Ken's Blog

By the time he appeared on SNL, Steve Martin had been around for a while. For example, in 1968, as one of the writers for The Smothers Brothers Show, he had occasionally shown up on TV doing his own material. But back then the world wasn’t quite ready for him yet.

So he had eight more years to hone and perfect his act. By the time he burst on the scene on SNL in 1976, seemingly fully formed, the world itself had changed.

People were tired of the constant culture wars, and they needed a break. What Martin did in that moment was so pioneering that our culture largely lives in the world that he created.

His act essentially deconstructed the very idea of a comedy act, turning in upon itself. He used the absurdity of a performer being up on stage creating a “persona” as his very source material.

And the important part is that he made it fun. We are now so used to accepting this sort of meta-awareness in performance that it can be hard to remember that someone actually had to invent it.

And in doing so, he gave all of us grownups permission to act like silly little kids again. And for that, we should be eternally grateful.

The 1960s were a time when everything in America meant something, including comedy. Behind every ostensibly silly act of comedy lurked serious intent.

By the early 1970s the American culture was aflame with heated culture wars over Vietnam, civil rights, Nixon and more. In the resulting general air of mistrust, comedy was suffused with undertones of rebellion against the Establishment.

Young people looked toward comics who spoke to this general feeling of wary malaise, from Lenny Bruce through George Carlin. Even comedy of the absurd, such as Firesign Theater, conveyed an underlying spirit of rebellion.

And then, on October 23, 1976, Steve Martin showed up on Saturday Night Live. More tomorrow.

I can’t quite wrap my head around how to locate Christmas in American culture. It seems to have two completely different meanings.

As far as I can tell, the two meanings of Christmas are only tenuously connected with one another, at best. In my head I have started to think of these two meanings as “Jesus Day” and “Santa Day”.

Jesus Day is an important Christian day of religious observance, celebrating the birth of Jesus. In that sense it is, for many millions of people, a highly solemn and spiritual occasion.

In startling contrast, Santa Day is a time when America is gripped by a kind of feverish need to be jolly. Catchy songs play round the clock in shopping malls and airports, people dress up like Santa Claus or one of his elves, and lots of people drink way too much.

In addition, retail outlets do a huge chunk of their yearly business around Santa Day. Without Santa Day, the American economy would be much the poorer.

Non-Christians have no real connection to Jesus Day, but everyone in America seems to be involved in Santa Day. I’ve seen Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and Athiests all wish people a “Merry Christmas”. Everybody understands that they are talking about Santa Day, not Jesus Day.

When I am in extended reality, and you are in extended reality, how do we know we are in the same extended reality? Eventually this will become an issue as socially shared XR becomes ever more common.

I think we will develop an idea of guided tours. If you and I are in the same physical space, I might invite you to share my XR version of that space.

I can then show you virtual furniture, maps, ideas, works of art, organization charts, or pretty much anything of shared interest. When I switch to a different virtual overlay upon our real world, you will automatically follow me there.

In practice, people will likely take turns being the one to give the guided tour. Just like story telling, but visual and immersive.

Today I built a skylight for my apartment. The good news is that when I am home I can see blue skies and sunlight overhead, even though I am only on the third floor of a five story apartment building. The bad news is that I can only see my lovely skylight when I am wearing my Quest 3.

On the other hand, my skylight is portable. If I go on vacation, I can take it with me, and attach it to the ceiling of my hotel room. Also, at any moment I can choose what kind of sky I want to see — day or night, stormy or clear.

The magic glasses definitely still need to get smaller. But when they do, I could really get used to this.

Yesterday morning one of my students remarked that the video passthrough on the Quest 3 is almost as good as reality. I responded that one day soon, one of its descendants would give you vision that is better than reality.

You will be able to see colors that you cannot see with your own eyes. You might be able to look through a wall and see what is in the next room over. You will be able to see the bus you that want to catch from three blocks away.

When I said this, I thought I was talking about the future. But then at a dimly lit restaurant last night, I realized that the only way I could read the menu was by taking out my phone, turning on the camera, and zooming in. When I did that, the text was clear and bright and easy to read.

And it occurred to me that in a few years I won’t even need to take out my phone. Any small or dim text will be easy to read as long as I am wearing my smart glasses. And as an added bonus, my glasses will let me read text written in any language.

I wasn’t planning on making diagrams in the air so soon. It was a stretch goal — one that I thought would take a while to accomplish.

I had a general plan to devote some time in the next few months building support software. And then I’d be able to teach algorithms by displaying interactive diagrams in extended reality (XR).

But then today I needed to work through a geometry problem to help me build something in XR. So this afternoon I found myself creating multicolored points and axes and lines of intersection, all conveniently floating right above my desk when I put on my Quest 3 headset.

This approach turned out to be the easiest way to work through the problem that I was tackling. And at some point I realized that I was making diagrams in the air.

My vote for the most meta of all meta movie moments is in the otherwise forgettable 1963 Jimmy Stewart comedy Take Her She’s Mine. The film is a comedy that isn’t all the funny, and it did not succeed at the box office.

But it has one transcendently meta moment. During a wild chase scene on a cruise ship, while Jimmy Stewart’s character is trying to avoid being seen, he suddenly finds himself being chased by a group of Japanese men with cameras.

They are all excitedly shouting “Jimmy Stewart! Jimmy Stewart!” and chasing him around the ship. Unlike everyone else in the movie, they are somehow able to see him not as the fictional character he is playing, but as his real world self.

I can’t think of a single scene in any other movie that smashes the fourth wall with such a shameless sense of triumph.

If you’re looking for a highly meta moment in a movie, there are many candidates to choose from. Julia Roberts in Ocean’s 11 as a woman whose claim to fame is that she looks like Julia Roberts, fawning over Bruce Willis because he’s a real movie star.

The main characters in Blazing Saddles riding from the old West into a movie set, while one of the characters stops into a movie theater to watch the movie Blazing Saddles.

I could go on and on — there are so many examples to choose from. But what is the most meta of meta movie moments?

More tomorrow.

Sometimes filmmakers will blur the line between the fictional world of the movie you are watching and the actual reality surrounding the creation of that movie world. I think of these as meta movie moments.

I am sure you can think of many examples. I’ve been thinking about this recently, and have been wondering, which is the most meta of all meta movie moments?

There are so many great candidates to choose from, but I think I have it narrowed down. More tomorrow.