A Witty Saying Proves Nothing
When the Prince of Darkness died, I commented, “Good riddance. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way to Hell.” It was Chilon of Sparta who once said that one should not speak ill of the dead, but I’m pretty sure that he wasn’t speaking of people like Robert Novak.
With all the words I have written here, some readers may consider them in bad taste and others, spot on. That said, even though a few of my words may be over the top, I do think I’m a bit old-fashioned — not 2,500 years old-fashioned — on what makes me laugh. Not funny: Holocaust and 9/11 jokes are out along with misogynistic one-liners. Funny: puns and biting quotes. Regarding puns, a man once was asked if puns were the lowest forms of wit, he replied, “It is, and therefore the foundation of all wit.” Yes, puns are their own reword.
And a good quote is just as tremendous, such as this one from Adlai Stevenson, “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
And even from across the aisle, conservatives have been known for a good quote. Here’s one from the Quipster himself, Ronald Reagan, “History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.”
It turns out that one of our frequent conservative commenters at Delaware Liberal enjoys word play as well. However, he likes to use word play when talking of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has killed more than 25 million people since 1981. He likes word play, specifically using the word buggery, when commenting on the disease that afflicts some 33 million people world-wide — half of those people are women. He writes that “Words can be the source of fun” as he writes about HIV/AIDS that, in 2007, killed some 2 million people and, of those, 250,000 were children.
Call me conservative if you will, but word play is not appropriate for the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It might even be construed as homophobic in origin. To bastardize Voltaire, “A witty saying proves nothing, but an unwitty saying proves everything.”
Tags: Delaware Blogosphere
That Stevenson quote is at least as apt today as it was when he said it, “I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
Bravo — bigotry is bigotry no matter how fancy or the pedigree of the words.
“that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
Which is why Adlai Stevenson was a loser. Any Democrat that would, even in jest, agree to stop telling the truth about repubs is a Joe LIEberman waiting to happen.
Using English slang doesn’t make it more acceptable.
Humor is a way of sneaking in racism, sexism, homophobia and other -isms sometimes.
you guys are too funny, as you proudly declare “no homo jokes or references… except when you are talking about your balls, calling people tea baggers, questioning the orientation of commenters on the right, or in DG’s case going on and on about pennises and lube.
the double speak never ends here on the DL
and yet you keep on coming back
Bugger off.
ofcourse I do, it’s like the monkey cage at the zoo with all the screaming and poo throwing. it’s always fun when viewed from a safe distance.
If you’d stop crapping your cage, anoni, perhaps you could afford to stop screaming.
For all their useless talk of morality, republican ideology is immoral. So Novcak joins every other republcan in hell.
“I try not to speak ill of the dead, even if they are only politically dead”.
Hon. Huey P Long
JT, that’s because Huey Long was worried about what people were going to say about him. 😉
Hey I told everyone that I don’t like the practice of equating ball with bravery.
As far as “teabagging” that’s what they were calling themselves. I guess I have a dirty mind because I thought that was a specific sexual practice.
You do know there’s a difference between being crass and rude and equating a specific sexual practice with a disease, don’t you?
Nemski,
You could be right. Maybe he should have been more worried about armed doctors and bodyguards that could not shoot straight.