Lyman, You Really Should Be More Politically Correct ...

It seems my joke from the Daily Show a couple of posts down might have ruffled some feathers. Jokes are never funny when you have to explain them to people but it looks like that's what I would need to do. Who would think the lefty, pinko, commie Dem would be accused of telling an offensive, Politically Incorrect joke?

The joke is making an ironic comparison between stereotypes of rappers and Republicans. The irony is in the fact that rappers and Republicans are at opposite ends of the pop culture spectrum. In regards to the stereotypes that a few have found to be offensive, let's explore where they come from when referencing Republicans:

"they love money"=Republicans hate being taxed
"they love guns"=Republicans support lax gun control laws
"they are scared to death of gay people"=Republicans do now want to allow gay people the freedom to get married and raise a family
"every other word out their mouth is n****r"=Strom Thurmond, Jesse Helms, 'nuff said

Now, do all Republicans feel this way? Of course not. But the first three are common stances for the Republican party (and its current figurehead Jon McCain). The last one is obviously way off-base and practically ludacris, but this further serves the irony as this strongly misunderstood stereotype applies to both groups as well. I found it odd that nobody was jumping to the defense of rappers in the comment section of said post. Let's look at those stereotypes again this time as they apply to rappers:

"they love money"=images of rappers throwing cash around and sporting diamond jewelry is prevalent in rap music videos and publicity shots
"they love guns"=the gangster rap genre that erupted in the 90s was full of gun imagery and boastful lyrics about carrying guns
"they are scared to death of gay people"=while I can't reference any bigoted lyrics off the top of my head I know the word 'f****t' has been used in rap lyrics
"every other word out of their mouth is n****r"=much has been made of rappers using the 'n-word' in their lyrics, I don't think I need to explain this one

Are all of these stereotypes true? Nope. Particularly not the last one. But most of the press non-rap fans here about the idiom conforms with these stereotypes. People seem to be more comfortable stereotyping rap artists than Republicans. Now this might be because I don't have a lot of rappers reading my blog, or if I do they just don't care and actually find it funny.

I cannot guarantee that my humor will be PC in the future so if you're quite sensitive to such things, beware. And by all means do not watch the Daily Show.