Yesterday, I was listening to the radio and the hosts were discussing Jon Stewart and how they felt about how he hosted the Oscars the other night.
Right after Three 6 Mafia won the Oscar for best song, Jon Stewart made a remark about how happy they were, how excited they acted compared to everyone else who had won. I think his exact words were, “See, now that’s how you should accept an Academy Award.”
And they were really excited. I haven’t seen that kind of giddy excitement since Ben and Matt won for Good Will Hunting.
Later, Jon Stewart said, “For those of you keeping score at home, Three 6 Mafia: 1, Martin Scorsese: 0.”
The radio show host and her guest felt that what he said was bordering on racist if not entirely racist. Both of them are white.
Last night, Tobyjoe and I discussed this as we listened to the same radio broadcast. I said that I found it ludicrous. After all, Jon Stewart also makes fun of Jewish people, rich people, republicans, democrats, gay people, straight people, women and men. Sometimes, he even makes fun of Canadians—oh my God. I think it’s pretty safe to say he’s an equal opportunity make-funofer.
But that’s not why I’m writing, really. I’m writing because I want to talk about political correctness. I think It’s a little racist. To be politically correct is to be racist, sexist. And I welcome anyone who can show it to me any other way.
Are white people becoming so un-racist we bring it up every possible moment? Personally, I was more offended when the faceless cameraperson zoomed in on Jamie Fox when Clooney was discussing how blacks once sat in the back of the bus, in the back of everything. How much you want to bet that producer calling that shot was white? How much you want to make a bet they were Intentionally showing a black person to say, “SEE! W’E’RE NOT RACIST! LOOK AT THE BLACK GUY IN THE FRONT OF THE THEATER! LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME!�?
I wanted to puke. But then again, I loathe predictability and unoriginality.
The thing is, I cringed when Jon Stewart, a predominantly lefty celebrity, said what he said about Three 6 Mafia. I thought, “Oh shit, the politically correct are gonna have a field day with this one.�?
And guess what? They did.
Chris Rock says controversial things all the time. No one really attacks him, well, no one except Sean Penn.
When did we become so serious we can’t even laugh anymore? I’m so sick of the politically correct. How about we just go with correct? Let it just be. Let’s try living in a world where Brokeback Mountain becomes a love story, Three 6 Mafia is seen as an excited, brand new Oscar winning performer, and Scorsese bats zero and everyone is totally fine with that.
I think the honkeys need to spend a little less time trying so hard not to be racist.
What exactly in what Jon Stewart said is being considered racist?! I don’t get it. He didn’t say anything wrong at all, in my mind.
PC is like a fifty-pound stone dragging down on the necks of all liberal-minded white people. It can be a handicap.
I said I didn’t think people would say much bad about Brokeback for fear of being un-politically correct (people being those who just thought it wasnt’ that great a film, not those who hate gays). I was argued against aggressively.
Guess what the buzz is in Hollywood post-Brokeback losing best picture? That Hollywood isn’t “ready to accept gays”. I think that is bullshit. Maybe the Academy saw what I saw: a decent film with lots of beauty in it, but NO editing. ;-)
michele, i totally agree!!!!!!!
note: just to get the oscar-circlejerk-fest off my chest, please read with caution or avoid like a pile of steamy poo…(i love george clooney as an actor, i just wish he’d shut the F up……”look man, you’re an actor, do your acting thing and win your little awards but there’s a time and a place to talk about that other crap!” not only that” that black woman won an oscar in 1939….it wasn’t until rosa parks until the sixties until those blacks didn’t have to ride in the back of the bus….where was you’re precious hollywood-out-a-touchers during that 25 odd years? doing nothing ya douchebag!….go back to ER where ya belong so someone with a brain can tell you what to say!” hollow attempts to be politically correct can be soooo tedious!)
the radio chick is whack! and the zoom in on Jamie Fox pissed me off too… the Oscars generally piss me off, honestly. I don’t think I’ll bother watching them ever again after this year. I think Jon Stewert was great, but the hoighty toighty celebs can’t laugh at, let alone acknowledge their own hypocrisy-ladden medium.
