Monticello has announced that comedienne Tracey Ullman will be the featured speaker at its annual naturalization ceremony on July 4. Those hoping for her dead-on impersonations of Arianna Huffington, David Beckham or Rachel Maddow, or perhaps, more crudely, her version of Suzanne Somers hawking the “Vagisizer” on an infomercial, or Laura Bush anticipating life back on the ranch (“George can sleep 20 hours a day instead of his 16 and catch up on needed rest”), will likely have to wait.
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Who understands America better than Tracey Ullman, the comic genius that gave “The Simpsons” its start? An American citizen since 2006, she’ll share her insights at the Monticello swearing-in ceremony on July 4. |
Ullman became a naturalized citizen in 2006, in order to be able to vote, after 25 years of living in the United States. And, as C-VILLE TV critic Eric Rezsnyak notes, her greatest genius lies in her ability to see everyday Americans with uncanny perception and then exaggerate our mannerisms until we see ourselves. In other words, expect in her speech something lively, affectionate, and comparatively straightforward.
As Monticello’s speaker, on a day that will see scores of new Americans take the oath of citizenship, Ullman joins a long list of naturalization ceremony speakers from the arts and politics. They include Madeleine Albright, Andrew Young, I.M. Pei, and, two years ago to mild protest, President George W. Bush.
Ullman, star of “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union,” is not the first TV star to take the podium. Sam Waterston (ba-buh, buh buh buh buh buh) spoke at Monticello in 2007. But she’s the first with a direct link to “The Simpsons,” another cultural touchstone that skewers everything that makes America maddening and great. (“The Simpsons” first aired as an entr’acte on Ullman’s Fox program “The Tracey Ullman Show”). As Rezsnyak says, “while she mocks Americans for our indulgences and borderline grotesqueness, she really loves this country, probably more than many people who were born here.”
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