The first time I heard Andrew Dice Clay

[dsc]

For those who have never heard of Andrew Dice Clay he was a vile comic when I was in high school and college. Shortly after I came out to some friends we watched a tv show which featured him. It was so desperately scary. Thousands of young men, about my age, cheering, hooting, and hollering while he spewed racist, sexist, and homophobic jokes and it dawned on me. This is what many people thought of me. Those laughs and hoots and hollers were directed at me and people like me. We didn't last even a half hour without the tv being turned off.

Humor, especially against the powerless, is just wrong. It's like the difference between having the football team dress up like cheerleaders at the pep rally and picking on some lowly freshman. It isn't what Imus said, it is who Imus said it about. The Rutgers women's basketball team were, aside from women's basketball fans, pretty much unknown. They don't have spokesman, lawyers, or any other way to fight back. Just like the groups Andrew Dice Clay picked on, these women couldn't fight back.

The pampered and the popular are never easy targets but usually can take the heat. Conversely, the powerless are easy targets. Picking on them is often fun and rarely gets you in trouble. That is why they are so often targets. Imus deserves what he gets here. He chose totally innocent people to degrade here. Humor can cut like a sword. It shouldn't be used against the weak.

[NYCGirl]

1. Highly recommended, dsc. You hit the nail on the head. Comedy is only truly funny

when it's used to skewer the powerful or the evil; otherwise it's just bullying.

[Marie26]

2. K&R

Great post!

[Poiuyt]

3. Excellent point

[ccpup]

4. but the Rutgers women DID fight back

with courage, patience, intelligence and the kind of class cretins like Don Imus will never know. That, in the end, if more powerful than belittling jokes or crass "humor". And this is coming from someone who was neither popular nor beautiful (and often teased mercilessly from teachers and students alike), but discovered his own power through forgiveness and looking at the Big Picture. I knew I'd succeed after school and they'd still be the same stupid cretins they were. And I succeeded and they're still back there being cretins.

life is good

[dsc]

9. They only had that opportunity after Imus was already in hot water

had that not happened those women would never have been given the air time to rebut Imus. I am glad they did, and very glad they did so as effectively as they did, but that rarely happens.

[Horse with no Name]

5. Very eloquently stated.

And I NEVER "got" ADC.
He was simply loud, rude and obnoxious...but I never considered him funny. I guess it said a lot about those who did.

[Imagevision]

6. umm... and we all know what happened to Andrew Dice Clay

[Holly_Hobby]

11. He's got a new reality show on MTV

I saw it while channel surfing. He's balding, older, chubby, and his long-time girlfriend was walking out on him.

[gratuitous]

7. About the only funny thing I ever heard Mr. Clay say

He does riffs on nursery rhymes, and the shock value of f-bombs in the midst of some Mother Goose is intended to be the payoff. Juvenile, to be sure, but I have to admit I laughed at this one:

"T'ree blind mice, see how dey run."

Where da fuck are dey goin'?

[ryanmuegge]

8. I think his act is supposed to be ironic.

I believe he's supposed to be making fun of ignorant, racist, sexist people in America. That's just the way I always took it.

Either way, he's not very funny. He made one great album (The Day the Laughter Died) and has sucked ever since.

[frankenforpres]

25. dont worry, some on DU

dont get Colbert level satire, so dice's act doesnt have a chance

[Holly_Hobby]

10. I saw one of his videos

I dropped off a pizza at my husband's pal's during a poker game. An ADC video was on the TV. The things I heard were degrading and rude to women. Things I won't ever repeat. All of the guys were laughing and guffawing. I don't know what it is about some men who feel they need to demean women.

[dsc]

12. I honestly wouldn't dream of repeating him

here or anywhere else. I also kind of blacked it out.

[Morgana LaFey]

13. I'll post it again -- what Molly Ivins said on the same subject

'cause it's definitely worth repeating (as most of what she ever said was):

There are two kinds of humor. One kind that makes us chuckle about our foibles and our shared humanity -- like what Garrison Keillor does.
The other kind holds people up to public contempt and ridicule -- that's what I do. Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful. I only aim at the powerful. When satire is aimed at the powerless, it is not only cruel -- it's vulgar. -- Molly Ivins


And I'll add: isn't it a shame that so many people don't mind being cruel and vulgar?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. I think Andrew Dice Clay was an act.

Like Archie Bunker, or Tony Clifton, or Clayton Bixby.

[NYCGirl]

15. Yes, Dice was a character. But the reason a character like Archie Bunker worked

where "Dice" didn't was that Bunker was a really 3-dimensional character. Carroll O'Connor was a brillant actor, and Norman Lear was a brilliant writer. Also, Archie always got his comeuppance, and that was satisfying to the non-Archies among us. His character was also filtered through the wonderful character of Edith — she was so open and loving that you had to figure there was something good way down in Archie's soul; it just very seldom came out.

[Ilsa]

16. One of the commediennes on SNL walked off her job to protest

him hosting the show. She stood on principal, and so did her employer so she didn't get to come back, IIRC.

[NYCGirl]

17. That was Nora what's her name (I don't remember). A friend of mine worked for SNL,

in costuming, and she walked out that week, too. She returned to her job next week, though.

[ruiner4u]

21. Nora Dunn

[NYCGirl]

23. Thank you!

:hi:

[ruiner4u]

28. Yeah I remember her vividly..

I was very annoyed when she was cut from the cast because she chose not to be on the same program as 'the dice man'... at least thats the story I remember...

[Spazito]

18. Excellent OP!

You nailed it! Thanks for writing this, a very worthwhile read.

[bullwinkle428]

19. Craig Ferguson made this very same point several weeks back,

in explaining why he wasn't planning on doing any more jokes about Britney Spears or anyone else like her, or anyone was in similar circumstances. He decided it just wasn't right to pick on the weak and vulnerable in our society, and I thought that showed a lot of class on his part. Excellent post!

[Horse with no Name]

27. Exactly. With Britney Spears

there was a point that she was fair game...however, there became a definite point when she was visibly mentally ill. At that point, the responsible thing was to leave her alone and not pile on.

[MrSlayer]

20. Dice was funny the first time I heard him.

But it didn't hold up, subsequent listenings produced much less laughter. And his nursery rhymes weren't original, we were saying those in fifth grade. I did like when he fucked over MTV though.

[Forkboy]

22. It's one of the many reasons I find Rush so sickening.

He protects the powerful by picking on the weak.

[C_U_L8R]

24. Appealing to people's worst instincts

is a simple a sleazy way to get a reaction.
Just ask hacks and bigots like Bill O. and Rush

And it's just not funny.

[2bfree]

26. Very true.

Well said.

[tavalon]

29. That's why I appreciate Stephen Colbert

He took on the President when the President was sitting 10 feet away and he destroyed him. He continues to parody Billo and the other right wing fascists daily.