But there are taboos and there are taboos. NBC and Conan O’Brien both apologized for airing a bit in which Miss Silverman considers the possibility of using racist sentiment to disqualify herself for an unwanted stint of jury duty by proclaiming, “I hate chinks.” Not wanting to be thought of as a racist, she instead proclaims, “I love chinks — who doesn’t?” If that was a step too far for the gentle souls at NBC, consider that that was the toned-down version; the original contained a slur directed at blacks rather than Asians.So, I don't know -- she didn't say "nigger," so it wasn't funny? I don't get it. Well, kulturkampf, like comedy, is highly subjective, I guess.
Also, Silverman is in fact not really Jewish, because she went to an expensive school:
Miss Silverman is a kind of cultural appropriator, too, a native of New Hampshire and a graduate of the Derryfield School (this year’s tuition: $28,535) who constructed for herself a super-Jewish dramatis persona and practices a kind of postmodern Borscht Belt comedy heavy on Jewish ethnic humor.I wonder if Williamson's seen how gentrified the Lower East Side has gotten -- oh, Christ, don't tell him, he may write another column. Where were we? Oh yeah: Silverman gave a TED talk and "the audience was less than impressed." Too bad they couldn't have booked Kevin D. Williamson for a comedy clinic instead. (Check this out, Chris Anderson: "Freud’s triune description of the human personality may be useless as a model of the mind, but it works as a method of classifying comedians." Is that Oh Wow or what?)
Oh, and guess whose name appears six times in this essay? No, it's not Molly Picon:
Barack Obama is a fan — it is not mere cultural accident that their careers are contemporaneous...
It is only natural... that one of the more significant evangelists for Barack Obama and Obamaism would be a woman who starred in a faux French New Wave film called Féte des Pets (Fart Party)...
...she has been as slavish a devotee of the Democratic cause generally and the cause of Barack Obama in particular...
She makes get-out-the-vote videos that are in practice get-out-the-vote-for-Obama videos...
...Sarah Silverman, whose politics are as crass as her sense of humor, is a perfect cultural fit for the Age of Obama.That's what we show folk call "giving 'em what they want." Sure, let him write about whatever makes him mad, just make sure it has plenty of Obama!
There are many nuggets of nonsense in the thing ("her career has been made possible by the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographer’s"), but all you really need to know is 1.) Williamson is the doofus who got mad at a lady who was using a phone in a theater and grabbed the phone and threw it, and 2.) the story is front-paged at National Review Online as "Infantile Sarah" (subhed: "A comedian for the age of Obama").
UPDATE. Jay B relates in comments that the "I love chinks" bit was performed back in 2001. Barack "Age Of" Obama and his comedy courtesan are playing a very long game indeed!
UPDATE 2. In comments also, Dr. Bethany Spencer, L.GM.: "Oh, I get it. This is one of those formulaic wingnut posts where the author lists a few things he doesn’t like then says 'because Obama' or 'because feminists' or 'because liberals.'" I believe Dr. Spencer has cracked the code.
her career has been made possible by the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographer’s
ReplyDeleteMe and Sarah both. I worked for the postal service.
Oh, and guess whose name appears six times in this essay?
ReplyDeleteHmm, without clicking the link, I'm gonna go with "Molly Picon."
No, it's not Molly Picon
... Well, shit.
She makes get-out-the-vote videos that are in practice get-out-the-vote-for-Obama videos...
ReplyDeleteHeavens! [GROPES FOR SMELLING SALTS VIAL] A partisan.
Okay, so this is not the first time I've seen this, so I'm wondering where the wingnut-o-sphere got the idea that SS is some kind of rabid Obama booster. I mean, "The Great Schlep" was really funny, but that was five fucking years ago and I haven't seen anything else from her since then that would qualify.
ReplyDeleteBut more broadly, I'm sure Silverman finds it gratifying when these idiots fall over themselves to explain why what she doesn't isn't actually comedy, because that's kind of the fucking point?
Kevin fucking Williamson complaining about cultural appropriation. I don't think words mean things any more. I'm going to go chunky yellow my parsimony circumplex now.
ReplyDeleteThank god someone named Kevin Williamson came along to explain who is and isn't authentically Jewish. I wasn't sure whether my upbringing qualified me and it's kind of a relief to know it doesn't.
