Conservatives are always accusing liberals of having no sense of humor and playing the victim. Now David Letterman has been forced to grovel, beg for forgiveness and apologize by a conservative with no sense of humor playing the victim.
Poor Sarah Palin. Not only did she lose the election, she is continually the butt of an infinite amount of jokes from a bunch of liberal late-night comedians who are largely responsible for the decay of contemporary culture.
This is the same woman who advised us to "screw political correctness" and then has a fit when a comic screws political correctness and tells a joke. This is the same woman who said she knows foreign policy because Alaska is next to Russia, then whined when comics joked about it. The same woman who insists that the children of politicians are off-limits but put her daughter on the cover of People. The same woman who can't even reign in Levi Johnston from discussing his sex life with her daughter on "Larry King Live," much less handle the nation's nuclear codes.
I'll tell you what's really funny: the party of personal responsibility refuses to accept any personal responsibility.
Anyone with a brain knows that Letterman was joking about Palin's 18 year old daughter -- the one who appeared on Fox News talking about abstinence after failing to practice it -- and not her 14 year old one, who should rightfully be off-limits. But Palin, who can smell a political opportunity at 500 paces, doesn't mind twisting the facts if it suits her agenda, and the conservative echo chamber follows in lockstep -- the same people who make vile joke after vile joke about liberals and continually tell them to "lighten up."
As actual jokes go, Letterman's were average late night jokes, tamer than many of Dennis Miller's jibes on "The O'Reilly Factor" and paling in comparison to some of Ann Coulter's more vile statements. But Palin just had to cause a scene about it. She should go on tour with Carrie Prejean -- the Bitter Pageant Runner-Ups Tour.
Palin ludicrously connected the dots from Letterman's joke to the sexual abuse of young girls and the decline of Western Civilization, but refuses to acknowledge that her comments linking Barack Obama to terrorists could possibly inflame some psycho redneck, who probably attended one of her rallies, to act on it.
You can't have it both ways, lady. You can't get offended at a mild joke about the most famous sexually precocious teen in America (sorry if she's your daughter) and then say nothing when the man who ran your election operation in South Carolina compares Michelle Obama to a gorilla.
In the New York Post, conservative columnist Andrea Peyser plays the victim even more, writing that "women, specifically white women, make up the last group that one may freely stereotype to get a cheap laugh." Any time a member of a group gets offended, they claim to be the "last group that one can freely stereotype." That's one crowded room filled with a lot of victims.
You know who are the biggest victims right now? Comedians. Every time we say anything, someone has a fit. Wanda Sykes makes jokes about Rush Limbaugh and conservatives go mental. Joy Behar makes a joke about conservatives and the Media Research Center has a conniption. I have been known to run from people waiting for me outside a club who want to settle it in the parking lot.
Jokes should be judged on their quality as lines, not who they might or might not offend. Is it a good joke? If yes, then too bad if you're offended by it. Is it a bad joke said merely to shock? Then you should be offended by it, because it's bad comedy.
Since we have "National Coming Out Day," I propose we have "National Lighten Up Day." We can all tell all the jokes we want and get it off our chests, and absolutely no one is permitted to be offended. I plan to haul out my dead baby jokes.
If comedians were prohibited from offending anyone, we would all have to resort to joking about socks in the laundry. And even that would offend Chinese people.