I Am Legend(ary at begging to be misquoted)
Fresh Prince and whitey's favorite black man, Will Smith, is fuming that comments he made about Adolf Hitler to a Scottish newspaper were taken out of context.
Will made this comment:
As a result of these comments some gossip blogs ran stories that Will Smith thinks Hitler is "good."
Of course, he didn't say that. And of course, it must be upsetting to hear people say you dig a genocidal monster. But can I just say Will had this coming?
I mean, even online, everyone knows you don't drop the H-bomb. It's the lamest, most hackneyed metaphor in every flame war. It's always misinterpreted, and always unconvincing. Talk about playing with fire.
But maybe that's just it. Maybe Will likes the controversy. So here are some more suggestions for Will ---that while technically not offensive--- will lead to huge controversy:
Tell Al Jazeera that Mohammed Ali isnt that great.
Tell Ebony magazine that he doesnt not believe that black actors arent inferior to white ones.
Tell High Times that he forbids Cherry Garcia in his house.
Tell Cracked readers that Kurt Cobain was a talented songwriter who is wrongly extolled as a genius of the Lennon or Hendrix caliber.
Tell FoxNews anything.
FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
ReplyYou make a valid point about the fact that Will Smith's (and your own) remarks were bound to be misinterpreted, and for that resaon alone his publiscist ought to have quitely suggested steeringing clear of discussions of the banality of evil. On the other hand, how do you avoid the topic? Particularly if you are Will Smith?
ReplyIn any event, I think we can just thank God this wasn't a post about atheism or some such. Can you imagine?
That thing about Kurt Cobain sucking was good, lets go back to that.
Cool story, bro.
There is no good or evil , only various shades of grey. The world ,however, would be a better place , if I got my fucking light saber, that I've asked for, for Christmas, for the last three years. Dammit.
ReplyThis is my own fault. In the category of needless Hitler references bound to be misinterpreted I should have included my own post. I was pressed for blogging material.
ReplyBut I must disagree with you. Of course Smith should be allowed to say what he wants and he said nothing offensive, but I really disagree. Who should be so bold to presume they themselves know whata genocidalist is thinking. No one can. And Smith could have made the same comment without the Hitler example. It added nothing, it over-simplified the argument, and, of course, it invited controversy from people who just don't have the capacity to understand nuance. Don't believe me? Read the comments. How many readers actually think Swaim's racist, or that I actually hate Kurt Cobain or Led Zep.I mean if people get the wrong ideas about stupid fart jokes do you expect them to grasp more complex concepts about the nature of good or evil?
Anyway, this is supposed to be a humor site and none of this is funny so I'm not doing my job.I apologize.
Yes, but my point (the one you saw fit to delete) was that in context Will Smith's referrence to Hitler was not "needless," it was perfectly appropriate. The disheartening thing is that because of knee jerk reactionaries throwing out referrences to Hitler at every oppurtunity (or deleting them, as the case may be) even a sensible referrence to Hitler brings down the langauge police.
ReplyThanks for piling on, by the way.
You know what i find gratifying? I write a post about how throwing Hitler's name around needlessly is a lame thing to do and bound to get misinterpreted.
ReplyAnd in response, people offer an analysis of Hitler and defense of Smith's statement which this blog post never questioned.
Oh, wait. Not gratifying. I mean, sadly disheartening.
If I am not mistaken there is a spam filter scrubbing comments and I suspect that one of the items flagged for deletion is the name of one controversial German leader. I say this because at least two comments are AWOL and both dealt with the primary subject matter of the post.
ReplyIf true, I find that supremely gratifying.
Bacalao, Hint: I'm doing it just to annoy you. Is is working.
ReplyCobain.
ReplyThere you go again with Kurt.
ReplyHa!
ReplyI know it's a Will Smith post but Cobain always pops up so a bit more about him.
Actually it's a sensation!
Just this night in my sleep I met Kurt Cobain and he actually told me why he shot himself. I've always thought it was Courtney's people but no! In fact he saw a dream in 1994 (under no influence of bad bad substances) and he met John Lennnon there and that's what John told him in Kurt's own words: "You may think I'm a dreamer... or a lesser songwriter... But you'll never regain my cool coz' I was shot from the gun thus becoming an immortal icon!".
That was the final straw for Kurt. Plus never ever getting that unique Pixies snare drum sound.
I know, but I don't like Cobain, so I'm willing to go through it again.
ReplyI can't believe this conversation is happening. I brought up Cobain for the 3rd time as a joke to prove how big a dick I can be.
ReplyHendrix may have been a great guitarist but I don't think he deserves to be exalted as one of the best ever musicians or song-writers. Lennon was a better writer than either Cobain or Hendrix, and that's coming from someone who doesn't really like the Beatles all that much.
ReplyNot so much with Lennon? That's the second snipe at the Beatles' posterity this week! Is this some sort of backlash, or are kids today finally "too cool" for the Beatles? I'll only really be sad when there are a lot of people who don't know who they are.
ReplyCobain was good. Hendrix and Lennon were both great, but none of them have or are the legendary genius of Weird Al Yankovic.
Replythanks for saying that kurt cobain wasnt that good. i agree with hendrix, but not so much with Lennon.
ReplyYour first potential misquote would indeed cause controversy, but not as you intend. Smith played Ali in the bafflingly titled bio-pic Ali. How about have him saying “I love all jazz eras”, and have it be twisted to “I love Al Jazeera”, yikes! Or even worse, have him say “I love Cracked”, only to be misinterpreted as…you guessed it, “I love CRACK”, (like the cocaine kind.)
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