Alas, irreverence has been subsumed by mere grossness, at least in the so-called mass media. What we have now—to quote myself at my most pretentious—is a nimiety of scurrility with a concomitant exiguity of taste. For example, the freedom (hooray!) to say almost anything you want on television about society's problems has been co-opted (alas!) by the freedom to talk instead about flatulence, orgasms, genitalia, masturbation, etc., etc., and to replace real comment with pop-culture references and so-called "adult" language. Irreverence is easy—what's hard is wit.

Rhino Records online chat, June 17th, 1997.