Kathleen Parker on the WH Correspondents’ Dinner:
There’s nothing un-funnier than Saturday night’s jokes reviewed by the caffeinated light of Monday morning.
Which is why we probably shouldn’t quarterback a comedian over coffee when she was performing for a crowd primed on cocktails.
***My own thought at the time was: “Oh, dear. She just gave Rush the gift of a lifetime.” But as a committed non-literalist, I assumed Sykes didn’t really think that Rush is a terrorist. That she didn’t really hope he suffers kidney failure. Or that he needs a good waterboarding.
Rush Limbaugh is rich in satire ops — and Sykes missed them. That the president was captured on video laughing during the joke, alas, was also a gift to the sorry-loser crowd. One minute he’s handing the queen an iPod, the next he’s laughing at dumb jokes. What’s next? Invading a country?
Pretty fair summation of the silliness.
MikeJ
What’s wrong with giving the queen an ipod?
dmsilev
@MikeJ:
Nothing, since apparently that’s what she asked for, and since it was stuffed full of music from her favorite songwriters and film footage of her various visits to the US, going back some 50 years.
Or, put another way, nothing unless you’re actively looking to find something wrong with it.
-dms
Snark Based Reality
From a political point of view Sykes was the perfect choice.
Her set pushes Rush out into the spot light for a few more days and keeps the fun alive. No sane reorganization of the Republican party can occur as long as Rush is pushing all the oxygen out of the room by bringing in his fat ass.
Let them wander the desert for two years.
Balconesfault
All this deference to the Queen stuff kind of pisses me off. Far as I’m concerned, you can touch her, you can assume she’s capable of dealing with technology, pretty much you can treat her as if she were any other person in the world. I thought we fought some kind of war awhile back to establish our position on that count.
itsbenj
um, no.
she was awesome, and Kathleen Parker is a tool with no understanding of humor. and Limbaugh is more useless than any terrorist.
dpjbro
The “oh dear” comment made me laugh. The vapors, oh my. Parker is lucky to still have a job.
Michael
Speaking of silly, did anybody besides me notice that Carrie Prejean really resembles Marla Maples, which may explain The Bankrupt’s defense of her?
Balconesfault
@Snark Based Reality: And don’t forget that Obama took his Rush shots as well. I think that you’ve hit the nail on the head … it’s to the Dems advantage to keep treating Rush as the leader of the GOP, until GOPers start actively rejecting that meme.
AhabTRuler
Yeah, just what I needed: Another Villager telling me what is and is not funny.
AFAIAC, everything after Colbert will simply be a game of establishment ass-kissing, but I thought that Sykes did a good job nonetheless.
Zifnab
Lulwhat? I thought Presidents were supposed to just up and invade foreign countries. You know, to protect us. From… uh… terrorists. In fact, I’ve got it on good authority that we’re supposed to throw some pissant country against a wall every now and then to let everyone else know who is boss.
I guess Obama isn’t exactly like Bush in the sense that he’s missing a bunch of eager dimwitted bloodthirsty cheerleaders ready to play Pentagon stenographer and swallow every bullshit lie of WMDs that floats across their desks so they can get six more weeks of war porn for the news reels. So, you know, there’s that.
DougJ
That’s Parker’s point. I probably don’t agree with her on many issues, but she describes Republican insanity better than any other op-ed writer going right now.
slag
Actually, Jon Stewart got the best last word when he wondered why the very same Republicans who got on their fainting couches over Sykes had no problem advocating torture.
Off Topic: Video at the bottom of the page documents a senate discussion with US troops about the objectives and problems in Afghanistan: http://thestimulist.com/wes-moore/ (via Twitter, that vast wasteland of superficiality)
Uli Kunkel
Hard to believe you’re taking the side of this pearl-clutcher, JC. Not only were the jokes funny, but they’re good politics.
If Parker’s point is that GOP faithful shouldn’t get in an uproar over the jokes, she’s missing the point that that’s the intended result.
JosieJ
@Michael:
I expect the Bankrupt’s defense of her is rooted in nothing deeper than that he liked her boobs. He’s that shallow.
Still, whatever his reasons, I’m glad he didn’t give the bigots a chance to make her a martyr.
JGabriel
Michael Steele, “I Have A Problem” With New GOP Group Slamming Reagan:
I swear, the GOP’s slogan should be:
.
JGabriel
Kathleen Parker:
Er, no. Sorry, Kathy, but Sykes was running her own satire ops, and you missed it.
The thing is, Limbaugh has said so much offensive shit over the years, that anyone who criticizes Sykes’ remarks without having previously criticized Limbaugh, or without conceding that Limbaugh is worse, automatically reveals themselves as a hypocrite.
.
JGabriel
Mitt Romney:
I get down on my knees and thank God for that everyday.
Probably with a different motivation than Mitt intended, though.
.
