No, but the people who describe in graphic detail what ~they~ think the jokes meant... They're suspect.
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.
"He watched it with me and we NEVER considered the horse joke in that context."
Never. But of course that was because you understood the joke! Amazing, isn't it?
I once made my daughter watch "Leave It To Beaver".
She had annoyed me over a long break whining about being "bored".
So we watched it, with me telling her: "This is what I used to watch".
She patted me on the head and said: "I'm sorry for you, Ma!"
Teresa couldn't have delivered it that's the point. I only caught glimpses of it but there are some blessed with the talent of timing and have the ability to touch the line without crossing it & it looks like Laura Bush is one of them.
It's not even at that level - however, because of the way Laura told the joke - first saying George tried to milk a horse ... and then adding it was a male horse, she took it to where there was a dual inferrence. Because of the way the joke was written, I think the joke writer meant the dual inferrence to be there. Your opinion may vary - but others can have the opposite opinion and it is not their fault, but the joke writer's.
If you're about, come on over here.
Interesting discussion.
I want to know what YOU think!
:-)
Funny! I've tried to get my kids to watch "The Dick VanDyke" show, but they run out of the house!
Wow, excellent post. I wish I had said that.
susie
Because you twisted an innocent joke into something perverted.
I fully agree!
Exactly. They are holier than thou and must have pure, unstained lives to this point. :)
LOL!!
A lot of words in a feeble attempt to cover your tracks.
My employed logic annihilated your post, and you threw a tantrum to cover it up. Then you threw another tantrum to cover up your first tantrum.
Nice try.
Sorry I so thoroughly kicked your ass so early in the morning.
Friends?
Her big set piece was a brawl with a guy, in which she got thrown into a plaster wall a few times, came back, picked the guy up and bodyslammed him.
My wife, who was and still is a tomboy (did you know pantyhose can be used as a temporary, emergency fanbelt?), still had the "Oh, no! That's my daughter getting tossed around" reaction. I'm more off a chess geek, who writes poetry, but I still had the "Cool! My daughter just picked up and slammed down a guy who has to weigh at least 170 lbs."
EXACTLY. South park is only one of many forms of humor. You can have humor without vulgarity. I started college when south park hit it big, and you weren't "in" if you didnt watch. So I watched, just to see what the fuss was all about. It was mildly entertaining, and I decided that if watching it was a requirement for being "hip" I would just rather not be hip.
The problem on some of those threads was that Laura Bush was called a whore, trailer park trash, etc.....
No, we don't have to agree on all things, but to call Laura Bush these names is totally over the top, and they deserved to be called on it.
Oh puleeezzzzze....this is melodramatic to say the least.
I've been very careful about what she does see.
I glowed with pride this last Fall... she came in from playing and asked me:
" Mom? What's "Gilligan's Island?" "
I have managed to save her from THAT scourge so far!
Really? Do you think the direction that popular culture has taken is a positive one?
No, but the people who describe in graphic detail what ~they~ think the jokes meant... They're suspect.
LOL! We weren't allowed to watch "Lassie" because Timmy always disobeyed his parents!!
And I agree about Gilligan's Island. Even as kids we thought it was stupid.
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