So there's this little publicity hoo-haa going on about Chris Rock's humor in some interviews he's given in advance of hosting the Oscar show. Most notably, some have latched onto his comments that straight men don't watch the Oscars, that only gay men are interested in the Oscars because they're just a fashion show.
Among other things, this has resulted in a critical editorial in The Daily Telegraph, which said:
Mr Rock's comments touch a very raw nerve. The days when well-respected gay men who were "outed" as having watched the Oscars faced open hatred and private shame are gone. But despite the considerable advances that have been made in public understanding, for many people the decision to watch the Oscars remains an intensely private one.The ugly blight of Oscarphobia has yet to be entirely eradicated, and it is difficult for many otherwise ordinary homosexuals - when in their teens they first find themselves struggling with frightening and unnatural urges to stay up late and watch a bunch of phony old actors congratulating themselves on being rich - to share, except with the closest intimates, their feelings about who looked best on the red carpet. Their eyes may swell with answering tears as they watch Gwyneth Paltrow blub; but these are tears they choose not to shed in public. These people deserve our sympathy, not our condemnation.
I must admit to being a bit intrigued by these comments. On first glance, they seem like just the most vacuous bit of contrived PC stupidity.
Thinking again, is the paper pulling our legs? Could they really sincerely be arguing that men have "faced open hatred and private shame" for watching the Oscars on tv? When was this? It seems just on the edge of outright satire.
So the question then, are these people the world's biggest wussies, or are they just trying to get some right wing goats?
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - johnboy
You moron.
It's called humour.
Bloody Americans really are the most bland and humourless people ever to walk this earth.
2 - Mike Kole
Conservative talker Sean Hannity was all over Rock the other day for these comments. I thought it typical of how Hannity took the comments, and then took Rock's stand-up act with all the profanity it offers, and deemed him unworthy of hosting the Oscars, as though he would necessarily make the same presentation at the Oscars as he might on stage elsewhere. If it's an attempt to get Hannity's goat, it worked. On the other hand, he knows *his* audience, and that kind of grandstanding is what many of them want to hear.
Of course, I remember people like Don Rickles, who had a highly profanity-laced stage act, hosting high profile tv specials, without an FCC problem of any kind.
There is a part of America who wants sanitized airwaves- witness the last two Super Bowls for the before and after. To peg all Americans as bland and humorless (correct spelling), is to discount the fact that Rock even exists.
3 - Sandra Smallson
Hannity is just a caricature. One watches him with all the interest one afforded The Jerry Springer show in the "great" days. You wondered how the world could be filled with so many imbecilic morons, yet you watched on, because it was/is a perverse pleasure. Are they really as daft as they look? They are, but it's fun to watch.
What upsets me is the weak token Democrat on Fox. Alan Colmes. Surely, they could have found a more quick witted Democrat with the gift of the gab. When I listen to Hannity, it's so easy to think of comebacks to put him in his place, yet, only rarely do decent comebacks come out from the mouth of Colmes. Sometimes, I wonder if the 2 or 3 Democrats on Fox are not really Democrats but are actors. Just to help them out with this "fair and balanced" nonsense they say every millisecond.
As far as Chris and the Oscar..I say...ROCK ON! At least I have a renewed interest in the thing. By the way, does the Drudge man have physical impairments? (just curious) He seemed to be hanging strangely to the left, and shaking everytime he said something.
Regarding his comments, he clearly has penis envy when it comes to Chris Rock. I am not Rock's greatest fan, but he is funny more often than not and even if I hated him, the crap from Hannity and Drudge has rekindled some love for him all of a sudden. I now think he is the best thing to have happened to the Oscars and can not wait to watch it. I hope he cracks all those risky jokes. That's what I love about his show.
Hopefully he won't be rooting for Jamie Foxx to win. If Leonardo Dicaprio does not win that Oscar, I will be hugely disappointed. All this "RAY" madness is lost on me.
4 - Temple Stark
humorless (correct spelling)humorless).
Ah, lame insults come in so few words. What rotten behaviour.
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
this article was obviosly a joke, though. and quite a good one. reminds me of a radio 4 sketch one time about a middle class fella outing himself as "stupid" to his parents. "how long has this been going on?" and so on.
6 - Al Barger
Johnboy, I see that you correctly analyzed the Telegraph piece as humor, a parody of PC whining. I somewhat suspected that.
However, I'm just a dumb Kentuckian, so I'm a little slow on the uptake. What exactly was the clear giveaway of the satiric nature of the piece? It LOOKED a little like humor, but there's so much egregious foolishness coming particularly from left wing schmucks these days that it's hard to tell.
For example, consider the recent flap over Lawrence Summers remarks about possible genetic gender differences in science professions. This Nancy Hopkins chick- a supposedly highly rated professor- responds with all this hysterical female crap about she was going to faint or throw up.
This seems much more obviously satirical to me than the Telegraph piece. The feminist responds to a supposed misogynist argument with the most ridiculous stereotypical female behavior imaginable.
Yet she was apparently dead serious. How can I tell the difference between satire and pure stupidity? Enquiring slow redneck minds want to know.
7 - Mark Saleski
but there's so much egregious foolishness coming particularly from left wing schmucks these days
as opposed to the egregious foolishness coming from right wing schmucks.
8 - Al Barger
Sorry Mark, but the lion's share of egregious foolishness, at least in recent years, has definitely been coming from the left. You might wish to insist on saying the two sides are equal this way in order to be fair and balanced, but the facts on the ground do not support such an egalitarian view. Where's the Republican Nancy Hopkins?
