Forty five people in Europe have died in a heatwave. Ascribing it to the work of terrorists, the White House is currently exploring the feasibility of sending US troops to the Sun.
PAD
Forty five people in Europe have died in a heatwave. Ascribing it to the work of terrorists, the White House is currently exploring the feasibility of sending US troops to the Sun.
PAD
• 
“It’s all relatives,” said the probate lawyer.
Up here in Ottawa we didn’t see what the fuss was about the temperature hitting the mid-upper thirties in England. We often get that sort of climate here in summer. In fact, we’ve had it up to 40C a few times that I can recall. This past week has had us at about the 30C mark (86F), more if one factors in the high humidity. And, yes, many people still haven’t got air conditioning here.
One thing which WAS funny was in the 70s when a visiting group of Fiji ‘firewalkers’ complained about the temperature in Ottawa. Too hot and humid for them. Definitely an entry in the ‘you know you’re in trouble when…” category.
>startrek newsgroup denizens who were planning to draft you to take over for the recently-deceased Gene Roddenberry.
Pity. I have NO DOUBT whatsoever that Mr. David would have done a FAR better job that the twits at the helm now. Assuming the idiots at the studio would have let him do it HIS way, of course.
As for the “Fire in the threatre” thing, I didn’t reply, but that was merely because I had nothing to add. In fact, I quoted much of it to many people I correspond with.
And, yes, my co-workers and I found the ‘send troops to the sun’ gag quite amusing. And richly deserved. I’ve run into too many who proclaim “I’m an American, so if I want to use my gas-guzzling, polluting SUV to go to the corner store, it’s my God-given right.” I’m all in favour of anyone who wishes to knock them down a peg or three.
Simon, is the temp scale your only problem? I’ve been showing people for a number of years why metric is better than non-metric. (“How many slugs are there in a pound?” vs. “How many decajabberwockies are in a kilojabberwocky?”)
Still, I’d probably use Kelvin instead of Celsius just so that 60 degrees isn’t twice as hot as 30 degrees. 😉
I can’t believe we are so P.C. that people have actually become afraid to laugh. Tragic–you betcha’…Funny–oh yeah! The world is wound so tight right now I’m all for anything that slaps us down a bit. No where in PAD’s post did he deny the horror of people dying but hopefully he took a little of the sting out of it. Thank the godz that George Carlin was already well established by the the time we (the world collective) began fitting our butt for the sizeable stick we’ve managed to work in. As a great man named Taylor once said,”I have to believe that somewhere out there there has to be something greater than man!”. I hope it shows up soon and it’s wearing funny pants.
“I find it funny that folks (like me) who are in Europe had no problem with the joke, while folks in the US did. You guys really need to get rid of that political correctness nonsense.”
“Speaking of things you need to get rid of, can some American explain to me why you’re still sticking with Fahrenheit, when we’ve had Celsius for about 260 years now? Surely a scale that goes from freezing at 0 to boiling at 100 makes a lot more sense?”
Personally, I found the joke GREAT! and was still laughing when I read the first gripe. I agree with the “Get rid of your political correctness” statement, I mean it was just a JOKE! And the Farenheit scale was developed for the human limitations, while the centigrade scale was developed for the liquid limitations. But I’m still laughing!
I thought it was funny…and since this is a comic book crowd, I’m surprised that no one has asked if they’d put Steven Trask in charge of the project…
Why no metric system?
Because it’s French.
(or was it the Stonecutters….)
Dale
ps: PAD, I liked the joke
Jago – Thanks for the correct Mel Brooks quote. To be honest I didn’t remember the exact quote, but I remembered the jist of it.
But I’m sure this one is correct: “It’s funny because it’s someone else” – Homer Simpson.
Luigi: She’s also cute as hëll, and one of the few women that looks sexy in glasses. 🙂
Well I don’t know about that, I personally am a big fan of glasses on women. Now, it has to be the right style for the right face. I just wouldn’t go as far as saying one of the few.
“As long as we’re tossing out relatively obscure references: forget the Scarrans, my worry is that George Bush will get wormhole technology.”
So that’s why he’s been drinking so much tequila. He’s trying to interrogate the worm at the bottom of the bottle.
