I told myself I was not going to use my blog for topical commentary. No rants on politicians, no current affairs claptrap… now I have to go whack myself after I post this, then comment about what a liar I was. Am. Are. Whatever.
I don’t like Gilbert Gottfried much. The nasal twangy New Yorker parody voice combined with the squinted eyes was annoying to me rather than funny. I remember laughing over one bit he did, about Jews in elevators not being scary; other than that I would refuse to watch him. He was sort of funny in “Beverly Hills Cop”. Sort of.
I do NOT think he should have been fired by AFLAC over the Twitter posts. Aside from the fact that they were no worse than Dead Baby jokes (still told in high schools BTW) or many gallows humor gags:
“Jesus walks in to a motel. He hands the clerk three nails and says ‘Can you put me up for the night?’”
“Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the show?”
“What does NASA stand for? Need Another Seven Astronauts.”
they were rude comments made by… a rude comic. It’s his JOB to be controversial, and to parody, mock and make japes about anything and everything. Bill Cosby did a routine about getting drunk and sticking your head in a toilet to puke; Jello let him keep working. OK, that may not be a good analogy. Tough shit. My point is that while I can see someone saying “well that was tasteless” AFLAC had no business firing him. Gilbert was NOT wearing a duck costume at the time. Some of Disney’s movies have been accused of racism and poor ethics… yet they are carried on every major cable channel, even though Walt has been outed as being highly anti-semitic.
And if firing Gottfried was right, why has Fox not dropped Glenn Beck? “God may be sending a message…” in regards to Japan? Is that not equally insensitive? Oh, wait, I forgot. That was Fox…
Alexandra Wallace posted an instantly viral video, ranting about Asians abusing the facilities at UCLA. I am appalled that she got death threats over this, that people hacked her and posted her class and finals schedules… yet no one is demanding they get punished. She may get expelled by UCLA… for expressing an opinion? I would get pissed if limited facilities in (presumably) off campus housing for STUDENTS was being monopolized by non-students. And people on cell phones in a library? Totally wrong. I would have done two things first; confronted the people, and if that produced no result, complained to the apartment managers or housing admins, and to the librarians. If that didn’t solve the problem, I might well have ranted online myself. I may not agree with your opinion; I will defend your right to have one, and to make it public. I despise the Klan, neo-Nazis, all of that ilk. They are still entitled to have rallies. And if they decide put a burning cross up, fine. I’ll just erect a fat buck-toothed white guy holding a jug of moonshine and wearing a ratty white sheet, and set that on fire. Right next to them. Tit for tat.
Now there is a NEW viral hate going about, over a teen girls music video. I’m talking about Rebecca Blacks “Friday”. I listened. It’s over-produced, has more voice-box vibro distortion than Cher used in her entire 5 year tour, and has some of the most insipid dippy lyrics I have ever heard. It’s STILL not as bad as a B-Side single called “Milk Cow” by Norman Greenbaum, which was with “Spirit in the Sky”. No one made death threats against Norman for “Milk Cow”. Trust me, that song is FAR worse than “Friday”. I once won concert tickets in a “worst song ever” radio contest with that song. The DJ found it, and immediately announced I was the winner. He would not even play it he said it was so bad. Tickets to see The Cramps, if anyone cares; “Bad Music for Bad People”. We miss you Lux Interior.
This girl is getting death threats too! Hundreds of thousands of people ranting about her. Why? Because we allow it. Because the interwebz allows anonymous bullying and defamation. The skinny little dweeb that used to get stuffed in his locker can now go online and post “I’m going to eat your liver you insipid racist bitch!” and get away with it. We have lost all concept of manners, because the internet has allowed us to unleash our own inner demons on anyone we choose. Like the Krell, our monsters of the Id race about in cyberspace contaminating and rending all that is not in utter sheep-like agreement. That has spread out into the rest of the world as well. “I can talk on my cell phone at any volume on any subject anywhere, because I am entitled to because I bought this iPod.” “How dare you listen to me! This is a private conversation!” “How dare you interrupt me! I’m talking here!” OK, that’s it. Find me a locker, that putz is going inside.
