WTF, David Letterman?
by: Autumn Sandeen
Wed Jan 06, 2010 at 12:43:27 PM EST
http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/14728/wtf-david-letterman (http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/14728/wtf-david-letterman)
Forty-six seconds of naked, incredible antitrans sentiment -- directed at Amanda Simpson, the new Obama Administration Bureau of Industry and Security appointment.
I'll add commentary as an update.
Update from Autumn:
I'm left wondering what would happen if a late night host joked about the race, disability, veteran status, religious creed, or sexual orientation of an Presidential appointee. Obviously, such jokes would be out of bounds.
I'm left wondering what would happen if a late night host joked about the race, disability, veteran status, religious creed, or sexual orientation of an Presidential appointee
Yeah, like that never happened. He'd never make fun of a Presidential candidates age, or joked about an abstinence only VP candidate had a teen-age high school dropout unwed mother. Boy, if he had ever made a joke about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky people would have had him off the air the next day.
I hope he has a heart attack on air at some point this year, is that harsh or just?
*stabs needles into letterman doll*.. ??
Quote from: Muffin on January 06, 2010, 10:13:47 PM
I hope he has a heart attack on air at some point this year, is that harsh or just?
*stabs needles into letterman doll*.. ??
I wish no one ill. But having his show canceled in mid-season would good thing.
Janet
Congrads, some of you are officially worse than he ever has been, cumulatively. I've never heard him wish for anyone's death.
You know who does? The Teabaggers and the Xian Right, and whose death, yours, among others.
i have watched and watched the utube clip and i still think its funny........ it doesn't crack me up or anything,its just a little giggle..
haha. I took the clip to be them making fun of jock homophobia. either way, he's a comedian. Comedians can joke about whatever they want. Getting offended is silly.
Quote from: tekla on January 06, 2010, 01:17:47 PM
I'm left wondering what would happen if a late night host joked about the race, disability, veteran status, religious creed, or sexual orientation of an Presidential appointee
Yeah, like that never happened. He'd never make fun of a Presidential candidates age, or joked about an abstinence only VP candidate had a teen-age high school dropout unwed mother. Boy, if he had ever made a joke about Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky people would have had him off the air the next day.
I'm neither a fan or a defender of Letterman individually but this is absolutely correct. A variety of demographic types routinely take abuse from comedians - it is the nature of the business and no one should be offended by it.
Post Merge: January 07, 2010, 01:24:23 AM
Quote from: tekla on January 07, 2010, 02:08:15 AM
Congrads, some of you are officially worse than he ever has been, cumulatively. I've never heard him wish for anyone's death.
You know who does? The Teabaggers and the Xian Right, and whose death, yours, among others.
This on the other hand is unmitigated bull->-bleeped-<-. The "teabaggers" an Xians do not routinely wish death on anyone, least of all an entire people group. Admittedly there are nutballs in every ideological group but a tiny tiny fringe.
Oh, and by the way, if we are speaking of folks wishing death of folks - the amount of "tweets" and message board posts praying fervently that Limbaugh was in fact dead this past weekend could fill the Encyclopedia Britannica a hundred times over so lets not pretend the death wish business is an exclusively right wing or christian phenomena.
Post Merge: January 07, 2010, 02:25:31 AM
Quote from: Janet Lynn on January 06, 2010, 10:28:52 PM
I wish no one ill. But having his show canceled in mid-season would good thing.
Janet
I thought he had THAT coming when he trashed Palin's daughter but then, as i said, I've found Letterman utterly unfunny for over a decade.
It's about as funny as most of the stuff he does, which is marginally so-so at best. The absolute best comedy can't even be shown on network TV. They have to put people like Lisa Lampenelli, Kathy Griffin, and Neil Hamburger on cable, and even then it's heavily edited - except for Hamburger, they won't even show that stuff on cable.
He is a stand-up comedian, not a political figure, or a political group. He has no power, only jokes.
And, by virtue of accepting the appointment she knew she was becoming a public figure.* And I'm sure she knows it goes with the territory. What's more, having heard nothing from her (the correct response) I have to assume that like most such things in life, people with real and major accomplishments pay little heed to such things. Its tends to flake off people who have tended to do little or nothing in their lives. Because to such people, image is all they have. People with accomplishments have no need to worry because the accomplishments stand for themselves, and at the end of the day she is still has her government job, she still has degrees in physics, engineering and business administration, along with an extensive flight background, and she is still an expert in weapons systems. Considering what kind of work she does, a joke is just a joke, killing people is her life work, as her last job was Deputy Director in Advanced Technology Development at Raytheon Missile Systems - which are not exactly delivering lollipops to good little kids.
I'm sure she knows the difference. And, anyone who has ever worked with the 'more bang for the buck' crew knows, their sense of humor is very, very black. They tell dead baby jokes to amuse each other and frequently refer to their successful targets as 'crispy critters.'
* She ran for Congress in ever-liberal Arizona in 2004, so none of this is new for her.
my fave comedians are Sarah Silverman, Zach Galafinaikis, Marc Maron, Maria Bamford, Patton Oswalt, Jen Kirkman, Paul F. Tompkins, and Jimmy Pardo.
So, if not praying for Obama's death, what's with the signs that cite Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8? That's a pretty vengeful Psalm that old 109. And though they might be fringe, (pretty much that entire teabagger deal is fringe) there is no-one on that side condemning them either.
109:8: Let his days be few; and let another take his office.
And just in case you think you can weasel around that, the very next verse says...
109:9: May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow
That's not leaving much doubt as to what they are praying for.
But here's a basic GIS, check it out for yourself, 'cause I'd never expect anyone to believe me. There are over 85K references just to the use of this verse.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=Vlb&ei=9RVGS4XhM5OsNp7SjO8C&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAYQBSgA&q=christians+pray+for+obama%27s+death+bible+quote&spell=1 (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=Vlb&ei=9RVGS4XhM5OsNp7SjO8C&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&ved=0CAYQBSgA&q=christians+pray+for+obama%27s+death+bible+quote&spell=1)
Given what I've seen of "true believers" ripping a verse out of context to make a point, my guess is that 80% or better of those who cite 8 have no clue what's in 9.
That said, I tend to follow still the public pronouncements of things like the Heritage Foundation and various and sundry "right wing" thinkers and this is the first I've heard of the use of that verse in connection with praying for Obama.
Citing Google hits proves exactly nothing because if there was ONE prominent incident there would be that many references (I'll bet that black guy carrying the rifle at the tea party event - ONE incident) got way more than enough notice to produce 85K hits)
so yeah, there are nutters out there - on both sides of every issue.
Just because some of them use some religious verbage to back their nuttiness means nothing more than whatever the Unabomber was writing to defend his actions.