Who can recall the TV show, “To Tell theTruth?” It was a show on which a celebrity panel questioned three contestants in an attempt to determine the actual person associated with a story. At the end of the questioning the celebrity panel each ventured a guess as to which of the three contestants the real actual person was. After the celebrity guesses the show ended with …”will the real XXX please stand up!” Typically there was feigning by one or two of the three contestants before the real XXX finally stood up. What made it a good show was that those contestants who were not XXX were quite good and believable.
While admittedly I have never been to Scranton, Pennsylvania I had been a loyal viewer for many years of “The Office,” which was set in Scranton. Like most of the viewers of “The Office,” I cannot forget the various antics of the different employees of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company. I remember Steve Carell as Michael Scott as well as Dwight, Jim, and Pam. They were all believable characters. Interestingly, the series used an unusual casting process that did not involve a script. For example, the producers asked the actors several questions and they responded as the characters they were auditioning for.
Now compare this to Joe Biden’s recent campaign stop in Scranton. While everyone has been rightfully focused on J.B.’s ridiculous fable about his uncle who was eaten by cannibals in New Guinea, I was focused on the five individuals who were standing behind Joe Biden. OMG, what a sad group of four white men and one woman. The facial expressions of all five telegraphed perhaps what they were thinking , “Why am I here?” “Did I pick the short straw?” “That’s the last time I will let mom talk me into anything!” “Why did I choose to be here when I could have been having my root canal?”
What a sad group! If these five actually represented five of Biden’s Scranton supporters, then either Scranton is a woeful place to live or Biden picked them out himself. Not one of them ever cracked a smile. In fact none of the five ever had a change in their facial expression. In “The Office” there was Oscar (Hispanic) and Stanley (Black). Here there was no attempt at racial diversity. In addition both Jim and Pam were young, vivacious, and good looking … does the real Scranton have any similar individuals? Suffice it to say, I liked the Scranton-ites on “The Office” much more than those presumed Scranton-ites standing around JB … and thus I ask, “Will the real Scranton-ites please stand up.”
Whereas in 2016, Rolling Stone named The Office one of the 100 greatest television shows of all time, the production of this Scranton campaign stop has to be one of 100 worst campaign spots of all time … even before considering “the fictional cannibals in New Guinea.”
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