Name me one politically-correct comedian who is actually funny. *hums Jeopardy theme* I’ll wait, I’ve got time.
Can you think of one? I can’t. All of the comedians I can think of who are funny are not politically correct. I mean that’s part, I think, of being a comedian, blurring the politically correct line. Tapdancing on all of the “rules” about what we can and can’t say.
George Carlin, HILARIOUS MAN. Politically correct? NOT ON YOUR FUCKING LIFE! I was reading this blog post, which I am not going to justify actually linking to cause the guy came across as a self-righteous prick, anyway he was talking about how Jeff Dunham isn’t funny. I disagree, because I’ve seen several of Jeff Dunham’s comedy specials and the man is funny. But that’s not why the guy comes across as such a dick. My mother has never seen Jeff Dunham and she thought that the guy in the article was taking himself WAY TOO SERIOUSLY.
He does state up-front that ventriloquism is not his thing. Which is okay, I mean there are forms of comedy that aren’t my thing. Fuck, I hate clowns and I’m not too into slapstick. But he gets so self-righteous about the fact that Jeff Dunham’s puppets are “ignorant”. Tell me does this not sound like a man who’s patting himself on the back for being so culturally aware?
“All of whom become unwilling vessels for Dunham’s mind-bogglingly surface, joyless dissections of race, class and cultural relations.”
I mean even if that was all I read I’d think the guy was a dick. Here’s the thing, dude: You can’t go through life without pissing a few people off. I think half the problems we have in the world stem from the fact that we have so wrapped ourselves up in the mummifying tape of political correctness and being inoffensive that we don’t even say things when we should. Sometimes what you DON’T say speaks far louder than what you do.
Now, I realize that I am a little bit full of shit here. Here in my little corner of the net I say whatever it is I want to and my opinion is the one that really counts. So on this guy’s blog he, too, is king. It’s his opinion and like assholes everyone has one of those. But meh, I think this guy’s asshole is clenched a little too tight around his windpipe.
ensuring that we have another pop-cultural dummy to articulate our barely concealed prejudices besides this guy.
Yeah, um, well, first see above, and second, it sounds like you’re just as prejudiced as you’re accusing Mr. Dunham of being. Having the ability to laugh at yourself is a really nice trait, it makes life soo much easier. Like Carlin, (I’m not saying Jeff Dunham is Carlin’s caliber but…) what can make Jeff Dunham funny is the fact that he insults EVERYONE. He uses prejudices for a laugh. But the dirty little secret that’s more an elephant in the room is that we all have prejudices. And not addressing that does not make said prejudices go away.
The analogy that comes to mind is the old cartoon gag where the cartoon character is trying to hide someone else and so he puts a lampshade on his head? Still there, still obviously whomever was being hidden, just now he’s got a frickin’ lampshade on his head.
Let’s take a case in point from Jeff Dunham’s montage of characters: Bubba J
Bubba J is a stereotypical redneck who lives in a trailer with his overweight, toothless wife. He likes beer and Nascar. He’s not too bright. Now if you tone down the over-the-topness of the character, peel away the caricature. I know this guy. I went to high school with a WHOLE class full of that guy.
*sigh* The characters in Jeff Dunham’s routine are not supposed to be realistic, dumbass. They’re caricatures. And before you look at Sweet Daddy Dee and says Oh! My! Gawd! He is soo prejudiced against black people, try unclenching, pulling your head out, and realizing that, like Carlin said: Anything is funny. All you have to do is have something way out of proportion to the rest of the joke.
To finish this rant I would like to add just one thing, I’m stealing this concept from a Penn & Teller’s: Bullshit (the one on profanity). We need to defend those very words and ideas that offend our political values, our social values, our religious values because it’s the only way that people truly have freedom of speech. If we cater to the majority and silence our criticism, our art, our music, our literature, our comedy we have allowed our freedom to be caged.
Well behaved women, as the quote goes, rarely make history.
The guy who wrote the article totally has a right to his opinion and I have the right to navigate away from the blog. Jeff Dunham has a right to his comedy and the guy who wrote the article has the right to turn off his TV… and go fuck himself
Tags: 1st Amendment, comedy, opinions, political correctness
