Monday, January 06, 2014

Natasha Leggero "Offends" PH Veterans with SpaghettiOs Joke


Ahh New Years Eve: a time to celebrate another year gone, having fun with family and friends, and and mock veterans for not having basic bodily functions. Well that's what comedienne Natasha Leggero did in the form of a joke on TV on New Years' Eve.
On NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly, Leggero, along with actor/comedian Anthony Anderson and actress Jane Lynch, was asked by Daly about how SpaghettiOs uses Veterans Day awareness to sell products and make profit.
Lynch joked that she was worried that SpaghettiOs is now considered pasta, while Leggero made this joke about United States veterans not having teeth to chew the "pasta".
Here's the video below...



(Oh no!! That she-witch!! She should be hangged!! WHATAN IDIOT!!)
First off, you may be wondering: who the hell is Natasha Leggero? Well, she's a comedienne best known from Comedy Central, and currently stars in the show Brickleberry (which I suggest not watching, unless you're into porn, mocking religion, redneck humor, and other tasteless crap. But season 1 is pretty good; check that out if you want to.)

Now I get the backlash she has received. I myself was pretty shocked by the video at first by reading the header, but when I watched this crappy video clip on YouTube, I could barely make out what anyone said.
(And the annotation on the top, made sense at first)

Of course you'd think I'd be pissed off and outrage about this, right?

Well...This should make me pissed off! I should be outraged! This make me angry!! THIS should make me FIND her and HANG HER!!! But, no, it really doesn't.
Why should we be offended? Because we all have someone in our lives who previously went to war and now don't have any teeth? Well, yes, that may be the case, but all she made was a joke. And seriously, veterans won't have teeth when they're old anyway. WE ALL won't have teeth when we're old. It's just what happens when we age, people.

It's a sad joke, yes, but she didn't make a joke about vets being blown up or killed. THAT would have been off-color, tasteless, idiotic and therefore unfunny. She made a joke about vets not having teeth and barely being able to chew food with gums or dentures. There are comedians out there who have made worse jokes about veterans and our society in general for years and all we do is shut up and laugh at them as if it was episode of All in the Family. Yet all you heard from her was "survivors of Pearl Harbor" and "food they can barely chew" and you're immediately up in arms. You all are acting like she made a funny about vets losing a leg, and then using a cane they can barely walk with, because the cane company is using Veterans' Day as a ploy to make a profit. Just like Anthony Anderson was acting like he was cracking up at the joke.

And if you're pissed off that I'm not at the same page with you about this subject then too bad. I'm not sorry about it. It's not a horrible joke. Calling a 9-year-old Oscar-nominated actress a cunt when she grows up is a horrible joke. Funny now, but still horrible in hindsight. Oh and she wasn't sorry about the vets joke thing either, when she posted this on her website:

I wish I could apologize, but do you really want another insincere apology that you know is just an attempt at damage control and not a real admission of guilt? Let me just try instead to be honest.
I'm not sorry. I don't think the amazing courage of American veterans and specifically those who survived Pearl Harbor is in any way diminished by a comedian making a joke about dentures on television. Do we really believe that the people who fought and defended our freedom against Nazis and the Axis powers will find a joke about SpaghettiO's too much to bear? Sorry, I have more respect for Veterans than to think their honor can be impugned by a glamorous, charming comedian in a fur hat.
That's not to say I don't think comedians are a problem in this country, they are a financial drain on the people who date them and talk far too much about themselves. I'm thrilled to see how passionate (death threats against a five foot tall woman are always the height of passion!) people are about our country and our Veterans. I am too. My own father lost his hearing in the Vietnam War so the issue is pretty close to me too. So rather than apologize, let me offer another perspective.
On the one hand you have me, making a joke about how old people can't chew tough foods very well.
On the other hand you have Veterans who receive inadequate care upon their return from active duty, rampant sexual assault against female soldiers, staggering rates of suicide, traumatic brain injury, PTSD, substance abuse and depression among soldiers and political gridlock that prevents these problems from getting solved quickly.
Where do you think your outrage and action would be better served, calling me a c--- or doing something about the above problems?
For those of you that are currently doing both: Kudos!
To our vets: I love you. I truly hope you know that.
To SpaghettiO's: Let's do lunch.
To the Elderly: Chew!
To [some guy named] @nealrscott: It's spelled Human Excrement not Increatment.
To those looking for an active way to address the above problems, do what I've decided to do instead of apologize: Make a donation to the Disabled American Veterans foundation.

Hah!! She made a burn against you, because you're unintelligent and lazy!! (Ahem)
Anyway, she did something really different and decided not to apologize, because we as a society don't take a comedian's apology as nothing more than crappy damage control. And she cares about veterans as much as the next guy. You don't see other comedians do something like this before. And you know no one accepts their apologies unless their name is Ellen DeGeneres or Taylor Swift. And the next time something on veterans comes up, and she makes a joke about them, she will NOT get a sympathy vote from me.

By the way, I'm sure nobody chews SpaghettiOs anymore. They just stick it their mouths, taste and swallow. Unless there's meatballs, because then you can chew them.

See you next time when you old pal Andrew tries to defend Jamie Kennedy being asked about how middle-class Americans are struggling financially, and turns it into a joke about how Black and Latino residents survive on Food Stamps. You'll burn for my reaction!!

Later!

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