@@davidlevy4291 can't argue that. He also cashed in on his obsession/perversion/talent so more power to him. I'm a fan. Had the Crumb dvd since dvd came out
I could listen to Crumb's stories for hours, he's lived such an interesting life and he really knows the early underground comics scene. The documentary film "Crumb" is one of my favorites and I watch it every year.
Robert Crumb is a genius. His body of work is spectacular! He's an unsung hero in the art world. He's well known sure but his influence is never given the credit its due!
yeah lets give him a statue and worship it. What is with you Americans..it is tiresome, this comment is placed under any artist or person in almost every f'ing video on youtube. Tiresome and cliché. De-c*nt your mind please.
Funny how in his old age Robert Crumb actually looks normal and his eccentricity in the age of the internet and hipsters has been accepted and praised.
Ive been following crumb for over 40+ years and Ive noticed how upbeat he is now days! He used to be more pessimistic and anti-social. Glad to see he is achieved happiness!
Absolutely! This place gets worse everyday. France is taxing the tech giants. French people stand up for their rights. It has its fair share of problems sure but compared to team America world police... Lord Almighty. Censorship, surveillance, zero production soulless consumer driven rent based economy. Charging rent accounts for more of the American economy than agriculture manufacturing and education combined. If I can get to where I make enough money on my own I'm getting the hell out of here. They have more liberties in the middle of the Arabian desert nowdays
@@Claytone-Records sorry I'm Germaine spectre same person different account thanks for responding, very insightful. I too have been thinking about emigrating to France, seems like a wonderful place especially as a traditional illustrator
Well,his whole art comes from that previous state of mind. So your comment is somehow very paradoxically ironic. Also privilege and money really gives a person a lot of mind space. And that gives a person some happines. Doesnt mean he has 'achieved' happiness, that is not something that can be achieved or held on to.
If you close your eyes, you can imagine Robert’s voice coming from a 30-something year old, damn, meekness and massive artistic talent can sure lead to longevity for the body
This guys art work is genius. I don't know how he's managed to do so much over the years. His wrirng and insights are also excellent. I used to do a little comic art work years ago. I wish I'd kept it going. But that's the thing, you have to keep going on and on and on.
0:24 that blew my mind. The exaggeration is so wild to conceive by anyone, before attempting to even draw it. It's like no one else thought of such a thing before.
I think he still searches and is in pain sometimes,over life,all the things we deal with,the human condition,but i sense hes found a more calm attitude,and hes getting better and evolving as artist..I love his Sketchbooks,i buy the whole lot.
I'm glad to hear that Robert is still hard at work with his pencils and pens and still enjoying the process.I hope he and Aline are deeply happy and healthy over in the South of France -two of my favorite "ex pats" to be sure! I love this cut out puppet routine from a few years ago.I'd like to see more of it.
7:06 Yeah, no real limits with pen & ink, when you look back at how many great illustrations were done that way during the 1800s and 1900s. I liked Dale Messick's work in the '40s with Brenda Starr a lot, for example.
I wish someone would upload this Angelfood McSpade/Mr Natural interactive piece on Deviant Art or UA-cam or just somewhere online for viewing, Hell I'd even pay money to see it if it was a Kickstarter piece or available for viewing/downloading on the world wide web somewhere out there.
Imagine if instead of working at a greeting card company he had been at a correspondence art school like the kind that advertised in magazines in the Fifties and Sixties. I like to imagine him correcting students’ submissions with his weird variations, or challenging them “can you draw this?” with some real oddity quite unlike the conventional figures in the school’s ads.
He admits the piece in question will "offend" and "sicken" some so Called "Black people" BUT "....as a [so called] "White" American, SORRY, but I have to do it!" and that is RACISM in a nutshell! He doesn't care if some people are hurt, just as long as HE's satisfied! I like some of his work and he has great taste in music, but he's just not high on my list of favorite cartoonists for that very reason!
People are entitled to their opinion of Crumb’s work. What bothers me is when those very same people vociferously rehash criticisms he faced 30-40 years ago. If you think his work is racist, consider that he’s really talking about your (read: “America’s”) racism.
