“Everything is changing. People are taking the comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.”
—Will Rogers
Dear Sgt. Pépé,
I know your column mainly deals with what it says it does, but I can’t figure out this fellow Martin Mull. Is he making fun of me or giving sage advice?
With the decline of daily newspapers and advice columns, I figured I’d give you a try.
—Signed, Reuben J.
Dear Rube,
Can I call you Rube? I feel like I know you. You remind me just a little of my former self when I was a green-behind-the-ears Airman Basic.
I first stumbled across this Martin Mull album back then. A buddy from California turned me on to it. It struck me as subversive, even though my first reaction was simply that it was clever and funny.
Here’s the odd part.
On one level I knew it was parody. Yet I also took the message of this song—and another called Normal—completely to heart. I was so sophisticatedly unsophisticated that I managed to laugh and learn a lesson at the same time. Or maybe the snideness simply never reached me. Was Martin Mull looking down on the people in those songs? Probably.
In my case, though, it backfired on him.
Those songs helped convince me to pack up and head home instead of trying to reinvent myself on the Left Coast. Funny how that works. Insult can only be taken; it can’t actually be given.
As for your question: if you can’t tell whether Martin Mull is mocking you, then he probably is.
Now get outta here.
Next time write to one of those Mechanic’s Corner or Ask the Pastor columns you find in four-page small-town newspapers—the kind that are half filled with “Remember When. . . ” articles and photos of somebody’s prize zucchini.
Did that help?
COUNCIL-OF CONCERNED-CONSERVATIONISTS…..Between Jest And Earnest….. 
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