I LOVE David Letterman
David Letterman is my man crush, well, actually used to be my man crush. I mean for God sakes he's 62 years old now, so now it's not so much a crush as it is just deep admiration, respect and gratefulness for years of laughter. He is to me what Johnny Carson was for my parents. Plus, he's always been a class act and in my opinion he continues to be.
Last week he made some jokes about Sarah Palin, the super religious governor of Alaska, and her daughter. Now what does Palin being super religious part have to do with it?? Because, for the most part, stupid church people don't have a sense of humor about themselves. Second, stupid church people don't have a sense of what is truly funny. And third, stupid church people usually can't separate the joke from a personal attack and just simply "get it" (and most importantly leave it alone). No, instead stupid church people like Sarah Palin have to then draw attention to themselves, their irrational beliefs and skewed world views... and in the end make things worse and not better for themselves.
What follows from Letterman is the absolute best "apology" ever by anyone in the history of the world. Well, at least that I have seen. Great job Dave!
Last week he made some jokes about Sarah Palin, the super religious governor of Alaska, and her daughter. Now what does Palin being super religious part have to do with it?? Because, for the most part, stupid church people don't have a sense of humor about themselves. Second, stupid church people don't have a sense of what is truly funny. And third, stupid church people usually can't separate the joke from a personal attack and just simply "get it" (and most importantly leave it alone). No, instead stupid church people like Sarah Palin have to then draw attention to themselves, their irrational beliefs and skewed world views... and in the end make things worse and not better for themselves.
What follows from Letterman is the absolute best "apology" ever by anyone in the history of the world. Well, at least that I have seen. Great job Dave!
posted by Steve at
6/13/2009
18 Comments:
Go Dave! :D
Some Christians really don't have much of a sense of humour.
Yeah they don't... and on second thought this probably doesn't have very much with her being super religious, maybe it does... but it was just a joke.
Well, I really have zero respect for any of the Late night hosts, they pretty much are bottom feeders as far as I am concerned, perhaps because I am a "Stupid Church person" but I don't remember too many people laughing when John McCain made a rude remark about Chelsea Clinton. He was wrong for what he said about Clinton and Letterman is wrong for what he said about Willow. People who give Letterman a pass are simply part of the liberal/Democratic machine as were the ones who gave McCain a pass part of the conservative/Republican machine. Either embrace McCain's rotten comments or denounce Letterman's- Consistency folks, consistency.
Steve, I love you and I agree that most super religious folks don't have a sense of humor about themselves, but what Letterman said about Palin's daughter was inappropriate. Can you imagine the uproar if he'd made a joke about one of the Obama girls being the victim of a statutory rape? Palin actually did a good job making fun of herself when she went on SNL - I think this incident had more to do with the completely disgusting nature of the "joke"...something even the National Organization for Women denounced as inappropriate.
McCain is a prominent politician, Dave Letterman is a late night COMEDY host. The last place I look for balance and consistency is with comedians, for crying out loud. Stuns me that people can see another "media bias" bugaboo in some joketeller's barbs.
Here's the real story: Palin needs to keep herself in the news and build an attachment with the conservative base for her next run for president. When seen in this light, the Letterman "controversy" makes perfect sense.
Letterman's comments were over the line. Suggesting that A-Rod having sex with a minor was insulting to both Palin's daughter as well as to A-Rod. Never mind that Palin is batshit crazy...which she is.
Besides, I love slutty stewardesses :)
Heidi - thanks for the love. Appreciate it.
Did you see the original airing of the joke on the night he first said it? I did.
It wasn't about statutory rape and it wasn't about Willow. Anyone who watched the show that night I'm sure thought the same thing I did, the joke was about Palin's daughter Bristol who was the one "knocked up" (both in the joke and in real life).
And yes I can imagine the uproar about a joke made that includes rape and Obama's girls. Because there is nothing funny there.
Granted, I didn't see it on TV the night it aired...I saw the youtube clip. So yeah, my read on it may be colored somwhat.
BUT, it was a gross oversight on Letterman's part not to realize that it was Willow who was at the baseball game, not Bristol. And I'm sorry, but making a joke about Bristol being knocked up is just as crass IMO. These are kids. You want to make fun of a public figure like Palin? Go ahead. But leave the kids out of it. And leave statutory rape/being knocked up/whatever-you-want-to-call-it out of it too.
