Posted on 05/02/2005 6:00:13 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
Who knew? First lady Laura Bush took over the podium from her husband at Saturday night's annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner and knocked 'em dead, keeping Washington's most powerful politicos in stitches as she worked the ballroom like a seasoned stand-up comic.
CUT
Although Washington's movers and shakers laughed at Mrs. Bush's performance, some in the press woke up with a Sunday morning hangover and began to criticize her monologue as immodest at best and downright bawdy at worst.
"Laura Bush cracks risque jokes at the White House Correspondents' dinner," sniffed Agence France-Presse. CNN reporter Elaine Quijano, who attended the dinner, also apparently had her sensibilities scarred by some of the first lady's quips.
"In some respects, I think for some folks it was a little shocking because she kind of crossed the line a little bit in some people's minds," she said.
"It was very risque," the Nation's David Korn said yesterday on Fox News. "I was wondering what the social conservatives and James Dobson had to say about all these jokes that were laced with sexual innuendo. Not a very family-values-type speech. I'm not sure I want to explain a lot of those jokes to my 4-year-old."
Eyebrows were raised by the first lady's bit about the president's ranching skills, which Mrs. Bush said her husband lacked because the elite schools he attended, Andover and Yale, "don't have a real strong ranching program."
She then added: "He's learned a lot about ranching since that first year when he tried to milk the horse. What's worse, it was a male horse."
The crowd howled. The joke, a female Associated Press reporter said, "had women giggling in the bathroom."
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Mrs. Bush's jokes were told to an adult audience at an evening event. If there are any "social conservatives" who find themselves offended by that, so be it. They've got a right to have opinions, too. But I don't have much of a problem with it at all.
PS: the "male horse" joke is more barnyard than "sexual". The fact that the AP reporter was shocked by it may tell us something about his or her own proclivities vis a vis alternate species.
She may have been caught off guard. I would have been. I tend to laugh too when I'm uncomfortable in public. But I don't know what she thought about it.
Exactly.
The left has stereotyped a conservative woman as dull, chained to her husband, humorless, backwards, and liberal women as being independent and strong.
And here comes Laura..........intelligent, witty, strong, confident, beautiful, madly in love with her husband, and finally revealing to the world that she has an incredible sense of humor. I absolutely loved it!
This attack from the left is beyond ludicrous. Their jealousy has gotten the best of them.....
This has to do with the First Lady of the US who is married to a man who won election at least partly because of his morality telling these jokes. That's what makes them inappropriate.
It would seem that David Korn teaches his 4 year-old that milk comes from rectangular boxes and plastic jugs! LOL
I remember watching his show when I was a kid. I enjoyed his characters like Freddy the Freeloader and San Fernandao Red.
Well spoken. And those that continue to state on this thread "Well Whoopi said this...." need to remember Whoopi is not the First Lady (thankfully). Some of these jokes were indeed over the line to be said by Mrs. Bush
All of their energy goes to the splinctor in order to hold their needle in place.
I'm assuming that you did not see this performance. Scatlogical humor? Hardly. And your nomination of Lucille Ball as a paragon of G rated comedy proves you don't know what you are talking about. Lucille Ball was far more risque in most of her comedy (and that includes I Love Lucy) than anything Laura Bush had to say Saturday night. Laura was humorous and definitely G rated.
Thank you. That states it best. That's exactly what the problem is. I expect it of Clintonesque figures. Not Mrs. Bush as first lady.
I am seriously as moral as people get. I don't have anything to do with current American culture. We raised our kids with strict standards than even made other Christians gasp at how restricted they were in entertainment and activities and language.
I have very, VERY high standards.............and I found Laura's comedy hilarious.
I think if you want to make more of it than the humor that was clearly there because it was ABSURD, then you are certainly free to do so.
But I believe you are in serious error if you say that Laura's mild jokes are in any way indicative of our declining culture.
She was tweaking the left...........and it obviously worked.
OK,
Someone clue me in as to what she said that was all that awful?
I hear the 'milk the bull' joke in the churchyard, waiting for church to start...from my SS teacher fer-cryin'-out-loud.
Country folk talk about animals all the time ;)
Nonsense! Your blindly defining the needlebutt stereotype is what hurts us.
Only when it comes to Conservatives.
If you are talking Red Skelton here, he was also more risque than Mrs. Bush Saturday night. If you were watching as a kid, you just did not understand the innuendo. Go back and listen again. Through the ears of an adult you will understand some of the double-entendre that both Red and Lucy employed.
One of the things people don't realize about W, is that Laura is NOT a social conservative, in that she, like her mother-in-law Barbara, supports the "right to choose" abortion.
Also you born again Christians, remember W had a conversion experience in his 40s that changed his life--I've never heard the same about Laura--who has them going to a very religiously liberal Methodist church.
Look at the twins too--don't appear to be evangelical to me.
Personally I think it's quite likely George W. is the only evangelical among them. Wonder why he seems to waffle on abortion? He gets no support at home.
...
Absolutely untrue. Laura's bawdy jokes were far worse than anything I've seen on I Love Lucy. Her "humor" was definitely nowhere near a G rating.
The remarks were old when Milton Berle stole them. They were risque if told to a convent full of nuns. When told to an audience of Washington pressies fresh off an eight-year Lewinski of the impeached POTUS they were tame. The audience was amazed because they didn't think Republicans had a sense of humor. It's like the singing dog. You applaud not because the dog sings off-key but because he can do it at all.
Would you be chiming the same glee if this were Hillary, Tipper or Teresa? I think not. The milking the male horse joke, would have driven republicans, conservatives, freepers and Dr. Dobson's minions over the edge and the hyperbole would have been strong.
Any leftist would get a pass.
Remember: NOTHING a Republican can EVER do will EVER be right, for a liberal.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.