Shit! My Fault! (Not Really!) I Did Not Know She Was Trying to be Funny!

Ok.  I had hoped to get to the new year with out feeling so compelled to mention silly person Ann Althouse  again.  But this post is not only about her.  It is a re iteration of one of my favorite themes.

Try being funny at your own risk, bitches! And if you fuck it up, it's your fault, not the audience.

Now for the set up.  Althouse generally does this totally fucked up shit all the time, where at one level she plays devil's advocate, and sorta seems to advocate fucked up ness, by virtue of not then and harshly condemning such fucked up ness.  She will post quotes and links about issue  X, Y, or A, and not comment.  Or she will comment, and it's supposed to, I am guessing maybe, be tongue in cheek.  And apparently sometimes  she thinks she is being funny, and says shit that she thinks is funny and people lo and behold, don't get the fucking joke.  And according to her, sorta, it's yours  it's our fault for not getting the joke.

Case in point.  She (again with the fucked up ness in not being clear about what she actually thinks about the issue) posted some quote and link (go here  if you must) about  whether or not that racist piece of shit Ron Paul is a racist.  And her  own commentary, in the comment thread after  was . . . . let me just post that as a quote:

"Let's be fair. I think he made a lot of money on those newsletters. That's a completely separate motivation for publishing that stuff. Do you think everyone who publishes porn loves exaggerated, promiscuous sex?"

 Now to me, that in of itself is much fucked up.  Doesn't matter if he was cynically publishing racist homophobic shit to make money.  According to my rule, which is the same rule they told us runs the world, when we were in grade school, that all that shit goes on your permanent record?  Well using that kind of rule, if you run around pretending to be a racist and homophobe just to make money, you are showing yourself to the public as a racist and a homophobe.  That's the part that goes in your permanent record.  And ya can't blame people for judging you and harshly, if you run around acting all racist and homophobic.  I mean really?  As if it is everyone else's job to do the impossible and be able to figure out your fucked up motivations and fucked up inner self?  People can only judge based on what they see.  And if they see you acting like a racist homophobe, that as they say is that!

I went long there, but that's really my take on the whole  Did He Mean It, question.  I say it doesn't fucking matter.  Moving on  though, someone later takes her to task for seeming to defend Paul by talking about the alternative motivation for his racist seeming  behaviour.  Her reply to that?

"Sorry if my humor is too dry for you."

Now we get away from the racism shit and back to comedy theory.  I have said it before.  I will say it here again.  Try to be funny at your own fucking risk.  It is NEVER the fault of the audience for not getting your fucking lame assed  attempts at humor.  It is 100% the responsibility of the humorist/comedian/joke teller.  Professionals know this.  Fucking amateurs oftentimes  don't.  And I know.  Trying to be funny is something a lot of people do.  And I am not saying there should be some sort of law that says, only trained professionals should be allowed to attempt this.  But if someone is so reckless that they attempt to be funny in public, and don't pull it off?  It's their failure, not the audience.

And while I am at it.  There's a difference between a novel and a play.  And there is a difference between telling a joke (trying to be funny) in person or for tape/vid/film  and doing that in text only.  Text only is actually harder.  Why?  Because all the human communication parts are missing.  There's no physicality, no tone of voice, no facial messaging, and usually timing is off as well.

Now I have to admit that back when people still emailed jokes to me, I would often hack them  to make them read better as a joke, because  usually they were badly formatted.  And that all goes to my next point, and that is that it is one kind of recklessness to try to be funny in public, but trying to do it in text only communications?  That's really fucking hard to do.  Particularly when someone really does not get the core idea of comedy.  It's less about what the joke teller thinks is funny.  It's more about whether or not the joke teller successfully figures out what will be funny to the audience, and successfully  entertains the audience.

But again.  Unlike Althouse, who has her undergraduate degree in a narrow visual arts field,  I have mine in Theatre.  I did not exactly take a class in comedy theory.  But I did a little acting, and I know, it's the performers job to sell that shit.  It is not the audience's job to buy it. 

Edit to add:

I could have let it slide.  But ya know?  My argument is inferred in there when I talk about comedy theory, and permanent records.  But now that I have thought about it, I do not want to let it go.  Her fucked up remark about pornographers?  How fucked up is her thinking there?  I mean, really!  It doesn't fucking matter if a pornographer loves their work.  All that matters,  and all that is going on their permanent record is that they actually produced and marketed smut.  So that whole analogy was very much fucked up.