ReplyDeleteher career has been made possible by the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographer’s
ReplyDeleteUh huh. I've got three names for this jackoff:
Adam Carolla
Ted Nugent
Jeff Foxworthy
They were Romney supporters whose careers were made possible by the same corrosive forces that enable, respectively, the angry white misogynist, the crazy white misogynist, and the self-satisfied white hillbilly. Their careers are "perfect" reflections of the age of Romney: anti-intellectual males who demean women, use violent rhetoric towards politicians, and celebrate their own piggishness.
As a bonus, lets throw in Romney supporters Jenna Jameson and Stacey Dash, whose careers WERE actually enabled by pornographers.
Kevindy Williamson constructed for himself the dramatis persona of a pirate bottom, and practices a kind of writing heavy on wingnut whining.
ReplyDeleteI suspect he's waiting for Goldberg to keel over so he can assume Goldberg's position.
I just cannot understand why young people aren't conservatives. It sounds like SO much fun!
ReplyDeleteAnalysis, Mr. Spock.
ReplyDeletethe relief theory of humor holds that laughter is a cathartic release of built-up anxiety
That's sufficient for now. Continue monitoring communications.
"her career has been made possible by the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographer’s"
ReplyDeleteIs he a professional moral scold or is this volunteer work?
So Sarah Silverman did not exist during the Bush administration, but sprung fully formed January, 2009. You learn so much at NR.
ReplyDeleteMan, Libertarian mash notes are just so weird.
ReplyDeleteBut let's be honest here. Sarah Palin is way, way funnier than Sara Silverman. Mainly because Palin reallly sells that "earnest" thing, which makes Palin, not Silverman, "Infantile Sarah," and "A Comedian (sic) for the age of Obama."
He's a writer for The National Review so the former does not preclude the latter.
ReplyDeleteSince Conan quite famously left NBC three years ago, I shudder to think when the segment actually aired. FINGER ON THE PULSE!
ReplyDeleteWhy, I believe this here World-Wide-Web is in every home today thanks to the corrosive force of pornography. If not for naked ladies, the Internet would still be a BBS where you could talk to an anonymous Al Gore at 3 a.m.
ReplyDeleteDid you catch Jackie Mason on the Sullivan show? Gave him the finger!
ReplyDeleteRemember she played a total moocher in "Wreck-it Ralph", living in a dump and stealing from the ruler, who installed himself Pinochet-style and restricted privileges to those who could afford them. How clear does it have to be?
ReplyDeleteAnd here it is, from a long 2003 piece in The Forward:
ReplyDelete"In July 2001, she told a joke on the talk show “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” that went like this: When Silverman received a jury-duty notice, she complained to a friend that she didn’t want to serve; the friend suggested she send back the form with something racist written on it, like “I hate chinks,” because surely she would be ruled out as a juror. Silverman’s reply? “I didn’t want them to think I was racist, but I did want to get out of jury duty, so I wrote, ‘I love chinks.’”
The Chinks bit is so old it may even have been during the Clinton years. It predates 9/11 anyway. So why isn't Sara a symbol of that time's reckless innocence? Or feckless absurdity? Or heckless turgidity, I don't know, whatever Williamson thinks the world used to be before the Democrats let Terror attack.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I should just let him be angry. I'll pipe down.
Hey, you don't get that wingnut welfare check for doing nothing. Dude's gotta produce.
ReplyDeleteCan I just say that it's hilarious for about ten different reasons that an NRO writer is complaining about 'cultural appropriation', not least of which is that if those stuffy old turds have caught up to that piece of overheated grad school wankery, it might finally be dying a well-deserved death?
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, what's left to say about someone thinking a pottymouth comedian who's been famous for about a decade is a perfect symbol of 'Obamaism'? I'd say I'm amazed these guys aren't still mad at George Carlin and Richard Pryor, but then I remember that they actually are.
Silverman gave a TED talk and "the audience was less than impressed.
ReplyDeleteIs anyone ever truly impressed by a TED talk, though? Seems like a place where you don't listen to others so much as wait for your own chance to talk.
