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psmith2.0
2004-06-11, 11:55
And more touchy:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/11/tv.kimmel.ap/index.html

Is that horrible? I didn't think so. Getting to where you'd better clear it with 5 or 6 different agencies and offices before cracking a joke.

:D

A joke, people. Cities get poked at all the time, don't they? Cleveland, NYC, Frisco, L.A., Dallas, Miami, Nashville, Seattle. Is Detroit exempt? And fans from lots of cities have been known to show their asses after various sporting events (when is the last time you heard about a major championship game - college OR pro - NOT being accompanied by thrown garbage cans, overturned cars, some fires, etc.? Exactly!), so I don't think Kimmel said anything far-out or unheard of.

:confused:

The show was pulled and people at ABC are running around, issuing half-ass, suck-up apologies? Amazing.

Are any of you here, honestly, bothered? Can someone make a joke (partially based in truth, no less) about your town and you go with it and laugh? God knows I do (Chattanooga...redneck central, with a massive inferiority complex, situated smack dab between Nashville and Altanta).

:)

windowsblowsass
2004-06-11, 11:57
people can say whatever they want about my town i dont care the only thing here is little league(glorified trafic jam)

psmith2.0
2004-06-11, 12:01
Just this creeping, ever-growing hypersensitivity - and tendency to hand-wring excessively - by so many that kinda bothers me. :(

Gets to where you don't want to say much to anyone, about anything. Just to be safe.

:)

autodata
2004-06-11, 12:08
Ridiculous.

psmith2.0
2004-06-11, 12:09
OMG!!!!!!!!!! :D :lol:

I put this in Speculation and Rumors by MISTAKE!!!!

Mods, please move to AppleOutsider and accept my deepest apologies.

:D

Man, THAT is quite the careless blunder.

Move on, folks...nothing to see here...lalala.

[whistles]

alcimedes
2004-06-11, 13:54
man, i was about to try and figure that out, but yeah. wrong forum.

n00b.

:D

but yeah, he's a fucking comedian for pete's sake. he's supposed to say shit that pisses people off, but is funny. that's his job. abc can shove it.

Akumulator
2004-06-11, 14:01
I didn't even know that show was still on. For some reason I figured it got cancelled... I never even accidently see it while flipping through the channels. Anyone know if it even airs in Atlanta? :\

Wrao
2004-06-11, 14:05
Meanwhile on NBC, conan has an on-going feature where he insults every country in the world.

Moogs
2004-06-11, 14:56
I'm with Scates on this issue. People are so unbelievably self-righteous in their sensitivities and expectations of other people's speach that it's almost repulsive. Seems like you can't make fun of anyone other than yourself without a permission slip these days.

More PC bullcrap, analagous to the "cold latina" billboard, only far more ridiculous, because it was far more general a commentary.

autodata
2004-06-11, 15:00
And he didn't even say anything remotely as painfully honest as he could have, such as noting that the only people living within the detroit city limits are crack addicts, hookers and a handful wannabe urban 20-somethings hoping to be, know or screw the next eminem or richie hawtin.

But, for the record, I do love the detroit/windsor metro area. :)

Moogs
2004-06-11, 15:53
Agreed. Detroit is a city begging to be made fun of. My buddy lives outside Detroit and took us into the city for a night last summer. Ugh.

psmith2.0
2004-06-11, 16:08
I've never been there, and know nothing much about it. :confused:

Pretty bad?

Moogs
2004-06-11, 16:23
Yah. I would compare it to Cleveland before that city went through its renaissance with the rebuilt lakefront area (Jacobs Field, R&R Hall of Fame, nice restaurants, shopping, etc.). Detroit is sort of an industrial town that forgot to modernize. The only big businesses in Detroit are the auto makers and b-rate casinos AFAICT.

Just lacks character and a real sense of diversity I guess.

autodata
2004-06-11, 16:47
Do the car companies even have any buildings actually in detroit anymore?

There are only something like 4 actual buildings over three stories tall in "downtown" (and one or two are probably empty) and a monorail that doesn't actually do anything useful (think Simpsons, seriously). Detroit stands (or lies dead) in stark contrast to the prosperous surrounding suburbs. For example, crossing the southern Grosse Pointe border into detroit you go from massive (and I really mean massive) multi-million dollar estates to disintegrating shacks within a couple blocks. I used to joke that it was like a meteorite hit detroit and left a giant crater the exact shape of the city border.

For all of the failings of detroit *the city*, detroit *the metro area* is sort of vast suburban paradise that actually does generate a lot of good stuff in all sorts of industries and arts.

addabox
2004-06-11, 16:59
Stupid.

However: not analogous to the "cold latina" billboard.

Detroit: a city. Analogous to: hairstyles, weather, taste in movies, choice in pets, the interstate system, how people use their blinkers, airline food, sports, etc. Joke worthy, uncomplicated.

Latina: a race and gender. Analogous to: blacks, gays, jews, etc. Joke worthy, but complicated. Have to actually pay attention, on account of a history of actual suffering attached.

Conflating the two under the general rubric "PC" does a disservice to both.

I'm Addabox. I never let go.

torifile
2004-06-11, 18:08
More PC bullcrap, analagous to the "cold latina" billboard, only far more ridiculous, because it was far more general a commentary.

So anytime there's some ridiculous move done by a stupid company because of an off-color comment it's "political correctness" :err: I don't think so... It's actually quite a predictable response from some that this lame reaction would be chalked up as another mark against being PC. It's not. It's just stupid.

