Is the following joke really that offensive?
“One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game … during the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”
I, like most of America, thought David Letterman was talking about Palin’s daughter Bristol who, at the age of 17, announced she was pregnant during her mother’s run for the vice presidency. Apparently it was Palin’s fourteen-year-old daughter who attended the baseball game. Whoops.
Letterman’s joke doesn’t bother me. Palin’s response doesn’t bother me. The people from FireDavidLetterman.com who are protesting Letterman’s show, while silly, doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is that Letterman ultimately caved and apologized for the joke.
Are we really at a point where comedians will now have to apologize for every joke that offends someone? Doesn’t pretty much every joke offend somebody? George Carlin … Sam Kineson … Lenny Bruce … Richard Pryor … those guys had the right idea.
Sorry, Dave. You slipped down a notch in my eyes this week.
It’s sort of making fun of the fact that Alex Rodriguez will jump on anything that moves and is female (or, quasi-female, according to some reports). However, A-Rod wasn’t even mentioned in the apology! I’d feel bad for him, but I – like most right-thinking individuals – dislike him slightly for reasons I can’t fully explain.
A-rod wasn’t the one whining and moaning like Sarah “my 15 minutes are OVER” Palin so no apology to Alex was necessary. I don’t mind the apology that Letterman was forced to make. It’s the whining and “OMG I’m offended” crap that ticks me off. It shows that Sarah and her supporters are so desperate for attention that they’d grasp at straws like this to get it. When I first heard about the story, I gave it a big “so what?”. Sarah should have done the same.
I think the apology shows that Letterman has more class than the Palin supporters who are making fools of themselves. To me, the joke wasn’t even all that good because it wasn’t very original. Let’s face it: 10,000 people were thinking it (A-Roid’s sleeping around is no secret) but Letterman just was the one who said it.
Both Letterman and Palin benefited from the controversy, and let’s face it, both of them knew what they were doing. Palin needs to keep her name in the news. Letterman’s ratings are up. Neither of them are crying right now. The only losers are the 36 people who showed up at the “Fire Letterman” rally and proclaimed to the world they have nothing better to do.