O'Reilly and Tarantino Ain't All Right

May 21 2004
Counterbias.com
Robert Furs
I R R E V E R A N T   I N S A N I T Y

Big-time on-screen personalities and their eccentricities are just a part of life for the television-viewing public.

Verbal tics not only espouse the character of celebrities, but they determine character in themselves. Whichever way you look at it, Bill O’Reilly and Quentin Tarantino are two of the most abrasively acerbic talkers in celebrity history.

Two men from different walks of life (Tarantino grew up poor, while O’Reilly grew up rich while now claiming to have grown up poor), both frequently utilize a certain figure of speech—a verbal tic, if you will—quite often. Too often, some would say.

All right?

Tarantino’s “all right” is an obnoxious, self-important, whiny kind of all right, seemingly connected and essential to Tarantino’s eccentric personality. One wouldn’t recognize the man if it weren’t for the “all right” penetrating his every thought. The same goes for his regular use of the nervous, unsure phrase, “you know?”

In an interview with Charlie Rose, Tarantino said this: “The only difference is I had kind of this like weird tunnel vision, where it's like once I got into it, I didn't have room for anything else, all right, you know, as a kid. And it was like- and it actually even reflected in my schoolwork, you know.” One ‘all right’, two ‘you know’, in one sentence.

Like, all right, you know?

In that 1994 interview, upon our search of the transcript, Tarantino said “all right” 139 times—one-hundred-and-thirty-nine times! —Within an hour-long interview! Most of his sentences contained at least one instance of the phrase, whereas some even contained two.

“All right. I mean, the, the bottom line is, all right, my story line jumps all over the place”, said Quentin. As do your all-right’s, Quentin.

“All right, that's like, it's, it's a mistake, all right”. Okay, all right, Quentin.

“All right, and it's also very personal, all right.” All right, damn!

Still, I can’t hate. That’s Quentin. It’s who he is. Movies like Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs would’ve never been made if it weren’t for Tarantino’s eccentricity, and these verbal tics are an existing component of that.

Then there’s our other good friend, Bill O’Reilly, pompous right-wing blowhard who happens to be a columnist, writer, radio host, and television pundit.

Now, Bill is not a likeable guy in the least. Which separates him from Tarantino (that is, if anyone likes Tarantino, whereas it is assuredly so that not a soul in the world is fond of O’Reilly as a human being).

O’Reilly’s brand of “all right?” is a demanding, overbearing, unfriendly type of “all right”. Perfectly suitable for his bland, scripted personality on his show, The O’Reilly Factor, his “all right” is thrown in as an afterthought. It’s as if his bosses, Roger Ailes, the White House and the Republican National Committee, scripted it into his robo-personality. O’Reilly’s “all right” is a harsh, condescending one, so free of humanity and sensitivity, that it wouldn’t be surprising if it were the first thing one heard upon entering the Gates of Hell.

"All right, that's your opinion!" O’Reilly barrels, when a guest mentions Israel's 'illegal settlements'.

In an interview with the author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use, O'Reilly demanded: “Hey, Mr. Sullum, this is a discussion, all right. You let me get my points in. I'll let you get yours in, all right.” (A study showed that O’Reilly talked as much or more than his interviewee in this particular “interview”!)

When push comes to shove, O’Reilly and Tarantino both engage in the nasty habit of having one of the most obnoxious, irritating verbal habits on the public stage. But, to drift into sensitive liberal acceptance, their tic is a part of who they are.

Fortunately, Tarantino is the man behind the scenes, conducting his orchestra of cinematic art. His vexatious verbalism only serves to help reinforce artistic creativity and eccentricity amongst his acting and directing team.

O’Reilly happens to be a television pundit, where the most annoying part of his onscreen presence (never mind the deadened look or the extreme bias) is his manner of speech, important for a TV talking head. O’Reilly’s program is still top rated—and Tarantino is one of the most widely hailed directors alive, still making television appearances—so one is led to wonder, maybe people just like eccentrics with abrasive personalities?

Or maybe I’m giving verbal tics too much credit on how they affect the image of public personas. Either way, these two men—or better yet, just O’Reilly—need speech therapy of some sort.

I’m not trying to be harsh, but that’s just the way it is, all right?