Jerry Lewis: Muscular Distrophy Gay Bashing Telethon

Jerry Lewis has had a long life of playing the fool. Some old-timers may remember him for playing the clumsy and moronic sidekick of Dean Martin during their slap-stick performances on the Martin and Lewis Show. Some of us may have seen Lewis hamming it up in one of his movies like the The Bellboy or perhaps The Nutty Professor. He's since retired from making movies, but at 81 years of age, despite multiple ailments, he comes out of cryogenic suspension to perform his annual televised fund-raiser to benefit kids with muscular dystrophy. Since it began 41 years ago, the MDA telethon has gone off without a hitch, until now. Sometime close to the 18th hour, Jerry had a Geriatric moment and must have forgotten that he wasn't at the comedy club with ol' Deano. Standing in front of the cameras, with possibly millions of viewers watching, Jerry calls a crew member's pretend son, Jessy, an "illiterate fag." Nice going Jer'.


Out on the circuit, it's common for comedians to use terms like fairy, faggot, or even fuck-face as part of their act. We expect comedians to be as tasteless and raunchy and as politically-incorrect as they want during their routine, despite what their general public image may be (just ask Bob Saget). But for Jerry to pull this boner during a live televised fundraiser? Man will there be blood on the streets...

Well he may have slipped up, but it didn't keep him from helping raise a record $63.8 million, did it? Geeze, for a few dollars more, maybe we could conjure the ghost of Sam Kinison. Then again, he'd just scare the hell out of all of us.

Whoa...

I'm trying to think of things he might have been saying that don't mean what it sounded like he was saying...

And I can't think of any.

Is this yr audition piece for the Newswire?

I dunno, call me insensitive, but it doesn't seem that bad to me

You're so insensitive.

Consider it done.

Having said that, Mr. Lewis made what I would call a sincere apology and took full responsibility. More than we can say for most public figures caught with their foot in their mouths or another person's toilet stall.

Nope, it's not. It's just a current event that grabbed my attention. I just want to know what people think. If I were trying to be a newswire writer, I'd submit it instead of simply posting it. I know it's a non-story for most people and I doubt it's going to have any impact on his fund-raising efforts in the future. I'm glad he apologized for his freudian slip and it is grossly outweighed by his commitment to helping others. Who cares if he's a homophobe or not, it's just a bit surprising to hear from him.

+1

Bingo !

Replace 'fag' with 'nigger.' Now whadda ya think?

still not the most offensive thing he's ever done.

I think if "fags" had spent hundreds of years working fields and being beaten instead of hiding in their closets you might have a valid analogy there.

Bingo
Not the same thing at all.

Yep, the worst thing that's happened to any gay person over the past hundred years has been being hiding in a closet.

Let me know where the official "who's been the most oppressed?" chart is so I can use it to judge how offensive certain slurs are actually supposed to be.

Wait a minute ... Jerry Lewis is a comedian?

I still don't get it.

Honestly, I don't really have much of an opinion on what JLL said, but I have to agree here. If I call someone a fag and beat them, I will get charged with a hate crime just as quickly as if I had called someone a nigger and then beat them.

I can see how fag is just as offensive to some people as nigger is to others. I don't see how it rates less on any scale when it is said in a hateful and demeaning manner.

Wow, I'd forgotten about that.

There was also the time a few years back when he said he was "had trouble with" women being in comedy, because he thought of women solely as "producing machine[s] that bring babies in the world."

The guy's a fucking dinosaur. And even at his best he was only a hack.

Exactly.

Really ?
So the history of black oppression and the history of gay oppression are completely synonymous ?
I think that the hate or contempt in a simple statement like Nigger or fag might be comparable on an individual basis and certainly equally repulsive or offensive, but to say they are equal or interchangeable in that context is a little fallacious don't you think ?

Have you heard of Matt Shepard? The Holocaust?

I don't really know what you're trying to prove here. Neither she nor I have said anything about "interchangeability" (and frankly I have no idea what you mean by that - and I'm not sure you do, either). She said:

I have no clue what you might find objectionable about that.

Very much so. I mean, if we really wanted to make this a contest of prejudicial suffering, there is NO question in my mind. I find offensive that someone would even compare the two. But that's not even the point. If you think what Lewis said was douchey, that's fine, but playing the racial equivilent of the Godwin card is stupid.

The reason they might not be considered equivalent in that context has everything to do with existing societal acceptance of blatant anti-gay bigotry as compared to blatant anti-black bigotry, and nothing to do with any "history of oppression".

I'm not comparing the history of oppression for the two groups (or any) at all, but who has the right to say it's ok to say fag in a hateful manner, but not nigger? And I'm not even saying that JLL said it in a hateful manner, but to say that one term is less offensive than the other is just a bit silly.

Considering just how much money this guy has helped raise for such a good cause, I'm pretty sure I'd be okay with him peeing in an orphan's mouth once or twice.

Okay that's gross, I apologize. But you get the picture.