As some of you might have noticed, I have taken a bit of a break from the blogosphere.
It took the creep David Letterman and his pathetic fans to get me back to my blog. You are all probably aware of Letterman's disgusting joke about Sarah Palin's 14 year old daughter getting "knocked up" by Alex Rodriguez during the 7th inning stretch at Yankee stadium. Letterman defends himself by saying he was not actually talking about the Palin's 14 year old daughter, but her 18 year old daughter. Big difference. First, it was the 14 year old daughter who was actually at the game, so Letterman is not only a sexist pig, but an idiot to boot. Second, the 4 year old age difference between the two daughters is neither here nor there. A joke about young girls getting "knocked up" by adult baseball players is not funny.
What I found even more upsetting about the incident was not only David Letterman's pathetic seven minute apology but the mocking, sneering, sexist laughter of his studio audience. Listen to it yourself. Not only were all the jokes repeated, to the great amusement of the audience, but Letterman continued his mocking of the Palin family, to the mob's apparent delight.
Now I am going to make a bit of a leap. I bet that not many of that hooting crowd would see themselves as "conservatives", or were supporters of Sarah Palin. No - they're too good for that. Sexist, vulgar and ignorant wisecracks are fine - fun and games - as long as they are directed at the "right" targets for these enlightened folks.
The whole thing made me sick. I didn't crack a smile.
The top ten reasons for tuning out David Letterman are all the same. David Letterman and his obnoxious followers.
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You tune somebody out by ignoring him -- not by writing about him and stating the obvious. (Your comments about the audience wereless obvious but totally conjectural.)
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you back, Prof. Klar.
ReplyDeleteMencken said that "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." The remark took a poke at the populist masses and it has survived all these years because it still stings. Letterman and his audience sadly fit the bill. I must admit that I have found him funny, but only rarely. His hosting of the Academy Awards was awful.
The best humour surprises and stings a bit, and the very best deflates the pompous, unmasks the hypocrite, speaks truth to power or challenges the way we have become used to looking at the world - sometimes all of these at the same time. Unfortunately, there are some that think that merely being nasty or rude is enough to be thought funny.
Letterman was not the first to take a low and inappropriate shot at the child of a celebrity. During the first Clinton administration Rush Limbaugh still had a T.V. program. Commenting on news of the Clinton Whitehouse, Mr. Limbaugh reported that the family had acquired a dog, at which point he put up a picture of Chelsea Clinton. Cheslea was younger then than Palin's youngest is now, not that it makes much difference. Mr. Limbaugh has gone on to become a right wing populist superstar, even to the point of having the actual leadership of the Republicans apologize for calling Limbaugh a mere entertainer. Sadly, Mencken's maxim is proved by Limbaugh's career, since Limbaugh's success did not come by avoiding tasteless and rude observations.
There are many other professional entertainers who run a nasty "schtick", appealing to the darker side of their audience. I would add Ann Coulter and Mark Steyn to this group, although there are obvious differences between Coulter and Steyn. For instance, Steyn targets an audience with an I.Q. over 100, and he doesn't look like a 14 year old boy finishing off his vertical growth spurt in drag, differences which may explain Ann's somewhat greater popularity among average Republicans and why she has been invited to speak at a Republican National Convention but Steyn has not.
Letterman clearly wasn't the first or only entertainer to tap into an ugly aspect of the American (I would say human) character.
Your assumption that we all probably knew about the whole matter before you wrote about it is unwarranted. I read your blog - I don't read or listen to Letterman, nor did I read anything online that made a point of mentioning the matter.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting info about Letterman, - for what it says about him. Unfortunately, your post doesn't explore those implications, but, instead, confines itself to an emotional attack.
I didn't care for one of your remarks about the audience: "Now I am going to make a bit of a leap. I bet that not many of that hooting crowd would see themselves as "conservatives", or were supporters of Sarah Palin. No - they're too good for that."
- which sounds as though you're saying: if they weren't too big for their britches - then they would be supporters of Palin.
(I'm not a supporter of Palin.)
Professor,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Letterman's comments were offensive. And I'm occasionally a fan of his, too.
I only have one question to ask: how were the comments "sexist" ? Offensive, definitely, but "sexist"? Can you elaborate?
Thank you,
Peter N. Okoye
so what!!! He made a bad joke, it wasn't funny and it was totally inapropriate for sure, but not the biggest deal in the world. I am sure he regrets it and it really isn't his style or his humor generally. He is a good guy and wouldn't have lasted so long if this were his usual attitude or behavior. Why so sensitive Prof. and since when did you become republican????What is really behind this anger, perhaps another rum&coke might soften the mood,huh??
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