by Damozel | Wow. Even at the time, his campaign said the discussion was a politically motivated sideshow. That, as we all know, is the defense of last resort.
From Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion:
His Chelsea Clinton joke was as tasteless as it goes. And of course his answer about birth control and Viagra was classic.
But this 1986 joke during his Senate run is just off the wall.
I managed to dig up this gem from his 1986 race for US Senate, as quoted in the Tucson Citizen:
Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, ‘Where is that marvelous ape?’* (RR&R)
Wow -- that's like a quadruple score on the offensiveness scale. Rape, sadism, bestiality, and the verbal equivalent of a 'snuff' film, in just a few words. Like the Chelsea Clinton joke, it is a virtual miracle of a sick joke. What amazes me is that he seems to have told it on the campaign trail. Things were different back in the eighties --- but not that different. As I recall ---I should probably look this up ---women in 1986 had the vote..
I wasn't going to vote for McCain anyway. I would rather cut off my arm than endorse the Republican party's candidate after the eight years they gave us of Bush, Cheney, and the gang. If I couldn't vote for Obama, I'd stay home or vote for one of the third parties or write in HRC.
But if I had been going to, I could never vote for him after reading that. You can tell a lot about people from whether they laugh at jokes about women being repeatedly raped and 'left to die.'
I note that at least one female reader at the RR&R thinks McCain sounds like a fun guy to have a beer with. That seems to be one of the first things Republicans want to know about political candidates. And presumably those right-wingers are all right with this story about McCain's rages (one of which got his wife called a name).
One member of the South Park generation points out that kids today don't understand the concept 'too offensive to be funny.' Just to be clear, I wouldn't have any trouble with McCain as a South Park character.
I guess I'm old-fashioned. Even if I thought the ape joke was funny, having a president who is funny and tells jokes, even really good jokes, isn't high on my list of priorities. I mean, come on: we've had W.
See HuffPost for background..
*The piece links to the pdf file if you go to the actual story.
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"One member of the South Park generation points out that kids today don't understand the concept 'too offensive to be funny.' "
In some cases, yes, but in some sense appreciating the humor of South Park relies on understanding the concept of "too offensive to be funny", and consciously rejecting it.
Shows like South Park (or more obscure, even more extreme humor like "Wonder Showzen" or "The Aristocrats" or some of the stuff on Adult Swim) push the boundaries of what can be considered humor, and often rely on shock value to deliver the humor. When done well (by some interpretation) they're consciously holding up a mirror to our social taboos and making us laugh at our hang-ups. As with all satire, context is very important. It's the awareness of the idea of "too offensive to be funny" that makes those things funny, if that makes any sense.
That ape joke McCain told, on the other hand, relies on a LACK of awareness. McCain wasn't basing that joke on the idea of, "let's laugh at our societal hangups about bestiality and violence toward women". Rather, it was, "haha, women secretly want to have sex with big brutish animals, even if it means getting slapped around a little". It's not a particularly enlightened thought.
Posted by: Adam | July 16, 2008 at 03:45 PM
Indeed it was bad joke!
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