Okay, I'll admit--sometimes the batshit crazy is kind of fun after all...

I'm one of those people who complains at times about the low quality of political discourse in our times. Instead of candidates getting up in front of the people and explaining their ideas, we're reduced to cycles of meaningless and dishonest attack ads; I realize, of course, that this is a situation that goes back at least a half-century and that my longing for meaningful debate is probably based on over-romanticizing the Lincoln-Douglas debates, still--

Then again, this is fucking awesome:

This is so awesome, I didn't believe it was a real ad when I saw it at The Onion A/V Club today, paired with the semi-infamous Carly Fiorina Pink Floyd fan video "FCINO" attack ad she's using in her Senate campaign. I didn't necessarily think it was a creation of The Onion itself--while The Onion is satirical, the A/V Club is the humor site's slightly-more-serious arts-and-culture-focused sibling; no, I suspected it was somebody's idea of what an attack ad might look like on some kind of mind-altering substance (possibly something as innocuous as whippits).

But it's not! TPM confirms, through their sources, that the horrorshow video is in fact a real ad for New Orleans Parrish Coroner's candidate Dr. Dwight McKenna that's been airing on New Orleans TV. The ad evidently references a scandal involving incumbent Dr. Frank Minyard, in which Minyard's office was accused in the 1990s of removing decedents' corneas and bone specimens and donating them for transplant without permission of the decedents' families. I'm not clear on the status of the suit--it sounds like maybe a codefendant settled and claims were dropped against the coroner's office; also unclear is whether Dr. Minyard has a disabled eastern-European deputy coroner on staff named "Igor" or "Ygor."

I cannot possibly say that Dr. McKenna's ad isn't toxic politicking--it's salacious, scandalous, apparently misrepresents facts, caters to irrational fears and prejudices, and fails to present a positive image for its candidate... well, okay, I may have to retract that one, since I suppose, "Hey, at least I'm not some kind of crazy body-snatching maniac!" probably counts as a positive message. Sort of. (Although, technically, I must point out that Dr. McKenna's ad doesn't actually say that he isn't a body-snatching maniac who will auction off New Orleans' dead; it's possible that what he means by "Say no to Dr. Minyard" is that he'll pay the coroner's office power bill.) But... how can I resist the sheer gonzo craziness of the thing?

I reluctantly must applaud Dr. McKenna: you may be doing your part to drag American politics into the gutters, sir, but at least you made it an entertaining crawl.