And in that vein, I will add the following image.  Sorta sums up my feelings, here.

Insane Ordinary Republican of the Year.

She Need Intensive Professional Help.

Ok.  Now I know for something of a fact that some Herb Cain fans went all verklempt when the perverted, philandering dog of pathological liar suspended his campaign.  One in particular I know of, is quite mad, quite out of his mind.  He was going to get my "Insane, Most Needs Professional Mental Health Treatment,  Ordinary Republican" Award for 2011.  Then I saw this vid.  Part of me just wants to think this is bullshit.  The other part of me thinks this is real, no so much because of the way the woman acts, cries, but the way the other woman off cam really seems to be sincerely reacting to her.  Never the less.  This year's award is a Tie between the crazy dood I mentioned, and this chick. 

Now I am only a lawyer who worked on a Risperdal case.  So no one should take me seriously if I say this lady might need some, or some med from the same class.  But lady definitely needs some treatment if she busts out in tears upon reading that Granpa Paul is a big old meanie when it comes to siding with Israel.  I mean really.  Crazy and stupid, because the one thing you can say about Granpa Paul is that he's like a broken record.  Been playing the same song, not only for not only years and years, but decades and decades.

(Oh.  The first version of the vid I saw was just the chick.  Version I linked to here has the set up by Cenk Uygur.  And he says one of my favorite lines!  "There's No Crying in Politics!"  Excellent!)

Haven't Done Quickies in a While. Let's Go: Reports of It's Demise Were Premature.

I was looking over on that damn message board I used to waste time at, arguing with GOPers and such nots.  And in a thread started by some asshole I know to be a deep and unrepentant racist, some other sorta racist  guy started in with that, the word racist means nothing  now, shit.

My thought?  Not yet.  You fucking racists haven't achieved total victory on that front, yet.  But I know you are not going to stop trying, and in merely  repeating the meme, you are trying.  Fucking racist.

How's that for a start?

Now on to the hotbed (pun not intended) of white wing nut racism, the U. Texas College Republicans.  I would be lying if I said I was horrified that the replacement for the previous evil president of that club is spewing racist nonsense  (and doubled down on it.)  I expect that sort of shit from those people.  So as far as I concerned, the line fits:  not a new low, but merely  a new medium. 

Ron Paul freaked out when called out on his old racist newsletter.  Now Grandpa Simpson.  Listen up.  It's hard to get reasonable people to take your word you are not a racist, when you let racist people spew racist shit in a newsletter published under your name . . . . .  time and fucking time and more fucking times, again and again.  But go ahead if you must.  Throw a tantrum when called out on the shitty shit that is in your permanent record.  Just like Herb Cain.  See how far whining like a bratty child gets ya?

Oh and speaking of Herb Cain, how's the litigation that will prove you never were the dog you were accused of being, going?  Ya.  I bet he's using the same crack (no pun intended) investigative team used by OJ to find the real killers, and Trump to dig into P. Obama's  birth certificate.  And I will take yet another shot at his supporters.  I mean really?  You fell for that shit?  How fucking stupid are you? 

There's that commercial for an insurance company where the woman finds out her prior plan was such a bad decision. She then wonders about all the other bad decisions she might have made in her life?  Ya. That to my mind sums up the typical Cain supporter.  Never mind the ones who played the race card for him.  I mean really.  There's merely stupid.  And then there is evil stupid.  And anyone who ran around playing the race card for Herb Cain is so evil stupid they really need to reevaluate not only every decision of their lives, they need to consult a competent mental health professional  and find out what exactly is their damage, so they can get the appropriate treatment.  But note. 

Some of those people likely are just sociopaths.  There's no real cure or med for that.  But if it's merely a tumor or some shit like that, we can cut the bad out, and leave the good.  Oh.  And if it's merely schizophrenia or some related organic dysfunction?  The new generation of anti psychotic meds are very powerful and do a much better job than the previous gen. (I know this because I have temp worked  directly and indirectly for NJ Pharma  companies.)

Ok.  I went long there,  but the worst part of the whole  Cain minstrel show was not so much the minstrel on stage, but the racist whites who shamelessly got off on that shit.  Anyway . . .

