December 11, 2008
30 Rock watch
NBC's 30 Rock is airing its annual Christmas episode, and it's a corker.
This exchange had me doing a double take.
Tina Fey: Do you know the Postmaster General?
Alec Baldwin: We had a falling out over the Jerry Garcia stamp. If I want to lick a hippie, I'll return Joan Baez's phone calls.
That's pretty good stuff.
Although I don't much care for Joan Baez.
Posted by Mike Lief at December 11, 2008 09:46 PM
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This is not even remotely funny (aka "good stuff"). It's sexist stuff. But what it's more. It's inaccurate. Joan Baez was NOT a Hippie. A Hippie was a phenomenon of the counter culture that was decidedly UNPOLITICAL. A Hippie was a peace-loving person hanging around smoking weed and thinking that demonstrations and political action were too much of a hassle, everybody should just love and change the world by the way they live.
So IF you make a cheap sexist joke, at least be accurate for gods sake!! Is that soo hard? I know, the reasoning is that 95% of the people are just as clueless as he is, but when I hate one think it's people who think their ignorance is funny. It's just annoying.
Posted by: breadandroses at December 12, 2008 12:18 AM
Sexist? If one were inclined to outrage at the slightest provocation, perhaps the charge of heterosexism is more apropos, given that Baldwin's character -- Jack Donaghy, Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming -- is a compulsive, prolific womanizer and Dick Cheney-loving über Republican who is reluctant to lick the backside of a stamp bearing the likeness of a man.
The other running joke in the series is that Donaghy's phone is ringing off the hook with calls from the unlikeliest of people, many of whom he seems to have had, ahem, close encounters of the third kind.
So, the humor comes from the character apparently being pursued for reasons amorous -- or not -- by a folk singer associated with everything Donaghy detests, as well as the visual of someone licking Jerry Garcia -- or Joan Baez.
So, lacking any evidence that Baldwin's preference for sex with Baez instead of Garcia is sexist -- as opposed to heteronormative -- we're left with your complaint that it's not "accurate," because Baez is/was not a hippie.
Now that's funny!
It's a joke.
And it's still funny, almost nine hours later.
Posted by: Mike Lief at December 12, 2008 05:52 AM
So Mike, you caught me. I didn't actually watch the thing. Actually - I'm European. I could care less about what kind of character Alec Baldwin portrayed, as I wasn't able to watch it anyway unless I hunt it down on youtube. So I dead on took your post for real. I did get that they were playing a skit, as Tina Fey, is in it. But for all I know, Baldwin could have played himself.
Moreover, I can't stand Baldwin. I might confuse him with his brother, the association that pops up in my head is someone calling is daughter a "little whore".
That it was a skit portraying someone who is sexist though doesn't make it any less sexist actually. If so, it was intended to be sexist. So it still doesn't make it "good stuff" if it was employed to portray how an ignorant, tasteless sexist would behave in a social setting. Archie Bunker being racist may be hilarious, it doesn't make the jokes less racist though. Just like Mark Twain used the n-word in Huck Finn to reveal and oppose racism, doesn't change the fact that he used the n-word almost 200 times and therefore kept alive and perpetuated the stereotype. Even though he used it for the opposite purpose. Get the reasoning behind this? I still don't like it and I don't like linguistic and historical inaccuracy. Even though it is - in character -. I might have a little problem with that, but I don't think most people would get that while laughing about the character, they still wouldn't question the inaccuracy.
But Alec Baldwin playing a "compulsive, prolific womanizer and Dick Cheney-loving über Republican" is what makes it hilarious for me. Skip the Republican part, but isn't he portraying himself then or do I mix him up with one of his brothers? If so, I find that to be the funniest thing about it.
Posted by: breadandroses at December 12, 2008 08:08 AM