#jimmys lesson is to look the people you hurt in the eyes and make amends.

[saulbaby]

I love how Bob said that the difference between Jimmy and Saul wasn't conning and fast talking. That's all Jimmy, he says, he's been doing that since he was a kid. The difference is that Saul is when he became completely aware of all the consequences and decided not to care.

[annwritesstuff]

Sticks and stones ... and Wolf

Ah ... journalism, comedy and perceived woman-on-woman cat fights ... these are three topics I have an interest in, and they recently intersected in the strangest way at the White House Correspondent's Dinner. As such, I felt the need to offer up my own two cents on the subject.

The White House Correspondent's dinner happened over the weekend, and you've probably heard about the comedy set that's been making waves. With her speech, hostess Michelle Wolf, heretofore best known for being a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, eviscerated President Trump, his cabinet and other big names in politics comedy-roast-style.

View her full remarks here: (Tumblr is being weird and not letting me post videos, so follow this link)

And in case you don't know, the comedy set has basically been the cornerstone of the dinner since 1983. Per ABC news (bold emphasis mine): "Perhaps the most well-known of the dinner’s traditions is the comedy routine. The president delivers the initial, joke-filled speech, followed by the keynote roast by a famous comedian. Recent headliners have included Cecily Strong, Jimmy Kimmel and Jay Leno."

A comedian has roasted the president at this dinner for 35 years. We've elected a President who's used his First Amendment right in a way many would consider non-Presidential, yet many of the same people who prop him up are saying that Wolf went too far with her remarks.

Seriously. A man in an actual position of power can tweet about Mika Brzezinski's "bleeding face lift" (for real, read the Tweet here) and it's fine and dandy, but a comedian makes reference to Sarah Huckabee Sanders using ashes from burning the truth to create a "perfect smoky eye" and people lose their minds.

Is this really that much worse than the jokes Stephen Colbert cracked at the expense of President Bush at the 2006 White House Correspondent's Dinner? "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change; this man's beliefs never will."

Although not every critic of Wolf is a conservative, it seems to me that most people who are upset with Wolf's remarks are on the right. Which I find ... odd. In recent years, many conservatives have built an entire brand on ridiculing "special snowflakes" who are "too offended" and "need a safe space." Those offended by Trump's "pussy grabbing" comments have been told to lighten up - it was just a joke! Locker room talk, duh!

(From Samantha Bee's Twitter page) But suddenly, this "sticks and stones" principal doesn't apply to Wolf's speech. Perfect example, Mike Huckabee. He mocks people who may get "triggered" by the jokes on his show ... But then, wait! He decides there's nothing funny about the jokes made about his daughter! This outrage over a joke is justified!

Translation: Getting offended is stupid and makes you a "special snowflake" - Unless it's me who gets offended!

Locally, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who is also running for governor, expressed his disapproval of Wolf's jokes via Twitter:

And, within the last week, Kemp released a campaign ad that depicts him pointing a rifle straight at a guy who wants to date Kemp's daughter. When people expressed disapproval of this ad - even gun owners piped up to say "always assume the gun is loaded and NEVER point it at something or someone you don't intend to shoot!" - the Kemp campaign responded with a statement that said, in part, "get over it."

Here's the ad: (side note: does anyone else find the old "I-will-literally-kill-anyone-who-wants-to-date-my-daughter" trope to be antiquated and creepy?)

Link to ad here.

DID Michelle Wolf's comments go too far? I would argue that no, they didn't. However I respect the opinions of people who say they did. Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Kemp have the right to be offended by Wolf's jokes. I'm not saying you can't be offended. I'm saying that you need to be consistent.

If you tell me to lighten up for disapproving of the President of the United States saying all Haitian immigrants have AIDS, then don't turn around and condemn a comedian for telling jokes at the President's expense.

I'm truly baffled by how strong the negative response has been. So negative, in fact, that many are arguing for an end of the White House Correspondent's Dinner altogether! It would be frustrating if this 19-minute speech with a few jokes some people didn't like would be enough to completely do away with a 97-year-old tradition that's almost never this controversial. That would be the definition of making a mountain out of a molehill.

Michelle Wolf makes jokes about the President that people don't like, so the White House Correspondent's Dinner is axed moving forward. Donald Trump mocks a New York Times reporter with a disability and is elected President.

I think television writer Nell Scovell, who has written for Late Night with David Letterman, put it beautifully in this opinion piece for Vulture:

"'The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is DEAD as we know it,' President Trump tweeted this morning. Margaret Sullivan at the Washington Post agreed and published an op-ed that opens with 'The 2018 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner should be the last.'

"This strikes me as the wrong response. Yes, the dinner has ballooned to an oddball mix of celebrities and politicians, but there have been moments where comedy allowed speakers to cut to the truth. I’ll never forget the wave of laughter in 2013 after President Obama declared: 'Some folks still don’t think I spend enough time with Congress. ‘Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?’ they ask. Really? Why don’t you get a drink with Mitch McConnell?'

"The President calling out the Speaker for not being civil remains my favorite WHCD moment — and I didn’t even write that line.

"Mel Brooks once explained why many of his movies made fun of Adolf Hitler. 'You have to bring him down with ridicule, because if you stand on a soapbox and you match him with rhetoric, you’re just as bad as he is, but if you can make people laugh at him, then you’re one up on him,' he said.

"It’s important to laugh at Mitch McConnell and President Trump and Press Secretary Sanders and all the others that are corrupting democracy. Saying Wolf was vulgar and attacked another woman for her looks is a smoke screen — smokier than Sanders’s smoky eye shadow. These lies ignore Wolf’s very real observation, which is that the president’s press secretary is a fucking liar. Yes, that’s vulgar for me to say. But it’s even more vulgar for her to do."

A point that I realize I haven't really touched on is the pitting of one woman (Wolf) against another (Sanders). Never mind that Wolf went after many people, men and women, with her jokes - including Kellyanne Conway, Mitch McConnell, Anderson Cooper and others. Most of the attention in this controversy has gone to the jokes about Sanders - and I don't think they were any worse than the jokes targeting others. This is because, as Scovell noted in the same piece, our culture loves female cat fights for some reason.

As if this situation isn't disappointing enough, adding the layer of woman-on-woman hate is the cherry on this shit sundae.

For me, this is the lesson here: There is a group that prides itself in being tough and having a "sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me" attitude and love hectoring "bleeding hearts" who commit the great sin of taking umbrage at offensive things the president says. But the reality is that the big, bad and tough group really isn't so big, bad and tough after all. They can dish out the off-color, "fuck-your-feelings" attitude, but can't take it when it's served back to them. (And what Wolf did is nowhere near on the level of what our President does, but I digress ...)

I hope we all learn something from this. And I hope we have a White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2019. Let's see what that brings.

Related:

Trevor Noah's bit about the fiasco (brilliant)

No, Michelle Wolf didn't joke about Sarah Huckabee Sanders's looks, Vulture

The real reason Michelle Wolf is under attack is because her Sarah Sanders jokes are true, Vox