I've always been a David Letterman guy, going all the way back to my first mid-'80s exposure to his ground-breaking 12:30am Late Night on NBC. His ironic, acerbic, Midwestern, sarcastic, intelligent, thoughtful and creative persona appeals to my sensibilities in many ways, and (for better or worse) he's one of the biggest influences on my teaching persona. I watch him as often as I can, because there will be a time fast approaching when he will no longer inhabit the landscape of television, although his innovative influence will continue (especially in the work of Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon).
Like many, I've been watching the fallout from Letterman's relatively innocuous jokes last week about Sarah Palin and her immediate family. (For those that aren't in the know, here's a nice summation.) As a long-time watcher of The Late Show since its inception on CBS, I possess more than a passing understanding of Letterman's comedic sense, and the joke that caused the most outrage came from two things distinctly connected to the host: (1) Letterman's continual ribbing of Alex Rodriguez, the true butt of the joke in question, for his athletic and interpersonal foibles, & (2) Letterman's distaste for the parenting skills of the Palins, with special attention to the hypocrisy of Palin's stance on abstinence-only education and the subsequent failures of her eldest adult daughter in that regard. (The other joke, a "slutty flight attendant" reference, should be eliminated from the discussion entirely; Palin can't use the perception of sex appeal for her benefit and control and then blanch at the same perception distorted for comedic effect in a fairly diluted manner.)
Was Letterman aware that it was in fact a younger daughter traveling with Ma Palin? Not likely, although the mistake is easy to make, given Ma Palin's predilection to trot her entire family from photo op to photo op with a brazen audacity not seen since Jon & Kate Plus 8. (And let's remember that Letterman has a writing team, like every late-night host -- and television personality, for that matter -- so he most likely doesn't have complete control over the presented content.) Did the words "rape" ever slip from Letterman's lips? Not once, as "knocked up" is far from a synonym for sexual assault. Did his multiple apologies come from sincere empathy? There's not a lot of evidence to support any other conclusion. Political expediency and ignorance is driving Palin's derision, and for that, she is to be pitied. Doesn't she have a state to govern, rather than whip up a whirlwind of showy bullshit umbrage for one small pebble in a rock storm?
In other words, can't she take a joke?
Like many, I've been watching the fallout from Letterman's relatively innocuous jokes last week about Sarah Palin and her immediate family. (For those that aren't in the know, here's a nice summation.) As a long-time watcher of The Late Show since its inception on CBS, I possess more than a passing understanding of Letterman's comedic sense, and the joke that caused the most outrage came from two things distinctly connected to the host: (1) Letterman's continual ribbing of Alex Rodriguez, the true butt of the joke in question, for his athletic and interpersonal foibles, & (2) Letterman's distaste for the parenting skills of the Palins, with special attention to the hypocrisy of Palin's stance on abstinence-only education and the subsequent failures of her eldest adult daughter in that regard. (The other joke, a "slutty flight attendant" reference, should be eliminated from the discussion entirely; Palin can't use the perception of sex appeal for her benefit and control and then blanch at the same perception distorted for comedic effect in a fairly diluted manner.)
Was Letterman aware that it was in fact a younger daughter traveling with Ma Palin? Not likely, although the mistake is easy to make, given Ma Palin's predilection to trot her entire family from photo op to photo op with a brazen audacity not seen since Jon & Kate Plus 8. (And let's remember that Letterman has a writing team, like every late-night host -- and television personality, for that matter -- so he most likely doesn't have complete control over the presented content.) Did the words "rape" ever slip from Letterman's lips? Not once, as "knocked up" is far from a synonym for sexual assault. Did his multiple apologies come from sincere empathy? There's not a lot of evidence to support any other conclusion. Political expediency and ignorance is driving Palin's derision, and for that, she is to be pitied. Doesn't she have a state to govern, rather than whip up a whirlwind of showy bullshit umbrage for one small pebble in a rock storm?
In other words, can't she take a joke?
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