Many folks believe that shock-jock Don Imus should change his name from Don Imus to I’m A Dumbass because he stupidly referred to the black players on Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos on his Radio Talk show.
“My goal is to goad people into saying something that ruins their life.”
Unfortunately he goaded himself into saying something that ruined his own life!
He got fired!
He should know by now that
A. For whatever reason the only individuals who are exempt from being Politically Correct are Comedians and
B. the second rule is that only people who appear to be from a specific socio/ethnic group are allowed to make disparaging remarks about themselves and their group.
Well guess what else happened..two decades of 'black' Hip Hop Gansta Rappers propogating the image of young black women as vapid penis receptacles and exploiting them in their lyrics and on their videos has come to fruition and I think that finally this weird double standard will now be subjected to some scrutiny under the cultural microscope.
I saw Her Sereneness, Maya Angelou, last night on TV and she said that this event should not be wasted and that there needs to be a dialogue about this terrible image. She went on to say that those rappers are smart enough to recognize their responsibility and that they going to be forced to clean up their acts. Angelou said that maybe this incident will generate a real discussion that might help to heal this nasty gaping wound that haunts the very fabric of American Life.
Now I am all for Freedom of Speech (hence the banner) but there has to be some context…
He should know by now that
A. For whatever reason the only individuals who are exempt from being Politically Correct are Comedians and
B. the second rule is that only people who appear to be from a specific socio/ethnic group are allowed to make disparaging remarks about themselves and their group.
Well guess what else happened..two decades of 'black' Hip Hop Gansta Rappers propogating the image of young black women as vapid penis receptacles and exploiting them in their lyrics and on their videos has come to fruition and I think that finally this weird double standard will now be subjected to some scrutiny under the cultural microscope.
I saw Her Sereneness, Maya Angelou, last night on TV and she said that this event should not be wasted and that there needs to be a dialogue about this terrible image. She went on to say that those rappers are smart enough to recognize their responsibility and that they going to be forced to clean up their acts. Angelou said that maybe this incident will generate a real discussion that might help to heal this nasty gaping wound that haunts the very fabric of American Life.Now I am all for Freedom of Speech (hence the banner) but there has to be some context…
I don’t have to agree with what someones says..as a matter of fact I don’t even have to listen... but we are in the 21st Century and we know enough about Human Psychology to understand that continuing these stereotypes may be destructive and yet every Comedian embellishes those stereotypes and capitalizes upon them.
I wonder how many outsiders actually 'GET' the inside angle or does this just perpetuate and aggravate the situation? Does this practice break the tension and perpetuate the pigeonholing?
For instance look at the liberties taken by Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles..I suspect that far too many people didn’t GET IT and that the subliminal messages inside of the jokes were merely lost on the rednecks and racists.
I confess that I am quite comfortable with the idea that only Comics can say (almost) whatever they want to…
I confess that I am quite comfortable with the idea that only Comics can say (almost) whatever they want to…
BILL MAHER"We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
"The Dalai Lama visited the White House and told the President that he could teach him to find a higher state of consciousness. Then after talking to Bush for a few minutes, he said, "You know what? Let's just grab lunch."
CHRIS ROCK"It's sad that your taxes don't cover any medical. No medical. I think doctors make too much money, you know why? Because they don't cure anything. Everything they cured, they cured 50 years ago.
They ain't cured anything in a long time, man, you know, diseases are piling up, man, we've cancer, sicacell, and Geri's Kids still limping around. Come on, Man, get rid of something. Some diseases, they just gave up on. They said: "To hell with it!" Like blindness.
You go blind, they don't got nothing for you. You go to a doctor, tell him you're blind, he says, "Hey why don't you get this dog to drag your blind ass around." Where's the medicine? Where's the science? I'm blind! I can't see! There's people that can see that can't handle a dog! Come on, give me a midget or something!"
"For those doubters out there who keep asking the question is America ready for a black president?I say why not?We just had a retarded one"
DENNIS MILLER"As for what many are calling racial profiling in the aftermath of September 11th, well, get ready to be pissed off, you ACLU-F***ing-Morons, we're dealing with a massive threat and limited manpower, so, you want them to check everybody out equally? Sure, fine okay, but let's at least compromise and put the Swedish dwarf a little further down the list than the Iraqi explosives expert carrying a Belgian passport with more eraser marks on it than Kid Rock's trig final."
STEPHEN COLBERT"I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers, and rubble, and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message that no matter what happens to America she will always rebound with the most powerfully staged photo-ops in the world."
"Al Gore has a hit movie called 'An Inconvenient Truth.' I have an inconvenient truth for him: you're still not the president. "
JON STEWART"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land."
"We have it. The smoking gun. The evidence. The potential weapon of mass destruction we have been looking for as our pretext of invading Iraq. There's just one problem - it's in North Korea!"
