Leftists, those great fighters of misogyny who are such stalwart defenders of women that they see sexism everywhere, would certainly be offended by jokes from a man wishing a woman would kill herself, right? Surely these ever-so-serious social justice warriors would be particularly incensed if a man called a woman the “c” word on national television.
Well, not if that woman is a conservative, and especially not if that woman is Ann Coulter.
After Comedy Central’s “Roast of Rob Lowe” filmed 10 days ago, word got out almost immediately: The event really became a roast of Ann Coulter.
While Lowe was clearly the target of many jokes, all of the comedians and roasters on stage (host David Spade, Nikki Glaser, Jeff Ross, Jewel, Peyton Manning, etc.) aimed especially vicious material at the conservative commentator and fellow roaster — so much that Coulter herself dubbed it the “Ann Coulter roast with Rob Lowe.”
While the Coulter jokes dominated headlines and stories about the roast last week, you never know how Comedy Central will present the telecast; the network has edited out jokes before. But after watching the televised version on Monday night, it was just as brutal as you may have read. (Warning: The following jokes may offend.)
“How do I roast somebody from hell?” comedian Jeff Ross pondered, calling Coulter’s voice “like fingernails on a chalkboard inside an inner city school [Coulter wants] to defund.”
“Ann Coulter has written 11 books — 12 if you count ‘Mein Kampf,’” comedian Nikki Glaser said. “Ann’s been called things like a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, a white supremacist. … The only person you will ever make happy is the Mexican who digs your grave.”
“It’s not too late to change, Ann. You could kill yourself,” comedian Jimmy Carr said.
… and so on. Things got even more awkward when Coulter (who only showed up to promote her new book, “In Trump We Trust”) took the dais and offered her own zingers, many of which were met with boos, very light laughter or heckling. Comedy Central cameras also offered faces of stony silence in the audience.
Gotta love WaPo‘s line about Coulter only being there to promote her book, as if everyone else there showed up for altruistic reasons that had nothing to do with career promotion.
I sincerely hope that the next media outlet that rushes to defend Leslie Jones after someone tweets something mean to her trips over the double standard, breaks an ankle and falls face-first into a toilet of swirling hypocrisy. Set aside your personal feelings for Ann Coulter and ponder just for a moment what the media reaction would be had a liberal woman even jokingly been hit with a C-bomb.
It wasn’t just the Washington Post that seemed to take delight in the treatment of Coulter. Esquire, Vanity Fair, the New York Daily News and countless other media outlets all piled on. While the degrees of delight varied, the one thing lacking in almost all was any sort of mention of going too far.
Let me be clear, I am not personally saying that anyone went too far. I’m certainly not a language scold and most definitely not politically correct. I am merely saying that media outrage would have blown a hole in the ozone were almost any of these remarks aimed at a liberal woman.
The Atlantic was one of the few media entities who wasn’t thrilled with the event, even going so far as to suggest that Comedy Central scrap these roasts altogether.
Not a bad idea. Unless, of course, they want to hire me for one.
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