Black and White By Jim Higo (2/3)

(1/3), (2/3), (3/3).

Until half way through the last century, the freak show was one of America's most popular pastimes (repulsive yes; but still more interesting than baseball). Crowds would flock to see the freaks (their word not mine) posing, posturing, shouting obscenities and telling bizarre unbelievable stories; apparently it was from this that the idea of a public gallery in the House of Commons originated.

In the 1950s a law was passed which made it illegal for freaks to earn a living by parading in front of people and performing in a peculiar manner and yet despite this Jacko was allowed to continue his career beyond the 1980s. Strangely the American Civil Rights Review considers this ban to be an infringement of individual liberties. By which I assume they mean the right to laugh at and take the piss out of those less fortunate, which I had always thought was something at which all Americans excelled. This group has a page dedicated to freak shows and I can't help but wonder if its works has not in some way influenced Jacko.

One piece ruing the demise of the freak show says Oh, to be young again, to be freakish and bizarre, to amaze the souls of men and to give to little boys with curious eyes an apparition of the weirdest confusions of the human form. Suddenly it all begins to fit and allegedly Jacko has got a distinguishing splotch on his weirdest confusion.

Michael Jackson's defence list reads like an A to Z (I insist on Zed) of; well it reads like and A to Z of his friends actually. Liz Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Quincy Jones, Jay Leno, Eddie Murphy, David Blaine and Macauley Culkin are just some of Michael's mates who are desperate to speak in his defence. This defence dream team says stacks about both American society and its flawed justice system. In what sort of world other than one obsessed with status and compelled by celebrity, would a jury hearing any case, let alone one of child abuse, be swayed in their views merely by some perceived and largely inexact iconicity?

What jury of sane people, (I'm making a big assumption here I know, but apparently they do have to be sane and also honest, of good character and intelligent, which is why none of the Bush family have ever been on a jury) could ever be swayed into believing that Jacko is normal by this bunch of oddballs:

David Blaine, once froze himself in a block of ice. Eddie Murphy, once played a professor who kept inflating. Macauley Culkin, no reason necessary, just look at him. Liz Taylor, a little too fond of the sauce. Quincy Jones, drove the Cannonball Express (or have I got that wrong?)

Personally I would have put more faith in the llama and the chimp, but maybe amid this entire celebrity clamour he's stumbled across a convincing ploy. Maybe he's got the ace card, perhaps he's found the only one who can honestly and genuinely stand in front of the jury and say with hand on heart that he never saw a thing; The defence calls Stevie Wonder. But as always in America the real absurdity lies in the selection of the jury. In legal circles they say that in Britain a trial begins when the jury is selected and in America it ends at that time.

The choosing of the jury is a bit like the picking of teams in the school playground with favouritism, petty prejudice and body mass all playing a part.

Continued Next Page (3/3),

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