Sorry, that isn't going to fly. It's not "considered" racist, it IS RACIST and the fact that people make excuses for that garbage, including Mr.Crumb, shows just how far we still have to go in this country! He could have been one of our greatest satirists but unfortunately, rather than answer for that dark spot in his work, including his misogynistic "cutting a female's head off" nonsense (okay, it's a literal "bird" but that's no excuse) he insists it's "ironic". What a LOAD!
Pulsar Stargrave well, all it takes is for him to assert it and one person to agree with it. It is a matter of fact that he repudiated racists who tried to appropriate his work. That’s a fact! So don’t put words in the man’s mouth so to speak by suggesting he is what he’s not. He reflects the racism in the culture. If you can’t deal with it, there’s a simple solution: don’t look at his work.
I believe his saying “As a white American” is him telling you that these things are coming from a white Americans perspective, The things he’s seen and grown up with and have taken root in his mind. It’s just his perception of the world and what is in his mind and he’s putting it out there for better or worse and without being afraid to. None of his work actually promotes a racist or misogynistic agenda, It’s not racist or misogynistic propaganda.. Where do you draw the line on censorship, Freedom of expression? People throw the words racist and racism around like they are crazy nowadays and it just cheapens the words.
it's sad that a great American artist (R Crumb) has to live in France, which means he had to move out of his beloved homeland because he wasn't really liked or tolerated in the US. Doesn't that show us in the mirror and our difference to France/Europe? America is way too religious, and that's the root of all its problems.
Crumb doesn't HAVE to live in France: his wife Aline WANTED to move to France, and so they went! They bought the house they're living in by trading the seller for a half dozen or so of Crumb's sketchbooks. Sounds like a great deal to me! Crumb still visits America frequently, traveling from city to city visiting friends or promoting his current projects.
Robert Cook P.S. "Belove homeland?" Haw! Crumb might love isolated elements of America, those aspects of America long dead that gave rise to the beloved music and artifacts of the early 20th Century, but he largely scorns America and its values and always has!
Robert Cook R Crumb doesn't scorn the true American values the traditional ones(freedom of speech and religion, folklore music development, etc.) but he scorns the new-values that were imposed to America after the WW2, which are consumerism, debts, dumbing down youths, the media brainwash, anti-free speech, the rise of religious extremists, lack of true education only money for degree, prison industry, military industry complex, war-for-profit, drugged-nation, international corporations taking over American politics, Americans dignity for sale, the opposition to the free-artistic-expressions, modern meaningless music that lacks artistic quality and talented musicians and singers that each year gets worse, every virtue or value for sale, the destruction of American natural landscape by factories, war reason, etc.
Actually, America is far less religious than it used to be. I don’t mean religious extremism. I’m no fan of that, but just the basic religious values-that includes just about all religions-that used to define American society. The loss of shared basic moral values throughout much of America is what is behind many of our problems today. The most obvious example is the soaring crime rates.
I understand how some black peeps might be offended by "Angel food" but "Mr' Natural" is a bit of a "stereotype," too! Peeps...that's "cartoons" are "STEREOTYPES!"
It astounds me completely... he didn't want the "Fritz the Cat" movie to get made... He said no. He disowned anything the movie had to do with. And yet, he personally agreed to this... Astounding...
Dane Youssef in the long run unknown to crump the government was studying animi. to use for sattelite weapon and mind control. they use weapon to shoot sound and tv images into people with weapon that inprisons people till there dead. also radar vector manipulate body and slowly burn internal organs. and the film plus anime can be pretty disgusting as you find back in the 1970s. so good thing for crumb he said no. only in the future would the government dish out a million bucks for multi media people enter film sound and anime for a senatoral killing weapon to run the government.
+Dane Youssef This comment's pretty late, but from what I've read, he was basically strongarmed into agreeing to have it made by Ralph Bakshi, who he still hasn't forgiven after all these years. Look up his Charlie Hebdo reaction comic. He says it here: "I don't want to compromise" and most artists don't. Collaboration requires patience and compromise, and Crumb only sees it as handcuffs. I suspect Fritz the Cat is more significant in the animation world than Mr. Crumb would like to admit.
I love Crumb, but how does he dislike the Fritz the Cat movie by Bakshi, but endorse this silly little bit of animation. It's odd to me. I know it's just my opinion, but I think he's better than this.
