Other bloggers and posters on the caveman

Found a guy Ron Rosenbaum who is way ahead of me analyzing the caveman. Says the caveman is "perhaps the most enigmatic character on tv now. " Rosenbaum has attracted 70-plus comments to his online article about why he thinks the therapist commercial takes the caveman in the wrong direction: http://ronrosenbaum.pajamasmedia.com/2007/01/26/the_geico_caveman_finally_jump.php

Here's a quote from Rosenbaum:

But I may be the first I’ve seen to say that—with the new “therapist” ad—the Caveman campaign has “jumped the shark” (I know saying something has “jumped the shark”—made a telling failed leap for innovation that betrays its lost freshness— has itself jumped the shark).
But here’s my theory about why the “therapist” ad jumped the shark:I think we like the mystique of the cavemen, the ridiculous premise carried to absurdly realistic lengths. That’s why the banality of the squash racket carrying airport ad was important. It’s triviality highlighted the exquisite silliness of the whole thing.
But the therapist ad suddenly reduces the provocative absurdity, the mystery of it all to tired Woody Allen schtick. The caveman is whining to his therapist about why the Geico caveman slogan bothers him so much.
Then his cell phone rings. “It’s my mother, I’ll put her on speaker”, he says. Sorry, it just doesn’t cut it. It’s more Seinfeld than Kafka.
It’s not too late to save the caveman series, but I think it’s time for a strategy session at the ad agency."

Hmmmmmmmm.
Here's what someone commented on Rosenbaum's site:

"The ads come out of the Martin Agency here in beautiful Richmond, VA. As a result, the whole GEICO campaign is frequently discussed in the local media, and I think I've read that the caveman series is meant to end after just one more ad.
In one interview, one of the creative guys behind the series said something like, "Intead of being frozen in some distant, prehistoric past, they're stuck in 1986." (I loved that.)"

And another:

You passed over a detail that I have always found amusing, and that's the contrast in clothing between the two "cavemen".
The "Roast Duck" guy is dressed like an Italian lounge lizard grabbing a poolside lunch on St. Tropez: $400 D&G sunglasses perched precisely so on top of his head, and wearing a one button white Gucci blazer with possibly an extra button undone, and is just slightly slouched in his chair in a delightfully Euro-trash sore of way.
Of course he finds the "so-1998" cuisine beneath him - he finds a good deal of the world bourgeois anyway.
The other guy is wearing a JC Penney short sleeved white shirt. He'so unstylish it doesn't even register. He's a geek.
The other fascinating aspect of all of this - to me, anyway - is that while the lounge lizard delivers the iconic line, one which has permeated the culture to an unbelieveable degree, he is not the character who GEICO uses to carry the campaign forward.
This is the first and only time we see him."
I added a comment that the caveman has turned into Borat by the time we get to therapist commercial; he's doing his schtick for our benefit -- the therapist is the straight guy/rube.

(Photo is Rte. 9 mannequin by Tom Devine.)

Is the caveman married?

The question goes to the heart of who we take the caveman to be. Readers, I invite -- no, beg, you, to post a description of the caveman (his likely hobbies, politics, personality etc.) according to you in the comment section. Or send me an email at mary.carey@att.net and I'll post it. Remember, this isn't totally frivolous. It's like a Rorschach test, and if a few people get in a discussion it can reveal some of our personal assumptions and prejudices.

I think he is not married, although he could just as easily be married -- to a tolerant, forward-looking woman who doesn't worry too much about what other people think of the way her spouse looks.

It's pretty clear he's a sound technician, maybe someone in a job where eating lunch in swanky restaurants, traveling via air and occasionally getting asked to be a guest on a talk show would be all in a day's work. (Not MY day's work, mind you. Swanky restaurants never come into it!) Could be, he's NOT a white collar worker but finds himself in these situations as a caveman spokesman.

I see him getting less likely to become emotional when he confronts or talks about the discrimination cavemen face. He gets it that getting too bent out of shape the way he does when he's interviewed on TV doesn't serve him well -- which is why he is more contained at the therapist's.

Aren't we all a little misunderstood?

Ok, I'll take on the question (since no one else has stepped up to the plate, here) of whether we are laughing at "people's struggles against ignorance and bigotry" and thereby legitimizing oppression, as a poster on the Geico caveman to another blog recently observed.

I guess it depends what you, personally, are laughing at. Here's why I think I get a kick out of the caveman (whether his personality is pretty much the same in all of the commercials or whether the commercials trace some kind of development or change is a subject for another discussion.) Let's take the therapist commercial. He's sick of people not getting it that he is an intelligent white collar kind of guy. So he goes to a therapist, because that is what it is recommended that you do if you have some kind of psychological malaise. As is sometimes or often the case, though, the therapist can't help much, whether because he or she doesn't get you either or because no one can help you that much with what's ailing you anyways.

Or maybe talking to the therapist IS helping, even if it's not apparent at the time. So the caveman bears with it; he's going through the motions like he usually does, because he's generally misunderstood. Then his mother calls. She presumably loves him -- here she is calling in the middle of the day, which it probably is -- but she doesn't quite get him either. Whatever. He'll just put her on speaker phone. It's par for the course for him, being surrounded by people who just can't relate.

I think we laugh, because we identify with him. We're not laughing at him because we think he's beneath us. If we're laughing at anyone, it's a the therapist, who apparently is not so sharp. (Photo is noirish Bill Clinton in drag.)

Is the caveman commercial a slur on somebody?

Hi, again. Thanks for coming over. A question to consider: is there a dark implication to liking the Geico caveman commercials? Here's what one Joey Newton posted at the excellent American Copywriter blog: Joey Newton November 22, 2006 at 10:51 PM
"Face it, the commercial provides a safe outlet for you racist, bigoted freaks to laugh at people complaining about prejudice. Most of you would not dare laugh in public at a black person's objection to the "N word," but you can safely laugh at the caveman's silly "PC" objections. There's nothing funny about people's struggles against ignorance and bigotry. Laughing at those struggles legitimizes oppression. You ought to be ashamed."

What do YOU think?

Lots of other angles of inquiry for future posts.

Will also investigate the cute Geico gekko (see photo) and report back.