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Friday, June 1, 2018

Vile and Filthy Words Are Not Funny

     ...at least not in my opinion. 
     While channel surfing the other day I stopped for a few minutes to watch a program on the Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) called Full Frontal with Samantha Bee that featured a woman named, well, Samantha Bee. 
     I never heard of her, but Samantha Jamie Bee (born October 25, 1969) is a Canadian-American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actress, and television host. 
     Bee rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show, a late-night talk and news satire television program that describes itself as a fake news program drawing its comedy and satire from recent news stories, political figures and media organizations. In 2015, Bee left The Daily Show after 12 years to start her own show. 
     Bee became a US citizen in 2014, while retaining her Canadian citizenship. In 2017, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual Time 100 list. I find it hard to believe that she has that much influence, but if Time says so, it must be true, right? 
     Bee recently has been taking flak for making a nasty comment about Ivanka Trump. One wonders why she can get away with what she says, but Roseanne Barr got fired for a racist “joke” about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to President Obama. Political advisors study topics such as public opinion, political decision-making, and ideology, analyze the structure and operation of governments, and various political entities, conduct public opinion surveys, analyze election results or analyze public documents then brief the President. 
     I never cared for Roseanne Barr and never watched any of her television programs because, to me, she seems rather crude and unfunny. Watching Samantha Bee for a few minutes left me repulsed. Words that come to mind are: rude, offensive, vituperative, caustic, vulgar, filthy and a host of other words I can think of, but funny isn't one of them.
    I don't have a problem with satire, but it's not clear to me why profanity is considered funny. Some time back we stopped briefly at a comedy show appearing on television and about one minute convinced us that the guy wasn't funny at all. The audience was busting a gut even though all the guy was doing was standing there shouting the F-word into the microphone. What's funny about that?! As I told my wife, I can hear that all day at work. Why is it funny when somebody screws up his face and shouts it into a microphone on stage?
     An article in The Telegraph opined, “A new generation of comedy shock jocks has substituted a tirade of filth and abuse for the subtleties of wit and wicked innuendo.” I can't really blame the comedians because it pays their bills and they make a lot of money doing what they do.

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