Adverteasing

Tonight, gentle readers, I would like to discuss overly sensitive people. But first, the tour news. We performed today in West Springfield, at a high school, where a number of middle schools were bused in. What this meant was all the annoyances of a private performance with none of the benefits (i.e free lunch.) And on top of it all, the audience was another quiet group. I don't understand the problem. I would blame it on our intensely strict opening speech, except it doesn't seem to have the same effect on audiences outside of Massachusetts. I blame it on the Puritans. But then, in all fairness, there's very little abut this country's psyche that I DON'T blame on the Puritans. The show itself went very well again, at least as far as I can tell. When you're not getting a lot of reaction, it isn't easy to gauge. But it felt good, so I guess that's all that matters. We then drove back to Boston, to the same hotel we had just left the day before. We are doing another show tomorrow in the same theatre we were just at. How much fun is that? Hopefully we can get to the free breakfast tomorrow before the 70 asian students who rolled in here tonight sweep down upon the breakfast room like locusts and strip it clean. Every single time we stay here, there's some sort of school trip that lodges here at the same time and gets all up in our way in the morning. I don't know what it is about this particular hotel, because it doesn't seem like it's really near anything or in a great location. But there's always a tour bus or two. Oy. I don't want to have to hack and slash my way through a bunch of inscrutables to get to my morning eggs.

And that last statement brings me to tonight's rant. It seems that Burger King has had to pull a commercial for its new Texican Whopper because it offended some Mexican groups. The commercial follows the pairing of a cowboy and a Mexican midget wrestler. The slogan? The Texican Whopper--a whole lot of Texas, with a little Mexican thrown in. Now that's funny. But apparently, such a thing offends too many Mexicans. The legal thing they hung their hat on was the fact that the midget wrestler is apparently draped in a Mexican flag, and that's against the law in mexico. It's not the proper way to display the Mexican flag. The proper way of course being tied to the antenna of a Honda Civic as it zooms through the streets at 3 a.m. with its horn blaring and mariachi music pounding out the windows while drunken Mexicans hang out said windows yelling at the top of their lungs. But a midget wearing it over his shoulders? NEVER! This is really something to get offended at? This is the big media portrayal of Mexicans you have a problem with? Nobody here has probably seen this commercial except on YouTube because from what i have read it is only being shown in the UK and Spain, where it meets all legal parameters. This is pathetic. People are up in arms about THIS? This is insulting to Mexicans, but Carlos Mencia using blatant stereotypes of Mexicans in his sketch comedy show wasn't? Throwing around the term "beaners" wasn't? But see, he's allowed to because he IS Mexican. If he does it, then it's observational comedy. If we do it, it's racism. If there's anyone who has a leg to stand on when it comes to being offended by this commercial, it's midgets! The comedy doesn't come from him being Mexican, it comes from him being a midget. So they're not really poking fun at Mexicans, they're poking fun at midgets. So I say, get the midget defamation league on this! I'm sure it'll be taken care of in very short order. (Sorry, I just HAD to)

Please, people, can we all just lighten up? I am so sick and tired of constantly hearing about how this group is outraged over such and such, or that group is offended by thus and so. Nobody was setting out to belittle Mexico (sorry) they just found a funny play on words and went with it. If you are so uptight that you can't laugh at yourself that much, then really, do us all a favor and retire to a cave somewhere and become a hermit. You have got to be able to laugh at yourself a little and not just assume that every joke is some malicious smear against your culture. Everybody's so sensitive nowadays. And I know there's gonna be a bunch of people who say that I can't really say anything about it because I'm not Mexican, so of course I'd think it wasn't offensive. To them I say, get stuffed. Of course I can understand someone being upset if they think their culture is getting slammed. But at the same time, I also think you have to be able to laugh at the idiosyncracies of your culture. I mean hell I'm Irish, and I can laugh at anything you throw at me about the Irish. But see, the Irish just have a better sense of humor about themselves than, say...the Mexicans. And again, the joke made about this guy had less to do with his ethnicity and more to do with his height, so I don't really get why these groups are so outraged. And of course Burger King had to issue an apology for offending these wackos. Screw them! My apology would be more along the lines of "Sorry you can't take a joke." I would like to think that this is the work of a few very vocal pains in the ass who have nothing better to do than work themselves up into a lather about anything they can find, and that the majority of both Mexicans and Americans can take the commercial in the spirit it was created--as a pun, not a slur. But I guess I can't blame Burger King. I mean hell, if they piss off Mexico, where the hell is their next batch of employees gonna come from? And excuse me, but if Mexican culture is so great, why the hell is everyone trying to get over the border?

Now THAT was offensive. See the difference? You're welcome.