Lighten Up, Francis
The comic Tracy Morgan is in hot water because he told a joke about his son possibly being gay. Morgan said that if his son told him that he were gay he'd "stab the n-word".
The key words in the sentence above are comic and joke, if you ask me. Yet Morgan is now running all over the country telling people how sorry he is if he offended gay people everywhere. Not to mention the n-word...he can say that because he's black.
As a fellow standup comic, it sort of bothers me.
First off, the joke isn't all that funny, but it does sort of mimic, right or wrong, what a lot of people think about the subject. We've come a long way in the acceptance of gays in society, but are you telling me that a lot of fathers wouldn't think the same exact thing?
Where I fall on the subject matter is inconsequential...I could care less who other people love...it's worrying about who hates who that is more disconcerting, but even if I totally disagreed with Morgan as to the point of disgust...as many are doing...I think it is wrong that he is being ridiculed for a freaking joke!
Think Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. Hell, think Archie Bunker!
Why are we so sensitive these days? A comic telling a joke on a stage somewhere in the middle of nowhere is subject to claims of being anti-gay, anti-white, anti-black, anti-anything?
Has anyone ever listened to Tracy Morgan? He's a whacked out, funny guy, who tells jokes for a living. Certainly he may be mis-guided, but do you really think he'd stab his kid if his kid told him he were gay?
Perhaps I might feel differently if I were gay, or black, or whatever is being picked on. Believe me, I've laughed at myself a lot over the years, but it's not a gay-oppression type of thing is it? We didn't hold gays as slaves, did we?
Talk to me.
Maybe I'm way off base here. I just think a comic should be able to tell a joke.
As Bill Murray said in Stripes:
"Lighten up, Francis."
It's enough to make me want to give up stand-up.
The key words in the sentence above are comic and joke, if you ask me. Yet Morgan is now running all over the country telling people how sorry he is if he offended gay people everywhere. Not to mention the n-word...he can say that because he's black.
As a fellow standup comic, it sort of bothers me.
First off, the joke isn't all that funny, but it does sort of mimic, right or wrong, what a lot of people think about the subject. We've come a long way in the acceptance of gays in society, but are you telling me that a lot of fathers wouldn't think the same exact thing?
Where I fall on the subject matter is inconsequential...I could care less who other people love...it's worrying about who hates who that is more disconcerting, but even if I totally disagreed with Morgan as to the point of disgust...as many are doing...I think it is wrong that he is being ridiculed for a freaking joke!
Think Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor. Hell, think Archie Bunker!
Why are we so sensitive these days? A comic telling a joke on a stage somewhere in the middle of nowhere is subject to claims of being anti-gay, anti-white, anti-black, anti-anything?
Has anyone ever listened to Tracy Morgan? He's a whacked out, funny guy, who tells jokes for a living. Certainly he may be mis-guided, but do you really think he'd stab his kid if his kid told him he were gay?
Perhaps I might feel differently if I were gay, or black, or whatever is being picked on. Believe me, I've laughed at myself a lot over the years, but it's not a gay-oppression type of thing is it? We didn't hold gays as slaves, did we?
Talk to me.
Maybe I'm way off base here. I just think a comic should be able to tell a joke.
As Bill Murray said in Stripes:
"Lighten up, Francis."
It's enough to make me want to give up stand-up.
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