Oh good grief. People need to freaking reeelaaax. Jon Stewart was funny. The pimp song with the interpretive dance was funny. Ben Stiller was sort of funny. Meryl Streep was a hoot. Life is full of great moments, can’t we just enjoy them?
michele, i’ve read(somewhere?) that political correctness can be linked to the fall of many great nations(and not so great. the author linked the fall of the roman empire(?), the fall of communism in USSR, nazism(the king of politically correct) to politically correct ideals…he also linked china too these ideas even though they haven’t fallen. case in point of Google in china has to edit it’s content so the people are unable to get to un-politically defined information. political correctness becomes an arrogance that can bring down a culture because it does not allow for free thought and the stagnation begins until the lies take over and the new lies to justify the old lies until nobody knows what’s true anymore, it’s totaly postmodern (hehehehehe)
Sarah, there is a little bit of me who thinks even Hollywood and its big actors are actually a little weirded out by a movie about two male lovers. Does bringing it up in every joke mean they’re accepting it as is?
A friend of mine thinks that until we don’t even think about it, until it’s no longer made to be the butt of all jokes (pun intended! Ha! wow) we won’t be considered “OK” with it.
If the same movie had been made about two Asians, one male, one female, would the same jokes be constantly told? Now, don’t get me wrong, I freaking LOVED the New Yorker cover from a few weeks ago, but come on now, when won’t it be funny anymore?
Greg: Did you just say you agree with me?!
hahah, just kidding. Really.
Wow, folks, I am busy here at work today. That might explain why my above comment made little to no sense.
Also, it would seem I’m talking out of the other side of my face. I need to say that I’m not offended by any of the jokes around Brokeback mountain. If I were, that would mean I’d be doing exactly opposite what I wrote about above, unable to laugh at something that’s clearly harmless. I do, however, roll my eyes a lot now.
It’s getting old. So what, it’s a movie about two gay men. Be done with it. Let’s talk about giant monkeys having it out for little blond human girls.
Three 6 Mafia: 1, Martin Scorsese: 0 ??
Maybe I’m dense but I’m completely missing the joke.
What irks me about political incorrectness is that those who proclaim it have these odd double standards.
Gay people call each other fag dyke and homo nonstop. If a straight person says it, they’re racist. Black people call each other nigger all the time. Nigger this, nigger that, you my nigger, etc. If a white person says it, its racist.
I call bullshit. You can’t say “This word is ok to use if you’re a member of that group, but its racist otherwise”. When you use the word, you open the floodgates. I don’t think fag dyke homo nigger etc are politically incorrect words in and of themselves any longer. There are plenty of actual slurs/words out there that have taken their place. When you say that its okay for a black person to say nigger but a white person not to, then you’re creating a double standard and judging people differently based on race.
Actually, I think that’s why it was taken to be offensive for these two hosts. Some may think that it was his way of saying, “Yeah, those guys were amateurs. They didn’t deserve their award.” Considering Scorsese has been up about 150 thousand times for several wonderful films and hasn’t gotten one award. The first time Three 6 Mafia is up, they get one.
I guess, you see, in Hollywood and for the politically correct, you’re skating on thin ice if one of the people you mention happens to be non-white.
Let’s say someone like, I don’t know, Death Cab For Cutie been nominated. Chances are, Mr. Stewart would have said the same joke.
would the politically correct call that racist? I don’t think so.
But we’ll never know. He made a joke. And now several groups have called it racist.
You really can’t talk about anything anymore in this country without being called something.
I’ve had enough. I’m suing everyone.
P.S. my last commment was in response to Donald Eugene.
“Three 6 Mafia: 1, Martin Scorsese: 0”
Scorcese has never received an Oscar, but is considered one of the greater directors.
BTW, I should have added above—people who commented that line is racist could only have done so by looking for/projecting racism into that statement.
The interpreted that to mean “Black guys 1: White Guy 0” ? Was that what he meant? Could he have meant “Newcomer music act 1 , great director 0” ? Or “Song about a pimp 1, taxi driver 0”?