Mike
Not to be a contrarian or anything, but Parker got it right. There was nothing clever about the Limbaugh jokes; they were basically just calling him a big poopy-head. Which he is, of course, but being funny requires more than that.
Compare them to her Biden under interrogation jokes, where all that’s needed to get him to talk is saying “Hi”, and then they can’t shut him up. See how that’s based on something about Biden himself, where the Limabugh jokes would have been exactly the same if aimed at Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, or any of the rest of that crowd? How about something more like:
“Rush Limbaugh. He knows why people turn to drugs: because they’re unhappy and misunderstood. Nobody loves them, y’know? What drug fiends need is therapy so they won’t need the drugs anymore, not jail time. Right? If they’re middle-aged white millionaires, anyway. But if they’re poor or dark-skinned, lock their asses up and throw away the damned key! You know what they call that? Compassionate conservatism.”
Slugger
Why is there a problem with saying anything about Rush? He is not the pope nor is he anyone’s Mama. Why should he be off-limits?
I have not listened to him since 1992, but his shtick back then was not respectful discourse. Has anything changed?
Let’s just ignore him.
aimai
I agree with Mike up above. I’m a huge Sykes fan but I thought she was, on the whole, unfunny on limbaugh. Because she let her anger get away with her comedic sense and timing. But lets all just take a moment and marvel that Kathleen “he’s not a full blooded american” Parker, whose last few columns before the election were almost full on KKK self parodies, has come this far. Frankly, I think she must have had some kind of soul transplant because when I used to read her column it was pretty clearly written without one. This one and some of the recent ones were actually borderline sensible and humane.
aimai
Bubblegum Tate
@JosieJ:
Oh, but she already is a martyr. You see, she only lost the Miss USA crown because she stood up for family values against that deplorable homoqueer. And then the evil librul media attempted to “destroy” her (as if participating in a fucking beauty pageant isn’t self-destructive enough by itself) for standing up for family values yadda yadda yadda.
lilysmom
@Michael:
Yes!!
Marla was the first winner of the Miss Resaca Beach contest, a contest put together by the rich horndog carpet mill owners from Dalton Georgia, for the obvious reasons.
Resaca Beach is a fake beach of hauled in sand by a creek bed, kind of like Carrie P.
Uli Kunkel
@aimai: “it wasn’t very clever” reminds me of the reception to Colbert after his WHCD appearance — “Too shrill!”
Mnemosyne
@aimai:
I think we’re witnessing the slow John Cole-ization of Kathleen Parker. When Republicans turned on her like rabid dogs last year when she criticized James Dobson, I expected her to go slinking back to them after an abject apology, but she held her ground and still hasn’t gone back.
lovethebomb
Sykes was spot on. As an English Lit grad I can assure you the reminder that Rush is a hillbilly heroin addict and could be compared to the 9-11 hijackers is about as outrageous as you could get with a couple sentences. It is like the easy slogans Bush used in his “campaigns.” It is catapulting the propoganda, as it were. It will stick in the mind of all who hear it. It’s brilliance is that her remarks will be repeated ad nauseum by the very targets of her attack, thus drilling these reminders into the brains of those they seek to brainwash. It is perfect in it’s bullet to the brain trojan horse subterfuge.
The first lesson of political science is that ridicule is the most potent form of political assualt. If Sykes had tried to go into policy, she would have lost. She did the best thing possible which was to mock and ridicule the major spokesperson for the republican party. Once people begin to think of any public figure as a ridiculous joke, they lose their power. This does not apply to “dittoheads,” but they are not a politically significant block apart from the south.
Gus
I read some of Sykes’ jokes, and I didn’t think they were all that funny. I think you miss a lot when you don’t get the benefit of her delivery. And I agree with aimai, WTF happened to Kathleen Parker?
Dixie
If I’d had a booze session with Wanda while she ran her proposed routine by me, I would have said, “Oh, no, Wanda! Not “kidneys!” Say that you wish his V!AGRA fails.”
There could be lots of follow-ups by wags all over the media and blogosphere after that, right? And people appreciate your contribution to the conversation if they can riff on it.
asiangrrlMN
I thought Wanda’s Rush jokes were fucking funny. I loved the strung-out on Oxycontin part. So, drug addiction isn’t funny, but Parkinson’s is? Duly noted.
I will say, however, that Parker has been a revelation the last few months. I do think we are witnessing the John Cole-inization of Kathleen Parker. I, for one, would welcome her–and it.
@lovethebomb: Yeah, this.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Ditto what Mike said above. There are plenty of funny ways to skewer Rush, with style. Sykes opted to pass on shooting that fat fish in its big barrel, and went for hand grenades instead.
With regard to Kathleen Parker, apparently buckets of hate mail from the GOPosaur base have a way of concentrating the mind wonderfully. Looks like we are heading back to the 1950s when William F. Buckley, Jr. was battling with the Birchers. Only this time the Birchers control the party apparatus. Good luck with that, GOPers. Guess that Southern Strategy doesn’t look so good now that an army of zombie Confederates has risen from the grave and taken over your party. Next time, be careful what you wish for, you may get it.