Getting back to evil white right wing racist politicians  taking shots at the Obama  family, that congress critter talking about Michelle's behind?  What sorta bad Meth were you smoking, dood?  Well it's unfair to make it about Hillbilly Crack, when it's likely the other kind of bad drug:  fuck face must listen to too much of that other fuck face, Rush Limbaugh.  He's set the all time historical record for big market pundit who dares go there.

Not that wives looks are totally off limits.  But you out yourself as yourself, if you go there to start, and even worse when it's obviously off the mark.  And the outing is outing one's self as just a hater.

BTW.  Ya wanna  see some actual big asses, go own down to your next local Tea Bagger rally. 

(Shit I am going there myself, but at least not directly at any particular person.  That's the safer way to go.  But still, any number of whiny assed tea baggers  would give me shit for that.  If they could keep up with me.  Those little power scooters they get from their socialist government run medical program that they use to move their fat asses around can't keep up with me and my long legs!)

Ok.  I will stop there.  Please!  Please get me to New Year's!

Not Feeling It.

I mean, ya. Sure. If I tried really hard I could get all upset about Ron Paul's tone deaf racism, but ya know? We did this dance before with the son. Now we know where son got his buttfuck insane, racist-friendly, if not loving ideas from. So it's hard to be at all surprised, or otherwise pretend, we didn't know this before. But here goes.

Dr. Rep. Paul. Listen up. If one recognizes a "property right" in being able to discriminate by race, and then one goes even further and defends the "property right" in being able to discriminate by race, and one doesn't approve of laws that impede this "property right" in being able to discriminate by race? Then one is defending racism. Whether or not your heart is in the racism part is so close to irrelevant, that it really doesn't matter. You are supporting racism. That's not classic racism, in the sense one is not engaging directly in the racist act itself. But one is so culpable in the offense, that ya know? (Guess you don't, so let me tell you the truth) what you are doing is so close to racism, that we will just consider you a racist. We will continue to consider you a racist unless and until you change your mind and say that racism is so personally against your beliefs that you think government should fight it.

You are not allowed to pretend to be neutral. Either you are against that shit, or you are not. And if you are not, you are supporting it.


* * *

And a few quickies. Huckabee likes his big fat Fox paychecks, so he's not going to run. But I am sure he will say stupid stuff, still. Expect more racist-loving dog whistles.

Newt is in the race. He invented a new racist dog whistle, "Food Stamp President." Then denied the racist dog whistle. Then he doubled down and pulled out the tried and true one about "Detroit." How many different ways can this old Georgia bigot imply that P. Obama is taking the nation "Ghetto," with out actually saying it that bluntly? We will see, as I am sure he has only just begun, with that rancid shit.

Let the shit storm begin. It should get to be particularly rancid when Herman Cain starts stealing Newt's lines or line of business. And Bachmann? Oh my gawd. I should not want to see her go down that road. But I got to say, we know it's coming. Can't stop it. It's a runaway train of racist crazy talk coming round the bend.

Revolutionaries 1, Mubarak 0. The Soccer Match is Over.

But a new chapter in Egyptian society and government begins.

And I can only hope they end up with a more responsible, less corrupt, and more (conventionally, in western enlightenment philosophical terms) free and freedom loving society. But I am seriously anti any thing that smacks of violating Jefferson's Wall of Separation, no matter the religion being in any way exalted or supported. That's the way I roll.


Moving on, kids. What's the difference between a wing nut and a Dem where mentally ill people are concerned?

A Dem finds someone acting or talking crazy, and we want to get them some proper medical treatment.

A wing nut finds someone acting, talking crazy, and they want to give them a radio and or TV show, and or put them in front of congress to testify, or vote them into congress.

Ok. There are two (maybe three) stories driving that bit.

One, I watched that Don Imus thinks Glenn Beck is scary, but loves him, video.

Two, I read the story about Paul the Elder's star witness for a hearing being some insane, Lincoln hating neo secesh trash racist.

And for a third reason, everyone (mostly) at CPAC who is a self described conservative.



Notes: I know Imus is not considered a true wing nut, but he sorta swings that way.

And the source for the video I saw is actually mediaite. And I despise that virtual Yellow Journalism blog, and do not want to endorse it (even if I look at it daily. Go to keep my eye on them bastids!)