Lane and Irwin in “Waiting for Godot”
My friend Rachel Kranz alerted me to this fabulous Stephen Colbert satire of CNN’s obsession with the disappearance of Malaysian Flight 370. What raises this fine skit to an exceptional level is the way it concludes with a parody of Waiting for Godot.
In Beckett’s play, Vladimir and Estragon are awaiting the appearance of Godot, who never arrives. In the Colbert skit, he is awaiting a final explanation of what has happened to the airline. As in the play, there are constant teasers as correspondents breathlessly dissect every word coming out of the Malaysian ministry and, when they don’t have anything, they fill the interval with (as Colbert puts it) “WORDS.” In Becket’s play, of course, Godot never arrives, Neither does God nor meaning nor clarifying vision nor whatever else Godot may signify. In Beckett’s absurdist vision, we feed upon hope and are always disappointed. A characteristic interchange between Vladimir and Estragon in the play is the following:
Let’s go.
We can’t.
Why not?
We’re waiting for Godot.
When the latest report from the Malaysian ministry comes up short, Colbert informs us that “we should probably leave this story now but can’t because we are awaiting some actual news from our correspondent Mr. Godot.” Colbert is then informed by a boy messenger such as the one that appears in the play that Mr. Godot will not be reporting this evening but that he will be reporting tomorrow. “Without fail?” Colbert asks, quoting from the play and then, gazing with a stricken look at the camera and borrowing from and riffing on the play:
Christ have mercy on us.
I can’t take this anymore.
Shall we go to another story?
Yes, let’s go.
Here’s how the play ends:
Vladimir: Well? Shall we go?
Estragon: Yes, let’s go
They do not move.
To be sure, some day CNN will move to another story. But will the media ever move on from their never-ending assurances to us that (to quote Yeats) “surely some revelation is at hand?”
You think not?
Christ have mercy on us.