I heard a good interview with her on Howard Stern where she related what it was like to finally meet Obama, and yeah, the girl can't be called a straight-up booster. She said the meeting was pretty fake, like clearly he had no idea who she was and some aid had briefed him on the way down the hall. It was a little deflating because she'd had this fantasy that of course he knew about her and had spent hours thinking of how much help she'd been to his campaign -- so she felt suddenly dumb to have had that fantasy. She said it surprised her that he talks "more black" in person, and he's a weird blend of charismatic and ordinary: "Here's the most powerful human being alive, and as he's standing next to me I noticed: he's about six-one." Finally he got to her in the greeting line. "Hello Sara, working on any new movies?" And she just outright panicked and said, "Yes, and I'm naked in this one!" He sort of placidly replied, "So, not one for the kids," and moved down the line. She said she was instantly super annoyed with herself, knowing that her mother was going to ask, "So what did you two talk about?"
ReplyDeleteIt was really more a story about observing the process of meeting a president and her own fail. It wasn't hagiography. [I heard this interview once, about a year ago -- quotes are as best as I recall.]
Thats actually pretty funny. Im still laughing 12 years later so i guess he can be outraged about it for the same amount of time.
ReplyDeleteThat reminds me of my favorite 'meeting Obama' story: The National, who performed at Obama rallies and actually sold branded t-shirts for him in '08, have met the president multiple times and every time he ends up looking confused because he had gotten the impression he was gonna be meeting members of The Washington Nationals.
ReplyDeleteGOTV is only valid if done in a completely non-partisan way. In fact, Democrats must actively attempt to register more Republican voters, else they sully the whole noble process.
ReplyDeleteRepublican GOTV may proceed as usual.
(i.e., enormous SUVs each transporting one white suburbanite at a time to their wondrously convenient polling place.)
Actually, now that I think of it, Republican GOTV is usually a photonegative of actual GOTV efforts: Keeping the wrong people (and you know who I mean) from voting.
I fell in love with Sarah Silverman from her guest shot on Star Trek Voyager.
ReplyDeleteDoes that make me Jonah Goldberg?
:-)
To be fair, it's actually a federal crime for them to sing their version of "The Rains of Castamere" near the president. So they're less memorable than they could be.
ReplyDeleteStacey Dash's career was enabled by Amy Heckerling, who is not a pornographer unless you're an overly strict Christian.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't ask me to look up how many episodes she was in because your job as full-time writer doesn't afford you the free time to google things.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'm saying is no, it does not.
obama obama obama? obama. obama, obama obama obama! obama obama obama obama; obama obama obama. obama obama, obama.
ReplyDeleteIsn't Larry the Cable Guy a big phony? I guess it's ok since he pretends to be one of them.
ReplyDeleteOh, I get it. This is one of those formulaic wingnut posts where the author lists a few things he doesn’t like then says “because Obama” or “because feminists” or “because liberals.”
ReplyDeleteWell, I blame the Republican congress for the Kardashians.
Jesus, I assumed she had tried to do the routine again. She has a bit on the backlash to that incident that's years old, now.
ReplyDeleteI'm waiting for the big reveal that Obama's father was actually Redd Foxx, or that Lenny Bruce was a close family friend and mentor.
ReplyDeleteYou're missing a lot of exclamation points. I hear the latest delivery was delayed because Typhoon Haiyan demolished the sweatshop where they're produced.
ReplyDeleteI've seen clips of that movie about a dozen times.
ReplyDeleteThe best part of Palin's routine is that she doesn't even realize she's doing a routine. Somewhere Andy Kaufman's shade is cackling madly.
ReplyDeleteThe worst part of her routine, of course, is her fans: they don't realize she's doing a routine either.
OK, that actually made me laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteHey, it's grammatically correct at least!
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buffalo_buffalo_WikiWorld.png
It should also be noted that Kevin Williamson is another one of those wingnuts who’s TERR.I.FIED of women and once penned a column praising the Romneys for bringing 5 boys into the world.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Williamson-on-Obama hatefuck, only Williamson doesn't swing that way. Not even in print. So he had to find a suitable female substitute that he would be willing to fuck, so that he declare himself too good for him. Her. Too good for her! Kevin Williamson is straight!
ReplyDeleteStinky liberals. Why can’t they have good taste in comedy? Why can’t they like that nice boy with the puppets, Jeff Dunham?
ReplyDeleteHeinlein (via Valentine Michael Smith) wrote that we laugh because we're Human, and it's the only thing that makes it stop hurting. Good a theory as any, I guess...
