word play=funny; play about gender performance and race=uncertain.

I just watched the first season of 30 Rock. It has actually made me bust out in a full on LOL. I think it's only been for jokes that are about words, though. Such as the Rural Juror part (the main actress-character stars in a movie called the Rural Juror, but no one in the office can understand her because those words are so stupid. Especially when said next to eachother. Rurrr Jurr is what it sounds like. Hilarious!) and the fake Barbara Walters part with silly words.
And youtube has made it possible for posting:


This bit had me in stitches, I tell you. Even days after I watched it.

Here's my however:
I get that Tina Fey's character is supposed to be super-frumpy and not at all glamorous, which I absolutely appreciate. But I don't appreciate that she's all eats-5-donuts and just loves to eat and omg-where's-the-hot-dog-stand and you-ate-my-blood-donor-cookie-geez. Oh, and she's f'ing teeny-tiny. I find this obnoxious. I think Bitch magazine had an article about this phenomenon a couple years ago actually. I think their article was about how the media love to show pictures of models stuffing their faces to show that hey-this hot lady likes to stuff her face with pizza! She's not afraid to eat! That's great! And that is great - to an extent. What's great is the eating part. Not so much the size 2 part. Not so much the message that eating junk food is awesome unless it turns you into a hippo-you-lazy-fatso.
I don't necessarily think that Tina Fey's character is doing that, exactly, but that's part of it.
She's supposed to be someone who can't perform femininity very successfully. And people say inappropriate things to her all the time about it. And that's what's supposed to be funny. I think that the audience is supposed to be laughing with her character (even though she's often not laughing - more like eye-rolling) instead of laughing with the other people throwing insults. But the thing that bugs me is that I just wish A) that she would actually be performing femininity less-successfully than she is and/or B) that her character would be more feisty about the insults. I realize that this is just a sitcom, but I wish it were smarter.
Secondly, there is an episode with Wayne Brady staring as a romantic interest of Tina Fey's character, but it turns out that he is super boring and nerdy (in a boring way) when they actually go on a date, so she breaks it off. Okay. I'm just going to give you a second to think about what happens next. Go ahead. Guess. (first clue: Wayne Brady is a Black actor) (second clue: White lady wants to break off date with Black man.)
If you guessed that he accused her of ending it because he's Black, you're right!!! I know! So unpredictable! And it's funny because black people always play the race card when everyone knows that the situation isn't even racist!
Is there an emoticon that can express my lack of enthusiasm? : |
Lessons learned: Women can still be hot even if they aren't dumb and petty (like normal women) and awesome if they like donuts (but aren't like those lazy, unhealthy fat ladies). Black people imagine racism. Oh, and word games really are funny.

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

I heard this on NPR last night, and then watched it today (thanks Meridith!). It's pretty great. I enjoyed that they normalized gay marriage so nicely. First appealing to the fundies' bible argument, and then arguing that gay marriage is good for capitalism, too. Great argument for exactly why gay marriage isn't a radical move (exactly like hetero-marriage) at all, even if that wasn't the central message of the piece.

Speaking of marriage, this post was up at Racialicious (although originally posted elsewhere) about the state of marriage for Black women. Instead of framing the question in a 'what-is-wrong-with-the-black-community' way, the question of "do Black women even want to get married?" is proposed (punny!). I like it.

Speaking of all-things-great, I just went into the Women's Resource Center for the first time in years, and A) one of my students works there and B) they have an awesome lending library. My office-mate picked up Beyond Beats and Rhymes from there earlier this week. After I turn in my exams, I'm going to go check out (punny again!) what other DVDs they offer.

Oh, and an update from my last crab-ass blog from a couple days ago: Joy Cardin had a guest on today from the Freedom From Religion Foundation who apparently put a plaque up near the state capitol's Christmas tree about the separation of church and state. I only caught the last part, but still there were callers complaining that "no one can celebrate Christmas anymore..." But at least the guest was awesome and responded that their claims were ridiculous.

I'm excited for wine tonight!

i am soooo crabby.

This is what I woke up to listen to:

For Program On: Wednesday, December 3, 2008 at 6:00 AM Is there really a War Against Christmas? Joy Cardin's guest, after six, says there is... and we lose a lot when we celebrate a generic holiday at Christmas time. Guest: Tom Piatak (PIE-uh-tack), Contributing Editor, Chronicles Magazine. His piece on the War Against Christmas appears in the December edition.

Okay. Here we go.
1. You have got to be fucking kidding me. You are seriously up in arms about schools not having their students sing Christmas carols? Can you not sing them at home? Or in church? Does everything you do need to be validated in public spaces?
2. You're going to call it a war when there is an actual war going on? How fucking insulting.
3. Is it about Christ or not? Because I'm getting mixed messages. I keep hearing about how we need to keep Christ in Christmas, but then I hear that people, regardless of their religious beliefs, often still celebrate Christmas. If you want to keep it religious, then No. You cannot have public dollars funding this crap. If you want to get rid of the Christ, then that's another story. Which do you little bastards want?
4. If what you're concerned about is the "true spirit" of Christmas (and by this I mean Jesus, even though the actual date has more to do with the solstice than any virgin birth), it seems to me that the most effective method would be to limit this celebration to those who really believe in it, as opposed to wanting everyone of all religious faiths to celebrate it and taint it with shit like mindless consumerism. But what do I know?


This is what I catch on TV when I watch stupid morning programs:


1. Did you see the look on your 17 OTHER kids' faces when you basically told them that you would have even less time for them?
2. Totally cool, man. I know that there is a limit on the number of offspring one can have in China because of overpopulation, but you're doing it for god, so that makes it okay. And that thing about the environment and how American's eat up the world's resources at a mindblowingly disproportionate rate? Whatevs. It's for god.
3. Your name is f'ing Jim Bob? Could you be more cliche?