March 13, 2007

Poor Mickey... but he kind of deserves it.

I finally got around to watching the new episode of "South Park," which helped me understand why Andrew Sullivan is needling Mickey Kaus like that. I laughed a lot, especially in the first few minutes, which you can see in the clip that's currently on the front page here. (And help me figure out how to make this a permanent link to that clip.)

If you'd rather see Mickey Kaus just yelled at outright, rather than taunted with references to cartoons he doesn't watch, go here and watch Bob Wright get incredibly -- and uncharacteristically -- steamed about Mickey's failure to condemn Ann Coulter for using the f-word... the other f-word.

13 comments:

XWL said...

Sullivan is being a bit, well, Sullivan-y, and Kaus is also being a bit Kaus-y.

And I guess by commenting on it you are being a bit Althouse-y.

(and by including this parenthetical statement, I'm definitely being XWL-y)

As far as direct linking, Viacom (Comedy Central's parent), I don't think they believe in direct links to video clips, they'd rather you have to hunt through menus to find the clip you want (I guess in the hopes that more clicks equal greater ad revenue).

Folks love the convenience of YouTube, so instead of figuring out a way to work with them, or at least work like them, they SUE for over a billion dollars.

And as far as that South Park episode, I'm pretty sure the incident in Jesse Jackson's office was an almost exact recreation of actual events.

LoafingOaf said...

Mickey Kaus condemned Coulter's use of the word faggot.

Scary that he's friends with her.

Revenant said...

What's really amusing in all this is that both Sullivan and "South Park" are themselves calling people "faggots" for humorous purposes.

Why it is ok for Sullivan to call Kaus "Faggot guy" and bad for Coulter to call Edwards a faggot is a mystery to me. NONE of them should be using it, jokingly or otherwise.

Unknown said...

Revenant, I think what you're missing is that when Sullivan calls Kaus "faggot guy" he's joking about Kaus's obsession with teh gay, not using the word as a perjorative in itself.

Coulter on the other hand was using "faggot" perjoratively, as a way of insinuating that Edwards fits the homophobic stereotype of gay men as preening and effette.

Personally, I'm from a country where a "faggot" is just a spicy meat ball served with gravy.

Revenant said...

Revenant, I think what you're missing is that when Sullivan calls Kaus "faggot guy" he's joking about Kaus's obsession with teh gay, not using the word as a perjorative in itself.

I don't think I missed that, no.

Setting aside the amusement value of Sully accusing somebody *else* of being "obsessed with teh gay" (we're talking about a guy who went from histrionic Bush toady to histrionic Bush enemy purely because of Bush's stance on gay rights), the fact remains that South Park uses the word the same way that Coulter did. Coulter didn't insult any actual gay man by calling him "a faggot". She used the term jokingly, while acknowledging that it couldn't really be used, to describe a prissy guy.

Titus said...

After reading many of Kaus's posts, especially his disgust of Brokeback Mountain, I think Sullivan came up with a good name for him, "faggot guy".

After Kaus's writings on Brokeback I stopped reading him.

I never thought he had interesting to say other than homosexuals disgust him. OK, got it, you are repulsed by the gays...boring.

Unknown said...

Revenant, Sullivan isn't obsessed with homosexuals, he is homosexual. Given that he's directly affected by the efforts of this administration to ensure that he and his partner can't share medical benefits, I'm not surprised he's pissed off.

You're being patently disingenuous about Coulter's joke. When she said: "It turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot'.." she was only saying that the word would be deemed offensive by liberals, which especially coming from Coulter is quite different from saying it's actually wrong to call someone a faggot.

Revenant said...

Revenant, Sullivan isn't obsessed with homosexuals, he is homosexual.

He is both homosexual and obsessed with homosexuality and gay issues. The former is not an excuse for the latter -- most people manage to have political views informed by something other than what they do with their genitalia.

Sullivan, much like local Althouse commentator downtownlad, tries to find ways to make any political issue somehow relate to gays, gay rights, or sexual orientation, no matter how ridiculous the association. Hence my amusement at the notion that he would fault someone else for being "obsessed with teh gay". For pity's sake, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson combined have wasted less ink obsessing over the subject than Sullivan has.

Given that he's directly affected by the efforts of this administration to ensure that he and his partner can't share medical benefits, I'm not surprised he's pissed off.

The point, giles, is that basing your entire political view around that one issue, as Sullivan does, is obsessive. It is one thing to dislike Bush because of his stance on gay marriage, and quite another to dislike the Iraq war (for example) because of Bush's stance on gay marriage.

"It turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot'.." she was only saying that the word would be deemed offensive by liberals, which especially coming from Coulter is quite different from saying it's actually wrong to call someone a faggot.

"Especially coming from Coulter"? That's an amusing concession to the fact that this is more about who Coulter is than anything she actually said.

Sullivan and Coulter both agree that it is fine to call someone a "faggot" in order to annoy or insult them -- the simple proof being that they both do it. Coulter's view is that liberals say its wrong (and she presumably doesn't), Sullivan's view is whatever Sullivan's view is today -- I haven't checked my calendar. Neither excuse holds any water.

Sullivan would probably say that he's just using a South Park reference. I wonder how long it would take him to start his 32-part rant against homophobia if, say, Glenn Reynolds started calling Sullivan "The Faggot Guy" every time he linked to Daily Dish. Five seconds? Ten maybe?

JimM47 said...

That episode of Bloggingheads was just painful, and reminded me of a talking heads program of TV. They both had semi-valid points but were talking past each other so often and so combatively that there was no real progress. I enjoyed the Althouse appearances I watched much more.

chuck b. said...

"we're talking about a guy who went from histrionic Bush toady to histrionic Bush enemy purely because of Bush's stance on gay rights"

This claim remains untrue no matter how many people make it.

Revenant said...

This claim remains untrue no matter how many people make it.

It is entirely true, no matter how many people deny it. I used to be a regular Sullivan reader back when I liked reading emotionally overwrought "this is a war and you're with us or against us" blogs like Sullivan's site and Little Green Footballs. Sullivan was first in line to suck up to Bush and condemn his critics -- right up until the gay marriage amendment came up. Then Bush made the rapid transition from "the second coming of Winston Churchill" to "Hitler version 2.0".

The man went from sucking Bush's dick to calling for his head without *Bush's* behavior changing at all. Andy's hero "betrayed" him, that's all -- that's the whole reason for his conversion to the anti-war side, and it is all the more pathetic when you consider that the "betrayal" consisted of Bush acting exactly the same way he'd always acted.

Unknown said...

The betrayal chiefly consisted of Bush completely screwing up the occupation of Iraq. And torturing people. And the Katrina debacle. And massive increases in government spending. Yeah, it's all about the gays.

And no, Sullivan did not call Kaus a faggot. The meaning of "Faggot-Guy" is quite obviously: "Guy who has problems with homos."

Unknown said...

I'm gay, which is why I'm interested in gay topics. Makes total snse.

Why is revenant interested in such subjects????

Really. Inquiring minds want to know.