ReplyDelete"Violate the taboos in the manner prescribed and you will be the
ReplyDeletesubject of fawning New York Times profiles... Violate a social taboo in a way that disturbs the liberal consensus and the results will be somewhat
different"
Well I’ll be damned, good old Kevin D. Williams reminded me of the unfortunately retired Mary Prankster and her classic song “Piss Off”:
Piss off the wrong people and they send you to jail
Piss off the right people and they tell you you’re charming
I said, “How come we never kiss when we're sober?”
And he said, “Mary, you ask too many questions.”
I hope I’m never satisfied
Yeah, I hope I’m never satisfied
Rip off the wrong people and they send you to jail
Rip off the right people and they say you show initiative
I said, “How come we only fuck when you want to?”
And he said, “Mary, you ask too many questions.”
Piss on the wrong people and they send you to jail
Piss on the right people and they say you're an artist
I said, “How come you never tell me you love me?”
He said, “I don’t. And that’s enough with the questions.”
And it feels so good to be misunderstood
Thanks Kev!!!! I don’t care what anyone says here, you’re ok in my book!!!
Well I was purposely being overbroad by saying "her career" to echo Williamson's construction but the fact is that she did appear in Playboy and one may infer from his rant that pornography is some sort of uniquely Obama thing.
ReplyDeleteSo, I don't know -- she didn't say "nigger," so it wasn't funny?
ReplyDeleteNo, she wasn't Archie Bunker, so it wasn't funny.
Speaking of whom, if CBS ain't too busy not apologizing for Lara Loganghazi, maybe a belated "our bad" for All in the Family?
If Dennis Miller had made the same joke, he'd've gone with "I hate chinks", voted and donated GOP in the 12 intervening years, and if anyone brought it up now he'd say "Lighten up! Can't you libtards take a joke?"
ReplyDeleteIf only we could back to the days of simple, wholesome comedians like Lenny Bruce.
ReplyDeleteThe column's top-rated comment complains about that no-talent Lenny Bruce.
ReplyDeleteWhich politician should I blame for Dennis Miller? I WANT ANSWERS, DAMMIT!
ReplyDeleteRomney supporters
ReplyDeleteRomney's career was enabled by pornographers (see under "Marriott Hotel").
Alcohol works too, but laughter is cheaper.
ReplyDeleteThank heavens. It's not like we need another one of those things underfoot.
ReplyDeleteGeorge W. Bush
ReplyDeleteDems have Get Out The Vote, Repubs have Keep Out The Vote.
ReplyDeleteYou misspelled "traitor".
ReplyDeleteDon't tell him about her fucking Matt Damon.
ReplyDeleteThis sort of reminds me of the problem of being every white person's one negro friend, which was raised by a web site called, IIRC, "Rent a Negro." People have the same imaginary relationship with Obama that they do with a movie star who they have seen for years play a certain role, or who they have adopted as a mascot. Its even a bit more intimate than that because people experience themselves as having "worked for him" or "represented him" during the two campaigns which were big social events for people. But in reality Obama can't "know" all his supporters, even the famous ones, anymore than anyone else can "know" 100 million people--I mean, Clinton could, no doubt, but you have to have a special kind of memory and charm to make that work. I also think that Obama really is a very, very, temperate person emotionally--compared to say, Biden--and I don't think he enjoys making jokes or thinks of himself as an off the cuff, witty person which always smoothes over the awkwardness of meeting lots of people with high expectations. Some people can make those rope line hand shakes memorable and some people can't. I'm not surprised that Obama can't.
ReplyDeleteJebus but it is hard to keep up with NRO Qualifications.You can't be Jewish because you go to a school who have tuition fees of $28,000? where's the cut-off. Wait! Maybe that's too cheap. It's gotta be over $50,000 or something. See? We need guidelines.
ReplyDeleteAh the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographers are called the Free Market, bless it. Why does Kevvy hate the market?
Liquor is quicker, so I'm told
ReplyDeleteGodsdammit, Hank. I'd be pissed at you for the violation of my mind's eye, but I can only blame the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographer.
