A jokester being protested about for telling jokes, with the masses out for his head (a.k.a. his job). Ridiculous or just desserts?
Catalyzed by the Yankee Stadium joke about Sarah Palin's daughter last week, there is a new movement that will culminate in a rally tomorrow morning outside of the Ed Sullivan Theater to "Fire David Letterman."
It's easy to see in the video clip attached to this article how the joke got out of hand. Letterman made a joke referring to Bristol Palin's pregnancy (of course, on an unrealistic grand scale). Unfortunately, the stadium where one of Palin's daughters got "knocked up" in the joke was actually visited by Willow Palin, who was 14 years old.
When viewed as a joke about Bristol, it was harsh, but understandable. Her pregnancy was a giant topic of conversation and debate, especially because of Palin's professed traditional values. A family with traditional values isn't expected to include a pregnant high school senior, and the nation was shocked by these events during the already controversial presidential race of '08. That joke, I get. I still think it's not exactly classy, but David Letterman is famous most of all for his jokes that straddle the line of what's appropriate. He even topped the late night ratings list this week, probably because of that joke.
However, the joke, because she actually attended Yankee Stadium, was perceived to be about Willow Palin. And it seems that most people (including me) are agreeing that at 14, she's much too young to be the bull's eye for this kind of joke.
I think that the public may be having a disproportionate amount of anger towards Letterman, considering what is realistic in this situation. If you watch the video where Letterman explains the misunderstanding, it's apparent that he doesn't even know the girls' names. I don't know if he even wrote the joke, or if he even knew that Sarah Palin had more than one daughter.
Maybe the joke was aimed at Willow, and crossed the line. Maybe it was a misunderstanding. Either way, it's ironic that a man who has built his career on his envelope-pushing jokes is now being attacked for one of those jokes.
Will CBS fire David Letterman? It's doubtful. Our culture is one that loves drama - when Letterman shines an unflattering spotlight with his jokes on someone who we don't see as needing protection (or who we even see in a negative light already), he's lauded. But when that spotlight falls on an innocent (perceived so by us) party, then there's an uproar. It sounds like bad feelings all the way around, to me. We love to hate something or the other, it's just the way of the world right now.
For my part, I'm a believer that the pseudo apology he aired was enough. He said he was wrong and that fixes it where I'm concerned (whether he was smirking or not). It comes with the territory of being a celebrity that people are going to take shots at you, especially a person who's job it is to take shots. However, he was out of line and he knew it (if he even realized the gravity of what he was saying when he told the original joke - if you watch the clip with that as a focus, this point seems to be debatable). Maybe having the rally's unflattering spotlight shined this time in the direction from whence it generally comes is a healthy thing.
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