Doc Nagel & I may disagree on any number of things-- the time of day, the hue of the sky, simple little things that normal human beings might take for granted-- but one thing we agree on is this: corporate America is crass.

I know that comes as a huge shock to all of our readers, but I'd like to offer it as something which is wholly true, although it may not cross your mind during the course of day to day events.

Of course I'm being sarcastic. But does it make my sarcasm less profound if I reveal it boldly? Which brings us to Jack in the Box.

I ate at a Jack in the Box once, in my early teens, while my family was living in Dallas, Texas. I had an opportunity to eat there a second time. You'll notice I say I ate there once. I had tacos, which tasted more or less like dog food. The second time I wasn't as brave. Of course, thast was in the late 70's, and clearly Jack in the Box must be doing something right, seeing as how after decades of being dismissed, cursed, referred to as Yack in the Box, & giving people e-coli infections, the brand has embarked on a remarkable cross-country expansion. Now, virtually anywhere you go, the ubiquitously un-box-like, barrell-vaulted, standing-seamed-metal-roofed stores are within arm's reach to the hungry consumer. Whatever sins Jack in the Box may have commited against the American consumer, it would seem they have been largely, not to say mysteriously, forgiven.

Then there are the commercials.

The evidence seems fairly strong that Americans respond strongly to humor in advertising. Which is to say we like the funny ads, even if we don't buy the products they represent. When the ads first started showing up in my hometown market, touting the brand's arrival in the area by showing the styro-foam-headed president & CEO visiting locals at local landmarks, they demonstrated that the corporation, collectively, knew absolutely nothing about Charlotte. On the other hand, one spot was funny, for a very specific reason: in one of the segments, Jack sounded almost exactly like Doc Nagel. (It helped that this was the scene in which Mr. the Box was being arrested by a police officer while protesting "I'm Jack! I'm the president of Jack in the Box!" Which is why, I reckon, they were arresting him.)

(The French for Jack in the Box is "Jacques dans la boite," which, as many things translated into French do, sounds like a pervese yet intriguing sexual practice.)

Some of the other commercials have offered snippets of humor. Jack stalking off after being pressured by his family into flying 600 miles for a bagful of breakfast sandwiches. Jack playing ball with his styro-foam-headed kid, who keeps asking if they are different from other people, wiping away a cartoon tear when the kid insists that the are different by flogging part of the product line. But the ads haven't really been consistently funny.

That brings us to the Post September 11th ads. And it brings us there with one of the thorniest questions of all: is this funny? Or is it just crass? On the one hand, it's cruelty humor at it's finest: although the ads don't specifically reference the terrorist attacks, the inference is clear: everything hasn't changed after September 11th. For most of us, the biggest challenge we're likely to face as Americans is choosing where to buy a hamburger. Kinda puts things in perspective. On the other hand, if this is "the best darned country on earth" because we can rely on Jack in the Box' 99 cent value menu to get us through these dark times, how proud should we be to be Americans?

Doc Nagel hates the commercial, thinks it's crass. I like it, if nothing else than sheerly as an antidote for the rest of the crass commercialization of the horrid events of September 11th. There's a self-effacing quality to it that I think we deserve.

No bowing Clydesdales, no trucks for firefighters, no symbolic 0% interest for all of us proud Americans. Just a gently sarcastic tone that reminds us that, American or no, we're all just people, and we really should just get on with our guitar-wailing, tree-hugging, chain-sawing, allowance-earing, freedom-loving lives. It's perverse. It's bloody-minded. It's contrary to what our government wants us to be thinking, hearing, & saying. And it's wholly appropriate. For my money, it's funny as hell.