After his amazing performance last week in the U.S. Women’s Open, we decided to catch up with Momus, the Greek god of irony, about one of his biggest achievements since getting Somalia on the UN Human Rights Council.
Jason: You have lots of opportunities in the current socio-political environment. What drew you to this one in particular?
Momus: Well, I’m a big golf fan, obviously, and when I heard Hank’s comments about the winner of the U.S. Women’s Open probably being some Koren woman named Lee, it just seemed like an ideal opportunity for me. A hanging curve ball, if you don’t mind mixing sports metaphors.
Jason: Mix away, Mo-Mo.
Momus: Don’t call me that. I knew there’d be a huge blowup about the dismissiveness of Hank’s remarks, plus you’ve got the race angle and the sex angle, thanks to the socio-politico-whatever you were talking about earlier.
Jason: It was a dangling knuckleball.
Momus: Hanging curve ball. Anyways, the freak-out was exactly what you’d expect, even though a) it was a joke, and b) the thrust of his statement was essentially accurate, in that there are a disproportionate number of successful Korean female golfers, and relatively speaking, nobody cares.
So after a few days of all that, what could I do other than make sure the winner was a Korean named Lee? And not just any player named Lee, but a player who calls herself Jeongeun Lee6, because there were already so many “Jeongeun Lee”s from Korea playing golf. Not Jeongeun Lee1 or Jeongeun Lee2, but Jeongeun Lee6. Six! (Laughs for ten straight minutes, through several coughing fits.)
Jason: (after pounding Momus vigorously on the back) Does it bother you that, even now, people aren’t picking up on the irony of the whole situation?
Momus: Oh, no, are you kidding? Nobody notices my work anymore. It doesn’t even bother me now. I just know that I’m doing some of the best work of my entire career right now. I don’t care whether people understand it or not.
Jason: Well, on a related note, what’s the status of the most recent restraining order filed against you by Alanis Morissette?
Momus: This interview is over.