Morning Joe’ Blues
“Morning Joe” — what are we watching?
To know what is going on there, you need to watch who has been there. — Promo blurb for “Morning Joe”, MSNBC.
We have arrived — a white male locker room, attended by Rev’, Eddie, Molly and Mika.
Before SNL became the go-to venue for tepid political satire, “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” (1979) a popular off-Broadway play ran for 5 years. In 2001 “the play was made into a movie, ‘Sister Mary Explains It All,’ for the Showtime Network.” (1)
Sister Mary Ignatius, could be described as a durable piece of theatrical nonsense with a Lenny Bruce-like dark trajectory. The premise of the extended one-act play is a gradual unveiling of the abusive, dictatorial and preternatural violent nun and a trail of tears of her former students who revisit her from their future lives. It’s a memorable squirming in your seat, laugh-’til-it-hurts audience experience.
We have arrived at a similar script: “Morning Joe Explains T**** All For You.” (2)
There is plenty to explain. As in the play we are introduced to T**** qua Sister Mary through a series of admissions by a faithful accomplice, Thomas,
“At a Christmas lecture, a nun named Sister Mary Ignatius explains to the audience the basic tenets of Catholicism. She is assisted…