Nobody else is allowed to talk like this..
why is that?
why is that?
Old Rolf Harris sings a song called "tie me Kangaroo down sport"
ReplyDeleteOne line says "Let me abo's go loose."
Abo's is a short name for aborigines....
For friggin' years he sang it but recently he has seen the error of his ways.........FUCK!
spooked by God?
and refuses to sing that verse again.....
what is different between now and then????
Me thinks people get offended because it actually makes THEM the centre of attention.
Hell man call me anything you want just not late for dinner.
I know who is serious and who is joking when I am called alsorts of werid and wonderful names...they are either a mate or a total wanker...... it is that simple.....
I hate to do it HE but a wee bit of chopper is required again.....
I do appoligise for my language and I do hope I didn't offend anyone of note...
Geez........Get a life!
"Harden the FUCK UP!"
HE its like this...u can tell when someone is just joking and when someone is saying something to really offend. The tone of speech says it all.
ReplyDeleteBut ppl who get offended even when it's just a joke...I say chuck em!
Keshi.
HE - come on over to my spot and read my rant. I'm Still fielding private emails.
ReplyDeletehttp://morewgalo.blogspot.com/2007/04/rant.html
Often (not always) when a comedian cracks a disparaging remark it's to make a socio-political point. Chris Rock was commenting on the shit state of medical care in America, for instance. Don Imus wasn't making a point. He wasn't commenting on a social deficit in America. He wasn't drawing the public attenction to the hypocrisy of its political leaders. He was just being insulting to get himself more attention. And more money.
ReplyDeleteno frikkin kidding. I don't get political correctness and why we don't all honour the same code of ethics when it comes to people groups.
ReplyDeleteWhy does something tell me that in a couple months we'll hear that Imus has signed a contract with some other major media outlet, bettering his former salary...
ReplyDeletea very good question indeed...
ReplyDeleteBlazing Saddles is one of the greatest films ever made,followed by any monty python, then by Robin Hood Men in Tights and Flying high (Airplane as you advised in the US of A).
ReplyDeleteIn the Words Of TOOL:
" I cant say what I want to. Even if I'm not serious. "
I think mostly it comes down to tone... and personality type, some comedians can make sex funny, others just sound smutty... its the same principle...
May biggest peeve is when people try and justify something by adding the term "but i suppose that is not politically correct"
These are people who generaly read tabloids, watch a current affair..
Example: I think black people should have to work for free in my garden; but i suppose that is not politically correct.
Ok i am sure i had a point in there somewhere..
take care
Aidan
comedy is a culturally designated 'safe zone' and laughter is a designated 'safe' form of agreement.
ReplyDeleteit is weird, isn't it? my girl Augie and I can call each other 'muk' and a couple other really offensive names i won't repeat here (and you know it I won't repeat them that they have to be REALLY BAD) but nobody who ain't red better THINK to try.
Screw Imus and all those other shock jocks. I think Chaucer's Bitch was perfectly right.
ReplyDeleteThank God for true comedic geniuses like Bill Maher, the best in my opinion.
They're our only outlet. If we have the feeling we can't do anything about what's going on, at least we can laugh at them saying exactly what we'd LIKE to say.
Great post.
It really didn't help that his ratings were dropping off the map and they were losing money. It made letting him go that much eaiser.
ReplyDeleteYou know, some comics have a way of saying things that make you immediately split your spleen with laughter. You can't help but laugh at some jokes, even though you know *inside* that those jokes come at a high price to the emotions of others. Racial jokes, are still racial. No matter if you take 'hits' at white, blacks, hispanics, or any other race. It is still wrong. But we all love a good laugh, right?
ReplyDeleteStrange, how we all, no matter what race, have struggled to get where we are. Struggled to gain the simplest of freedoms, such as freedom of speech and religion, yet, we attack those things and misuse the freedom, that we have been given.
We are all free thinkers, given the will to choose freely...in most cases.
To make comments that stereotype an entire race is wrong. I often poke fun at folks...but I try to keep it aimed at that 'individual'.
I am black... but I am no nappy headed ho. I have been called 'pretty' but I am no 'video bitch'. Rappers have to step up the game, as the rest of us...when we respect ourselves as a people, we command respect from others.
Ok, enough rambling, I make no sense.
I guess the problem with Imus - and I never actually heard the radio piece, but I'm guessing that he probably wasn't trying to tell a joke. There's no way he was trying to be funny with that line.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough issue, but I hope we can all agree that Imus - whom I had never heard of before last week - is a complete douche.
Yep I am with Keshi, people need to loosen up, gimme a good joke, any joke and I will laugh :)
ReplyDeletesteve HTFU,
ReplyDeleteI always loved that song but after Midnight Oil I wondered how poorly the reference to Australia's First Asians would be taken in this day and age.
