The Next Celebrity Spokesperson for Philosophy
The series of brief audio clips by John Cleese on the value of philosophy is making the rounds again, this time courtesy of a post at Open Culture. The public service announcements were commissioned by the American Philosophical Association in 2000 in celebration of the organization’s 100th anniversary.
For example, here is Cleese on what philosophers do:
For those doubting whether Cleese knows enough about philosophy to qualify to speak on its behalf, well, he knew enough to make this pitch-perfect parody:
As great as Cleese is, younger generations don’t know him. Still, the idea of a celebrity spokesperson doing PSAs for philosophy is tempting. If the APA were to try to commission a new series of PSAs now, which celebrities should be among those they ask to do it?
Stephen Colbert, of course. (He started out as a phil major and I suspect appreciates the value of it, given how thoughtful he is.)
Steve Martin would be great too, but younger generation might not know him that well either.
If neither of them, I guess it will have to be Sarah Palin.
(I’d never seen that Cleese clip–awesome! “Are you using ‘yes’ in the affirmative sense?”)Report
With all due respect to Cleese, I prefer the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leQ1bczMu7cReport
Kim kardashian. Duh.Report
You mean Kim Kierkegaardashian? https://twitter.com/KimKierkegaardReport
A celebrity spokesperson that younger generations will recognize and appreciate? That’s obvious. We need to find a zombie.Report
Chris Rock would be great.Report
Also, younger generations don’t know John Cleese? Isn’t this the real problem that we should be addressing?Report
Ricky Gervais. Studied philosophy, made this: http://youtu.be/P-v3ngHykP4 and is still relevant.Report
The younger generations are no longer what they were fifteen years ago.
The peculiarity of the John Cleese radio spots was not that he’d speak for philosophy, but that he’d speak for American philosophy. As if sounding like philosophy requires putting on a British accent.Report
Philosophy needs the most powerful woman in the world: Taylor Swift.Report
Marco Rubio.Report
Perhaps the most important contribution that philosophy could make to the public at this juncture is to resolve the longstanding dispute between beliebers and aliebers.Report
Moby studied philosophy for one year at U. of Connecticut before dropping out to do his music.
Christy Turlington received her degree in Eastern Philosophy/Religion from NYU.Report
Oh man, that is so hilarious. I had several “Oxbridge” professors when I was in grad school at McGill. That parody is so dead accurate it is almost NOT a parody.Report
Lana Del Rey studied philosophy at Fordham. For those who don’t know, she is incredibly well-known amongst people under 30 yrs old.Report
Frankly Cleese is about as good a spokesman as any one could hope for… Philosophy is constant in the Pythons. This one had somehow avoided my awareness for years:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crIJvcWkVcs&w=480&h=360%5DReport
Make me a celebrity and I’ll do it.Report
Sarah Silverman could probably knock this one out of the ballpark.Report
Claudia Kennedy could be a good voice for philosophy, especially in the states among people skeptical of its value.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_J._KennedyReport
Rachel Maddow.
She’s already contributed:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/march/rachel-maddow-speech-031913.htmlReport
What about Arian Foster?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/18/AR2010091800180.htmlReport
Justin Timberlake video Δίκη in a box.Report
Louis CK!Report
Steve Martin, he was a philosophy major, might even have a degree. Or Jennifer Lawrence, she’s amazingly insightful and supportive of critical analysis. I think this is a great idea, please do many PSAs to boost appreciation of intellectualism!!!Report
It’s a shame George Harrison isn’t still around.Report
Chris Hayes the news commentator at MSNBC has a philosophy degree and would reach young people well I think.Report