Tue, 29 Nov 2005 07:49:59
Stop using 9/11 as a weapon
People piss me off. Like that’s news, right?
The cynical standup who made a cheap bid for laughs off the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks needs to know there’s nothing funny at all about living with the aftermath, say disgusted survivors.
Comedian Sarah Silverman’s flick, “Jesus is Magic,” pokes fun at the day of terror, calling the day tragic “because it happened to be the exact same day I found out that a soy chai latte was, like, 900 calories.”
I think anyone who knows me, has read my stuff or can click my 9/11 category can say that I was, and continue to be, affected by that day. I didn’t lose anyone...I don’t know why it hits me the way it does. I can’t explain it.
That having been said...For fuck’s sake, she’s not making fun of 9/11, she’s mocking her own selfish reaction. And it was funny. I would gladly laugh at that joke, because it’s about her...and by extension, our...sometimes selfish reactions in the face of unimaginable tragedies. Look at my previous paragraph...”I didn’t lose anybody.” Like everyone else who is, you know, a human, I immediately filter everything through the lens of how it will affect, has affected or might affect me. The job of a comic is to find something we all recognize and make us laugh about it, either through sarcasm, absurdity or the art of the uncomfortable truth.
There’s also a layer of examination of how some people react to things in a way that seems incongruous with the gravitas of the event. The comedic device in question is knows as “the emotional disconnect.”
People, stop looking for reasons to be offended. The world is fucked up enough without this petty shit.
Laugh,
and the world laughs with you.
Cry,
and you cry alone
Posted by JimK at 07:49 AM on November 29, 2005
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Categories: 9/11, Humor, The Stupidity Of Man
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Technorati: Sarah Silverman 9/11 comedy humor
Comments:
#2 Posted by Rann Aridorn 
on 11/29 at 07:20 PM -
Mm. I dunno. I’m all for not being overly sensitive, and I guess I see what she was getting at, but at the same time I can see how that would seem to be one of the most disgusting jokes ever made.
I mean, I’ve seen some 9/11 jokes that were in bad taste, but funny as hell. It actually gave me a headache because I hated myself for laughing so much.
That’s not really funny. I think if you’re going to make a joke about such a sensitive subject that’s ripe to be taken wrong, you’ve got to make sure that the joke is so funny that peoples’ reaction is to laugh first and feel bad about it later. Since the joke’s really weak anyway, all that comes through is the offensiveness.
I guess I see both sides on this one, but the moral is, she’s an entertainer. Just like the Leftard entertainers were stupid to cry “OMG persecution!” when there was backlash over their anti-war toutings, I don’t think we can call “OMG lighten up!” if there’s backlash against another entertainer telling a joke like that. It’s the nature of the business, if people don’t watch them, the money doesn’t come in, and thus places don’t hire them.
#3 Posted by Sean Galbraith 
on 11/29 at 07:58 PM -
Rann: Have you seen The Aristocrats by chance?
#4 Posted by Rann Aridorn on 11/29 at 11:21 PM -
Nope.
#5 Posted by sindri on 12/02 at 12:04 AM -
New Yorkers (Conservative New Yorkers) have thick skins and this is 100% NY humor. I agree she’s making fun of what a J.A.P. would think. What’s so piss in your pants funny is I have no doubt many J.A.P.s felt the same way about something that day. (My nail appointment that I waited 6 months for was cancelled cuz of yhose damn Arabs!!!!--That sort of thing)
You really gotta know NY women to really appreciate how funny that is.
#6 Posted by sindri on 12/02 at 12:06 AM -
Gee Jim, you really are a smart guy
Great response to overly sensitive people!
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#1 Posted by Drumwaster
on 11/29 at 02:27 PM -
I gotta say, though, Sarah Silverman isn’t the cutting edge of comedy, she’s the bleeding edge.