I know what you're sayin' and it is different if you're hangin' around with buddies who belong to whatever minority group..they always have the most wicked insider jokes!
Then if some arsehole made a dumbass remark to one of your buddies in public you'd sock that arsehole in the jaw.
There is the rub.
keshiroo,
I agree and I have often taken advantage of such situations but everybody around me knows that I am an open minded egalitarian who makes light of things to shine an ironic twist on the matter at hand....who still says the matter at hand?
deb,
I am delighted to report that I joined in the fray and thought that your presentation was extremely well executed.
chaucer's bitch,
Exactly. I get that. I was just wondering out loud why Comedians still get away with it..don't you think that it is weird that we have left one small corner of society freedom of speech...it is the exact opposite of what a politician can say.
joyce,
I know where PC is supposed to take us but in reality there are plenty of living examples of all of those ridiculous stereotypes wandering around town as we speak.
It still comes down to people being either charming or tedious..on an individual basis.
paul,
Yessirree Bob! I would bet my bottom dollar that the NRA or KKK will fund a brand new venue for Imus and that the annoying cliche/rule that there is no bad publicity in show business will prevail.
angel,
OK then I guess that I need a very good answer?
aidan,
I love Blazing Saddles too because it was such a hoof in the nuts about how awful Frontier America was but told through it's favorite medium, the Western. All of those old westerns were filled to the brim with cliches...good guys always wore white hats and 'Injuns' were faceless savages that were shot off of their horses in the hundreds by a handful of pioneers from the safety of the circled wagons.
Mel shot the whole thing to smithereens!
first nations,
It is a weird safe zone and probably the only honest avenue for discussion that we have left.
Canada desperately needs a comedic star to arise out of the aboriginal community..and a martin luther...our conflict continues to drag on and billions are siphoned into the the hands of a few band leaders at the expense of those who need it...pathetic...and I am sick to death of supposedly being responsible for the actions of dead euro trash who got us into this mess in the first place.
within a new avatar,
Exactly but why are there so many hateful dumbasses around? It only takes ONE idiot to paint all of us white guys with the same brush? We are so ridiculous...other species can recognise different members by smell why do we do it by sound.
andy,
greetings! Is that right..I don't doubt it. Those right wing talking heads are a dime a dozen and they have dominated the airwaves for decades...time for a change...who the hell still listens to radio anyway?
awaiting,
Love the new look! I am with you 100%! It is more fulfilling to insult individuals than groups and generalizations are complete BS..unless we're talking about right wing radio hosts!
notafanofImusblogger,
Well done AB. It was a throwaway line that he probably never even noticed as it left his mouth..it was the kind of redneck joke that he and his buddies probably toss around day and night...but Al Sharpton needs a swift kick in the nuts..he is really getting on my nerves....tone down the rhetoric and give it a rest.
cazzie,
ReplyDeleteLaugh and the world laughs WITH you,
bitch and the world laughs AT you.
It's 1 am what am I doing up?
I just want to tell you, HE, that I can't handle that Angelou woman at all -I think she's full of it and when I see her face I feel like punching her lights out. It doesn't help that Oprah thinks the sun shines out of that woman's rear end.Who knows, maybe it does, it's probably big enough.Oh course I don't REALLY mean this. But then again...
ReplyDeletelee,
ReplyDeleteLet's put my money where your mouth is and stage a celebrity boxing match..Womano a Womano...no holds barred cage match..winner takes all!
I'm taken you at 10 to 1 odds in the 2nd round.
This event will be a ratings bonanza and I am sure that Oprah would be happy to host the event LIVE from her new fancy schmancy school auditorium in Africa.
Let's get ready to rrrruuummmmbbbbllleee!!!
It is frustrating, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteZappa didn't pull any punches- he wasn't exactly a comedian, though, just a genius.
(Aphrodite's Child is on yer faves list?...that's cool.Now I gotta go blog about April Wine. Really, I do.)
I think you should change the title from "I must be" to "I am an"...
ReplyDelete*running away*
GAUTAMI
PS: I am already in the bad books of your...err...friend...WW..!!
allan,
ReplyDeleteHey Man!
The Four Horsemen is my favorite alltime bestus guitar solo EVER!
My fave April Wine is Victim For Your Love on Stand Back...
Holy Canadian Content Batman!
gautami,
Oh no you don't!
I mus' is an obvious play on his name and there is no room for grammatical schmattical tomfoolery from either you or WW! I reserve the right to be PUNny and if you two want to play English 101 be my guest but do it on your own postings!
I kin spal aneewhey I wont two..
and quite frankly I am usually far more diligent about THE QUEEN'S ANGLISCHE than most riters owt heer inn kace yu hadint knowtissed!!
well it made me laugh
ReplyDelete"The Four Horsemen is my favorite alltime bestus guitar solo EVER!"