As far as the joke…I guess the problem is that Mr. D referred to a specific number of people dying. If he had simply said “People have died from heat prostration,” there’d be fewer complaints. “A lot” is less specific. Mentioning a number is a nasty reminder that there are real people behind those digits.
The people in Britain are always claiming they have the worst weather in the world, and you can’t convince them otherwise. They will probably claim this is another example of their intrinsic toughness. (But they could have asked their American cousins how we deal with Florida summers. My first suggestion – try ice in your tea. It’s not as evil as you think.)
“If Tina Fey had said it, everyone would’ve laughed.”
Tina Fey has the advantage of delivering it as part of a verbal routine. Different “rules of comedy” are often in effect for material done purely in text venues without the benefit of delivery, timing, facial expressions, etc.
1) PAD’s right: if Tina Fey had said it, everyone would have laughed. But I’m not sure everyone would have laughed had Fey *written* it on a blog. Not worth hanging him by his thumbs, however…
2) People interested in the broader issues here (other than global climate change, which we should all be interested in….) might want to check out the following:
The first, _Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago_, by Eric Klineberg, is phenomenal.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226443221/qid=1060786389/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/104-9727386-7250353
The second, _Cool Comfort: America’s Romance With Air-Conditioning_, by Marsha Ackerman, wears its biases too plainly on its sleeve, but still raises good questions about our unexamined assumptions regarding the worth of altering our personal environments to any extent we see fit (cooler, warmer, wetter, drier) just becuase we’ve figured out how to do so.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1588340406/qid=1060787373/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-9727386-7250353?v=glance&s=books
Andrew: Well I don’t know about that, I personally am a big fan of glasses on women. Now, it has to be the right style for the right face. I just wouldn’t go as far as saying one of the few.
Luigi Novi: I’ll ammend it. What I should’ve said was that she’s one of the few sexy women who became famous as a woman in glasses.
Send troops to the sun? But how will they keep from burning up? Does Bush have a plan for that?
Well, acording to the spanish paper “El Pais”, 45 alone are Spanish.
France claims 100 casualties due to the heatwave, so after being informed of this, Bush has decided that the Sun is a close ally, and has threathened the Moon for its unaceptable interference in this rightful crusade against the axis of evil
You really should syndicate your weblog out to other services. I’d love to have your rantings on my Livejournal Friend’s List.
Wow, you people just can’t take a joke for what it is.
As a society do we just overanalyse everything and pick at it until it becomes too dull a subject to be funny.
I am in Europe and I thought it was funny, it was a joke, I can guess pretty easily that PAD doesn’t hate Europeans so just laugh, don’t say it’s politically incorrect or deconstruct it and move on to the next joke.
“Sheesh. If Tina Fey had said it, everyone would’ve laughed.”
Honestly, I think I liked it better coming from you. But that’s just because I’m sick to death of Saturday Night Live and everything associated with it.
“I still remember when pundits were blaming the music of Marilyn Manson for the Columbine shootings. Jon Stewart subsequently did a report about tornados ripping through the midwest, leaving death and destruction behind, and then shook his fist at the air and shouted, “Ðámņ you, Marilyn Manson!””
Hee hee. Now THAT’s funny!
I guess I just find Jewish men funnier than hot women in glasses …
(Kidding, of course. Avi Green need not comment.)
And don’t worry, PAD, the “fire in a theatre” thing WAS fascinating, but as another poster said, there possibly wasn’t much that people thought they could add.
I, for one, was educated by that post, and I will probably bring up that info the next time it’s appropriate, so I can look all learned and stuff.
Okay, I laughed. Bad taste? Come on. Did you SEE the latest “Bad Boys” movie? Bad taste is rolling a corpse down a highway for laughs.
Dying is easy. Comedy is hard. Try getting a sense of humor. Rent to own, you might like it.
As per the people who accused PAD of trolling: I think it’s impossible to “troll” one’s own blog. Ditto the people always screaming about PAD’s right to post his political opinions. News flash: It’s his blog. Not mine. Not yours. Geddit?
This is PAD’s world, and we get to live in it because he chooses to keep it an open board. So maybe some respect would be appropriate. If you don’t like PAD’s opinions, why are you here?
