Now THAT'S Retarded

I found this article today and read it with amazement. I was then directed to this editorial on the same subject. I'm not sure The Onion can survive if this is what is in the "mainstream" press.

I'm sure most of my eagle-eyed readers will figure out the major fundamental flaw in the editorial, and if you're not sure, it's in the first paragraph. Pay attention to the air of victimhood in which Tim Shriver attempts to shroud himself. Also pay attention to him saying he's worked with the Farrelly brothers -- not exactly going to give him street cred if he's going to get all pissy about portraying the "intellectually disabled" in a poor light.

Now this movie isn't going to be funny because Ben Stiller is, to put it bluntly, never funny. Zoolander?!? That dialogue segment is actually amusing, but I'm sure Stiller's delivery will kill it. I'm sure the movie will be stupid as all get out, or should I say "humor disabled", but this isn't the movie to send the PC brigade after. The target of the movie isn't those with sub-normal IQs, but Hollywood vacuousness and actor cliches. I'm surprised they haven't gotten on to Robert Downey Jr's "blackface" -- but I'm sure that's a whole other bunch of editorials.

Shriver also is living out the following sentiment made by PJ O'Rourke many years ago (back when HE was mostly funny). It's part of a screed laying out the differences between conservatives and liberals: "People who worry themselves sick over sexism and think the government sneaks into their houses at night and puts atomic waste in the kitchen dispose-all cannot be expected to have a sense of humor. And they don't. Radicals and liberals and such want all jokes to have "meaning," to "make a point." But laughter is involuntary and points are not. A conservative may tell you that you shouldn't make fun of something. "You shouldn't make fun of cripples," he may say. And he may be right. But a liberal will tell you, "You can't make fun of cripples." And he's wrong -- as anybody who's heard the one about Helen Keller falling into a well and breaking three fingers calling for help can tell you.

Now I'm not sure he's chosen the right groupings to point out the problem with condemning various kinds of humor. I would replace "radicals and liberals" with "the socially earnest". I would probably replace conservatives with "those of us who live in the real world". But the schoolmarmish prissiness that deigns to tell us "little people" what we're supposed to find funny and what we must condemn really hacks me off. I've also seen a bunch of little monsters running about there because no one can ever tell them they're anything less than beautiful, perfect, smart and their every utterance is priceless.

I have absolutely no intention to see this movie because I don't get out to movies any more, and I've been to too many Stiller turkeys to get caught in that again. But I'm tempted to buy a ticket just because.