I should first say that I think Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably the most important leader this country has ever produced. Sure, his private life was apparently not perfect -- who's is? -- but for what he did, what he said, the risks he took to prove a point to a country and a world, the guy is beyond ridicule in my book.
I've never marched for shit in my life but this man not only marched, he did it with bottles and bricks being thrown at his head.
So that's my way of saying that it takes colossal chutzpah to make a joke at King's expense.
Okay, I'm half-asleep, trying to wake up and I see this commercial for a Tyler Perry show on cable channel TBS. The commerical rattles off how the cast has won a string of NAACP Image Awards for the series.
Now, mull that over for a second: a main performer who makes Jimmie "J.J." Walker look like Sidney Poitier has won a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (italics mine) Image Award!
Well if that wasn't enough to wake me up -- I think the air rushing into my open mouth did that -- the next sequence in this commercial was:
The main character in this show, having a sort of Domino's pizza box in his hand, does a mock paraphrase of King's speech:
"Pizza at last, pizza at last. Thank God Almighty, we have pizza at last."
I was so stunned that I couldn't even believe what I had just seen.
In a nation that watches Larry The Cable Guy and Tyler Perry, it's a FREAKIN' MIRACLE we had the good sense to elect Barack Obama to the presidency.
We are a nation of fucking morons, I can't say it any plainer than that, my skills and English degree fail me at the moment.
I've never marched for shit in my life but this man not only marched, he did it with bottles and bricks being thrown at his head.
So that's my way of saying that it takes colossal chutzpah to make a joke at King's expense.
Okay, I'm half-asleep, trying to wake up and I see this commercial for a Tyler Perry show on cable channel TBS. The commerical rattles off how the cast has won a string of NAACP Image Awards for the series.
Now, mull that over for a second: a main performer who makes Jimmie "J.J." Walker look like Sidney Poitier has won a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (italics mine) Image Award!
Well if that wasn't enough to wake me up -- I think the air rushing into my open mouth did that -- the next sequence in this commercial was:
The main character in this show, having a sort of Domino's pizza box in his hand, does a mock paraphrase of King's speech:
"Pizza at last, pizza at last. Thank God Almighty, we have pizza at last."
I was so stunned that I couldn't even believe what I had just seen.
In a nation that watches Larry The Cable Guy and Tyler Perry, it's a FREAKIN' MIRACLE we had the good sense to elect Barack Obama to the presidency.
We are a nation of fucking morons, I can't say it any plainer than that, my skills and English degree fail me at the moment.