Now, It's Comedians Who Are The Victims
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.
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Ahh, dead baby jokes - now there's a flashback. Better be careful, though, or the pro-lifers will have a conniption fit.
Great post. The GOP are now becoming very good at playing the victim. And their hypocracy is so brazen it takes your breath away.
Right on the mark Jim. You are a wise and witty man.
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I freaking love you, Jim David.
As a woman I find women really interesting, why they allow men to vicitmize them is beyond me. We have at least half the brains and all the power, but can't wait to hand everything over as soon as we feel like the victim. You are only a victim if you allow yourself to be. If I were palin I would have taken that joke for what it was, a lame joke by an old guy who has nothing better to talk about, instead she painted herself and daughter as victims, that's ridiculous and she's turned letterman into the victim.
palin was the one who brought the word rape into the conversation, and she is the one who claimed the joke was about her 14 year old, twisted?
then there are the women like palin claiming to be defending women everywhere, get over it....I for one don't want any whiny women victims defending me. I won't claim solidarity with a group who refuses to see their own worth and potential. and can't get beyond their own victimhood
Since I am opening myself up to attack, let me just say that I don't care what any of the posters here may say about me personally because of my post. I don't know you and what you think and say is not going to affect my life in any way, so say what you want, but what you may post says everything about you and nothing about me.
No personal attack here - I agree with everything you said.
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Props to you, grooveygrover. I concur 100%. That lady sure doesn't speak for me, unless she's giving me comedy material. Which she really, really did. I hope I offended her.
Brava, woman!
Palin definitely should have taken the high road in this debarcle. She would have done better to laugh Lettermans' jokes off or just dismiss them as juvenille. It would have been over before it began. But the natural born policial opportunist had to try and milk for all it was worth - with a 'famil values' angle and suggestions of child rape.
Even time Palin attempts to get political milage out of her family, the result is never flattering.
Great article.
Ps: attorneys general - runners up.
First rate article. Thanks.
Excellent post! Funny with a brain!
You absolutely nailed Palin's hypocrisy. She's saying "Screw political correctnes
Jim, one of the clearest messages you stated was that Sarah Palin can't have it both ways.
Hypocrisy is defined as: A pretence of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs, or principles that one does not really possess.
Great article. Sarah Palin has been making a fool of herself from the moment she entered the national stage and I find it impossible to believe that, not one single family member, friend or aquaintence, or even one of her staff hasn't tried to rescue Sarah from Sarah Palin. It's painfully obvious that she has turned the Alaskan governorship into a three-ring circus, with the largest audience in world history. Her rallies, one of which attempted to block Governor Sebellius from being confirmed, was remarkably stupid. The more recent one, to get Letterman fired, Palin supporters yelled out, "You had a child out of wedlock!" What exactly did Bristol Palin do before she decided to become the national spokesperson for the abstinance only cmpaign? Not only did she have sex before marriage, but she did so under Sarah Palin's roof, and had a child out of wedlock because of it.
The complete lack of understanding by Palin, to possess a fundamental ability to reason, and the ability to provide rational thought is lost on her. Letterman had no reason to apologize, but the fact that he did says something about his level of integrity, a million miles ahead of Palin's.
Sarah, you lost, remember? This got old months ago. It's time for you to retire from this pathetic mockery you call your life and go away!
excellent comment - thank you for putting it so articulately - now if only some of those 2-faced freaks from the rally would read the article and comments and realize just how foolish they looked and sounded.
but i'm not going to hold my breath.
Jim's right. Anyone with an ounce of common sense wouldn't have thought for a moment that the joke referenced the younger daughter.
Unfortunate coincidence that the younger daughter was actually at the ballgame, yes. Should Letterman have addressed that potential misunderstanding and clarified the joke? Yes. Did he? Yes.
Can't we all just chip in and send Palin to that lighthouse in Russia that she says she can see from her yard?
But was she at the actual ballgame? Absolutely no pictures of her there, just her parents and the Guiliani's.
i agree with you completely. but, you know what? some people have intimated that Willow was not actually at the game either - and i have yet to see a picture of her there. She doesn't show up in the video where Sarah is finding people to point to and wave at (all 15 of her fans). So she must not have been sitting very near her mother....
Palin is using Letterman. Period. She had become irrelevant--- this brought her an oppurtunity to have a political statement that she can tap into. Unfortunately, her track record is not really consistent with forwarding women's causes--- pay for your own rape kit, anyone?
As the saying goes, action speaks louder than words.
fun post.
and a good idea with the "National Lighten Up Day."
If Letterman's joke had been about Sarah Palin then I would agree with you. But it wasn't, instead the joke was about her duaghters (admittedly its a bit unclear which one Letterman was refering too), and there for was crude and uncalled for.
P1. Public figures are fair game for comedians.
P2. Sarah Palin is a public figure.
C. Therefore, Sarah Palin is fair game for comedians.
Bristol Palin is a spokesperson for Abstinence. She posed for the cover of People magazine. She too is a public figure. Like it or not, she too is fair game for comedians.
When a joke is made about one of Sarah Palin's daughters, isn't is reasonable to assume that the joke is made about the 18 year old public figure instead of the 14 year old minor?
Anyone who thought the joke was about the younger Palin is kind of creepy or an opportunist. Or maybe both.
Sorry, but I have daughters of my own and I'm still not feeling the outrage. Yes, the joke was crude and unnecessary, but worth all this hoopla? Certainly not.
If Sarah really wants her children left alone she should KEEP THEM OUT OF THE LIMELIGHT. It's common sense, lady.
I agree. I can't think of another's politician's family that has been as politicised and publically exposed as Palins.
Sarah is good at trotting out the kiddies when she thinks there's some political milage in it. She waves them around to prove her 'hockey mom' creditials or to back up her socially conservative agenda more generally. But she doesn't seem to understand that by putting the kids out into the public doman, she exposes them to the full glare of the media and all the attention and criticism that comes with it.
When the media fails to interpret her family as the political asset she thinks they are - and makes jokes at their expense - she then plays the victim and says the media is being mean or attacking family values or being sexist.
Jim you're the best. Thanks for this article. I almost had sympathy for Palin on this one, because I think it sucks to have your kids be the butt of jokes just because you chose to be a politician. But she does parade those children around for the public's viewing, so honestly, she gets what she deserves.
But she took her crusade against Letterman too far, thus completely nullifying any sympathy I might have had for her.
And at the end of the day, she still doesn't know when to shut the hell up.
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