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Thursday, December 14, 2006

Heck, it's the freakin' "n" word
Posted by Bob | 10:41 AM
Elaine Boosler is an old comedy pro, never had a sitcom or a talk show, or even worked much on TV. In Now That the Smoke Has Cleared she comments on the Michael Richards incident, Boosler focuses on the word "nigger," but that wasn't the most shocking part of Richards' diatribe.
Words won't kill you unless they are "Ready, aim, fire!". Now that some time has gone by since the Michael Richards rant, let's talk about the true victim of the "n" word; standup comedy. The L.A. Times continues to feature articles on the Laugh Factory, focusing on further "n" word developments, and on black comedians lamenting the loss of their use of the "n" word at the club.
After a peculiar sidetrip to praise the ancient Amos 'n' Andy TV show, she writes:
Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, far from demanding apologies, should have apologized to Bill Cosby, who tried to point out the heartbreak and social defeat of how some blacks are undercutting their own dignity and chances (did you see "Queens of Comedy"?). It's one thing to use the "n" word when you are an original, like Chris Rock or Bernie Mac, or if you're a genius, like Richard Pryor. It's another matter when you don't have the talent to co opt the enemy. These currently enraged black leaders are about ten years too late in their outrage, and they are mad at the wrong person. By the way, the best black comedian I ever saw was Marsha Warfield. She cut to the bone of race relations, was brilliantly funny, as well as intense, challenging, and seething with rage, and she never used the "n" word once.

Lenny Bruce did the first bit using the "n" word to try and diffuse its power, although the come lately historians bother to go back only as far as Richard Pryor. Lenny said he wanted to use it often enough so that any little kid called that word would never cry again because it would no longer have any meaning. And then he just said the word about ten times in a row, along with every other ethnic epithet he could think of. It was a funny, brave bit with good intentions, but it's now a failed fifty year experiment. Its usage is no longer a noble quest to gut its sting. It's become an intellectually lazy way to fill a job instead of using thought, talent, and skill.
Sharpton still hasn't apologized for the Tawana Brawley hoax. & as for defusing words by using them often enough, I still cringe inside when I hear the now ubiquitous "fucking" casually & pointlessly embedded in sentences like, I had a great fucking slice of fucking pizza or I'm going to fucking church with my fucking family on fucking Christmas Eve. I will give Richards credit for his fully loaded language. His retained its shock value. Two reader responses to Boosler's post:
Finally! Someone brings up what I've been thinking since the Michael Richards debacle. There's not a comedy club in America where, on any given night, you don't hear women called bitches, hos and the "c" word yet no one seems bothered. But the "n" word or any hint of anti-Semitism and you get the full minority establishment showing up for a photo op. What gives with that? Why is it okay to insult women? And more to Ms. Boosler's point, why is that funny?
But it wasn't the n-word. It was the lynching imagery ("Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f***ing fork up your ass ...") and the white privilege ("That's what you get for messing with the WHITE MAN.")

Michael Richards didn't evoke the priesthood of performer vs audience (As in Lilly Von Shtup's, "are you in show business? then get your feet off the stage.") He called on the privilege of the white race. (George Allen: "Lets give a welcome to Macaca, here. Welcome to America and the real world of Virginia.")
Or just, "Welcome to the real world of America." Wanna hear really obscene language, read the transcripts of Tony Snow's White House press briefings.
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