Sarah Palin has risen to the occassion again. She is outraged that David Letterman made a tasteless joke about one of her daughters. She and Todd accuse Letterman, among other things, of advocating rape.
The joke was making fun of Palin for advocating abstinence only while her teenage daughter becomes pregnant. The joke makes fun of A-rod for being a cheater. Letterman says he didn’t know the daughter that was at the referenced game was only 14 (Willow) and not 18 (Bristol). To his defense, Letterman probably didn’t even write the joke.
Regardless, here is an article that points out many other instances when comedians made tasteless jokes about Palin and her family.
Among them, when Palin and her then 13 year old daughter dropped the puck at a hockey game, Conan O’Brian joked, “Sarah Palin is going to drop the first puck at the Philadelphia Flyers’ hockey game. Then Palin will spend the rest of the game trying to keep the hockey players out of her daughter’s penalty box.”
Another joke delivered by Jay Leno: “Governor Palin announced over the weekend that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five months pregnant. Oh, boy, you thought John Edwards was in trouble before, now he’s really done it!”
Those are just a couple of former jokes. So where was all the outrage and calls for people to get fired when these jokes were delivered? So why all the outrage now? Better yet, why all the synchronized outrage right now?
The GOP wants the news cycle and they will use any means to get it. I never once thought of “rape” when hearing Letterman’s joke. But that word has been inserted to further feed the flames and keep the attention. That is tasteless at best.
Personally, I think Letterman is rather un-funny in general, and I wasn’t appaled by his joke at all. But this joke, this one joke at this time, has been elevated and promoted so much and twisted so much that I can’t help but wonder if anyone is really concerned about the feelings of the 14 year old girl.
