Posted on 05/04/2005 5:59:04 AM PDT by OESY
I'll get to First Lady Laura Bush's bawdy stand-up routine in a minute. But I want to highlight a related new book out about how young conservatives are shaking up the dominant liberal media culture. It's called "South Park Conservatives." My name is listed on the cover along with many other (mostly) right-leaning pundits, websites, and bloggers, but I must confess to having mixed feelings about the honor.
The best-selling book's author, Brian C. Anderson of the Manhattan Institute, writes a fun, breezy survey documenting the rise of talk radio, FOX News, the Internet, conservative publishing, and college Republican activism. Anderson's chapter on the success of conservative talk radio and the abysmal failure of liberal Air America to replicate it is incisive. Another chapter on the blogosphere (alone worth the price of the book) gives readers a useful history of the explosion of news, opinion, and political websites that have smashed the left-wing media monopoly.
But how did such a wide-ranging list of individuals and organizations -- Anderson's book cover includes the names of conservative-leaning Internet pioneer Matt Drudge and center-left journalist Mickey Kaus, the libertarian Tech Central Station, the culturally conservative WorldNetDaily, political upstart Arnold Schwarzenegger and political chameleon Andrew Sullivan, plus Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, and myself, along with a feature blurb from Jonah Goldberg -- all get lumped under the umbrella term "South Park Conservatives"?
Anderson argues that Comedy Central's cartoon series "South Park" embodies the "fiercely anti-liberal comedic spirit" of the "new media" from Kaus to Coulter. The cartoon, he writes, reflects a "post-liberal counterculture" that is "particularly appealing to the young, however much it might offend older conservatives."
Well, I'm 34 and no fan of "South Park." I have many good friends who are indeed huge boosters of the show, but I find that the characters' foul language overwhelms any entertainment I might otherwise derive from the show's occasional, right-leaning iconoclastic themes.
"South Park" may be "politically incorrect." But "politically incorrect" is not always a synonym for "conservative."
My discomfort with "South Park's" increasingly mainstream vulgarity is not a matter of nitpicking. We're not just talking about a stray curse word here or there. As liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich points out, "South Park" "holds the record for the largest number of bleeped-out repetitions (162) of a single four-letter expletive in a single television half-hour." That's probably about the same number of profanities uttered at John Kerry's infamous New York City celebrity fundraiser last summer, which Republicans rightly condemned for its excessive obscenities.
Rich is wrong about most things, but he's painfully on target in noting the incongruous pandering now taking place by some in the cool-kids clique on the Right. Conservatives criticize Hollywood relentlessly, but as Rich notes, "the embarrassing reality is that they want to be hip, too."
Which brings me to Mrs. Bush. She demonstrated at the celebrity-studded White House Correspondents' Dinner this weekend that you can entertain without being profane. Most of her humor was just right: Edgy but not over the edge. But her off-color stripper and horse jokes crossed the line. Can you blame Howard Stern for feeling peeved and perplexed? And let's face it: If Teresa ("I'm cheeky!") Heinz Kerry had delivered Mrs. Bush's First Lady Gone Mildly Wild routine, social conservative pundits would be up in arms over her bad taste and lack of dignity.
The First Lady resorting to horse masturbation jokes is not much better than Whoopi Goldberg trafficking in dumb puns on the Bush family name. It was wholly unnecessary.
Self-censorship is a conservative value. In a brilliant commencement speech at Hillsdale College last year, Heritage Foundation president Ed Feulner called on his audience to resist the coarsened rhetoric of our time: "If we are to prevail as a free, self-governing people, we must first govern our tongues and our pens. Restoring civility to public discourse is not an option. It is a necessity."
Lighten up, you say? No thanks. I'd rather be a G-rated conservative who can only make my kids giggle than a "South Park"/"Desperate Housewives" conservative whose goal is getting Richard Gere and Jane Fonda to snicker. Giving the Hollyweird Left the last laugh is not my idea of success.
Nope. I asked you two simple questions. You failed to answer them and, instead, threw a temper tantrum.