How someone interprets Stewart’s remark says far more about them and their own predjudices than Steward said himself.
Why can’t I put things quite that well? That’s what I was trying to say, Jonathan.
I have a tendency to blabber on and on. But, yes, I think that’s what happen, imo.
Since I saw it right away, too, it says something about me as well.
Someday, I’ll be totally stupid when it comes to things like this. But that night I was so worried that Jon Stewart might come under attack for something really stupid when up against Hollywood, I was sensitive about everything he said.
I really like Jon Stewart. I agree with him so often.
Also, I’m pretty sure Mr. Crowe took the worst of the Jon Stewart jokes.
I just had a brief exchange with your husband. He put what we both tried to say into a much more elegant phrase. Hopefully he’ll post it here later.
I will say this about Stewart – he came off very anti-liberal in his jokes. I didn’t really see many jokes about the right. In that sense, i think it was pretty unbalanced. I also think Clooney schooled him on the acceptance speech with the whole “so what if we’re liberal, look at what good its done” history.
BTW, the producer is white and jewish. So you would have won your bet.
stewart came off ,for me, more center…… but johnathan and i have a different view of what center is and i think most people would have trouble finding a common center. i actually cringed a few time while watching the oscars because i actually felt bad for the the audience who may not “get” stewart’s humor. i’m gonna guess that they aren’t all leftists and self-absorbed like georgie-boy. he can have his view….but i was embarrassed for him to bring that up there.
What jokes did he make about conservatives?
He had a lot of ‘centrist’ jokes, but he gave ‘liberals’ a beating and I didn’t catch any conservative jokes.
Maybe I missed them all, I went to the bathroom and was on the phone a few times. It could have happened. But I didn’t catch a single “conservatives…” joke, while i heard “liberals…” nonstop.
Yeah, but Stewart has been oooooh soooooo liberal of late. I think he was poking fun at the audience and at himself, in lieu of poking fun of the people he usually pokes fun at. What did I just say?
I’m glad to see that, because I love him and I love that he can see the humor of both sides again.
johnathan, other than the standard president jokes, you are right, but i would say he was razzing the west coast libs, i wouldn’t call it “very anti-liberal.” stewart is fairly liberal, but, an east coast liberal who was entertaining a west coast (more)liberal audience and making fun of everyone there, it’s hard to make a bunch of consevative jokes and joke about the audience when the audience is a liberal majority. who knows? i doubt he’ll get asked to do the show again : )
If you’re a fan of him and watch him regularly, then maybe in that context he was balancing himself.
But I’m not really a fan, and I don’t ever watch him.
In the context of the awards, broadcast to 10x more people than have ever watched him, he made x jokes about ‘conservatives’, and 10x that many jokes about their counterpart. I found that uneven.
fair enough.
I’ll be honest with you guys, I have no idea what you’re talking about anymore. haha
are we keeping score to see if Jon Stewart was less Left the other night than he was Right?
Confused.
I do watch his show, I don’t think any of his jokes were directed at either a lefty or a righty, I think he was making jokes about humans in general.
But I was doing other things as well.
However, based on the fact that there is even a slight disagreement means he probably did a great job at staying “even” for lack of a better word.
Who knows.
Dude ain’t racist though. And the politically correct can eat me.
i still want to talk about what “is” politically correct….i sometimes wonder if it’s subject of debate even though it shouldn’t be
It was all self-deprecation, other than the Cheney-shoots-Bjork joke. Self-deprecation is safe. It’s like irony. It proves that the modern liberal keeps his balls in a lock box under the bed.
greg, what do you mean? Elaborate?
I think I get it, but I’m not sure. It’s a tough debate to have. I need more boundaries. :]
Funny is funny and all of these people reading into it are douchebags. No one says dick when Dave Chappelle (who does overtly racist material) does his comedy, and no one said dick when Bryant Gumble complained that there weren’t any blacks in the winter olympics. There’s obviously a double standard. Did anyone happen to catch Joan River before the Oscars? That was blatant racism. Personally I think its all funny, but I don’t read too much into things. It just angries up the blood. I just think that alot of people can’t laugh at themselves and Jon Stewart was jabbing at Hollywood and the media whores who cant appreciate self-depricating humor.
