Posted on 05/12/2009 12:25:00 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I love Wanda Sykes, I always have. I laughed out loud watching her White House Correspondents’ Dinner routine (on the Web; Salon has never attended that particular circle jerk of DC insularity; maybe someday we will!)
Sure it was off-color and, um, slightly out there – but that’s the point. Or it used to be. Even if I didn’t already love Sykes, my point of view would be: Once a barely elected president who started a devastating war on false pretenses can joke about those pretenses at that same dinner (Remember Bush looking behind sofas for WMDs? ) it’s hard to ever be offensive again.
There are other wince-worthy examples we never hear about: At the 1970 Gridiron dinner, according to "Nixon's Piano," by Kenneth O'Reilly, the not yet disgraced GOP president Richard Nixon and his scandal-dogged VP Spiro Agnew did a classy racist interpretive piece. "What about this 'southern strategy' we hear so often?" Nixon asked Agnew. "Yes suh, Mr. President," Agnew replied in what was known as “dialect,” adding "Ah agree with you completely on yoah southern strategy." While Nixon played a variety of songs on piano, Agnew drowned him out with his renditions of “Dixie.”
Also in that Gridiron program, a newspaper reporter sang a rendition of “Dixie Melody” with these words: “Rock-a-bye the voters with a southern strategy; Don't you fuss; we won't bus children in ol' Dixie! We'll put George Wallace in decline Below the Mason-Dixon line. We'll help save the nation From things like civil rights and inte-gra-tion! Weep no more, John Stennis! We'll pack the court for sure. We will fight for voting rights - To keep them white and pure! A zillion Southern votes we will deliver; Move Washington down on the Swanee River! Rock-a-bye with Ol' Massa Nixon and his Dixie strategy!” Hilarious, right? Move over, Wanda Sykes! Let's make room for that kind of comedy!
Reader J.K. sent me that historical footnote; surprisingly it never came up in critical coverage of either Stephen Colbert in 2006 or Sykes in 2009. The prissy MSM barely mussed their hair in response to the sacrilegious Bush jokes, let alone Nixon race jokes -- but Sykes is being accused of slander with her jabs at Rush Limbaugh -- and Obama is being attacked for barely stifling laughter at it. It’s so ridiculous. In case you’ve been in a bunker without media, Sykes is in trouble mainly for saying this:
“Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. So you're saying, 'I hope America fails', you're, like, 'I don't care about people losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama bin Laden is saying. You might want to look into this, sir, because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight. Obama supposedly laughed, but then took a sip of wine. "Too much?" Sykes asked him. "Rush Limbaugh, 'I hope the country fails,' -- I hope his kidneys fail."
OK, I personally wouldn’t make a joke about someone’s kidneys failing on cable news—I am a serious unpaid news pundit, and I want to be asked back! But I also wouldn’t mock Michael J. Fox and his Parkinson’s tremors, as Rush Limbaugh did, or wax hysterical about having to grab my ankles for our new black president, as, yes, Limbaugh did (I’ve never once thought about that possibility, to be honest. I really admire Michelle and their marriage.)
Watching Sykes, I was so pleased. I thought: My God, there’s never been a better match for Limbaugh. He’s an entertainer and a comedian – I despise him, but every once in a while he’s funny – and he’s regularly off color; Sykes is all those things while, in my opinion, funnier and less cruel. But let’s be honest: We had comedian and entertainer v. comedian and entertainer. She’s his match and his equal, and anyone who criticizes Sykes without sending the same criticism to Limbaugh is both a phony and a wuss.
Press secretary Robert Gibbs reportedly tried to back away from Sykes, and amazingly – according to Newsbusters.com, not the most fair and balanced Web site – so did Keith Olbermann. (I've emailed MSNBC for comment because I can't quite believe that.) But there’s been no rebuke from Obama, and that makes me happy. Much of Sykes routine was actually tweaking Obama: My favorite jokes included Sykes lampooning the president for his shirtless photos (“I know you’re into transparency but…I don’t need to see your nipples"), his race (“The first black president, I’m proud to say that, unless you screw up, and then it’s gonna be, what’s up with the half-white guy? Who voted for the mulatto? What the hell?”)
