Phoebe Kate

Ed McMahon died today, as you probably already know — how could anybody not know? It’s a major news story, right along with Sarah Jessica Parker’s and Matthew Broderick’s twin girls being born to a surrogate in Ohio. 

Of course, these Hollywood headlines rate the same journalistic attention as the political horror in Iran and North Korea’s plan to launch a ballistic missile at Hawaii. This doesn’t say much for the news media’s sense of priorities – or for us, the target audience, either.

What did McMahon do to have such clout and merit such importance? 

Well, in reality, not very much.  He played second fiddle to Johnny Carson for 30 years on late night TV.  He was adept at that, to be sure.  He sat around and made Johnny look good and seem even funnier.  He occasionally delivered a few zingers of his own, but who knows whether his witticisms originated with him or the show’s writers.       

Besides that, he’s best known for being the ”spokesperson” of the magazine sweepstakes where he and his crew bring a giant check to your door if you’re the winner.  He also co-hosted the Jerry Lewis annual telethon, where he played second fiddle to yet another very large personality.

I mean no disrespect to the late Mr. McMahon.  He seemed like a nice enough guy and he made the most out of his opportunities.  He played his rather limited hand of cards to full advantage and you can’t fault a guy for doing that.  He did it better than many others.  And that’s a considerable personal achievement.

It’s curious how people become famous these days.  Have 8 babies and you get your own reality show.  Bask in the limelight of a bigger star, be the hawker for a national contest and you get memorialized on the news as if you actually did something significant or made an important contribution to society.

Go figure.

–phoebe kate