9 - Mark Saleski
you're kidding, right?
hell, we've got enough of right here in the good old 'politics' column of blogcritics.
you lean to the right. despite your libertarianness (is that a word?), your right wing bullshit detector is busted.
10 - Sandra Smallson
Is there a left wing Catherine Coulter? Isn't talk radio dripping with foolish rightwingers? I don't live in the States and I know that..so..what is this talk of foolishness in recent years mostly from the left? A foolish man from the Right is current resident of the White House for God's sake and is the epitome of egregious foolishness. Don't talk dum, Al. I thought you had seen the light....
11 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
what is this bring the pain dvd, thats what i wanna know?
12 - Al Barger
Sandra, I assume you mean ANN Coulter. I dig Ann Coulter, and she is not anything like egregiously foolish. For starters, she absolutely does not go off into cheesy hysterics like this Hopkins chick. Now, you might disagree with her, and you might reasonably argue that she's way too free with the word "treason," but that's not the same thing.
George Bush does not even begin to qualify in this category. I take great issue with many of his policies, and I can understand other people disliking even the parts of his policies I agree with. Still, he does not go into hysterical hissy fits, nor cheap demagoguery on the order of his predecessor.
Now, maybe this comes more from the fact that he knows that he simply couldn't get away with the 10th part of what Clinton did rather than innate virtue on W's part.
Whatever the reason though, the crazed hatred and hysterical reactions are largely coming from the left, not the right. There's simply very little on the right to compare to the Bushitler nonsense, or the constant virulent and unfounded claims that Bush LIED.
Nor would Limbaugh or Fox News try running through patently dishonest nonsense like the infamous CBS Memogate.
13 - Mark Saleski
"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war."
14 - Mark Saleski
"When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty. We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors."
15 - Mark Saleski
"Liberals become indignant when you question their patriotism, but simultaneously work overtime to give terrorists a cushion for the next attack and laugh at dumb Americans who love their country and hate the enemy."
16 - Mark Saleski
yea, that ann coulter, she's one astute observer of the body politic.
not.
17 - Mark Saleski
and that 'hate coming from the left' crap is the same talking point repeated ad-infinitum on talk radio...along with:
america-hating
stupid
commie
pinko
etc.
18 - johnboy
Dear inquiring slow stupid redneck.
The London Telegraph is world famous as a bastion of conservatism. (not to be confused with the gross over-simplification of left-wing v. right wing)
As it's not an american publication to apply the strange standards of humourless (that's how we spell it here you intolerant prick) american ideological hysteria is deeply problematic.
As to how can you tell?
If you can't then you probably spell it as "humor". It has nothing to do with being from Kentucky or a redneck. Please stop hiding behind these excuses.
I imagine this whole flap is just a PR stunt to distract from the dismal quality of movies this year.
19 - Al Barger
Mark, the crazy hatin' comes pretty much from the left side of the aisle. Not to say that everybody on the right is full of nothing but brotherly love, but look at the manifestations. There was no big right-wing attempt at f'ing up Clinton's inaugaral events. There just wasn't.
Right wingers do not typically display the vitriol common among a fair chunk of the left. There is no right wing equivalent to Michael Moore, nor would such a one be honored and fetted by Republican Party elite.
You can't just equate any word or gesture of disagreement or even disparagement with any other. With perhaps a slight flavor of self-conscious humor, I refer to people exhibiting distinctly socialistic ideas as "pinkos." Now, this is somewhat disparaging, but it's simply not the same thing as people becoming actively vitriolic and hostile, calling W a Nazi who wants to kill children and puppies or whatever kind of foolishness you want to dig out of the archives.
Or on a personal level, look at the nonsense here from your Johnboy in this thread. If anybody on my side of the fence were this purely hostile, I'd be calling them out myself. Even our pitbull RJ wouldn't be hostile like this, or least ways not without severe provocation.
I note also that Johnboy is better at curses and generic insults than at answering any questions in any meaningful way. How could I tell that the mildly ridiculous Telegraph story was satire but that the wildly stupid Nancy Hopkins story was real?
Again, I'm not saying that people of the right never act dumb, but I can easily distinguish between Dubya and Will Ferrell's satirical impersonation. That's a lot harder to do with some left wingers.
20 - Shark
Barger: "...Right wingers do not typically display the vitriol common among a fair chunk of the left..."
--- typed with straight face, even.
Must be Zoloft. I hear it creates massive delusions.
21 - johnboy
Actually Al, I'm broadly from your side of the fence.
I just have a sense of humour.
And I don't regard my "side" as being more important than things like honesty and genuine freedom.
If only more americans travelled when they were young the world, and america, would be a much better place.
22 - Mark Saleski
sorry, i don't agree.
you are tone deaf when it comes from vitriol from the right.
rj would't be that vicious? right.
23 - Shark
BTW:
In American, the Left tends to mock and satirize their opponents.
The Right tends to assassinate theirs.
We wear peace signs.
They love guns.
You decide.
24 - Mike Kole
Johnboy- "Redneck" is often misplaced as a put-down on people as interchangable with hickish stupidity.
In reality, what it means to be a redneck is to be one who works outside with his hands and his back.
Of course, you may not have any rednecks as a result of the toil in jolly old England, since you are deprived of the sun up there.
25 - johnboy
Firstly i'm in the wide brown land of Australia. but what with this interweb thingy I can read the London Telegraph, and the New York Times.
Secondly I did not introduce the term redneck to this discussion.