Thursday, June 11, 2009

Some jokes are never OK

I did not see the David Letterman show in which he made a tasteless joke about Sarah Palin and an even worse joke about her daughter.

I haven't watched David Letterman for years. I got tired of his sexism.

But I have read multiple news reports and watched video clips of his show in which these remarks were made. During a segment on the Top Ten Reasons Palin visited New York, one was to update her "slutty flight attendant look."

Even more egregiously, during his monologue, he said Palin attended a Yankees game with her daughter and "during the seventh inning her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."

The daughter with Gov. Palin was 14-year-old Willow.

I am no fan of Sarah Palin. I think she would have been a disaster as vice president. But Letterman's "jokes' were sexist in the extreme, insulting not only Palin but every flight attendant in the industry.

And there is no excuse possible for the remark about her daughter.

Bristol Palin did not run for office. Her mother did. Bristol Palin already has had her out-of-wedlock pregnancy held up for examination by the entire world. I think enough's enough for her.

Letterman should be ashamed of himself.

When faced with the outrage, Letterman issued a sort-of apology in which he said he was referring to 18-year-old Bristol and explained that he would never make, say, rape jokes about a 14-year-old.

Here's a news flash, Dave. Making rape jokes about an 18-year-old isn't OK either.

Read my lips.

Rape jokes are never OK.

4 comments:

Lauralew said...

Amen. With all of the recent hate crimes, one would think that folks would remember that words have consequences. To say, "I was only joking," is a cynical attempt to place blame elsewhere. Thank you for this post.

Pat Klemme said...

David Letterman and his ilk contributed to my decision a few years back to live TV-free.
Thanks for speaking against his harmful and shameless non-humor.

Daniel Weir said...

I agree that Letterman's jokes were "out of bounds." However, I sense that the Governor's attempts to keep the controversy going are more about politics than about family. The Palin children were more often, I think, at campaign events than the Obama's children. If the Governor and her husband wanted to shield the children from publicity, a good first step would have been to leave them at home.

Elizabeth Kaeton said...

Has anybody noticed that sexism - subtle and not so subtle - is on the rise? Is there some kind of unwritten law of 'balance of prejudice' in the cosmos? Do bigots feel free now to come after women because there's a Black family in the White House? What are we to make of the shooting at the Holocaust Museum? And, the murder in a church of Dr. Tiller? It just makes me sick to my stomach. All of it.