update - part of the fault on letterman's part was understandable

[acroyear]

though not to the Palin family, who as we have established remain humor-impaired in spite of the last year of SNL.

The joke reference was simply "daughter getting knocked up by A-Rod" at the Yankees game.  The problem: while it is to anybody not paying detailed attention at the family (i.e., 99.99999% of the country that are sick of them) that is an obvious reference to Bristol, it turns out that Willow (where the hell do they get these names?), who is only 14, was the one actually at the game earlier that day.

So a big oops to Letterman's writers for not connecting one and one, and a continued big "fuck you" to the Palin's for looking at a joke in the most literal sense possible, assuming the worst possible interpretation, and refusing to acknowledge who a joke's target really is.

Comments

Respectfully I disagree.

[eiredrake.livejournal.com]

Personally I don't think the joke was funny. It doesn't matter which Palin spawn he's talking about. He was over the line. He was over the line with the "Slutty flight attendant" comment too. This is just as much over the line as McCain joking about how the reason why Chelsea was so ugly was because Janet Reno was her father.

it's one thing to criticize them for their wacky religious believe. It's one thing to criticize the whole abstinence only hypocrisy. It's find to call into question her qualifications or her hypocrisy about government spending or her questionable uses of power.

But those were personal attacks (and far too personal for my taste) plain and simple. I despise Palin and I have to say that I was offended by those jokes just as I was offended by Wanda Sykes and her "I hope your kidneys fail" and "Rush is the 20th hijacker" even though I think Limbaugh is a wart on the ass of society. Those of us who aren't right wing douchebags are supposed to be better than that kinda thing and it makes the whole progressive movement look bad when people on 'our side' behave like that. Attacking someone's offspring is something that neo-cons do. We shouldn't be emulating them.

Re: Respectfully I disagree.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

agree yet disagree to a degree. i certainly see your point and think it would have been better off if
1) letterman's people simply avoided personal attacks entirely,
2) letterman's people simply avoided the palin's entirely, since that would speed their demise into obscurity all the more quickly.

the issue for me is the specific verbage of Todd's reaction: "Mainstream America". It is THAT which drove me to madness over it this week. saying something is Crossing the line of "good taste" is one thing.

Palin's response was a specific, political attack on ALL entertainers: give America what WE decide America wants or we'll make examples out of you, too, because in spite of losing horribly in the election, we KNOW we're the real America and you're not and never will be.

The attack was one of exclusion: we're American and you're not, because you are a "liberal" or whatever else they decide. it is a continuation of the divisiveness that has exemplified the Republican party and fuck them, but they needed to be called on it.

Re: Respectfully I disagree.

[eiredrake.livejournal.com]

I agree that they need to be called out for being cockknockers. But personal attacks on the woman's family are out of bounds. It was out of bounds when McCain was making jokes about Chelsea Clinton. I twas out of bounds when Limbaugh was doing it too.

If Dave wants to attack Palin, let him attack her merits wit the truth. Because the truth is she has no real merits. She's an idiot, she has no real experience, she's a crooked politician and the only reason she was chosen as VP in the first place was because she gets neo-conservatives feeling good about themselves because she's hot. Being hot doesn't' make somebody a good President.

And the fact is that all that Dave has done is given the right wing lunatic fringe something to further demonize the left about and renewed this woman's 15 minutes of fame that should have experienced months ago. Putting her face on the air and her name on the lips of people ONLY HELPS HER. There is no bad publicity - especially when someone that is on the opposite end of the political ideology from you is 'attacking you for no reason'. It's political gold that only serves to strengthen her "I'm a poor neo-con and I'm being oppressed by the filthy liberal heathen majority".

Dave stepped right into it and made everybody center and left look bad. I don't appreciate that. Last thing we need is personal attacks on that bint re-energizing support for her from the base of inbred rejects who wanted her in the first place. 2012 is still on the horizon and if we underestimate the ability of the enemy to manipulate the dumbasses who voted for Bush twice (despite his utter failure to make money off of an oil company and a baseball team and his COMPLETE failure as a President) then we're going to lose this majority we have and end up worse off than if the country had just elected Palin in the first place.