Amen, Elizabeth. Well said.
Political correctness is freaking out of control. It’s possible to brandish a sense of humor and still be an intelligent, compassionate, respectful human being.
But more to the point, if you don’t like the humor here (or the politics here, or ANYTHING here) then why are YOU here?
The people in Britain are always claiming they have the worst weather in the world, and you can’t convince them otherwise. They will probably claim this is another example of their intrinsic toughness.
Ha. Again I say, ha.
Back in 1986 it was my privilege to pick the lovely Sarah Sutton of Doctor Who fame up from Lambert Airport in St. Louis and deliver her to the hotel where we were holding TARDISCON. This stalwart Brit left the sweet cool confines of the terminal, stepped into the 96+, humidity-from-hëll environs we deal with every summer…
…and wilted like a dead lily. It was truly a sight to see.
Note to Europe: we have all the cool air and low humidity at the moment, and WE AREN’T GIVING IT UP.
JSM
Some years ago, while flipping through the channels on the radio, I happened to tune in to the Rush Limbaugh show.
This was in the immediate aftermath of a fairly large hurricane. Rush, through some truly amazing twists of “logic”, managed to blame the hurricane on Clinton.
I got a chuckle out of that. But then I stopped laughing when I realized that there are a LOT of people who think he’s a serious political commentator…
I disagree: I wouldn’t have found it funny if Tina Fey had said it.
Nothing personal to Mr David…. but I don’t think that the joke was funny, regardless of method of delivery.
Just… not funny.
Peter
I may not of liked the joke….
but i will defend your right to tell it..
and my right not to laugh!
You just made my day, Mr. David. I’ve relatives over in France and the heat wave has worried me a great deal (why o why can’t I ship some of our stormy weather their way? unfair!), but I still welcome the dark humor. Laughing is better than worrying.
what’s a heatwave?
Just read through the comments, and there are two things I’d like to add.
Send troops to the sun? But how will they keep from burning up? Does Bush have a plan for that?
Of course he does. He’s going to send them at night. 🙂
David
1 – I gotta admit, I didn’t think the joke was funny either. It’s not that it was in poor taste, just that it’s that category of pointed satire and I think it fell a little short of the real targets in this situation, Bush sending troops as, to paraphrase George Carlin, a big, d—waving contest, Rumsfeld’s disdain for the American public’s right to information, Cheney’s associates profiting from the whole thing, the administration’s willingness to wage war with no regard for the rest of the world and its willingness to lie to do so. I think there was a situation where PAD would have had the perfect punchline but this wasn’t quite it. (On the other hand, Tina Fey falls flat sometimes too. I thought she went too far when she made a nasty spirited joke about Giuliani. It’s not that I’m a particular fan of the man, but SNL had been kissing up to him for months before following 9/11 and it just seemed like a really gratuitous slap at a man who had worked with them creating this symbiotic relationship which made SNL and the mayor seem synonymous with NYC at such an important time…)
2 – I also disagree that “That’s My Bush” was Bush as doofus sitcom dad. I think the show was a vicious satire of the vacuous nature of most TV sitcoms. I thought the show was hilarious because with a few changes of setting and character names, it could be any show re-run on the USA network. I think that’s just how Stone and Parker work. “South Park” horrified people because the characters were children but the show isn’t *really* about children and how they see the world, etc.
3 – I’m actually *not* surprised that more Americans would be offended by this joke than Europeans. I think that’s pretty common. I got involved in a brawl on a newsgroup devoted to one of the TechTV personalities (Don’t ask… but talk about a girl who looks hot in glasses…) and to me, it mainly involved all the idiots, everyone of them male, who rose to defend her honor as a woman. The only problem was, she had posted on the board herself and she never asked for their defense. She seemed quite capable of standing up for herself and taking a joke or taking a cheap comment for what it’s worth. I think it’s part of an unfortunately patronizing attitude that says, Well, my group can take it but those others need to be protected from those mean ol’ words.
