Speaking of grousing, one Galley reader raises the good point about the ridiculous hubbub over a joke told by Laura Bush at the Correspondents Dinner. The joke involved the president at Crawford, mistakenly trying to milk a horse--a male horse no less. At dinner with Hollywood types and sloshed journalists in attendance, the line was a hit. But now it seems some conservatives (supposedly including William Bennett) have expressed their disapproval of the first lady's "blue" material.
Doesn't this just play up to the stereotype of the uptight conservative? There is, in fact, nothing new to this: Singer Kid Rock was slated to perform during inaugural festivities before nervous Republicans gave him the axe. Actor Dennis Hopper, a fan of the president, was also snubbed from an official gala event, and even expressed "deep regret" about getting disinvited. (Perhaps they thought he was going to bring a tank of nitrous oxide?)
The Easy Rider nevertheless told the Washington Post that "I would still like to express my support for President George Bush and our next four years."
4 hours ago
5 comments:
The American Spectator ran an online article criticizing the First Lady's remarks as vulgar and tasteless.
According to their online letters page today, reader comments ran about 4-1 in favor of "oh, lighten up, willya?"
It's good to know that most conservatives have a sense of humor. Slate writers, on the other hand ( http://slate.msn.com/id/2117924/ ) clearly do not.
william bennett is (or plays the part of) a sanctimonious ass. he has a lot to answer for, not least of which is his role in the "war on drugs."
As I said before, the people complaining should STFU.
I usually like what Malkin has to say. But with this, she give life to every ridiculous stereotype of the uptight convervative. Man, it makes me want to go up to her and tell quiff jokes (not that she would get it).
Although her jokes were far from uproarious - her material was Reader's Digest lame, but her delivery effective - Ms. Bush's jokes were hardly "blue." She never mentioned the horse's penis, and she certainly never said anything about giving it a handjob. That conclusion was left to the imagination of the listener, and folks who can see only the deviant-sexual-practice angle needs to get his head out of the gutter. This means you, Mr. Bennett.
The "he's so dumb he tried to milk the horse - and it wasn't even a girl" joke is one of the oldest saws in farm country. Or anyway it's one all of my farming relatives told when I was a kid in Iowa, and it's a joke they told in mixed company and to children. It's one of those jokes that you take from it what you bring to it. The mind of a child laughs at the silliness of the stupid adult; the mind of an adolescent guffaws at the perceived sexual taboo-breaking; and the mind of the adult chuckles at the exaggeration.
In any event, the furor makes me wonder just who the disconnected east-coast elites really are that they leap to such immature conclusions and such heated condemnation of a joke so basically mild and middle-American that I once heard it from a conservative Mennonite good-naturedly ribbing a citified relative who had come to visit his farm. Were McGovern liberals really ever as arrogant and sanctimonious as the "values" crowd that's jumping on Ms. Bush over the horse joke?
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