Nothing she said (in the article, anyway) sounds like anything an adult audience couldn't handle. And, if a joke shouldn't be explained to a 4-year-old, then here's my advice: don't.
I think they're disappointed that she's human, and they're angry that she made them laugh. When you laugh, you forget just about everything else. They don't want to forget to hate the Bushes.
BTW, I don't know what's going on over at the Times, but I will note that David Corn spells his name with a 'c,' not a 'k.'
>>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."<<
David, Psssttt.... Would you rather explain same-sex marraige to your 4-year old?
Did this guy, whoever he is, complain about Whoopie Goldberg's remarks? I didn't think so.
Backpedaling Whoopie:
MATTHEWS: Let‘s talk about something more to the point, which is your political role. I have been in this situation, so I sympathize with it. You said something to a crowd or you didn‘t say something, and it became the big issue of Hollywood and its role in the Democratic fight for the presidency last time. What is your recollection of what it‘s all about?
GOLDBERG: Well, I kind of always thought it was all about people being able to express an opinion.
I have been—I did nothing different than what I normally do, but it‘s funny, because it‘s the one time when I didn‘t actually say anything rude or nasty or ugly. I was just actually doing a play on words.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Yes, that double-entendre on the president‘s name...
GOLDBERG: Yes.
MATTHEWS: ... caused some people to believe that that was gross material.
GOLDBERG: Well, it would have been nice if people would have actually been able to see what I said or had it been written down somewhere, so they could make a really smart opinion about what it was. But it was much more interesting to sort of say what people would think that I would say, you know.
MATTHEWS: Right. Well, this show is called HARDBALL, Whoopi. What did you say?
GOLDBERG: Oh, Chris, do you really want to know?
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: Yes.
GOLDBERG: I said that I loved bush and that someone was giving bush a bad name. You want the rest of it?
MATTHEWS: Yes.
GOLDBERG: I said, I think it‘s time for bush to be in its rightful place, and I don‘t mean the White House.
MATTHEWS: OK.
GOLDBERG: That‘s pretty much it.
MATTHEWS: I get it. Let me—and you think that was OK?
GOLDBERG: For a comedian, yes.
MATTHEWS: OK.
GOLDBERG: If you had said it, it would probably be wrong.
MATTHEWS: Right.
GOLDBERG: But this is what I do for a living. And it‘s demonstrated time and time again, when I had my own show, when I took the president to task all the time, as I‘ve done with all the presidents since Reagan.
MATTHEWS: But, you know, Hollywood people—you remember when Gary Hart...
GOLDBERG: Wait. Wait. Don‘t call me a Hollywood person.
MATTHEWS: OK. New York, Broadway person.
GOLDBERG: I don‘t live in Hollywood.
Yes, I‘m a performer.
MATTHEWS: OK.
MATTHEWS: A performer.
GOLDBERG: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Well, let me ask you this. Remember, Gary Hart got in trouble? He was out in California speaking to a gay group and he was making fun of New Jersey, saying, I‘m not back at some solid waste dump in New Jersey. Well, somebody was in the room, I guess, from New Jersey or something.
It‘s this problem of being in one room talking to one setting of people and having it bounce out and sounding totally different when it gets outside. But...
GOLDBERG: Well, you have to know that when you take yourself to an event or something that is against what you particularly believe, you‘re going to hear things that aren‘t going to be the kind of things you want to hear.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
GOLDBERG: So, listen, this was a really organized, as this party has been all along, a really tightly organized thing to present an idea that says these people feel like this.
No one can doubt that my belief in this country is as strong as it‘s ever been. No one can doubt that my commitment to the country is strong. No one can doubt that I have very high family values, because I have a very great family. So, I don‘t buy into any of that stuff, that people who make their living as actors or whatever don‘t have any idea about what the middle of the country is thinking, because it‘s not true.
MATTHEWS: Why do people in Hollywood—you have never said it. I know you are like me. You like this—love this place, obviously.
But there are Hollywood people that seem to inevitably say, if we lose this election, if Kerry loses in this case, I‘m leaving. I‘m going to Australia. I‘m going to London. Why do people do that?
GOLDBERG: You know why they do it?
MATTHEWS: Why?
GOLDBERG: Because you get the feeling, as we‘ve seen—I mean, look at what happened to Linda Ronstadt. Linda Ronstadt said she liked a movie. And the people who came to see her went berserk.
They have taken to task many people for saying how they feel about different situations in the country. And the general feeling, I think, with a lot of people who are outspoken about what they think and feel...
MATTHEWS: Yes.
GOLDBERG: ... is the idea that, somehow, we‘re going to be shut down, that it‘s no longer the American way to be able to express dissonance against your country, against the policies.
And that‘s always been one of the great things that we have been able to do, is to say what we feel or what we think without fear of reprisal from the government. And it‘s—we‘ve gotten to a place in the country where people are not sure that that‘s still the case.
Now, you know, I understand where people are coming from. I understand a lot of people have strong feelings about the country, but the idea is that, in this country, we‘re allowed to express them. This is not Iraq. This is not Iran or any other country where you‘re in a repressed mode. Or at least that‘s the America I remember.
MATTHEWS: Well, who do you—this argument you are making is profound. But when you look at the people you get in a car radio driving to work any day of the week, Limbaugh is on. Gordon Liddy is on. Laura Ingraham is on. Joe Scarborough is on. He‘s one of my people here on the network here at nighttime.
They go right to war with Hollywood, the liberals in Hollywood. And they seem to almost make a living on it, going against you guys. Who is winning the fight?
GOLDBERG: I don‘t know, man. You know, it‘s all entertainment.
I don‘t care what they say. It‘s all entertainment. And it makes perfect sense for one side who‘s a little bit stronger to take to task the other.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6839706/
LOL. Makes me think of Kingpin.
Yeah, right David. I really believe you have your 4-year-old up watching the WHCA thing at 10:00 at night.
Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrre.
Laura knocked the crowd out, she was a star. The sniveling liberals in the press have been, are, and will always be sniveling liberals doing what sniveling liberals do.
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.
It would seem that David Korn teaches his 4 year-old that milk comes from rectangular boxes and plastic jugs! LOL
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 ;)
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.
...
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.
What I heard only came across as "risque" if you were living in 1800s victorian england.
Jees, a few jokes about husband going to bed early... being a desperate housewife? She's poking some fun at her own marriage among adults.... Nothing risque about that in my book.
You want to see funny? Just look at the way the President has screwed up the SS reform issue. It's a knee slapper.
And why should you have to - you had your 4-year-old at the White House Correspondent's dinner or maybe he/she will insist on seeing the film of the dinner in lieu of Dora the Explorer? Liberals always whine that conservatives are 'too rigid, up-tight, religious Bible-thumpers, etc.' The First Lady lets her hair down a little in a very 'non family-values' setting (it's the PRESS for goodness sakes - since when did they turn into prudes?) and there are complaints? Your hypocrisy is hanging out a mile because the film clips I saw showed the audience laughing hysterically at her jokes. Conservatives, especially the President and family ..... d**ned if they do, d**ned if they don't ...... so I think they should. Laura Bush is a national treasure.
What are these people talking about? I've read the text of Laura Bush's remarks and I saw nothing "risque" about them.
I thought she was great. The libs will tell jokes worse than that all day long but when a pubbie does it, whew! They're gonna go to hell! She didn't offend me at all. It was all in fun.