4 – This seems as good a time as any to ask, since this is related to the topic and comics, what everyone thinks of Marvel’s decision to back off the Princess Di appearance in “X-Force”? Personally, I think it was a mistake, because just like the infamous decision with Rich Veitch’s Swamp Thing and the Jesus story, if the idea was going to be spiked, it should have been spiked way earlier in the process, long before it was solicited. But besides the business side of the decision, I’m disappointed for other reasons as well. For one thing, she was never *this* person’s princess and that’s all I want to say about what I thought of her because I don’t want to get off-topic and be accused of trolling. More to the point, my impression was that Milligan was attempting to poke fun at the hype and hysteria surrounding the woman, not the woman herself. (Like the Python’s did with Jesus in “Life of Brian.”) I just can’t believe Marvel has such a big, Royal Family-loving constituency that it would have really hurt them. And really, how many times have we heard the crowd moan and groan about something being “over the line of common decency” and when has it ever knocked civilization to its knees? (Or hurt the people who produced the controversy? Isn’t Fox still around? And Martin Scorcese? And Howard Stern?)
Or maybe I just *like* bad taste…
Peter, I must have seen a different report. The one I read said that American soldiers remain docked just outside the Sun’s orbit while UN relief supplies on the sun itself are being looted by locals.
Is truth stranger than fiction? I thought so until I read about the new Bush flight-suited action figure that’s being released by a Hong Kong toy company.
Or Fox News suing Al Franken’s book publisher, because they claim to have trademarked the term ‘fair and balanced.’
You can’t make this stuff up.
personally, I thought it was funny, but I also agree that it is definetly a metter of perspective what is funny and what isn’t. I once came across a bumper sitcker that read, “I oppose the death penalty, just look what happend to Jesus.” I laughed. I read it as meaning ‘–after all, he CAME BACK!’ but everyone i showed it too had the reaction of ‘That’s horrible!’ *shrugs* I just dunno anymore.
Joe Nazzaro said -“Is truth stranger than fiction? I thought so until I read about the new Bush flight-suited action figure that’s being released by a Hong Kong toy company.”
I saw a political cartoon today where a father is giving one of these to his son, and the son replies something like : “Wow! And it comes with his complete 16 word vocabulary!”
Joe Nazzaro said-“Or Fox News suing Al Franken’s book publisher, because they claim to have trademarked the term ‘fair and balanced.’ “
Fox ‘News’ is about as ‘Fair and Balanced’ as an Enron ledger book.
I cant wait to read Mr. Frankens book, and have already ordered it on Amazon.
As an addendum to my last comment, the CBS Evening News referred to American soldiers still moored outside Liberia while the port is being looted. Do you know what they’re called? A Rapid Response Team!
Reminds me of the time that Dubya said he didn’t know the French word for entrepreneur- like I said, you can’t make this stuff up.
If anyone here took the time out to say anything other than “Ha, good joke.” or “Didn’t like it.”; get a fûçkìņg life outside of internet message board wars. It was a joke.
From Elizabeth:
This is PAD’s world, and we get to live in it because he chooses to keep it an open board. So maybe some respect would be appropriate. If you don’t like PAD’s opinions, why are you here?
So, because PAD has an open board, we all should be required to like and/or agree with everything he says? What would be the fun in that? And where is disagreement equal to disrespect?
I’m fairly sure Peter’s ego is secure enough to tolerate some folks that might not agree with his opinion (unlike some other artist/writer that’s been discussed recently).
“Reminds me of the time that Dubya said he didn’t know the French word for entrepreneur
Posted by Joe Nazzaro “
Interesting. I wonder if he knows the German word for ‘dummkopf’?
Mr. Burns was right.
UBU
Reminds me of the time that Dubya said he didn’t know the French word for entrepreneur
I seem to recall that rumor being thoroughly debunked. That it was a joke made by someone that got taken way too seriously.
Which, when you get down to it, is pretty darned relevant to this thread.
PAD
Potatoe.
“Which, when you get down to it, is pretty darned relevant to this thread.
PAD”
Thats just what happens when you go too long inbetween BLOG entries…
Les europ
On the other hand, I find the French pretty dámņ funny.
Fox News may not be in itself fair and balanced. But neither is any of the other cable news networks.
