Do you like how I cleverly worked in a photo of Todd Palin? Oh, and look, there's li'l Trig up there, too!
Back in June of 2009 there was a dust up involving David Letterman and a questionable joke he made concerning Sarah Palin’s daughter, Willow. At the time, I thought I could be of help to Mr. Letterman by providing him with a few simple guidelines he could use to determine if his jokes were falling outside the bounds of propriety.
In light of Jack Stuef’s incredibly crass and callous Wonkette column* in “honor” of Trig Palin’s birthday, I considered updating the test for his benefit. Sadly, after careful thought, I decided that it probably wasn’t worth my time. Judging by this column, I’m guessing he doesn’t care what anyone thinks about what he says or does or what kind of person he is. He might care, though, about what people think of him as a writer.
This wasn’t the best piece of political satire I’ve ever read. <—Understatement.
In fact, when I read it the first time, I didn’t even realize it was supposed to be satire; it just seemed like a mean-spirited rambling attack-by-proxy on Sarah Palin. For me – and I think for most decent people – the piece was missing an important satirical element. You know…the humor. I feel safe saying that the vast majority of people don’t find it funny when a grown man verbally assaults a toddler…and a disabled toddler at that. And let me just say right here that if you found the piece humorous in any way, you should probably engage in some serious soul searching because there is something seriously wrong with your soul. Yes, Mr. Stuef, I’m talkin’ to you.
Something else was missing, too…a clearly elucidated point. I had to find out by reading elsewhere that the purpose of the column was to mock Palins “well-documented” use of li’l Trig as a political prop. Now I’ll grant that this prop angle was mentioned once in the column, but since none of the presumably supporting links and graphics actually supported that point, well, yeah. I missed it. Anyway, I’m not buying that Stuef really cares about Trig Palin at all, because what does this column do if not exploit Trig to make a political point?
(And since someone else brought it up, I’d love to have someone explain to me how Trig Palin is any more of a prop than Sasha and Malia Obama…say when their mother used them to promote her anti-obesity initiative?)
All in all, a poor outing for Mr. Stuef. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that if this is the best he can do, I hope he has a Plan B.
*I didn’t intend to link the Wonkette piece here; hey, they don’t deserve the traffic but I hear now that it’s been removed. Not to worry! Warner Todd Huston, writing at Red County, has reproduced it in its entirety. Good luck, Mr. Stuef, if you ever want to apply for a job that requires good judgment or common decency.
it's only words 