White House speechwriter jokes about TSA groping, priest molestation in award acceptance speech.

[woo me with science]

http://www.politico.com/click/stories/1012/w_h_speechwriter_wins_comedy_prize__page2.html

By PATRICK GAVIN | 12/3/10 6:26 AM EST Updated: 12/3/10 12:07 PM EST

Sparked by an impeccable impersonation of Arianna Huffington, White House speechwriter Jon Lovett took home the top honors at Washington's annual "Funniest Celebrity" competition Thursday night.

....

His routine...touched on the recent controversy over Transportation Security Administration searches, and he joked that "Virgin Airlines had to change their name to 'Technically Still a Virgin' Airlines."

"Everybody in Washington has been talking about the TSA," said Lovett. "TSA has been kind of a big story lately. A lot of people tonight have made some jokes about the TSA; I am, too. I don’t understand what all the fuss is about, you know. First of all, these things are designed to keep us safe. Second of all, it’s giving a way for, you know, defrocked priests to get their lives back together, give back to the community, lend a ... well, not lend a hand, but you know."

...

Well, now we know where we stand in their eyes, don't we?

Ha ha ha! Altar boys! Ha ha ha! Spread your legs! Ha ha ha! Urine-drenched passenger! Ha ha ha! Remove your prosthetic breast! Ha ha ha!

I am so fucking angry I can hardly type.

[Matariki]

1. I'm with you. Very angry.

And don't find anyone connected with the Whitehouse or Senate making jokes about it funny at all.

[roguevalley]

11. my sister has a prothetic leg she has to remove each time.

HAHAHAHAHA! Funny Man! LOoooOOOOok at the funny soulless man! I could punch him. Makes you wonder how many other asshats there are in there gumming up the Change we can believe in.

[ProSense]

2. Here's the video:

Video

[golddigger]

3. Fucking disgusting. I'm at the point of being done with

politics. They all are heartless bastards who think nothing but themselves.

[MichiganVote]

5. Got that right.

[tavalon]

19. Be done with Politicos, not politics

Life is politics. The DC Beltway is a world unto itself and quite the echo chamber. We need to starve that beast and grow a different tree of liberty.

[MichiganVote]

4. What a complete and total asshole. I emailed my complaint. Shameful.

[TheMadMonk]

6. Inneresting. If made by Leno or Letterman, exactly these same jokes,...

...would likely have drawn huge laughs.

In a larger context where the reader knows something about Mr Lovett and his position in life, there might very well be reason to find outrage in his making these particular jokes.

The problem is not the jokes. The problem here is WHY the audience might have laughed at the jokes. For us it's laugh or cry. For "THEM" it's more likely to stem from their not giving a shit for people who think they should.

[roguevalley]

12. I think I would still hate them. Jokes about pedos are as funny

to me as proctology jokes and other slimy things. And I agree with your conclusions on why, sweets. You are spot on.

[TheMadMonk]

17. Oh I don't know, when clever enough, or delivered exactly the right way...

...or the right (or right wrong) company, even the most distateful or corny of subjects can jerk a laugh from most of us the first time we hear them. cf. monkey and pool ball; "I wish I had a bike."; a homophobic patient, a swallowed glass eye and a proctologist; "Is my hat on straight?"; "How was copper wire invented?"

Add or subtract crowd dynamics and it all changes again. An emerging Twitter and Facebook mentality has prominent people giving ill advised public airings to jokes that would not raise an eyebrow in private. Are they really all homophobic, closeted, swiving, bigotted kiddy fiddlers? Of course not. Some, but by no means hall will have one or more of those characteristics and other unsavorinesses in differing degrees, just like every other person on the planet.

Somtimes simply taking a joke away from it's creator and/or context can be enough to make a difference between funny and hugely offensive.

Stupid (or stupidly timed) jokes alone are a stupid reason for condemning a person. They might support a charge of malice in conjunction with other evidence, but they are no proof of any great malice alone.

[QC]

7. People of their class do not get photographed nude or sexually assaulted at the airport,

so this is all a big joke for them, something absurd that happens to those little people they hear about from time to time.

[glitch]

8. Shades of "Lucky me, I hit the trifecta" and "looking for WMDs" heh heh heh.

These people have lost their souls. And for what? A cheap laugh?

Amazing.

[EFerrari]

14. Obama joked about sending drones after the Jonas Brothers

didn't he? Maybe this guy wrote that.

[somone]

9. Stupid, contemptible

[tammywammy]

10. His impersonation of Arianna is great. n/t

[jefferson_dem]

13. Not bad... I chuckled a few times.

Seriously, folks. Lighten up. When did we become so prudish that (somewhat tasteless) political humor is not tolerable?

[LisaL]

15. Well maybe most of us aren't laughing because the joke is on us.

[tavalon]

20. We do need to lighten up

but you gotta know, this has been a tough, tough week to be a bleeding heart liberal. I feel damn near bloodless.

[woo me with science]

22. Not about this.

Not about stripping Americans of their Fourth Amendment rights.

[boppers]

16. THE OUTRAGE! THE HORRORS!

:rofl:

[Bluebear]

18. We know. Nothing Obama could do would irritate you.

" :rofl: "

[QC]

21. Well, maybe if he were to somehow become less dreeeeeeeamy,

but we know that could never happen.

[Bluebear]

23. Even to suggest that possibility is just cruel.

:cry: