So - if you've not been reading the blogosphere, a missive was just fired off by Avenue Q creator, Jeff Whitey, over the inane comments made by Jay Leno while interviewing Ryan Phillippe. No, not anywhere remotely near hate-speech, but the kind of dumb and awkward shortsideness made by most people who shill cheap jokes for a living. Humor is violence, usually, in some form or another... mostly social and mostly to the point when it's effective. However Leno's material has always been a deliver then run kind of thing.... Usually the openers are not good, and fall flat... (*Rumor has it that Leno actually does standup and tries offensive jokes out on the audience thus.... oh, actually, I don't want to print it here. It's not worth it... the problem is context.) So back to the jab. No - this isn't hate speech, but it is deraugatory and just plain ignorant. However, what's awesome is the image that Whittey sends back to Jay... Too many times we take the respectable silence or the 'inflamed op-ed' approach. This is simple, yet bold. Very Johnny Cash (he'd be proud)... We should raise our finger in salutes like these more often!