ReplyDelete-that'll get you linked.
ziggi,
ReplyDeleteAnd well it should! Geez that sounds like something Yoda would say..No he'd say,
"Laugh you will it should"..ever notice that Yoda has a Shatnerian delivery...that scares me a little.
allan,
Prolly..but I fear that it will attract old fartic stoner Boomers who bare a striking resemblence to Jeff Albertson, the Comic Book Guy in the Simpsons.
Great post, HE. I think we all need to head down the pub and watch some old Monty Python sketches now, just to cool the ashes a bit.
ReplyDeleteBut there AREN'T so many hateful dumbasses around. Pricks like this guy are SO part of a tiny minority.
ReplyDeleteWe're not like them.
In fact, 95 per cent of any group aren't like the loudmouth schnooks like this waste of breath who somehow get all the publicity just because they're so outrageous.
This guy was given a voice, for whatever reason, by some stupid arse media mogul. And predictably, he has finally overstepped his bounds...then all of a sudden the political correctness card is played.
Again, it all comes back to us. Why would we listen to the guy in the first place?
And as soon as we didn't, the guy would be tossed out like yesterday's soiled shorts.
The advertisers would dump him. Presto changeo.
andrea,
ReplyDeleteNudge Nudge, Wink Wink,
Say No More!
I'm so relieved that we Canadians don't have any problems with our Country because heaven forbid that 30 million passive aggressive people get motivated enough about an issue to shun their representatives and hope that the Government would be able to see that they are being..dare I say it.. 'ignored'!
The silence would be deafening!
withered wizenheimer,
Right Wing Shock Jocks absolutely dominate the radio market in the USA. I'm not exactly sure why that is but I suspect that their audience is just catchin' on to that thar electromicity thingabmabob and they are all a titter about them radio contraptions!
These gun totin', technologically isolated, poorly educated, rural, conspiracy nuts would love nothing better than to resurrect the good 'ol days and live like freemen did back in the 1890s when men were men and sheep were nervous.
Apparently they buy tons of crap from Mallwart n' such because advermatisers can only reach them by radio!
Who knew?
Great post, HE!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the very nice visit!
Great to have you stop on by!
Take care!
Margie
P.S I'll be gone from Blogland for a while.
Life is calling me, bit it's all good!
Hi Marge,
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful visit in the RW! Don't forget to take a lot of notes so that you can write about it.
Imus' little brain fart has touched off a pro forma shitstorm,
ReplyDeletebut as usual, it's an event that's
heavily seasoned with media hype.
Oops! Can't believe I put it that
way... what I meant (of course) is
that the same folks who keep the
ratings up (us?) to the delight of
media jugheads and advertisers who were naturally shocked (shocked!) at his unkind remarks, and so pulled the plug (yet another way of "rounding up the usual suspects") on his sorry ass.
These things have a way of
sorting themselves out. After doing
some time in the media pokey, or,
until the meta-news value has lost
public interest, Imus will probably
discover huge oil reserves under
his ranch. No such fate awaits the
infotainment (oops, I meant,
'news') industry won't even break stride.
The great irony is that actual
relations between folks doesn't
live up to the hype surrounding
this whole circus. It would be nice
to see the music biz take another
direction, for everyones sake.
Mmm Stephen Colbert!
ReplyDeleteIt's all about respect. Using sarcasm to poke fun at serious issues is OK. Not only does it make us laugh, it mocks the stupidity in the media we deal with every day.
There is a line, Imus crossed it. I doubt anyone thought his remark was funny. If they did, they're just as pathetic.
The way women are portrayed these days in music is unacceptable and a poor example for our youth. Not only in rap music, in other music as well. It's our responsibility as parents not to let our kids buy into this bullshit. If more parents paid attention to what their kids were watching and listening to, maybe things would change.
I have never watched the programs of these entertainers or listened to any of their talk shows but I read about their controversies. I think people just need to follow the Rules of Grandma - "Be nice."
ReplyDeleteThat means a lot. It includes civility, respect and a sense of propriety. Some people are dumb and they can't help it or can't be helped.
grumblicious,
ReplyDeleteI have little doubt that he will somehow mange to get up on another soapbox..probably satellite radio.
For whatever reason a certain segment of the American population LOVE to hear good ole boys yak about the way things outta be!
christine,
I knew that you'd like the Colbert!
As a music lover I have long deplored the way that the gangsta schmucks have represented all the finest bitches and hos. WTF!?
How did they get away with that sh*t while the rest of us Gentlemen had to tuck our wangers between our legs? all that you can do is fill your kids with self esteem and point out how DUMB it is for those wankers to be so insecure.
ces,
I agree..howzabout we reintroduce this generation to the old Everything That I Needed To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.
Do you remember that?
Maybe people should question their perceptions of certain stereotypes and analyze whether or not they think that the way in which we've been taught to believe that something is "proper" or not is synonymous with being superior.
ReplyDelete