Sarah Silverman Isn't Funny
Sarah Silverman is all over the place this week, with critics praising her concert video and twisting themselves into pretzels trying to rationalize how a potty-mouthed young woman is somehow brilliantly subversive and transgressive.
I first saw Silverman on Politically Incorrect several years ago. She's gotten more mileage out of an unfunny joke employing the racial epithet "chink" than anyone has a right to.
This letter to Salon says it all.
When I watch Silverman, I see a pretty girl mouth a lot of nasty platitudes, but I feel zero affinity with her. I don't share anything with her; her perspective is so broad I can't make any comparisons to my worldview. It's not that she couldn't be funny, I suppose. She just doesn't have the intellectual acumen to make a valid insight into everyone's closely held prejudices. Ultimately, what is most interesting about Silverman isn't her comedy; it's the apologists who bend over backwards explaining why Silverman is funny. (As if true humor needs to be explained...) I've always felt it said more about the defender than it ever said about Silverman herself. If you want to laugh at bigoted jokes, say so proudly. If you think making fun of Asians, Hispanics and blacks is great fun, have the courage to say so, but don't promote a marginally talented woman as the comedic voice of a new "ironic" generation. You only make yourselves look foolish.
-- M. Flatow
I first saw Silverman on Politically Incorrect several years ago. She's gotten more mileage out of an unfunny joke employing the racial epithet "chink" than anyone has a right to.
This letter to Salon says it all.
When I watch Silverman, I see a pretty girl mouth a lot of nasty platitudes, but I feel zero affinity with her. I don't share anything with her; her perspective is so broad I can't make any comparisons to my worldview. It's not that she couldn't be funny, I suppose. She just doesn't have the intellectual acumen to make a valid insight into everyone's closely held prejudices. Ultimately, what is most interesting about Silverman isn't her comedy; it's the apologists who bend over backwards explaining why Silverman is funny. (As if true humor needs to be explained...) I've always felt it said more about the defender than it ever said about Silverman herself. If you want to laugh at bigoted jokes, say so proudly. If you think making fun of Asians, Hispanics and blacks is great fun, have the courage to say so, but don't promote a marginally talented woman as the comedic voice of a new "ironic" generation. You only make yourselves look foolish.
-- M. Flatow
posted by Peter L. Winkler | 6:26 PM
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