Wednesday, September 12, 2007

True Tolerance

I am not aware of how many of you actually watched the Emmy Awards, I surely didn't, but there seems to be some big story about Kathy Griffin and a Jesus remark. Before I continue I would like to warn you that some people might be offended by what they read and should continue with caution and an open mind.
After seeing the story headline on various sites I finally decided that it might just be worth my time to read one of the reports. At this time I was at Yahoo so I clicked on the "Griffin in trouble over 'offensive' remarks" link. For those of you that were too lazy, or were just so adsorbed in my post that you neglected to click on the link and read the article for yourself, you are probably wondering, "What could she possibly have said?" I know because that is exactly what I was thinking after seeing the headline millions of times. Well here it is;

"A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus, suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now."
If it is not totally obvious from the quote, and it should be, this is what she said when she accepted her Emmy. Now I am sure that opinons on this comment are very polar, and it is easy to understand why. On one side you have the people who are either indifferent and/or find it funny, then you have the die hard "Christians" who are outraged.
Personally I fall into the former group. I am not sure if this is because of my sense of humor, failing sense of religion, or realizing that there are better things to get enraged about. Sure I'll admit that I do find it funny and you know why because it is true. Just about every time you see someone win one of these awards they go up to the stage and when they open their mouth they just regurgitate typical, "Oh my gosh I never expected to win this...this is one of the best moments of my life...I would like to thank;(insert names of produces, directors, family members) and most of all God..." I for one am just plain sick of this verbal vomit. We all know that they had that speech, and a rather poor one at that, when they learned that they were nominated. As for those who chose not to prepare a speech and honestly wing it, I say it is even worse because it not only shows a lack of preparation but also an astonishing lack of originality.
It should be noted that I am not saying that her method for breaking the mold to go was the right way, but hell it did the trick and managed to piss off some people at the same time. The same people who are always pushing for tolerance. Sure her comment wasn't tolerant towards most steadfast Christians but who are they to judge her and not be open to tolerating her opinion?
This reminds me of the MTV incident with Kanye West that occurred after Hurricane Katrina when he said, "George Bush hates black people." Now yes this story did get a lot of coverage but I don't remember reading about large groups of people that were upset with him, or even being outraged by the media's constant replaying of the clip with out edits. Whereas Kathy Griffin's Jesus remark will be edited out of just about every future television broadcast of the Emmy Awards.
Now this might just be me but shouldn't we be a little more concerned when a well known media icon, who's words reach many different audiences, claims that the leader of our country "hates black people", than we should be when some comedian, who makes a living by getting under people's skin, says "suck it, Jesus"?
I wonder what kind of response she would have gotten if she had instead said, "suck it, ____", where the blank is filled with one of the persons she beat in order to win the award, or even some other religious figure such as Muhammad, Buddha, or Abraham. These are the kind of things that make me wonder just how tolerant our society is, and if we are "tolerant" because it is what we truthfully believe or if it is because if we are not perceived to be tolerant we wil be looked down on by the rest of society.

1 comment:

Ann said...

bahahaha. i definitely fall into the former too.
i think this should fall under the "freedom of speech." it was supposed to be funny, not offensive.
one of the things i hate about the media. (plus i bet if she had said it on a comedy segment, she wouldn't get half the publicity.)