Meme,re: Dennis Miller...
I just love his obscure-reference analogies. He's got a brain like a bear trap. It's one thing to know all those facts, and it's another to connect them in creative ways.
Well, I admit they can be engaging, but his setups can be so belabored they vitiate the humor.
Have you ever watched The Invisible Man on the Sci-Fi Channel? (Being a state employee myself, I enjoy it for the digs at government bureaucracy -- I mean, the heroes were getting paid under the aegis of the Department of Fish & Wildlife, until they got 'upgraded' to the Bureau of Weights and Measures, ya gotta love that!) It usually begins with the main character quoting some notable or citing some situation that validates his sardonic take on the proceedings.
Now, that's a proper setup. And most of the time, I get Miller's references, and I can appreciate that he's trying to aim for the cerebrum of the audience and not it's crotch.
But, a bit too often, Miller comes across like he's trying to be the Ezra Pound of popular comedy, and I don't think the reader should be required to literally know Greek in order to appreciate poetry. I've been known to write some rather allusory poetry myself, but I don't require the reader to get all the allusions in order to grasp the point of the poem.