ReplyDeleteDon't tell him about ACORN.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been double, secret, top funny if she'd gone with the N word, I guess, because then she would have been parodying liberal shibboleths and at the same time revealign that the pampering of black people by PC--which causes the clerks to reject a person who says "I love black people"--actually hurts black defendants since theoretically...oh, my head just turned inside out. But I think you get my drift. If she had used the "N" word and done this from the right side of the aisle they'd LOVE it because she would be clearly poking fun at the backwards, self defeating, nature of liberal PC, equality talk. Hurr hurr they are so dumb that they'd exclude even N lovers from juries!
ReplyDeleteHaha YIKES.
ReplyDeleteWell, you made me go read 'em -- there's also a guy who argues Tosh is funnier than Jon Stewart because Tosh makes fun of "peoples' ethnicity, sexuality, etc." and Stewart refuses to. Yee-ikes.
Seems most commenters there protest comedy that relies on the "shock value" of breaking "social taboos"; it's crass. Unless of course the taboos discourage racism and homophobia. Then shock away! Freedom!
Thank heavens, they're not mutually exclusive.
ReplyDeleteWhat's supposed to be wrong with All in the Family?
ReplyDeleteWhoever was in charge of Bolivia from the 80s through the present.
ReplyDeleteIt's that along with being from New Hampshire. Everyone knows there are no authentic Jewy Jews in New England. WASPification is very thorough there.
ReplyDeleteViolate the taboos in the manner prescribed and you will be the
ReplyDeletesubject of fawning New York Times profiles
They just don't make taboos like they used to.
the same corrosive forces that enable the pornographer’s
ReplyDeleteYou can't make etchings without nitric acid!
In an entirely understandable error arising from a superficial reading of Freud, I ended up violating a totem instead.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree with your take on his temperament and its limits. Sigh. But the more I think about it, the more I think it's hilarious to tell Sara Silverman that her new movie might not be for kids -- as if "for the kids" is normally her thing. Maybe he was being quite the smart aleck in this instance...
ReplyDeleteHang on a minute...trying to wrap my brain around this. Williamson says there's this group of people...and they find some things funny...but they don't find other things funny?
ReplyDeleteWhere oh where could he find such people?
*fans self* Do tell!
ReplyDeleteThe thing about a totem pole is that with all these animals stacked up, there's bound to be something to suit every taste.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it thoughtful of me to leave the "totem pole / dildo" joke for someone else to make?
ReplyDeleteWell, there really werent' very many good options. "heh heh" or "can't wait" might really have landed him in hot water. But you also really have to blame his handlers--I thought presidents were supposed to have some kind of person whispering in their ear "Thank her for her work in the campaign and compliment her on her earrings." This is not rocket science: its straight up social secretary stuff.
ReplyDeleteLorne Michaels?
ReplyDeleteOh hell, I'm an old comedy nerd so I remember her single, underexposed year at SNL, back at the start of the Clinton administration. Of course the Evil still started under the Democrats. Who knows what semiobscure comedian getting their start now will be giving right-wingers conniption fits in fifteen years. I for one am sincerely eager to find out.
ReplyDeleteMore like don't remind him of ACORN unless you've got about six hours to kill.
ReplyDeleteI don't ever want to think about Goldberg assuming the position.
ReplyDelete"You said 'Obama' twice."
ReplyDeleteAh, well, so: 1) I might not remember the interview entirely -- maybe he did thank her; 2) In the interests of making the story funny, maybe she omitted some of their conversation; and 3) I figure his advisors were on their game enough -- along the lines of "She's a fan, she made GOTV videos for you, but her reputation is controversial -- she's known for being smutty and racisty so be ready." In which case he took a pretty good tack. I do wish he had Clinton's or Biden's ridiculous warmth though. He'd be unstoppable.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget sexism which is also hilarious. Basically it's dudebros liking any joke about anyone but dudebros.
ReplyDeleteMister, we could use a man like Buddy Hackett again...
ReplyDeleteJumbo Shrimp Professional Volunteer
ReplyDeleteSo hatefuck by proxy? Perfect. Its like the key to the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteNational Review writer.
ReplyDeleteThis also means that thanks to Obamacare, Janeane Garofalo can go see about that herniated disc from carrying the "symbol of what's wrong with America" around all these years.
ReplyDeleteRoy, you've really outdone yourself with the NRO dumpster-diving this time. Every sentence of this is a fetid masterpiece.
