The Age online has reported (via AP, of course) on a development in the Sandra Bernhard Vs. Sarah Palin drama; or lack thereof.
“A women’s shelter today cut headliner comedian Sandra Bernhard from its annual benefit after she said Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin would be gang-raped if she ever visited New York.”
I think The Age was just happy to use the words “gang-rape” in a headline.
Sandra Bernhard – Lips of Steel (Image: Courtesy Drowned Paradise)
It has probably been a while. “Gang-rape” is the Google equivalent of a massive word-score in Scrabble. The word (and story) would never have seen the light of day if we weren’t all trapped in this sub-prime Vice-President crisis: Palin sells.
Sandra Bernhard is a great performer. She does routines. She plays with characters. She is self-deprecating. She is self-reflective.
Bernhard’s opus, Without You I’m Nothing, is worth renting; if you can find it. Bernhard twists dialogue, comedy, and political issues in and out of contemporary pop music. But the film is also a savage critique of her own work and affectations. There are even self-mutilating pot-shots about the whole Madonna ‘lesbians-are-chic’ five-minute moment. [People will remember that Bernhard got badly burned by the whole Lady M/Letterman experience.]
Bernhard’s attack on Palin was light compared to things she has said about others in the past. Her eviscerations of Courtney Love, Mariah Carey and Jodie Foster are legendary.
[As an aside, does anybody else find it amusing that Bernhard was included in the big Vanity Fair "Queens of Comedy" issue recently? Along with Tina Fey.]
In the Palin routine, Bernhard wailed on Palin’s God-swinging: “Don’t touch my old testament you bitch,” she said. The gang-rape line was a throw away.
But if you want another opinion on Bernhard – maybe something more “Fair and Balanced” – watch Fox’s Greg-alogue opinion segment. We thought we’d seen the best of Fox, but we were wrong.
5 Comments
October 5, 2008 at 4:19 pm
http://anyonecare.wordpress.com/2008/10/04/sarah-palin-said-barack-obama-off-base/
October 6, 2008 at 5:00 am
It’s so very interesting watching the whole Palin thing unfold from across the Pacific.
Lots of us (in Australia) have been watching the story develop like a Soap Opera, Sitcom, or bad Reality Television.
I’ve been keen to stay uninvolved, because there are just so many column inches that any one topic needs.
And because it’s hard for foreigners to relate to a woman who has been turned into a media cartoon so quickly; so deftly.
I’m curious Mr. Non-Conformer: What is all the media spin like when you’re a person who relates to Sarah Palin? Can you give us some personal perspective? I’m honestly interested.
Gav
October 6, 2008 at 4:17 pm
why does Greg have a rainbow coloured font for his “Greg-alogue” segment title? is that not a little gay for him? Speaking of gay…… http://gawker.com/news/before-they-were-sorta-famous/greg-gutfeld-the-hot-years-272928.php
October 7, 2008 at 2:24 am
Fair and balanced is so right:
exhibit a:
“…and if it worked Sarah then Palin wont be elected but you ll always be ugly.”
exhibit b:
“You can put lipstick on a pig but its still a bi-sexual actress”.
exhibit c:
“now look at Sarah’s face…its so ugly its like she freeze framed a dog’s fart”.
HILARIOUS
October 7, 2008 at 10:01 am
jaw dropped. The Fox find is just GOLD