The New York Times’ Frank Rich writes about “The Greatest Dirty Joke Ever Told,” an absolute must-read column on so many levels. Rich recounts a Friars Club roast of Hugh Hefner, just two-and-a-half weeks after 9/11.
The ensuing avalanche of Viagra jokes did not pull off the miracle of making everyone in the room forget the recent events. Restlessness had long since set in when the last comic on the bill, Gilbert Gottfried, took the stage. Mr. Gottfried, decked out in preposterously ill-fitting formal wear, has a manic voice so shrill he makes Jerry Lewis sound like Morgan Freeman. He grabbed the podium for dear life and started rocking back and forth like a hyperactive teenager trapped onstage in a school assembly. Soon he delivered what may have been the first public 9/11 gag: He couldn’t get a direct flight to California, he said, because “they said they have to stop at the Empire State Building first.”
There were boos, but Mr. Gottfried moved right along to his act’s crowning joke. “A talent agent is sitting in his office,” he began. “A family walks in – a man, woman, two kids, and their little dog. And the talent agent goes, ‘What kind of an act do you do?’ ” What followed was a marathon description of a vaudeville routine featuring incest, bestiality and almost every conceivable bodily function. The agent asks the couple the name of their unusual act, and their answer is the punch line: “The Aristocrats.”
As the mass exodus began, some people were laughing, others were appalled, and perhaps a majority of us were in the middle. We knew we had seen something remarkable, not because the joke was so funny but because it had served as shock therapy, harmless shock therapy for an adult audience, that at least temporarily relieved us of our burdens and jolted us back into the land of the living again. Some weeks later Comedy Central would cut the bit entirely from its cable recycling of the roast. But in the more than three years since, I have often reflected upon Mr. Gottfried’s mesmerizing performance. At a terrible time it was an incongruous but welcome gift. He was inviting us to once again let loose.
Read the whole thing.
Is this post the best you can do?
Shouldn’t you be commenting on the KC Elections Binder and how the Seattle Times and PI both note that it does not explain the November Election discrepanices as you said it would?
jeff B. @ 1
LOL, that’s what I thought. But why should he have to defend such a “model election?”
Take it to the open thread guys. I’ll get to it when I get to it. (And don’t you have anything better to do on a nice, sunny Saturday?)
Bad timing as far as I am concerned there needs to be a reverence for how many lives were taken, and I think it might even be too soon now for jokes when it comes to the victims families. I agree that we need a tension reliever every so often to realize that life isn’t all pain and struggle, but we need to keep it tasteful there is a line called tact and so many trip over it.
There does need to be reverence, but for how long? If we mandated that no jokes could be told for X amount of time would a month be enough? two months? a year? I don’t know how I would have reacted, but I imagine it is a bit different for everyone. The main impact of it was because it was first.. and puncturing that balloon of solemnity had to happen sometime it is best done through comedy.
Who said it was a joke? That’s how the aristocracy actually behaves. So much for the alleged moral superiority of the rich.
Don @ 6
You left out a word. It should read: “the alleged moral superiority of the liberal rich.”
On the Gottfried jokes, I would think he shouldn’t be surprised that he got boos — likely REAL boos instead of bad-joke-groan boos. I also don’t recall how much was really known about what happened at WTC, but it seems a bit early.
The “Aristocrats” joke must have been one of those that sounds better delivered instead of on paper. On paper, it doesn’t sound even vaguely funny.
You mean like Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, the Adelphia Gang, and all the other rich REPUBLICAN crooks?
Rich liberals, DON, like the past head of the DNC, who made a killing in Global Crossing, or the Kennedy’s [illegal bootleg booze], or, how about the traitor bitch Jane Fonda? [We may agree that any corrupt public or private citizen who steals, commits voter fraud, or commits felonies need to be punished.]
Frank Rich is my new favorite comentator. His last several are wonderful.
The TV version of my favorite Tom Cruise movie, “Born on the 4th of July”, failed the movie’s intent portraying the tragedy of handicapped vets, when the phrase ‘screw you’ was substituted for ‘fu*k you’, especially in the climactic smackdown between wheelchair-bound Defoe and Cruise.
Though artistic expression may be considered liberal, and censorship conservative, Hollywood sex and violence is most often a conservative objective; redirecting money from one pocket to another, regardless of artistic merit. How else can one explain the popularity of dufus actors like Schwartznegger and The Texas Ranger whatsisname. Sometimes, the hard core truth reveals hypocricy; and censorship reveals hypocricy upon hypocricy.
Join the ‘Just Say No to God’ campaign.
How about a No-Joke Zone? We could surround a few acres over on the Eastside with a mud fence so reverent people and humorless Republicans can hang out in their hair shirts and ties drinking bitters, making sure everyone is patriotically correct, held accountable and not having any fun. Any time you wanna duck the grieving process, sit in the shit of your own self-pity and self importance you could drop by and shed a tear or curse the sunset and see to it everyone around you is exactly as unhappy as you are. It’d be an Enchanted Forest for grouches.
Well, how about this joke??
One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he
asked about his bill and the barber replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept
money from you; I’m doing community service this week”
The florist is pleased and leaves the shop. Next morning when the
barber goes to open there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting
for him at his door.
Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill
the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from you;
I’m doing community service this week.”
The cop is happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes
to open up there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting for him
at his door.
Later a Republican comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his
bill the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from
you; I’m doing community service this week.”
The Republican is very happy and leaves the shop. Next morning when the
barber goes to open, there is a thank you card and a dozen different
books such as “How to Improve Your Business,” and “Becoming More
Successful.”
Then a Democrat comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill
the barber again replies: “I’m sorry, I cannot accept money from you;
I’m doing community service this week.” The Democrat is very happy and
leaves the shop.
Next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a dozen
Democrats lined up waiting for a free haircut
…