Steven Thompson wrote to ask…
We know how you feel about Bill Cosby, how do you feel about the recent accusations of abuse leveled at Jerry Lewis by several women who have came forward?
Longtime followers of this blog have seen me express a certain fascination about Jerry Lewis without thinking (a) he was that great a comedian or (b) that great a human being. I witnessed him being nasty to a lot of people…even somewhat to me when I first met him when I was seven years old.
I have no admissible evidence that he did what those women said he did but I sure don't have a hard time believing it. I think, like Cosby, he was a man who was capable of doing very, very good things but also very, very bad things…and the good things do not redeem him for the bad things or excuse them or anything of the sort.
At the core of the #metoo movement is the outrage that men of great wealth and power can get away with a lot of shit because…well, because they have great wealth and power. And because a lot of people around them benefit from that association so when they see impropriety, they look the other way and make like Sgt. Schultz on Hogan's Heroes muttering, "Nothing…I see nothing…" One of the more shocking reminders in that Cosby documentary was that even when the press was filled with women accusing Cosby of rape, NBC was still courting the man for a new sitcom.
So if you're asking me if I think the allegations against Lewis are true, my answer is "Yeah, probably." If I were on a jury, I might not vote to convict without a little more proof but I'm not on a jury. And if you're asking me if I can enjoy Jerry Lewis movies in light of these revelations, my answer is that I wasn't particularly enjoying Jerry Lewis movies before so this doesn't change much. What's changed is that my low opinion of the man has gotten lower. A few years ago on this blog, I wrote…
Look, I'll give him the "raised a ton of money" thing. The telethons were a Guilty Pleasure for so many of us. Other televised fund-raisers attract donations by offering genuine entertainment amidst the appeals for dough. Jerry offered ego excesses, self-pity, tirades against his critics, excessive praise of his friends — no wonder this guy loves Trump — and his oft-voiced worldview that people in Show Business are just plain better human beings than people who aren't in Show Business. Still, he did raise a lot of cash from those lesser human beings who aren't in Show Business and it did a lot of good.
But the other stuff….I'm sorry. "Oh, that's just Jerry being Jerry" doesn't work for me on any level. If Harry next door beats his wife and kicks his dog, you don't just say "Oh, that's just Harry being Harry." Jerry, like Trump, is proof that if you get famous enough, some people will let you get away with anything.
I wasn't particularly thinking of Lewis as an abuser of women when I wrote that. I was thinking of him being an abuser of a different kind. But it still fits.