I want to know if R. Crumb has seen or played the xbox game "Cuphead". They probably took inspiration from his work. And this year. There's an actual Netflix animated series of "Cuphead". We have to know Crumb's opinion about this. But it would be even better if they made a game based on Crumb's work. Take the ideas of Cuphead to the next level I say and blow everyones mind. Adapt Crumb's work to a real game!
Why'd they just focus on the cartoon?, that wasn't interesting at all. I thought they were going to discuss, I don't know his work stuck to all of the walls.
A little sad that Crumb can’t see and reckon with the fact that his black characters are racist caricatures. He’s a great artist but his black characters always bothered me.
Oh, good grief, you’re missing the point. Crumb isn’t a racist. Look at his work! It’s filled with caricatures of all types. He plays with them, uses them ironically, makes us confront them, even laugh at them. He punctures them like boils.
Brilliant artist, but to for him to acknowledge that this art can be viewed as hateful, insulting, racist, or offensive, and say " I get it, but as a white American I got to do it" is a terrible reason to do something that is hateful, insulting, racist or offensive. I could understand if he said I did it because I am an artist, creator, visionary, anything, but to do something controversial because you are white, seems a bit, well stupid, as almost like you are saying that as long as you are white you can do hateful things, and its okay.
I think it can be explained by his uncompromising honesty, even if it makes him look bad, combined with the irony that suffuses virtually all of his work. In my view he often uses caricatures in a way that makes fun of them, takes away their negative power and influence. He will present something that is typically considered as racist or hateful and makes it look ridiculous and absurd. That is part of his genius.
Crumb's life is a beautiful testament to a troubled soul gradually growing comfortable in his own skin.....he seems more healthy minded now than ever.
yeah. That's why I kinda look forward too becoming older. Allthough it also scares me, realising i can't live forever.
A rewarded pervert. God bless him
@@shreddykrueger3776 I feel like he exorcised a lot of his shadow though.......
@@davidlevy4291 can't argue that. He also cashed in on his obsession/perversion/talent so more power to him. I'm a fan. Had the Crumb dvd since dvd came out
@@shreddykrueger3776 that movie is fantastic by any standards
RIP Aline, they made the perfect couple.
I could listen to Crumb's stories for hours, he's lived such an interesting life and he really knows the early underground comics scene. The documentary film "Crumb" is one of my favorites and I watch it every year.
Robert has a very youthful sounding voice for a guy who's almost 70.
He’s been almost 70 all his life ...
18 forever
@@nagolhayze9366 Yeah the voice is the same as in the Zwigoff movie from 25 years ago.
I love how I can find his old comics and books in old stores all over New York
Robert Crumb is a genius. His body of work is spectacular! He's an unsung hero in the art world. He's well known sure but his influence is never given the credit its due!
yeah lets give him a statue and worship it.
What is with you Americans..it is tiresome, this comment is placed under any artist or person in almost every f'ing video on youtube. Tiresome and cliché. De-c*nt your mind please.
unsung heroes ? He's been featured in museums for decades now. On of thee rare cartoonists to do so (except some European one).
Funny how in his old age Robert Crumb actually looks normal and his eccentricity in the age of the internet and hipsters has been accepted and praised.
Yeah its true that you age when you stop being curious and stop learning about new things.
What!? High minded psycho Internet people...
@@stephenhargrave7922 ...YOU GOT THAT RIGHT!
@@stephenhargrave7922 Thanks
Clarke Asimov, Are you speaking from experience old timer?
Ive been following crumb for over 40+ years and Ive noticed how upbeat he is now days! He used to be more pessimistic and anti-social. Glad to see he is achieved happiness!
Do you believe that leaving the states, might of had something to do with that.
Absolutely! This place gets worse everyday. France is taxing the tech giants. French people stand up for their rights. It has its fair share of problems sure but compared to team America world police... Lord Almighty. Censorship, surveillance, zero production soulless consumer driven rent based economy. Charging rent accounts for more of the American economy than agriculture manufacturing and education combined. If I can get to where I make enough money on my own I'm getting the hell out of here. They have more liberties in the middle of the Arabian desert nowdays
Germaine spectre, I loved living in France, but my parents hated it. Hey, it was the 60’s.
@@Claytone-Records sorry I'm Germaine spectre same person different account thanks for responding, very insightful.
I too have been thinking about emigrating to France, seems like a wonderful place especially as a traditional illustrator
Well,his whole art comes from that previous state of mind. So your comment is somehow very paradoxically ironic.
