Monday, March 05, 2007

Oh No, Ann Coulter Again

Yeah, it's been a big weekend - Ann Coulter said something controversial. Speaking at CPAC (a Republican convention, mostly a place to trade bubble-gum cards and compete for the best red tie/blue suit costume) Coulter joked that she wouldn't talk about John Edwards because you get sent to rehab nowadays for using the word "faggot".

It's even funnier if you're twelve!

She's gotten a lot of bad press for this comment, but most of it misses the most important point, which is that it's a poorly constructed gag. Ted Haggard is the current rehab go-to reference, and he was sent there because he is was a faggot. See? That's where the funny is.

This is why Ann Coulter is such a bad spokesperson for the right - she's comedy blind. Clearly most of what she gets in trouble for is supposed to be funny (indeed she often says it was a joke when called out) but most people don't believe her because it simply doesn't play that way.

I hate to admit it, but Michael Moore is in the same boat. He's funny about 30% of the time and about 37% when he's explicitly TRYING to be funny.

Last night me and the missus took in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. Idi Amin was a pretty funny guy, up until he started slaughtering his enemies in the streets. Said it here before folks - extremists make lousy comedians.

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LATER THAT DAY...

Skot makes a good point, that Coulter may have been referring to the recent GRAY'S ANATOMY kerfuffle. Probably correct, though GA is so far under my radar (Gaydar?) that you can't blame me for assuming that Ann Coulter hasn't been following it either. Whatever, she's still not funny.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Ted haggard is the current rehab go-to reference..."

No, I'm calling you on that one. I believe Coulter was obliquely (and, as you said, unfunnily) referring to Isaiah Washington, TV's Dr. Burke on "Grey's Anatomy." He called his co-star T.R. Knight a faggot-- and then, for some inexplicable reason called him that again at an awards show.

That particular f-word is getting quite the workout in the press lately, huh? Collective gay panic?

--Skot