Shawn in ShowMe
Every comedian isn’t a satirist. Sykes comes from the Paul Mooney school of comedy. She didn’t miss anything.
Brachiator
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
Yawn. I got no problem with Sykes. Her stuff was on the order of what you typically get at these “comedy roast” affairs, and anyone who thinks they can do better is free to post a 10 minute routine. Remember, you can’t just focus on one joke which offended his Rushness, but you got to show — not just claim — that you know better than a professional comedian how to wow an audience.
And given the typical style of the GOP playbook, I am willing to bet good money that they would have complained about any comment made by anyone about Rush.
And by the way, there is nothing more idiotic than talking about the president attending a dinner and having the nerve to laugh at a comedian’s jokes. What, he’s supposed to sit stonefaced with a “we are not amused scowl” permanently set on his face?
Give me a break.
Shawn in ShowMe
You’re equating “razor-sharp wit” with “being funny”. In African-American culture you get a lot more props for talking shit than for being high-concept. And at the end of day Wanda is a sista first and her personal experience informs her writing.
We’re the descendants of slaves and systematically disenfranchised sharecroppers. Our mainstream humor wasn’t built on the glib observations of H.L. Mencken and Mort Sahl. It was built on the legacy of Moms Mabley and the chitlin’ circuit . Permit us our lowbrow rants .
aimai
I think its silly to equate not thinking all of sykes’ routine was funny to thinking that Colbert was “too shrill” or otherwise not getting how funny she is. I love Sykes–like a lot of people I have her “if women could leave their vaginas at home” routine bookmarked to send to friends at appropriate moments. But the fact remains she used a sledgehammer when a scalpel would have been a lot funnier. Calling Rush a big fat oxycontin freak who wants to destroy the country was true, but not really funny. It was certainly gutsy, although she didn’t sound like she was as anxious as I would have been. I agree with whoever posted up above that “I hope his viagra fails while he’s on a sex tour in the dominican republic” might have been even funnier and more out there than “kidney failure.” That’s because I want to see Rush brought low by contempt and humiliation not made sympathetic in any way. And in this country, as we know, the quickest way to humiliate someone is to make fun of their weight and their sexuality.
There’s no point arguing about what is funny and what isn’t, though, that’s a losing game. I salute her for her courage and her honesty and for being right on about how awful Rush is and etc… I just wish it had been as funny as some of her other lines. And I wish she had addressed the audience more instead of Obama, because that made him rhetorically more part of the shtick that was necessary. She undercut that problem with her masterful and extremely well received “come on, you’ll all be talking about it tomorrow” line.
At any rate, I love Wanda and I think in the end, as others have said, she got some shit out there that needed saying at the top of our lungs.
aimai
Uli Kunkel
Sykes made the right people angry: “The black dyke got it wrong. No one told her the rules.”
Mike
I guess Chris Rock is white then. Seriously, take a Chris Rock rant and remove the obscenities, and what’s left is perception and logic worthy of Bertrand Motherfucking Russell.
Origuy
I think Sykes was trying to maintain the Limbaugh-binLaden parallel with the kidneys line, since OBL was supposed to need a dialysis machine. Funny how they’ve been able to keep that going in the wilds of Baluchistan.
aimai
Hey Mike! Yeah, I was thinking Chris Rock, too. Plus…uh? you know…Cosby (if you like that kind of shtick) and Richard Pryor. Not really known for their in your face, drop dead, rage fueled blunt style. They are all pretty damned subtle.
aimai
Shawn in ShowMe
That’s kinda my point. The styles, to achieve the same ends, are dramatically different.
Like I said, it isn’t rage that is a defining characteristic of so many of our most successful comedians , it’s being lowbrow. It’s going “there” with the visuals even when it’s not neccessarily appropriate. It’s talking shit. We’re good at it.
I admire Bill Cosby. He made a conscious decision to go against tradition and keep it clean. He also made a conscious decision to avoid political commentary like the plague. So it was terribly hypocritical of him to humiliate Wanda Sykes a few years back just because he didn’t like the manner of her delivery. At least she had the balls to put her politics in her act.
That’s straight out of the Paul Mooney playbook.
PaminBB
I haven’t seen the whole Sykes routine, so I don’t feel that I should comment. However, I agree with whoever said that Obama was in a damned if he did/damned if he didn’t situation. If he didn’t laugh, he would have been pilloried for being too stiff/ unaable to take a joke. There is no real rationale to any of this.
Mike
Then we’re talking past each other. My problem with Sykes is that she did non-specific name-calling instead of skewering the precise weak points that would have nailed the man to the wall, the way Chris Rock does.
mattH
It sure, but not her. She’s still very conservative, perhaps more than you think, and not really supportive of much of anything that the Democratic party stands for.
Al Swearengen
Fuck Rush, that asshole deserves every punch in the taint he gets.