Also privilege and money really gives a person a lot of mind space. And that gives a person some happines. Doesnt mean he has 'achieved' happiness, that is not something that can be achieved or held on to.
Robert Crumb
One of the bravest, most honest and interesting souls you will ever encounter.
I have just started collecting his work.
A true genius.
Jesus..relax. He's a dope comic book artist, no need to idolize a person into infinity. So very American. Yugh
@@Stoney-Jacksman who cares what anyone thinks
I've always been a Robert Crumb fan, always will.
I am in the unfortunate headspace of loving everything R.Crumb has ever done.
If you close your eyes, you can imagine Robert’s voice coming from a 30-something year old, damn, meekness and massive artistic talent can sure lead to longevity for the body
I fondly remember having a day glow orange "keep on trucking" black light poster in my bedroom growing up.
Damn! Shoulda never let it go.
I remember Mr. Natural blotter.
This guys art work is genius. I don't know how he's managed to do so much over the years. His wrirng and insights are also excellent. I used to do a little comic art work years ago. I wish I'd kept it going. But that's the thing, you have to keep going on and on and on.
He is an awesome tenor banjo player too!
r. crumb is a genius.
0:24 that blew my mind. The exaggeration is so wild to conceive by anyone, before attempting to even draw it. It's like no one else thought of such a thing before.
yes..i stopped to watch it
Yeah I missed this picture of the comic when watching only to look back and be somewhat amazed by it
A beautiful mind. "Putting it out-there" without prior analysis, letting viewers do the analyzing.
I love Robert Crumb
I think he still searches and is in pain sometimes,over life,all the things we deal with,the human condition,but i sense hes found a more calm attitude,and hes getting better and evolving as artist..I love his Sketchbooks,i buy the whole lot.
I'm glad to hear that Robert is still hard at work with his pencils and pens and still enjoying the process.I hope he and Aline are deeply happy and healthy over in the South of France -two of my favorite "ex pats" to be sure! I love this cut out puppet routine from a few years ago.I'd like to see more of it.
Everything about his art is beautiful and chaotic.
Kalervo Palsa is chaotic, not beautiful.
I remember the cut- outs on the back of the cearal boxes back in the 50s.
My favorite cartoonists from the 60s and 70s are Robert Crumb and Vauhn Bode.
Thank you for this. Wonderful commentary from the master.
our political correct society won't allow this type of genius to exist anymore. our social climate is so sensitive and easily offended.
7:06 Yeah, no real limits with pen & ink, when you look back at how many great illustrations were done that way during the 1800s and 1900s. I liked Dale Messick's work in the '40s with Brenda Starr a lot, for example.
Nice to see his move to France, a big risk at first, worked out so well. He met good people and did good work.
3:08 HAHAHA imagine u made a cartoon like this today 🤣🤣
Crumb is not only great comics, it's great literature. He's like a modern American Charles Dickens.
jacques tati and robert crumb share the same world
"I'm down with that"..... Best line was the last one....
Crumb = Genius
In the end, I love R. Crumbs work! he reminds me of a friend of mine, Mark Tabor! Find him HERE on UA-cam!
Aline is his Yoko
LOLLLL "I'm down with that!"
He needs to have a how to draw like me ......with all the criss cross hatching style!
7:18 "I'm down wit dat".
Nice home.
I wish someone would upload this Angelfood McSpade/Mr Natural interactive piece on Deviant Art or UA-cam or just somewhere online for viewing, Hell I'd even pay money to see it if it was a Kickstarter piece or available for viewing/downloading on the world wide web somewhere out there.
He is so real! I loved him in the 70’s. The truth about sex!
Old enough to drink cup after cup of this here grog!
It would be nice if you had credited that lovely piece of music
Imagine if instead of working at a greeting card company he had been at a correspondence art school like the kind that advertised in magazines in the Fifties and Sixties. I like to imagine him correcting students’ submissions with his weird variations, or challenging them “can you draw this?” with some real oddity quite unlike the conventional figures in the school’s ads.
dont care for his language,,but love his art!!!
What, English?
Robert Crumb RULES!!! \m/
What's the piece of music at the end when the Stonehenge Media logo comes up?
I'm a white man from America, I gotta do it ~R. Crumb lol aint nuthin wrong with that!