Moogs
2004-06-11, 18:20
Look I don't want to start splitting hairs as to what's genuinely a case of "PC gone haywire" and what isn't, but the fuss raised over Kimmel's comments if very definitely PC bullshit AFAIC. People getting all bent out of shape over nothing, quite literally, and then acting as if everyone should be shocked and outraged.

I only compared it to the Latina billboard in the sense that people blow the reaction way out of proportion to the thing itself, and in this case indicated that this was far "worse" in the sense that the outrage is over comments that are much more vague than the billboard.

HOM
2004-06-11, 18:26
Wait a second. Did anyone else find this part interesting:
ABC made the decision to pull Wednesday night's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" from affiliates nationwide shortly after the program was taped that night in California.

Um, can they say it's 'live' when it's really on tape and most likely edited? I know that all the other late night shows are filmed in real time, meaning they break for commercial lengths so editing is kept to an absolute minimum, but does that mean that the Daily Show can claim to be live too?

As for the topic, there is a class in America that is perpetually offended. This is their job. Someone says something you don't like, scream bloody murder and scream about being offended until the material is pulled or the person responsible is forced to make a half-assed apology. The only good thing about this is that the state of offensiveness is being pushed further and further back every day. 50 years ago people would have been offended to see Lucy and Desi in the same bed, now somewhere on the order of 45% of people that saw Janet's boob could care less. Everyday thousands of prudes are dying.

As Martha would say, this is a good thing.

EDIT: I should add this one thing. Remember the John Rocker comments from SI a while back. They completely destroyed his career. He went from one of the most dominating pitchers to a hack in no time flat. Well, his comments about NYC and the 7 line in particular were not that far from the truth. Everyone I spoke to here thought he was off on some things and could have used better words, but the thrust of what he was saying was accurate. So New Yorkers were all up in arms not because it wasn't true, but because it was coming from an outsider.

In the end, it was all for the best. Rocker used to kill my beloved Mets and now not so much.
:p

autodata
2004-06-11, 18:27
As a man with recent Irish heritage, I'm going to go sue-happy on St. Patrick's day.

Windswept
2004-06-11, 18:27
Have a dim view of someone's town? Not too crazy about your *own* town?

Read what this guy says about the town of Portsmouth, England:

Town/Village: Portsmouth

The town during the day is the usual non-stop stream of half-dead pensioners, teenage mums and shell-suit bedecked amoebic life forms. By night these people really come alive, however, but choose to come alive using vandalism, street violence, verbal abuse, glue sniffing and rapid, canine-like sex in public against lamp posts.

When you are able for one moment to get the stench of deep fried reconstituted chicken guts from the far too numerous fast food eateries from your nostrils, and quite probably the taste of your own blood and smashed teeth from your mouth, you are greeted by the rancid odour of the thousands of gallons of effluent that is pumped mercilessly into the sea on a daily basis.

Ah yes, the sea. Of course Portsmouth has one feature which for many towns many be a redeeming one; a beach. But then you realise that the beach is of course, being Portsmouthian, of the pebble variety, and therefore utterly useless. And the sea itself, being Portsmouthian, is of the brown variety. And not just in winter, it is brown, stinking and full of used condoms and needles all the year round. Holiday goers to the seaside in Portsmouth rarely venture from their cars, and sit, glassy-eyed, flask of tea and soggy sandwich in hand, staring out at the grey horizon and wondering, presumably, how to end their lives.

On the architecture front, Portsmouth boasts many triumphs of the idiocy of the human spirit. The "Tricorn", a shopping centre of sorts, comes in for special mention here, being surely the ugliest concrete monstrosity on the face of the earth. Even the locals have been campaigning for years to have it torn down (although there are those who want it listed and preserved - this would only happen in Portsmouth).

Another triumph of structural design is the first thing you see upon entering the city from the motorway; the ABC Cinema. It fell into disuse about two years ago, presumably because cinemagoers became too depressed, or too terrified of petty violence to leave their homes. It is now a target for vandals, arsonists and drug addicts, and looking at it pretty much sums up the feeling the Portsmouth gives you. That gnawing, dripping, incessant feeling of dread, regret and panic that epitomises crap towns everywhere.

Gareth Irvine

More info about "craptowns" can be found at the following website. You can even send in your own impression of the towns you love to hate. The UK commentaries have been around longer, and therefore are more fleshed-out and perhaps more accurate than the American ones, afaict.


http://www.craptowns.com/html/frontsection/craptowns/30_5/england.htm

Edit: Had some trouble with the link, but I think it's working now.

Moogs
2004-06-11, 18:48
:lol:

Oh yes... how refreshing and brutally honest. Give that man an honorary Pulitzer!


Thank you, Carol. Great post.

Windswept
2004-06-11, 18:49
:D

psmith2.0
2004-06-11, 20:30
Ha...that's pretty biting! But funny. I'm sure the people there are irked...if they can even read.

:lol:

Eugene
2004-06-12, 09:24
Meanwhile on NBC, conan has an on-going feature where he insults every country in the world.
I was going to note Conan. Apparently the citizens of Detroit as are thin-skinned sissies like the Quebecois.

Moogs
2004-06-12, 09:34
I would err on the side of saying the people of Quebec / Montreal are more hyper-sensitive than those in Detroit. What this is in the end, is probably a few losers who live in some affluent suburb of Detroit (with media access naturally), making all the noise. The rest of the people in that city probably couldn't care less what Jimmy Kimmel says.

Detroit is one of those places where if you've got mega-bucks and live in one of those afore-mentioned big houses, your peers from out of town will ask you "so you've done very well for yourself I see... why Detroit, exactly? Couldn't you fly in x days per week and make your home somewhere... else?"

:)