Christopher Hitchens: As Right About Women as He is About Iraq

Dear Hamilton Nolan & Gawker:

I want to thank you for your post supporting Christopher Hitchens' claim that women aren't funny. I also I want to apologize for not writing sooner, but between getting my bikini line waxed, shopping, trying, in vain to be funny, and dealing with PMS, I had no time -- and was in no shape -- to write anything. But I want to thank you for having the testosterone-drenched you-know-whats to say what nobody else, besides Christopher Hitchens and lots of men, will say: women comics suck! And Christopher Hitchens rocks! Responding to the unfunny and boring and (I know, this is redundant) female-written Vanity Fair article "Who Says Women Aren't Funny,"

The problem they [female comics] have is they often talk about things that women can relate to--relationships with men, babies, periods, shopping, love. As a man, I can't relate to all that. That puts women comics at a distinct disadvantage when trying to win over me and my fellow men. This is obvious day, right here.

THANK YOU! I can't STAND when Sarah Silverman talks about her babies! Oh, right she doesn't have any, but I bet if she did she wouldn't shut up about them. And Tina Fey, can you please stop talking about your period? I mean, I haven't heard her talk about it, but she's a woman and it happens once a month -- I know, TMI, sorry :( -- and when it does we're really emotional and irrational and out of control. So I bet even if Tina Fey didn't want to talk about her period, it would literally be biologically impossible for her to stop herself from talking about her hormones and her feelings.?And I too wonder why "girls," as you call us, bother getting their frilly pink panties all up in a bunch over Christopher Hitchens. I love your point that:

Chris [that is SOOOO cool that you call him by his nickname!] Hitchens is a brilliant, repugnant slob of a man, and any argument he makes should be taken as one from a male point of view. For him to say that women aren't funny is for him to say that they're not funny to him, a man.

THANK YOU! That reminds me of when the PC Nazis spit up their fair trade soy organic lattes over my occasional harmless observations about black people's inferior intelligence. See, I'm a brilliant, appealing, slob of a white person, and any argument I make should be taken as one from a white point of view. For me to say that black people aren't that smart is for me to say that they're not smart to me, a white person. So take a chill pill ladies... and black people.

Originally Posted on TakePart

Comments

[protagonia]

Buh, buh, but Katie,

Don't you know that Americans can't hold a Bic lighter to the British. They have this cool accent that makes us "Submit" to them when they do their fancy talk'n. Gets 'em laid in the USA. Don't work so good over in England, loses that whole "Exotic N' different" thing.

Speak'n in British is like hypnosis, but WAY purdier. When Mr Hitchy goes all bitchy with his Lord Of The Rings voice, magic occurs. Folks believe what he says, like we're still subconsciously afraid of kings and queens sitt'n up there on the throne. "If I don't agree with the snobby feller, OFF WITH MY HEAD, and throw it in the dungeon fer good measure!"

British people are super-smart-as-shit and they know it. We're lucky to have 'em here, grac'n us with their wisdom. They could have easily gone back to their home world Britt-O-Tron, where they're all equally as superior as each other.

As for women comics, Rodney must'a stole their hook line when he said "I don't get no respect..."

Christopher Hitchens is like a god. A god who don't believe in God. But this part I know for sure. The man is happy. Hardly a moment goes by where he don't have a cocktail in hand to celebrate how "Jolly Good and British" he is. Ain't easy keeping all those chins up. No simple task staying as stiff as your own upper lip. That's a very expensive bar tab, thank you very much!

All's I know is, if they're good enough to judge singers on a reality show, they'r good enough to judge me - in my humble judgment.

[Rockwell]

Why do we even talk about Hitchens and why does he get a platform from anyone. He's a gas bag. A bloated, repugnant, belching gas bag of stupidity. As best as I can tell, he formed all of his opinions when he was a bitter pimply-assed adolecent and hasn't been open to a new thought since then. Like a child, he throws entire categories of humanity (women, people of faith, Americans) into dismissive baskets. He's the most vile kind of human - arrogant, closeminded, bigotted, warmongering.

For my money, I've always found comics, women and men, funny or unfunny, depending on the individual. I've never asked to see someone's genetalia before deciding to chuckle..

[junglejane]

I find both male and female comics extremely funny. If some men can't find female comics funny, that's their problem.

[SubparDude]

:

I need to add that Hitchens is a Goddang Bore and Asswhole Entirely,
to me,

a White Guy.

:

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

And yet, Mr. Hitchens is silent on the vast amount of male-oriented humor, much of which women find to be yucks at their expense.

(Don't get me wrong, I laugh too, but if my grade-school daughter, let alone the spousal unit, were in the room, I'd get an earful.)

Yo Chrissieepoo, Got Double Standard?