ReplyDeleteone of the important cultural voices in modern American liberalism
taking a very old tradition, Jewish ethnic humor, and making it embarrassing
[golf clap]
rare birds such as Bob Newhart, whose main subject, stated or not, is social convention. More common are the comedians of the ego, such as Richard Pryor, whose main subject is the comedian himself and his personality
Wait... I want to pause here and bask in that. Bob Newhart's subject is "social convention," which makes him a "rare bird" because "stated or not" his subject is LITERALLY WHAT 99.9 PERCENT OF COMEDY IS ABOUT.; Richard Pryor's was himself, because Richard Pryor never did characters. Or "social conventions." (Never!)
And then it gets less comprehensible from there. A++++ Would facepalm again.
The phrase "fetid masterpiece" alone is worth an upvote.
ReplyDeletePreferring to work without a net, I eschew irony tags...
ReplyDeleteYou were too Jung to be reading Freud...
ReplyDeleteThe bit doesn't sound especially funny to me*, but I'll leave it to the African Americans as to whether it was offensive.
ReplyDeleteThat's what we show folk call "giving 'em what they want."
The list of Obama mentions makes no actual sense at all. Practically word salad.
I saw my father’s penis once. But it was okay, because I was so young . . . and so drunk.
Show of hands: Was that joke barely *this* side of the line, or *that* side? I think it was great, but when you skate that close to the edge, you're gonna piss off some people, even ones who were laughing just a second ago. For my money, the best comics snug right up against that line, and sometimes trip over it, and fall flat. But you have to be willing to take that chance, unless you just wanna be Bob Hope, or Bob Newhart...
* Full disclosure: I thought Gallagher was funny, Sledge-O-Matic and all. Sosume.
If he had Clinton or Biden's ridiculous warmth he'd probably have their ridiculous lack of verbal control and he'd still be back in Chicago.
ReplyDeleteIf you open yourself up the way those two do you're going to make gaffs and the first black president (no, Clinton doesn't count) doesn't get to make those kind of errors in public,
I've always treasured the Simpsons crawl with the legend, "The Artist Formerly Known as Buddy Hackett."
ReplyDeleteI like Obama!
ReplyDeleteI suppose if you've never experienced laughter for yourself then you probably need to lean on some theory of laughter to understand the phenomenon. And if your theory is that laughter arises only from taboo breaking, then I guess you'll come the the conclusion that the joke was she used a racial slur. Like you could go up on stage, just say the word "chink", and normal people would laugh their heads off. Which is all to say Kevin Williamson is not even sort of human at this point.
ReplyDeleteConservative humorist.
ReplyDeleteNot Lenny Bruce--Slappy White.
ReplyDeleteThe best forms of comedy have always been the majority laughing at the expense of the minority! That's why conservatives have dominated humor for centuries.
ReplyDeletething is, many conservatives would laugh. beating up on those with less power than you in society is really hilarious to some.
ReplyDeleteMcMegan thinks her fellow female journalists are misreporting their experiences of abusebecause it's never happened to her: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-04/how-not-to-measure-sexual-harassment.html
ReplyDeleteSurely "feckless absurdity" describes the Bush years...
ReplyDeleteHold on! I thought Jeffrey Goldberg got to say who's 'in the Tent'. I had no idea Jewish identity was so much like Calvinball.
ReplyDeleteEspecially if your fetish involves splinters in delicate areas.
ReplyDelete"So I got a jury-duty notice in the mail, delivered along with two high caliber slugs in the door thanks to my insane postman, or as I like to call him, the postman, let me tell you, Kevin Costner is the worst postman since Moist von Lipwig, anyways so I get this jury duty notice in the mail, and you know I love juries but who honestly has time for this so I need to get out of it, the way Ted Kennedy got out of his court appointments, so I figure I'd write something on the slip that would get me out of selection. So here's what I wrote: I hate chinks, wops, kikes, spics, fags, dagoes, micks, limeys, yanks, rednecks, hicks, southies, townies, Wasps, krauts, frogs, gooks, and dykes. [crowd laughing and clapping through this] I figured I'd cover all my bases the way Kirk Gibson did in the 88 World Series. And my friend says to me, he says, "isn't that racist?" and I said "Yup! Ain't I a stinker?" [crowd cheers, claps] "
ReplyDeleteSo he's genuinely in awe of the particular statistical and hormonal vagaries of the gonads of the would-be president and first lady? Or is he jonesing for sex-selective abortion to become socially acceptable? It's a good thing we've got insightful observers like him to offset the brainless and morally lax liberal media.
