On a scale of 1 to 10 - 1 being "really, really outrageous and twisted" misogyny, Bernie Mac's attempts at humor on Friday (at an Obama fundraiser) rank about 3 on my misogyny meter. But Joan Walsh is less incensed than I am:
Anyway, soldiers are dying in Iraq, the mortgage industry is imploding, banks are closing, our civil liberties were seriously eroded this week (with Obama's support) and we're expected to be outraged by Bernie Mac? I'll pass.
Walsh happens to like Bernie Mac's humor. I don't. He's one of a long line of (especially) Black male comedians who use women as comedic punching bags. Friday's fundraiser for Obama was no exception:
[SNIP]
On Friday night, the comedian Bernie Mac, a longtime friend and supporter of Senator Barack Obama, set out to entertain a crowd at a $2,300-a-head Obama fund-raising event with humor touching on issues like menopause and prostitution. But by the time Mr. Mac was wrapping up his remarks, some in the crowd had turned on him, and when Mr. Obama took the stage, he told the comedian to “clean up your act.”
[SNIP]
At another point in his standup routine, he began: "My little nephew came to me and he said, Uncle, what’s the difference between a hypothetical question and a realistic question?' I said, I don’t know, but I said, 'Go upstairs and ask your mother if she would make love to the mailman for $50,000.' "
The joke rambled on until the punch line that he and his nephew lived with "two hos."
This is the lowest form of humor. It requires no class, little thought, is emotionally and intellectually stunted, and is totally demeaning to women. At $2,300 a person, those in attendance got zero return and women once again became the butt of the jokes and the punchline. Barack Obama's judgment is in question...again, by booking Bernie Mac in the first place. And even if Obama (through his campaign) has "repudiated" Mac's comments, the bell has been rung.
If it were me, I'd ask for a full refund.
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