And much of Obama’s routine shockingly crossed our dull political lines as well. He described Dick Cheney’s new book, “How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People,” and welcomed John Boehner as a fellow "person of color," although “not a color found in nature.” Obama actually cut a wider swath of comedic pain across the political landscape than Sykes did – but Sykes came down hard on He Who Cannot Be Criticized, Oxycontin Man! And she's now in deep trouble.
I’m late to the faux outrage about Sykes’ edgy hilarious routine, but let’s let Jon Stewart get the last word. Like many of us on Monday he wondered how Sykes could provoke outrage while torture revelations provoke yawns and/or lame rationalizations.
Let this be the beginning of a beautiful new era of savaging Limbaugh freely and with delight – and please God, let the rumors of Olbermann’s disapproval be false!
Wanka Dykes a “match” for Rush? Puleeeze.
Makes you want to make a list and start numbering your bullets.
But I digress...
Don’t you enjoy witty Liberal rants?
I do. If you ever see one, please ping me.
I can’t believe we are forced to breathe the same air ....
The whole premise of the ignorant bitch’s joke was flawed.
She thinks that 0bama IS America.
Limbaugh has repeatedly stated that he want’s 0bama, not America, to fail because he believes 0bama’s policies will damage America.
Sykes is too pig-ignorant to understand that, and consequently revealed her hatred.
Can she be prosecuted fro “hate speech” under the liberal’s new laws?
She was kinda funny. Though her “jokes” about limbaugh are a stretch to be called jokes. Anyhow, I’m not much for getting panties into a knot over offensive jokes.
Was Nixon being racist or MOCKING racism? I seriously can’t tell and it was before my time.
And the Michael J. Fox comment: wasn’t that about Rush commenting that Michael or someone close to him had publicly said that if he didn’t take his meds right before a public appearance, he would be all shaky? And Michael was all shaky at his congressional hearing. Is that wrong to wonder if MJF didn’t take a pill right before it? Is that somehow mocking MJF and his illness, or just wondering out loud if MJF thought it might help his embryonic stem cell research plea if he appeared more disabled?
I think it is absolutely PATRONIZING of MJF and his illness when libs get all haughty and assume that only THEY hold Protected MJF up High Enough, as though he were a stupid little pet. He is an intelligent man, and he was fighting for a cause, and he would be smart enough to use a little strategy in doing so. I think Limbaugh’s position gave MJF more credit than the libs who USED him.
And Sykes a MATCH for Limbaugh?? She did not even know that Rush never ever wished the country to fail, and painstakingly explained it on audio and video MANY TIMES. I bet Miss Sykes wished Bush’s policies would likewise fail.
There is something really sad when liberals laugh at comments about death. Just saying...
Limbaugh totally ignored her today.
The perfect response.
I laughed at her biden jokes....cuz there where true...
Nixon, who was doing more to end segregation and racial discrimnation than most Democrats of his time...
I thought her lines about if Obama screws up were pretty good.
Liberals were openly hoping for GWB to be assassinated for the past 8 years. Having them merely make jokes about Republicans dying is an improvement.
Yes..you’re right...but it still is disturbing that it has come this far in politics. It seems that the liberals know no bounds in their continuing debasement of Republicans. Really a shame since a two party system is a necessity...
Now I do wish that a third party comes into play for the GOP since they seem to be somewhere way outside of normal politics these days. Maybe they really ought to become the Whigs - and just go away...
Ms. Walsh doesn’t comprehend that, like Rush, we want Obama to fail so that America can succeed.
Perfect response from Limbaugh today...
He ignored her completely
And that is your problem Ms Walsh. I have never found Sykes funny... I think she just mau-mau'ed herself into a gig, since she's got the triple victimology of black, female, and lesbian.
And anyone who has listened to Rush for five minutes would get that he loves this country. As with us here on FR, of course he wants Hussein Obama to fail, because if Hussein Obama succeeds the United States will be irrevocably changed for the worse.
With good reason!
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