I've been listening to Serial Millions have been listening with me They know when I say I've been listening to Serial I don't mean Rice Krispies (Snap crackle pop) I mean the podcast that's got me Caught like a bass on a line that a rod cast (Hooked!) Good way to get your pod on All the kids at Woodlawn Hae and Adnan Jay and Don and Asia McClain and the gang I'm so dang entertained Although I do feel an occasional pang When I think about Hae's homicide And the anguish and pain that it's caused For the Lee family and the Syeds Real live human persons Who've endured such bruising and hurt While for me it's just been an amusing diversion
But I've been listening to Serial Really getting into it Even when the sheer amount of detail I'm getting regaled with Makes me rewind in 15-second increments And I wonder just how much I should trust our host Sarah Koenig Sometimes my suspicions that the whole thang's rigged And that she's phony as a toupee wig grow yay big How far ahead of us has she been? Did she really not know how it finishes? Is she a sinister yarn-spinner Cynically stringing us along just to keep us interested? There was one particular time When I thought “Yeah, she's messing with my mind” Listen for yourself It's 9 minutes and 40 seconds into Episode 9 Sarah says:
“Can we all agree that whatever happened to Hae probably didn't involve a 236 PM call from that phone booth?...I don't know about you, but I'm done considering that it's true.”
“Can we all agree” That there was no call from that phone booth? How could I disagree with the facts YOU fed me? I'm not the homicide sleuth And, “You don't know about me?” Please. I see through your ruse I get what you're doin' You're trying to make me think That I arrived on my own at YOUR conclusion
Pretty manipulative And I'm not gonna let it slip through, Koenig Of skepticism, I am clearly full... I've been listening to Serial
And then my friend Kamau has a whole different point I'll let him say this in his own voice His take is as follows: “Serial's kinda racist!” These are people of color But Sarah mostly rejects racial discussions Which, Kamau says, you absolutely can't do When you talk about criminal justice He believes that there are questions Sarah would take more care to present If she were other than white And definitely if she were of Arab descent And then there's just this anthropological feel That Kamau describes As a “'Went-to-a-liberal-college- But-don't-have-non-white friends' NPR-ish vibe." Critiques of this kind Would never have entered my mind, I concede But I went online and indeed There's a whole lot more on there you can find and read Ignorance was bliss Knowing all this? Kind of a bummer Like, can I still laugh at the dude in the ad Who sounds like Strong Bad from Homestar Runner?
I've been listening to Serial It's a complicated thing to engage with And like the show, this rap is nearly through So I should come up with a closing statement Some way to sum it all up That feels real confident and seems strong But I gotta be honest I wrote this in large part Cause I wanted to spit over the theme song So I may not finish things off In a tidy, clever, conclusive way But the season might not end like that either Before Thursday, who's to say? Maybe we'll get some answers Or maybe we never really'll No matter what, we're gonna find out Next time....on Serial