Can I just say that the expression: “No one sees (or says) dick” is one of my favorites? My friend, Missy and I once discussed said expression and how funny it was.
“I can’t see dick!”
To which one might reply, “That’s good!”
political correctness essencially lacks truth unless that truth is “relative” to an angle, whether that’s lib or conserv(for instance).
a leftist can say that “right wing religious morality” being pushed down ones throat is a act of political correctness.
a right winger can say, what’s wrong with kids saying the pledge of allegience, just don’t say “god” if you don’t want….but some want to remove the whole pledge.
i do believe that the left invented political correctness but now we live in a world that both side use it to their ends.
a leftist may say the right created political correctness and now both sides are guilty of it.
it’s a silly game pointing fingers and not fixing the problem….nazi’s used political correctness to round up the undesireables and kill them or use them as science projects. the danger of it holds no ends!
by the way, i love dave chapelle!!!!! i bought my sister his first season on DVD and we watched it together. oooops, she sat in horror watching the show(she’s a big lib) i felt like crap and realised i’d found the perfectly “wrong” gift.
but you didn’t get a great laugh watching her cringe?
You wanna watch someone cringe, gentleman? Rent Solondz latest film called “Palindromes”
Sweet jesus, I nearly prayed after watching that movie.
That movie could make John Wayne Gacy cringe.
It’s true.
i love when a girl really feels comfortable and knows how to use “dick” anywhere, in a sentence, in context or out of context, referencially, comedically, and towards herself. “i’m such a “d__k, i’m sorry!” or don’t be a richard, dick!” always makes me feel warm inside with a great big smile!
zac, it made watching that show even funnier!
I watched american pie with my wife’s parents and don’t get me wrong, the movie is dogshit but I couldn’t help laughing out loud watching the cunnilingus scene with my in-laws.
when i lived in japan, i went to a friend’s house for the new year holiday…..her father is a bozu(budist priest) in their family temple(been in the family for over 700 years) well, they rented “kalifornia” (brad pitt)and i watched it with them! talk about uncomfortable…..no humor in that. it still haunts me to this day!
THEY rented it?
I wonder if they were trying to make you feel comfortable. You should have said, “Just because I’m American, doesn’t mean I can’t spell California.”
Duh.
EARLY! STOP EARLY!
Poor greg.
‘the left’ didn’t create political correctness
assholes invented political correctness. they may have been part of ‘the left’, but ‘the left’ as a group didn’t do that.
maybe its politically incorrect, but i hate it when people attribute characteristics of a group of people with a larger group they belong to.
its like saying ‘the right’ invented modern racism
Greg: This is for you.
click here.
Maybe that will help work out those demons. :]
The limits on terminology in an attempt to avoid offending political sensibilities often referred to as ‘political correctness’ is as old as politics. The term is a couple hundred years old, but the act has been around forever.
What the dick is going on here?
Anyway. Overheard in New York (only slightly topical):
Suit: Goddamn piece of fucking shit.
Old lady: Geez.
Suit: What’s your fucking problem?
Old lady: The dumbing down of our language; everyone is so crude.
Suit: Where are you from, the Little House on the Prairie?
Old lady: I’m from New York, you fucking asshole.
What a dick.
thanks michele hehehe
oops that “i believe” is a hypo i need to proof read, didn’t mean to offend
i feel like such a richard!
Weinus.
not to hijack the conversation – but my real problem with the whole Three 6 mafia winning best song is: ALL the songs nominated this yeah (in my opinoin) sucked – every year they usually do. why is this still a category? its like they are trying to force-fit mediocre songs into this category jjust b/c it still exists. boring.
hijack away
Three 6 Mafia….what a buncha dicks! Sorry just wanted to use the word :) Some lovely lady usage! How about some political incorrectness lovely lady usage style, fag, dyke,spic, nigger,nip, chink,jew boy,fatass, cunt,and so many many more, so much so little time