[radicalmoderate]

I laugh at and with women all the time. Sometimes because they are funny and sometimes because they act like women. Yes, I laugh at men because they act like men - as well. (Stupid is funny.)

I think Christopher Hitchens wishes he was funny and he's not. He's just weird enough to say what he thinks which at times is amusing and at times should get him into trouble. He reminds me of William F. Buckley with a British accent. Both men, both too serious for their own good.

But I do like about half of what he says, which is better than a lot of people. (Sometimes clever is funny.) He likes to push buttons and have real arguments to talk about the unspoken behind the facade and armor we all must wear. He seems a bit intimidated by women and generally just does not understand them. Has he ever been married? Someone should ask him about his mother?

In my opinion, God is an imaginary nurturer and women actually are nurturing - at least to me.

[radiclib]

.
Hitchens is funny in his own way, sort of like Buckley if Buckley spent a lot of time and money at the bar on the way home. Hitchens has a sort of brain-damaged intelligence that creates a nice tension when he is on television: What might roll next off his loose tongue?

It's a good thing, really, when he's being badgered by a punk like Sean Hannity and he responds to Hannity with superior wit and intelligence (OK, it's not hard to do, but few are willing to stand up to that bully and give him a taste of his own medicine).
.
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[Guitarsandmore]

I can always count on Christopher Hitchens to bring up some new paranoid fantasy that even I haven"t thought of yet. I mean brilliant but pointless and directionless doesn"t exactly contribute much to the world either Christopher.

I can tell you when my young cousin died at 26 she took most of the fun and laughter from one segment of the family right down with her and it has been too somber and too serious ever since. I would give up Christopher Hitchens for the rest of my life if I could have my young cousin back even for just one weekend.

[realpolitic]

Like many other authoritarians Hitchens would like to repeat the 1950's when women had a secondary role and were mainly around to support their men and minorities wwere invisible. Hitchens would like to return to this world and laments his inability to, as I suppose do many conservatives.

Let Hitchens go to Iraq and see the suffering and damge there to property and people's lives. i wonder if he would care?

[django707]

Your post? Unfortunate proof for the other side that women aren't funny. However, I highly recommend that Hitchens be forced to read Florence King, an essayist whose rapier wit would shred poor Mr. Hitchens.

[Desiderata]

One woman's joke is another woman's profound observation....

[larry278]

One may expect wit in a criticism of Mr Hitchens. Wit was absent from this blog. Posting items from a laundry list or the menu of a Chinese cafe does not show wit. I wonder which list the author used to compile her short blog. I should like to see the list she used in order to know of the items she dismissed as not being applicable to being used in her blog.
Those who dismiss women as not being funny are quite wrong. Wanda Sikes is funny. The late Gracie Allen was funny. The list of funny ladies is very long. I won't mention any more names from the list of funny ladies for I don't wish to emulate the author of this blog. To compile a blog or comment by choosing items from a list bores one's readers. It isn't fair to those who use HP.

[bridges]

Dear Larry,
A few questions. Did you actually read the post you're criticizing? Because the relationship between what you describe and what's in the blog is an interesting one. What is this laundry list of which you speak? And the menu of a "Chinese cafe" (something, by the way, I've never been in, heard about or knew existed. I've only been to Chinese restaurants. I guess you do learn something new everyday)? Nor do I understand what you are talking about you refer to "the items she dismissed as not being applicable to being used in her blog." ( I think removing "being used in her blog" would clean up the sentence syntax-wise. But content-wise, I'm still at a loss.) Also, and I hope you're sitting down and I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but, well, despite limiting yourself to naming two funny women in order to avoid emulating the author... you kind of emulate the author who names two comics. If Sarah Silverman and Tina Fey are a "laundry list" or "menu" you must have two pairs of underwear and eat at very boring, very limited Chinese cafes.

[Merlin7]

Christopher Hitchens is profoundly wrong about women comics and about the so-called War on Terror (which actually is just a blank check for the military-industrial complex). However, he is profoundly correct in his atheism, so his minor failings should be excused.

[darthmaul]

Hitchens is wrong about women comics, Silverman cracks me up. However, men do seem to think some things that are funny, that women find boorish and sophomoric. And I can think of no better example then The Three Stooges. Many men just love the three stooges, while women look at it and say "what? You think that's funny." Sorry, I'm a man, so I can help myself. Give me a dope slap!

[MsInformed]

Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck, nyuck...

Why, I oughta.....

Women come in as many varieties as men. Comes from being "people", I think. I dig the Stooges. They're boorish & sophomoric. Of course, my male friends think that of me.

P.S. Darth Maul wears too much make-up. What a tart!

[peterg76]

Sexism and corporate feudalism are hardly 'minor' failings.