LMAO 5:19 uh my brother in christ you called the black one Angelfood McSpade
Anyone remember Mr. Natural blotter?
He should reach out Mick Jagger and mend things, "Hey, I'll do an album cover for you now, if you like."
What's the name of the Folies Bergère dancer again? I can't hear it properly!
Josephine Baker
+opentrunks Thank you! :)
Josephine was gorgeous.
Josephine Baker..she has quite an incredible story !!!
Aline is gorgeous! Happy Birthday, Robert Crumb!
You need glasses bud!
Its ppl like that guy in the chateau that allowed the immigration crisis to happen. France is gone but this guy had a blast.
He admits the piece in question will "offend" and "sicken" some so Called "Black people" BUT "....as a [so called] "White" American, SORRY, but I have to do it!" and that is RACISM in a nutshell! He doesn't care if some people are hurt, just as long as HE's satisfied! I like some of his work and he has great taste in music, but he's just not high on my list of favorite cartoonists for that very reason!
People are entitled to their opinion of Crumb’s work. What bothers me is when those very same people vociferously rehash criticisms he faced 30-40 years ago. If you think his work is racist, consider that he’s really talking about your (read: “America’s”) racism.
Sorry, that isn't going to fly. It's not "considered" racist, it IS RACIST and the fact that people make excuses for that garbage, including Mr.Crumb, shows just how far we still have to go in this country! He could have been one of our greatest satirists but unfortunately, rather than answer for that dark spot in his work, including his misogynistic "cutting a female's head off" nonsense (okay, it's a literal "bird" but that's no excuse) he insists it's "ironic". What a LOAD!
Pulsar Stargrave well, all it takes is for him to assert it and one person to agree with it. It is a matter of fact that he repudiated racists who tried to appropriate his work. That’s a fact! So don’t put words in the man’s mouth so to speak by suggesting he is what he’s not. He reflects the racism in the culture. If you can’t deal with it, there’s a simple solution: don’t look at his work.
Pulsar Stargrave, I can’t and won’t make excuses for another...anyone. He, you and I are entitled to our opinion, however.
I believe his saying “As a white American” is him telling you that these things are coming from a white Americans perspective, The things he’s seen and grown up with and have taken root in his mind. It’s just his perception of the world and what is in his mind and he’s putting it out there for better or worse and without being afraid to. None of his work actually promotes a racist or misogynistic agenda, It’s not racist or misogynistic propaganda.. Where do you draw the line on censorship, Freedom of expression? People throw the words racist and racism around like they are crazy nowadays and it just cheapens the words.
Love the title . It says so much : l
Prachtig!
Robert Crumb is one hell of an artist, but he's also one hell of a pervert. And …… he admits it. So, ……. there you go
I thought he doesn't do autographs. He said they're stupid.
love this!
it's sad that a great American artist (R Crumb) has to live in France, which means he had to move out of his beloved homeland because he wasn't really liked or tolerated in the US. Doesn't that show us in the mirror and our difference to France/Europe?
America is way too religious, and that's the root of all its problems.
Crumb doesn't HAVE to live in France: his wife Aline WANTED to move to France, and so they went! They bought the house they're living in by trading the seller for a half dozen or so of Crumb's sketchbooks. Sounds like a great deal to me! Crumb still visits America frequently, traveling from city to city visiting friends or promoting his current projects.
Robert Cook P.S. "Belove homeland?" Haw! Crumb might love isolated elements of America, those aspects of America long dead that gave rise to the beloved music and artifacts of the early 20th Century, but he largely scorns America and its values and always has!
Robert Cook R Crumb doesn't scorn the true American values the traditional ones(freedom of speech and religion, folklore music development, etc.) but he scorns the new-values that were imposed to America after the WW2, which are consumerism, debts, dumbing down youths, the media brainwash, anti-free speech, the rise of religious extremists, lack of true education only money for degree, prison industry, military industry complex, war-for-profit, drugged-nation, international corporations taking over American politics, Americans dignity for sale, the opposition to the free-artistic-expressions, modern meaningless music that lacks artistic quality and talented musicians and singers that each year gets worse, every virtue or value for sale, the destruction of American natural landscape by factories, war reason, etc.
More like Political Correctness is the problem
Actually, America is far less religious than it used to be. I don’t mean religious extremism. I’m no fan of that, but just the basic religious values-that includes just about all religions-that used to define American society. The loss of shared basic moral values throughout much of America is what is behind many of our problems today. The most obvious example is the soaring crime rates.