Although I find it insulting (I don’t know why; I don’t work for Fox News) that this particular channel is singled out and equated with the contemporary epitome of corporate evil just because its slant is slighly right of center, as opposed to its counterparts’ status as left-of-center.
I can’t have any illusions that Fox News is fair and balanced but it does serve as a balancer for the whole notion of cable news. CNN and MSNBC are liberal institutions. They go from centrist to the left for the most part. A conservative new channel taps into a different audience but serves as a clear alternative to the normal stuff.
But then, just because it isn’t ‘middle-to-left’ means it’s awful, awful, not-news. Horse-hockey!
An alternatative POV that is this many degrees off the two standards is a good thing. It has almost always been agreed throughout the history of journalism that one is more likely to get the truth when there are more divergent interests in your sources.
Then again, Al Franken is your reference. To most conservatives he is described as “vile”. To me he is a passable comedian, a fantastic SNL player and a worse than mediocre political commentator/intellectual.
Any announcements that one would buy his next book are announcements to me that that one is already pre-disposed against Fox News no matter what anyone says.
That said….
If we only posted here because we agreed with everything PAD said then we would be a horribly patronizing bunch and this blog would stone-cold boring!
The comments-thing was set up so PAD could read the many disperate viewpoints of his readership, not so he could skim paragraph after paragraph of bûŧŧ-kìššìņg.
I still don’t think that joke is funny. I still don’t find Tina Fey sexy. And I believe women in glasses… beneficial aesthetically.
CJA
The French have just surrendered to the sun.
*deepsigh* Let me clarify myself. Of course, dialogue is great. Disagreement is great – if it’s respectful of both sides. I can disagree with PAD or the moderator on any board on which I belong. But I don’t accuse the mods of “trolling” their own journals or stomp on a journal-owner’s right to put their own opinions on the page.
I was seriously asking, if someone disagrees with all PAD’s opinions and slams him for daring to say them, why come here? It’s the same question I would ask a poster on my blog, if they hated everything I said and existed only to slam me: “Sorry it bothered you, why are you here again?”
Nuff said.
No one who comes to learn goes to observe what they already know.
If someone disagrees with Mr David’s position, better they engage someone with an intellect like PAD’s then some moron who shares a similar view.
If someone goes and hears/reads what he already knows then they aren’t there to learn of the new or the other. They’re there for different reasons. I come here for the other. I also come here because when PAD’s not writing politics he can convince me of things. I can learn.
Hey, hey! Wait a minute! I LIKE PAD. I can only think of maybe one occasion when we’ve even come close to being uncivil to each other.
The truth of the matter is that I just don’t agree with many, (umm)..much, (no)…most of PAD’s liberal viewpoints. From the death penalty to global warming, to blowing up the sun (I’m agin it) we just disagree.
Our biggest debate comes to the Constitution, particularly the first two amendments. Because PAD’s such an ABSOLUTIST on the Freedom of Speech part, but he seems willing to not only compromise the integrity of or throw out altogether the rights of the religious and gunowners, that sometimes he drives me absolutely freaking nutz!
That said, I am not only interested in what PAD thinks, does and says, I support his right to do so. That doesn’t mean I think it’s okay for PAD to go outside the bounds of good taste, which I think his joke did. And when he does, I not only think I have a right to tell him that I think he went too far, I think I have a obligation to let him know I think he did.
The point I want to make though is that I rarely post when Pad says something I agree with. (He doesn’t do it all that often either) I figure he gets enough support from the brown-nose crowd without me adding my inflated two-cents worth.
On the other hand, if you’re putting your opinions out there for people to comment on, you’re going to open yourself up for a certain amount of the population that have nothing better to do than to give you a hard time.
Send troops to the sun? But how will they keep from burning up? Does Bush have a plan for that?
Questioning the existence of The Plan is treason, y’know.
Or maybe heresy. It’s so dang hard to tell nowadays…
TWL
I just pulled my head out of the sand. What is this global warming thing all about?
Then again, maybe I’ll just go stick my head back in the sand.
The French have just surrendered to the sun.
Darn, I was going to say the French can’t even beat the heat, but yours is funnier.
Actually, it makes perfect sense to Bush to attack the sun. Texans have been against solar power for years.