It was a joke, but it wasn't a good one. That's what got him into trouble. He was trying to poke fun at Bristol's unplanned pregnancy and get a dig in at Palin in the process. Problem is, Bristol wasn't in New York. Willow was.
What makes this kind of joke funny is its connection to the truth. This joke wasn't connected enough, and you can see the result. I love Letteman, too, but he blew it on this one. I don't think his intent was to make a joke about statutory rape, nor the unplanned pregnancy of a fourteen year-old girl, but that's how the joke played. His attempt at spinning his way out of it was weak, in my estimation. He should have just eaten his crow and moved on.
Being on the wrong side of the Atlantic I didn't know the names of the characters involved [except Governor Palin]. Having looked them up I think the Palin's are well within the bounds of what you might call 'righteous anger'.
I remember quite a while ago how upset Josh was when it was thought I was insinuating something about his wife in a comment [which I wasn't insinuating at all] and how indignant you were too Steve. The words "pot" "kettle" & "black" mean anything to you? [Actually, I'm not sure if you do have that idiom in the USA!!]
Personally, I think you've let your own 'anti-stupid-church-people' prejudice cloud your judgement. Letterman was an idiot.
And just on a general note. Why are the audiences on theses chat show so sycophantic? They laugh at virtually every sentence he makes ... or is my SCP mentality rendering me unable to see what is so hilarious about absolutely everything he says?
It was a joke - I'm sorry - I 've told worse ones than that when having a laughfest with my friends. Poor taste - he admits to that - but meant for offense - I doubt it (like Lettermen says - check his record on such things - you'll find nothing).
Truth is - its a joke and that's that. I just finished watching the Comedians of Comedy and believe me - some of the jokes in those stand up acts are faaaaar worse in nature than those jokes told by Lettermen. So if someone is calling those crass - well that's up for interpretive question.
I cannot believe people are rushing to Palin's corner to defend her on something so small and minor. It's almost as if this is all being made into something bigger than it really is? And I think this is very minor.
Oh, it was joke. Thanks for clearing that up. That's ok then. For a minute I thought he really meant it. Coz as long as you don't really really mean it you should be able to broadcast whatever you want about anybody you want whenever you want.
Well that seemed to be your tact when you commented on our site about Josh's wife. You had no trouble then saying something you didn't really really mean to make your point. After all, as your wife said then, she's just another person.
Hey Pot. I'm Kettle. Your Black!
Sorry Steve, don't want to cover all that ground again, but the comparison is ridiculous. Apples & lawnmowers. I didn't say anything derogatory about Ashley but you & Josh went ballistic at inferences that you made in your own minds that I had never intended.
Still, maybe I should have made a hilarious "apology" to make that clear and bring your reactions back within the Richter scale.
I don't want to cover that ground again either. You brought it up here, using the example as proof about how people react when something questionable is mentioned about someones family.. you drew the parallel - I didn't. Now conveniently you say it is "apples and lawnmowers". Interesting.
Insinuation, meaning, understanding is in the mind of the hearer. I agree. I did react to an insinuation I believe you were making at that time - and what I "heard" in my mind caused me to react the way I did.
So like I said, I WAS listening to Letterman the night he made the "joke". I knew who he was referencing. I got his attempt at a joke. I knew he wasn't referencing the under-age daughter. In my mind, he connected the dots as Dorsey says above.
You on the other hand admittedly knew none of the people involved. It's possible that not having context but viewing this after the fact that you "pre-judged" the situation.
And I agree with Society - all this is is a crass joke making fun of someone and her daughter who enjoy the limelight (see the recent People magazine cover where the daughter is showing off her baby). They don't have a problem with positive media.
And I agree with Zeke - Palin is using this to gain media attention. She has taken this 5 second joke about her daughter and turned it into a whirlwind media tour to promote family values (of which as far as I can tell she has a hard time instilling). The republicans used her to try and garner attention before and it backfired... and this will fizzle away as well once the media has their Sarah Palin sound bytes. Letterman has moved on for better or for worse... and Sarah Palin is still talking about it, and boycotts, and anyone else who will listen.
I have missed our little discussions :o)
Is it just me or does Dorsey talk the most sense on just about everything nowadays?!
Dorsey's never been the same since he ditched his ballerina outfit. But yeah, in general he's quite a sensible lad.
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