Age suits him actually. He looks better with age.
Are there any clips on here of Crumb commenting on Harvey Pekar?
I understand how some black peeps might be offended by "Angel food" but "Mr' Natural" is a bit of a "stereotype," too! Peeps...that's "cartoons" are "STEREOTYPES!"
Marci Hooper who cares
I've always suspect that man has bodies in his basement
How can this be a "film" when no film is involved ?
"As a white American, sorry, I gotta do it." Sigh. But do you?
💘
It astounds me completely... he didn't want the "Fritz the Cat" movie to get made... He said no. He disowned anything the movie had to do with.
And yet, he personally agreed to this...
Astounding...
Dane Youssef
in the long run unknown to crump the government was studying animi. to use for sattelite weapon and mind control. they use weapon to shoot sound and tv images into people with weapon that inprisons people till there dead. also radar vector manipulate body and slowly burn internal organs. and the film plus anime can be pretty disgusting as you find back in the 1970s. so good thing for crumb he said no. only in the future would the government dish out a million bucks for multi media people enter film sound and anime for a senatoral killing weapon to run the government.
Dennis Garrett Too much Kool Aid, by the sound of things!
Dane Youssef What wrong with this?
+Dane Youssef This comment's pretty late, but from what I've read, he was basically strongarmed into agreeing to have it made by Ralph Bakshi, who he still hasn't forgiven after all these years. Look up his Charlie Hebdo reaction comic. He says it here: "I don't want to compromise" and most artists don't. Collaboration requires patience and compromise, and Crumb only sees it as handcuffs. I suspect Fritz the Cat is more significant in the animation world than Mr. Crumb would like to admit.
I mean having Mr. Natural and McSpade in... this context.
I love Crumb, but how does he dislike the Fritz the Cat movie by Bakshi, but endorse this silly little bit of animation. It's odd to me. I know it's just my opinion, but I think he's better than this.
RESURRECT FRITZ THE CAT! NOW!!!
LABR
I want to know if R. Crumb has seen or played the xbox game "Cuphead". They probably took inspiration from his work. And this year. There's an actual Netflix animated series of "Cuphead".
We have to know Crumb's opinion about this. But it would be even better if they made a game based on Crumb's work.
Take the ideas of Cuphead to the next level I say and blow everyones mind. Adapt Crumb's work to a real game!
i dont think he will since he killed off fritz after being sick of the film haha
c'mon, folks. who else sees reefer leaves hanging around the waist of the African dancer?
Robert is a very odd little dude ... he has a very strange retrospective and is best among the 🐸’s
Your initial titles are too long. I can read LARB in 4 seconds.
Yeah, nothing to be offended by..
\de deathrows of a poop gone too far south
Seems like such a dumb insensitive thing to give so much time to.
Why'd they just focus on the cartoon?, that wasn't interesting at all. I thought they were going to discuss, I don't know his work stuck to all of the walls.
A little sad that Crumb can’t see and reckon with the fact that his black characters are racist caricatures. He’s a great artist but his black characters always bothered me.
Oh, good grief, you’re missing the point. Crumb isn’t a racist. Look at his work! It’s filled with caricatures of all types. He plays with them, uses them ironically, makes us confront them, even laugh at them. He punctures them like boils.
I respect his art, but I don't respect his talk.
English?
Absolutely racist cartoon depiction. No way around it. Not to mention the obvious misogyny throughout his work. Genius my foot!
Brilliant artist, but to for him to acknowledge that this art can be viewed as hateful, insulting, racist, or offensive, and say " I get it, but as a white American I got to do it" is a terrible reason to do something that is hateful, insulting, racist or offensive.
I could understand if he said I did it because I am an artist, creator, visionary, anything, but to do something controversial because you are white, seems a bit, well stupid, as almost like you are saying that as long as you are white you can do hateful things, and its okay.
You're just talentless and envy him.
I think it can be explained by his uncompromising honesty, even if it makes him look bad, combined with the irony that suffuses virtually all of his work. In my view he often uses caricatures in a way that makes fun of them, takes away their negative power and influence. He will present something that is typically considered as racist or hateful and makes it look ridiculous and absurd. That is part of his genius.