I then dissected the "logic" of your post, and you, again, threw a temper tantrum.
BTW, there ought to be some sort of "Godwin's Law" concerning the word "liberal" around here.
You cuold be right. But I don't think so. It is funny to most people because of the male horse's equipment.
However, I don't think it was the most offensive part of the speech.
And, the point is not just whether some of us think this is funny or that is funny. The point (and problem) really is that there are absolutelyl no lines dilineating when and where something might be appropriate. Anything broadcast anywhere is going to be available to virtually anyone (and sometimes shoved in our faces as well). This is really the crux of the problem.
susie
My father told me a similar joke when I was a yut back in the late 60's. He heard it from his uncle back in the 30's when he left the big city to spend the summer on his uncle's farm in upstate New York. It was funny then coming from my father and even funnier now coming from the First Lady.
And just how would that be funny? This was a simple order from Gen. Washington on a concern of the time. I don't see the humor in ridiculing the leader of the Continental Army just for a simple remark that was not out of place for the time period. Should we just replace every third word from every statement on morality from that golden era with the 'f-word'? Would that be funny? To a petulant child I suppose
If you get simple pleasures from inserting a curse word into any situation or phrase, I'm thinking some of the humor on South Park just goes right over your head, as do a lot of things. In the end, your statement was ridiculous, uncalled for, and frankly proved Malkin's weak point.
Ok
i'm not upset at all. south park is obviously very popular. i watched it a couple of times with my kids when they were young teens. it wasn't what i wanted them watching... i threw the tv out.. nothing worth watching that justified the garbage. i don't care one bit if anyone else chooses different. i sure don't tell them what to do.. whether they complain or not. to each his own.
i could care less what Mrs. Bush watches or doesn't watch on tv.. or what jokes she tells.. etc. or if others agree dissagree with my opinion on it.
that being said.... those who didn't like the Mrs. Bush's jokes have just as much right to say so and why as do those who liked it. i noticed on all these threads on this subject the last few days - the critics are told to "get over it". why is that? why do they have to get over it... and are accused of division etc just because they voice their opinion on this? seems ridiculous to me. if someone doesn't agree with the "oh, Mrs. Bush was SOOO classy" crowd, they are smacked down.... so i say to them - get over yourselves. we don't HAVE to agree on this..... do we??
Don't let the city-folks get to ya.
Do you want on my 4-H ping list?
Ditto. From BOTH sides.
"Actually 30 years ago was 1975, by which time "Deep Throat" was a household phrase."
Not at my house.
Yeah, look at the crude, malicious cuts at MM by these "intelligent" folks on FR would you? One takes a stand to hopefully raise the bar in civil discourse and suddenly you're a "prude" (and that's the mild term) among other things. Sounds a lot like DU to me.
Is it no wonder our society is in such moral chaos?
(TX grandpa of seven granddaughters--there is no South Park in their homes and yes, they all laugh and have a well-developed and good sense of humor...)
"I could REALLY do with a little less of the self-righteous pomposity that has been happening on Free Republic since the election."
Worth repeating.
May as well just throw out the television then. There's always going to be something that offends someone. I think the fact that Laura roasted her hubby put many people off. Wouldn't have mattered what she said. You know, "a woman's place" and all...!
Amen.
On South Park it would be.
Whatever.
susie
Hi Reb!
How are you?
Well, put it this way... He had three daughters named Anne -- that he acknowledged.
Thing is, the man dropped the F-bomb in his works.... Take, for example his "Ode to Spring":
When maukin bucks, at early f***s,
In dewy grass are seen, Sir,
And birds, on boughs, take off their mows
Among the leaves sae green, Sir;
Latona's sun looks liquorish on
Dame Nature's grand impetus
Till his p***k go rise, then westward flies
To roger Madame Thetis.
(Rather appropriately, I just realized, "maukin" is a variant of "malkin" which was Scots dialect for several off-color things.)
Your 13 year old watches C-span??? :)
Well, I watched the nightly news, even when my age was in single digits.
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