Who better to help delve into the topics of friendly ribbing, happy antagonism, and the joys of flicking your friends crap than Ryan Reid, better known as “Seacrest,” A pirate of the Jersey Shore, a heckling heel at Portland nerd events, and a chiropractor following in the footsteps of his father, who just wants to help people feel better and have a laugh or two with his friends. So how do you reconcile the brash, trash-talking villain with the genuinely nice young man who appears on this show? Same way you’d reconcile the amiable, genial man that is Patrick with the guy who threatens to stab his dog twice a week, and his wife thrice a day. Dawn especially appreciates the poking of fun, as the more sarcastic, pointed side of her humor just recently helped her through a weeklong bout of anxiety and depression that had a foggy beginning, and an unexpectedly pleasant end. With a special cameo appearance by a past guest, a quick couple of recipes guaranteed to make your next dinner a little more tasty, and the provincialism of Portland is put under the microscope on Ryan’s last public appearance before leaving our magical wonderland for the hinterlands of Medford.
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Here’s the question I would have for Ryan Reid: if you play the character of an asshole in real life, doesn’t that mean you’re actually just an asshole? Porn stars play characters, too, but you don’t put any credence behind it if they claim to be virgins on account of how all that stuff they did on camera was “just acting.”
It’s one thing if you do it — being an asshole, that is (not porn) — strictly around people who already know you; that’s an inside joke. It’s a satirical type of playacting that can be immediately understood because it has context, and the people who are witnessing the playacting understand that context.
If you strip the joke of its context, then it’s no longer a joke, at least in terms of how it’s likely to be perceived.
This is similar to how if you give rat poison to ten people you know are immune to rat poison, then you won’t actually do any damage to them; but as soon as you start giving it to people you’ve never met, people who might be — but probably aren’t — immune to rat poison, odds are somebody is going to end up in the hospital.
Being a dick on a podcast is a long step away from feeding people rat poison, I’ll grant you. But either one is likely to leave a bad taste in a lot of mouths.