A couple weeks ago some friends and I went to the Laugh Factory in Vegas. The comedians were Chris Farley's brother, a guy formerly on Saturday Night Live, and Pauly Shore's Dad. We sat right at the front with our feet against the stage. All the acts made me laugh like hell till my cheeks were chapped from the tears. Mr. Shore is in his mid-80s, looks exactly like an old Pauly Shore, was very sharp, articulate, and funny, but he also made a remark that was not intended to be humorous at all, was completely out of left field, and kind of ruined his act for me even though I had been enjoying it. He brought up Obama just long enough to call everyone who didn't like him "old fat White racists", and in a very serious way.
Now, despite the fact that these live shows tend to get pretty racy, irreverent, and uncensored, nobody else for two hours of jokes had to say something that stupid, racist and offensive. If not for that one stupid and totally unfunny (nobody laughed at it) line the show would have been a perfect night that everyone enjoyed. Why do some people need to express their bigotry so publicly in the middle of a good time? Still, it was a great evening.
Commenter Bagoh20
24 comments:
Explains perfectly why I have, for the most part, checked out of the entertainment biz. Most entertainment is laced with that crap, and I'm tired of paying for it. Perfectly good non-political entertainment is ruined with bomblets of offensive and often misleading political opinions that have nothing to do with the plot. Propaganda is nothing new under the sun, but after a while, the obvious subplots over-take what might be entertaining and ruin the whole thing.
Denver has a comedy radio station featuring the creator of Chappelle Show (not Dave the other guy). I thought he was hilarious until he said the only people who don't like Obama are Tea Party racists. "That's it."
Yep. That's it alright you bigot Neil or Neal.
Breitbart Big Hoolywood used to have a "Sucker Punch" feature where they let you know what's up. Now, lots of people are doing it. Such as the Liam Neeson movie I won't see with a 911 whacko bird plot.
Mr. Shore is a fucking night club owner. I would listen to Ricky Riccardo before Shore.
Thanks, Lem.
There was all kinds of jokes and interactions with the audience which was pretty diverse in age and race. There was lots of other racial humor that cut at everyone pretty evenly, but none of it was mean spirited like that.
Our group ranged from 21 to 55, and no, my date was not 21.
A little advice: Wine that comes in a plastic cup and is only identified as white or red is best avoided.
I walked out of a comedy club once when that happened.
Ruined things for me. The guy started ragging on me as I walked away. Fucker.
I watched Jimmy Fallon for the first time last night and his monologue started with 3-4 jokes at CPAC then segued into a couple weak & mild jabs at Obama. That is all I watched - his monologue jokes [both Repub and Dem] were not really humorous and I thought he seems uncomfortable doing stand-up jokes.
Nspinelli:
There is a radio announcer in Philly named Ricky Ricardo who does the Phillies and the Eagles games on a Spanish language station. He is very good.
Why do some people need to express their bigotry so publicly in the middle of a good time?
Because they don't think that THEY are bigots. They live in an insular world where everyone thinks the same, talks the same and acts the same. They never interact on an honest level with people who have different views. Since they are in a bubble, they tend to view anyone outside of their bubble as inferior or substandard.
Certainly it wouldn't occur to them that their views are not widely held or that the could even possibly be wrong in some of their views. They are positively certain that THEY are in the right. To bolster this inflated view of their own superiority they will pick out a group of people and make them the "others".
There is no way to change the viewpoint of such narrow minded bigots. I know. Many of them are in my own family. It really makes holidays a not fun experience.
Well that and the fact that you shoot at them DBQ. Just sayn'
That IS it. DBQ. As I've said before, most of my friends and acquaintances are lefties, and many of them I really like, because they have some wonderful qualities, and mostly their hearts are in the right place, but open-mindedness and tolerance are things they mostly only imagine they posses. When you point out when they are not being those things, almost everyone of them will deny it and just can't get their mind around their own intolerance and how it is identical to that which they despise so much in others.
I see most conservatives to be much more in touch with this. They accept that they are being judgmental. They have reasons for it, and they know it's sometimes not nice, or entirely tolerant. They don't imagine themselves to be compassionate good people just because they feel it, or want it to be so. They know it's a struggle that they have to work on to make real.
Me? I'm pretty liberal on most things, but I understand that compassion can be cruel, and if it's mindless and narrow, it can be downright evil. I believe strongly in personal responsibility and consequences, and the value of people being forced to live with them, and I also know there is a place for compassion and unconditional love.
The important thing is that you have to be willing to discriminate, to use your head, to do what is best in the long run, even if it seems hard up front, because what matters is the long term outcome, and not your feelings. It's not about you.
bago:
"A little advice: Wine that comes in a plastic cup and is only identified as white or red is best avoided."
