First off, it you clicked through comments on the last post, you saw a New Jersey editorial cartoonist posted a link to his Ann Coulter cartoon. When this happens, you bite your lip as you click through the link. If an East Coast editorial cartoonist finds my humble little state/local blog sufficiently compelling to invite to come look and comment, I'm gonna do it. But I'm gonna be honest.
So I'm happy to report that Rob Tornoe's work is . . . good. I thought his Coulter cartoon was just OK, but partly that's because I don't know I Love New York beyond the fact that the show exists and is on Vh1. His other cartoons are more clever and the art is great. He brinks a graphic novel sensibility to the work, with detailed backgrounds, carefully drawn figures and interesting, unique lettering. He has both a blog and a website. He's a young guy and definitely a hot prospect for leading the next generation of cartoonists. In fact I wonder if he could come to Ohio in a trade for Chip Bok and a reporter to be named later.
Some Coulter reaction from the big boys. The main story line is conservatives beating a pell-mell retreat as far from her as possible. Hotline's Blogometer has a sampling. I neglected in my first post to acknowledge that The Boring Made Dull stated this weekend that he's done with Ann. He may or may not be the first Ohio conservative blogger to have done so, but he's definitely the one who I personally like best so that's good enough for a shout-out.
JMZ reports that a conservative sponsor of CPAC tried unsuccessfully to keep Coulter off the bill. Also, her syndicate is at this point making noises like they will keep her on, at least until the client papers start complaining.
Which brings us round to the boundaries of taste when dealing with people like Coulter. Mark this. It's not OK to slam Ann Coulter with misogynistic insults. When Alan Keyes says something stupid you don't make n_____ jokes, slurs against Hispanics are not legitimate when directed against Alberto Gonzalez and you can't go after Coulter with lines of attack that objectify and denigrate women. So Jolly Roger? Not OK.
Generally I include in the Not OK category any jokes along the lines of "She's a man, baby!" But I found an exception while doing research for the first post. On a humor site called Hoolinet, I found a page purportedly from a group of Ann Coulter's "former friends and co-workers" called -- and don't read forward if you have delicate sensibilities -- Strap-on Veterans for Truth. The truth, as they tell it, is that:
- Ann Coulter is actually a former drag queen from Key West named Pudenda Shenanigans. Ms. Shenanigans was famous for her renditions of “Dude Looks Like a Lady” “I will Survive” and “You Shook Me All Night Long” as well as an extensive Barbra Streisand repertoire.
The name "Pudenda Shenanigans" by itself is worth the price of admission, but they keep the joke going from there. Maybe I'm drawing a distinction without a difference here, but I found Strap-on Veterans genuinely funny and only hated myself a little for laughing.
ADDITIONS/CORRECTIONS: In the original post I neglected to embed the links for Hollinet and Strap-On Veterans for Truth. If you didn't Google your way there before, go now. Trust me, it only gets better.
Jill is hot on the Coulter beat and provides a number of updates including the first known paper to dump her. As for Jill's wish/hope for a Judith Regan-style meltdown, I'm not feeling it. Regan pissed off everyone but OJ's agent with "If I Did It." Coulter still has plenty of fans as the hooting and cheering on the tape shows.
Of all the MSM reaction, this Jack Shafer piece is my favorite so far. He explains the basis of the faggot/rehab juxtaposition which I had missed (comes from some Grey's Anatomy flap.) At the end he invites people to nominate their favorite examples of Coulter's not-at-all-calculated outlandishness.
6 comments:
Thank you a hundred times for making me gaffaw. That is too funny - the pudenda thing. wow.
And just a few minutes ago I had a great laugh at the expense of a woman who made aliyah to Israel many years ago and was doing a favor for someone she doesn't even know - she's showing "flat stanley" around Israel and when she tried to take a picture of the entrance to Ben Gurion airport, security made her erase the pics (she knew better as do most people) but the reaction from the security folks when she had to describe Flat Stanley. Oy
Sigh - I hope this is going to be a good day. :)
Pudenda Shenanigans? lol.
Thanks for the shout out.
The Tragedy of Coulter is that it didn't have to turn out to be this way... But once you set your feet on the path of outrageousness, it's a very slippery slope*.
* I have a Kitchen Aid blender I use to mix metaphors.
I don't know, these hoolinet people seem like they're probably part of some liberal plot to destroy our way of life. Ann deserves better than this.
Gefilte - why does she deserve better?
Ah, but that post asks for proof that I am denigrating a woman, and you have offered none. I, on the other hand, offered up compelling anecdotal evidence that I was NOT, in fact, denigrating a woman.
As I said, I'll apologize upon the first evidence presented of my error. I have decided to expand my criteria and will now accept testimony from any medical professional who may have seen evidence that says Ann is a female :)
JR:
The term "cunt" denigrates women. It denigrates women like a hammer drives nails into a wall: That's what the thing is intended to do.
Your thesis is that because Coulter is not a woman, you don't denigrate women because you are not applying the term to a woman. I say four things. First, snark is not an argument.
Second, you denigrate women even by applying the term "cunt" to a man. When you do so, you a) objectify women by reducing women to their genitalia and b) aver that a man is less than a woman and certainly less than a woman who has been reduced to her genitalia.
Third, your argument excuses Coulter. Coulter wasn't seriously asserting that Edwards was gay, she was denigrating him -- and gay men -- by saying that a derogatory term for gays applied to a heterosexual man reduces him to less than a man. So either you lose this argument or you give Ann a pass. Your choice.
Fourth, if you are going to be offensive, you owe it to your readers to at least be funny. You are neither.
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