ReplyDeleteKevin makes a delightful and whimsical foray into the comment section where he demonstrates the dry, pithy wit which contrasts him so much from the puerile Ms. Silverman.
ReplyDeleteFor example, in response to my comment poor Kevin...he's such an old codger he's still bitching about someone stealing Lenny Bruce's act Kevin responds with an economy of words that cuts to the quick I'm younger than Sarah Silverman. Just brilliant. http://www.nationalreview.com/article/365419/taste-and-taboo-id-and-ick-kevin-d-williamson#comment-1151282940
To an earlier comment: Old man shakes fist and yells...One wonders why Kevin just doesn't slap her like he does his fellow upscale theater goers... Kevin brings his "A" material so the the upstart heckler knows his place She slapped me -- get your story right! All I did was smash her phone.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/365419/taste-and-taboo-id-and-ick-kevin-d-williamson#comment-1151283349
Mission accomplished, sir, mission accomplished.
In sum, it's clear from both the essay and his own comments that Kevin Williamson is uniquely positioned to criticize a cultural lodestar like Sarah Silverman. He just knows funny.
What "fellow journalists"(of any gender)?
ReplyDeleteBTW, loved you on "Cross Road Blues."
ReplyDeleteBy Grabthar's hammer, no!
ReplyDeleteYou don't get the check for visibly doing nothing.
ReplyDeleteHey! Moist von Lipwig was a great postman.
ReplyDeleteApparently you can't be ethnic if you come from money, as opposed to that salt-of-the-earth type Megan McArdle. (Well, salt-of-the-Himalayas, anyway.) The funny thing about this bit of Williamson's, put next to the "I love chinks" joke, is that the whole premise of the joke ties into the idea of someone who thinks that they're not being racist when they totally are; it's one of those blind spots that must be practically mandatory for working at NRO.
ReplyDeleteNeither. He was merely making the uncontroversial observation that by siring only male children, Mitt Romney is clearly much more virile and masculine than the weak-seeded Barack Obama and his puny female offspring. (I'd hypothesize some sort of "Y vs. X" chromosomal battle as the justification for this, except that Williamson is demonstrably too goddamn stupid for that even level of wrong. So I'm gonna go with "Mitt's little sperm homonculi are so manly.")
ReplyDeleteIronically, you probably mean "sarcasm tags."
ReplyDeleteThat's why conservatives have dominated humor for centuries.
ReplyDeleteWell, they have. Just not any recent centuries.
"You know, the ancient Hebrews had a word for Jews from Westport: they pronounced it 'Presbyterian.'"
ReplyDeleteShe slapped me -- get your story right! All I did was smash her phone.
ReplyDeleteActually, that is pretty funny. Not intentionally, but still.
I think not getting it is pretty much item one on the checklist.
ReplyDeleteI always thought Sarah Palin had perfected James Joyce's stream of consciousness to the point where it is now a stream of unconsciousness. A genius she is.
ReplyDeleteYoung conservatives seem to come in two flavors: those who really don't have fun (the stereotype about repressed teenagers getting to college and going wild is true to some extent, but some of them remain repressed all the way into adulthood!), and those who have typical young person fun themselves but have no problem judging other people for having the same fun. Hypocrisy comes easy to the latter type; no doubt they'll go far in the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteHe's a better railway man.
ReplyDeleteI'd like someone to develop an iMace app, and test it on Slappy Williamson.
ReplyDeleteAll I know is that Sarah Silverman was goddamned terrible in that episode of Star Trek: Voyager that she was in. Man. That was awful.
ReplyDeleteIt's the key to the whole political party.
ReplyDeleteI confess to not getting Sarah Silverman. Her whole schtick is that she's this sweet-looking Jewish girl who says filthy things. How does that not get old in, like, two minutes?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I will give her credit for the one rape joke I ever found even remotely funny: "I was raped by my doctor. For a Jewish girl, that's kind of bittersweet."
And if this Williamson doesn't like her, maybe I should give her another chance.