Dude, I seriously have zero sympathy for you. Anyone over the age of 50 should be well aware of that :)
Now. Can you give us a nickname or initial to refer to your gal? Otherwise, I'll need use BG for Bago's Gal. Or BSO for Bago's significant other...or maybe BGF?
DBQ:
"Because they don't think that THEY are bigots."
The New Adventures of Old Christine is pretty funny, if raunchy. In one scene, in order to get more clients for her gym/spa her partner, played by Wanda Sykes, Wanda got a group of new black customers. When Christine tried to talk to them, she couldn't speak naturally because she was so unnerved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwksC5VNEh8
I think conservatives/Repubs are going to have to stop playing the Liberal/Dumbocrat game. The correct response to being called a "racist" should be-
"Yes, we are. What of it?"
Using the "some of my best friends are.." defense or claiming "no one hates racism,sexism, etc. more than I do", may be true - but doesn't work.
But some people seem to be incapable of mounting a counterattack. Who knows why, maybe because they REALLY are racists.
I saw a LV comedy act about 6 years ago. My Co-worker dragged me to it. Some female comic from LA who was funny and somewhat blue.
I enjoyed myself, but it wasn't any better than stuff you see on TV for free.
The correct response to being called a "racist" should be-
"Yes, we are. What of it?"
At the risk of sounding simplistic, I'm not clear as to what defines a "racist" these days.
In the past, I understood a racist to be someone who believes one particular race is superior to another.
If that's still the case, I'm not about to admit to racism, because I truly don't believe one race is superior to another. What I will admit to is prejudice, which involves pre-judging another based on previous experience or incomplete information.
Is prejudice now being conflated with racism?
It does hurt when you point out they pissed on their perfectly fine product. Why did they do that? They do feel the rebuff. They do respond to that, I've found.
They argue back defensively, sometimes openly trying to understand and then their supporters come flying out of the woodwork when you weren't even talking to them, take up the private argument from their own manner of processing things, they take offense with the remark you made and dig into your work right there, draw conclusions based on and what they can make of all that available to them conveniently as viewed through their own filter, prism, slats, polarizers, shades, tilt-shift perspective, toilet paper tube, polar revolutions, and paint color shaking like enraged flying monkeys with swords (at a paint shop). Easily ignored, la la la, but that reaction shows that pointing out the unfortunate and unnecessary mar they on their pristine work, otherwise thoroughly enjoyable, is felt and it does hurt.
Now, I don't even read the response.
Nowadays I say my piece and split. It's ended. When somehow notification arrives of response it goes straight to the trash because I don't listen so much anymore when I spout off like that. I said my thing and that's it. Whatever it's worth to them. I enjoyed their product, their work until that, until I was unnecessarily and rudely and wrongly offended.
I told a guy on Flickr I enjoyed his photographs a lot. Uniquely insightful of ordinary things around town. An ugly town. Interesting photographs. And then finally a gratuitous partisan remark about Bush unrelated to everything else.
I said so.
That turned out to be a bit of arson. Women came flying out to his defense. "If you can't see Bush hurt his country then there's something wrong with you."
Who need to read that shit? Trash.
Recently I viewed a video of a gang of kids put together of a song into ASL, energetic, flying all over the place, good production value good style, framing, editing, technically advanced, skillfully executed, artistically rendered. The song relied a lot on fingerspelling. Right at the critical fingerspelling post processing someone added text right over the content. I said so. Why did you do that? It's like the person who uploaded doesn't respect the work of the others. It's disrespectful.
Something was said back. I don't know. It went straight to the trash because i don't care what the answer is. [These are the signs of an asshole, I understand that. I'm making a rational decision to be an asshole.]
"In the past, I understood a racist to be someone who believes one particular race is superior to another."
Maybe so. Today the word means what the left, or the accuser, wants it to mean. Slave owners and Hitler were a 'racist' and so is the Tea Party and anyone who criticizes Obama.
If you want to keep giving the Left the stick to beat the Conservatives, so be it.
MamaM wrote: Is prejudice now being conflated with racism?
Yes. It's been that way ever since "All In The Family."
That's one reason why I don't think comedy clubs are a perfectly fine product. I can understand why people would be disappointed by that and some people even think worse: their evening was ruined.
It's foolish when people can't stand each other because they disagree about mutually conventional political points of view.
Comedians are what they are and they're often incredibly disrespectful as part of the act. It's people who are actually arguing politics who shouldn't disrespectful or deliberately try to offend their opponents.
"Yes. It's been that way ever since "All In The Family."
True dat.
People are so unfair to Republicans, with their expectation to not say and do racist things. It's so unjust. How arrogant these Americans are, expecting racist tropes to not be reflexively circulated by Republican groups!
It's very simple. Disown that sort of crap, get some investigation or introspection about where it's coming from, or suffer the consequences. The country's not getting any whiter and is losing more and more patience with crying for pity over all this dated garbage. Grow up.
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