R.I.P. Chuck Barris

Many people are labeled futurists, but Chuck Barris was one of the only legitimate futurists we’ve ever known. He had a keen ability to tap into people’s basest desires and turn it into entertainment. Now he’s dead. He saw that coming.

Barris began his career as a songwriter, penning the hit tune “Palisades Park” for Freddy Cannon in 1962. Three years later, he would form Chuck Barris Productions and unleash The Dating Game on the world. Casual sex was so commonplace before AIDS that they had TV shows promoting it. Don’t forget the chaperones. We won’t. We fucked them too. Millennials and their sexual fluidity rhetorical debates have no idea.

Most people remember Barris iconically for hosting The Gong Show. That you could host an overtly crappy talent show while high as a kite dancing to ebullient horns was quintessential 70’s. Grownups used to be fun. They also took uppers. Now it’s all about suppressing feelings save those expended in partisan Twitter battles. Don’t cry for the loss of Chuck Barris. Lament the loss of what he represented. White guys in their 40’s wearing pimp hats and getting down. That will never come around again.