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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s Appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live | Welcome To The Magical Friendship Squad!
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s Appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live

On Monday night Toronto Mayor Rob Ford appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

The suit that Rob Ford wore was heartbreaking. All black but for a lurid, cartoon red tie and hanky, it was the sort of thing that a 16 year-old boy– a not very popular or savvy 16 year-old boy– might wear when he wanted to make a splash at an event in which he was over-invested and nervous. The suit did not evoke thoughts of the sophisticated big city that the mayor was purportedly promoting, but instead suggested an owner/greeter at an affordable, franchised steak house somewhere in between other places.

ford kimmel

It’s actually hard to imagine what was going through Rob Ford’s mind when he chose that suit. Did he think it embodied west coast cool, was perhaps iconoclastic, or did he just really, you know, think it was happening?

Regardless, what was written in the shiny need of that suit and the doomed narcissism that propelled him onto the show, was just how much Ford wants to be accepted. He’s dying to be liked by Kimmel and be a part of that elite, celebrity crew, to finally be a cool kid.  Ford wants to have a bold personality and to lead a big, American life free from compromise or mediation, but he doesn’t have the tools to achieve this dream of myth. On the show, this big try-out for the team, Ford was rejected and mocked. Kimmel, the school alpha, ran easy circles around him as if teasing the slow boy– who would always be wearing the wrong clothes– at recess.

In the rigid late-night format where irony trumps earnestness, it was easy to take Ford apart. Removed from the political arena, where nobody knows what the hell to do with him, and putting Ford under the burning lights of show biz, stripped him of whatever institutional defenses he might have. It was fascinating to watch Ford immobilized beside a video monitor as a host of embarrassing and surreal clips of him played as if from the Ghost-of-Christmas future. After each segment Kimmel would make a witty observation or ask a simple, yet penetrating question, and it was clear just how insufficient, ridiculous and craven each one of Ford’s stammering responses were. Right there, in vivid contrast, there was what we were seeing and what we were hearing, and it simply could not have been clearer that the emperor had no clothes.

ford-kimmel-videos_qtp_640x360_181794883908

Ford didn’t come across as fun, unpredictable or larger than life, just dim, even small, like the guy trying unsuccessfully to join a conversation at the bar. Ford needs attention and desperately wants the seal of American celebrity, to step out of parochial Toronto and live amongst giants, but his aspiration is damned. He’s the kid who will never be accepted, and that hunger of his will always circle back to anger and self-annihilation. The man, dense and frustrated, is a charisma free zone, and there’s no better place than Hollywood to make something like that abundantly and mercilessly clear.


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7 Comments Post a comment
  1. A charisma–free zone is right! The head sweats, the mime suit + his Canadian hokey-pokey accent were embarrassing to say the least.

    March 5, 2014
  2. paul gross #

    perfect.

    March 5, 2014
  3. Mary Reinholz #

    Totally disagree with the snooty put down of the Toronto Mayor. He withstood Kimmel’s grilling with a smile and the audience seemed to love him.

    March 6, 2014
  4. Michael Murray #

    Mary:

    I live in downtown Toronto and the overwhelming sentiment here is anti-Ford. Honestly, at least in the culturally predictable environment I live in, finding a Ford-supporter is like coming across somebody who has been to the future. Really, I have so many questions for you!

    Why do you think he withstood Kimmel’s grilling? Kimmel asked him straight-off, what possible good do you think can come from this? Do you think that Ford really went on to promote the great city of Toronto, or do you think he had a more personal agenda? And respectfully, I think he did very poorly on the show, and did well only in the way that an over-matched boxer who evades the KO and stands in there, getting pummelled, until the last round, does well.

    March 6, 2014
  5. Were he not such a graceless, craven fool, I might feel somewhat sorry for the man.

    As it is, he is an embarrassment and deserves to be mocked.

    I do hope that, when the time comes, he will step aside quietly and allow for a smooth transition of power.

    March 6, 2014
  6. Allan Sorensen #

    “He’s dying to be liked by Kimmel ”

    “On the show … Ford was rejected and mocked. ”

    I see what you mean

    http://telly.com/1I2PGJD

    and a charisma-free zone?

    http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/04/rob-ford-crack-mayor-jimmy-kimmel-no-more-partying/

    March 6, 2014
  7. Tom Deans #

    A brilliant article!! “He’s the kid who will never be accepted, and that hunger of his will always circle back to anger and self-annihilation” …. sad but prescient words. After his political career is over, the real devastation will likely unfurl — family relationships along with the family business. Regrettably, the last chapter of this story is Chapter 11.

    March 8, 2014

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