The Opie & Anthony show, known for it’s extreme, crass, and cringing humor, is being skewered by the media for a segment in which they invited a homeless person, known as Homeless Charlie, into the studio to get his thoughts on life and events in the world. The conversation eventually turned into talk about his sexual fantasies, where he proceeded to describe in detail how he’d like to have sex with Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bush, and the Queen of England. Sure, on the surface it doesn’t seem like much to think twice about. What created the firestorm though, was the manner in which he’d like to have his sex. See, because Homeless Charlie isn’t a big fan of her politics, he said he’d like to give her a couple of good punches to the mouth during their little imaginary tryst. With that blurb, the news media went into a frenzy. Chastising O & A for ‘their comments’ on the show. Did you see the problem with that last sentence?

“Their comments” as in, the radio hosts’ comments.

That’s how it was first portrayed in, what I like to consider, another lovely turn by the media at failing to check their facts and run with speculation and here-say. Roughly a day or two after the comments aired (on their uncensored, subscription only show on XM radio), stories hit the press that Opie & Anthony had called for the rape of the Secretary of State, the First Lady, and the Queen. None of the initial reporters had bothered to do much in the way of….oh I don’t know….making sure that they got the damn story right in the first place. Why doesn’t this surprise me? Because of this misreporting of the actual events, controversy ensued as yet another ‘shock radio’ show was called out for offensive comments. I mentioned it earlier, but I’ll say it again, the comments were broadcast over an ‘adult content’ channel on a subscription service. It can be blocked by those subscribers that wish to not hear offensive content. Furthermore, O & A specialize in a type of humor known as ‘cringe humor’. That is, they often make light of otherwise serious topics from death to disease to you name it. If a joke can be made about it, they’ll find a way to do it.

Sure their humor isn’t for everyone, much like the way that I personally find Larry the Cable Guy to be a hack comedian whose claim to fame was ‘Git ‘er done’. That being said though, Larry makes about $200,000 per show and sells out everywhere he goes, so somebody’s got to like him. Would I pay to see him? Not a chance, unless he was on the card with the likes of Jim Norton, Patrice Oneal, Bill Burr, Bob Saget (yes that Bob Saget), etc.

See the one thing that everyone seems to lose sight of in this era of political correctness is the fact that humor is completely subjective by nature. While many people might see what Homeless Charlie said as horrid and angering on the surface, there are others who might think of the image of a homeless guy and Condi ‘getting it on’ and just laugh their ass off at the absurd vision of this.

Needless to say, Opie and Anthony apologized in a statement prepared by XM radio. You can’t say it was a heartfelt apology because in the hosts’ eyes they had done nothing wrong. Apparently XM noticed that they didn’t seem to torn up about it, because 3 days later XM suspended the duo for showing a lack of concern about their actions. Thirty days, no XM show, while they are continuing to broadcast their terrestrial portion of the radio show on CBS. CBS, thankfully, did the right thing and decided not to pull the duo due to the uproar, because they had no connections to the comments, and the comments weren’t broadcast on the simulcast portion.

What happened next, you ask?

XM subscribers canceled their subscriptions by the thousands, some waiting as long as an hour and a half on hold to do so. Some of the show’s advertisers have pulled their dollars out of the XM coffers, because they find the suspension to be completely undeserved. Fears that the duo would be fired for a third time in their tumultuous careers were echoed all over fan sites and message boards devoted to the show. Now word comes out that many of the subscriptions were never canceled and merely given a one month free credit. Shame on you XM. Deceiving customers not once, but twice. First by claiming to be uncensored then censoring your talent, then by telling your customers (or ex-customers) they would have their subscriptions canceled and not following through on that.

In the end, it seems that XM is standing by their position that the show will be returning after finishing out the suspension (something that fans are still speculating on). We’ll only know for sure on June 15th. I’m hoping it returns, and that the show comes back with a vengeance. Taking no prisoners and continues to make its fans laugh uncomfortably. As well as, telling the crybabies of the world who only know what they read via factually inaccurate reporting that is today’s media to go fuck themselves. That’s what makes the show what it is, and that’s why the people listen.

Remember, there is no law against offending somebody.

Don Imus was fired today by CBS, a day after being fired by MSNBC. Why, you ask? Well, April 4th, as all of you in the US probably know, radio host Don Imus made a 2 second remark. An attempt at a joke, gone bad. He called a bunch of less than good looking girls (Rutgers women’s basketball team) “nappy-headed hos”. After observing a news clip of them losing the NCAA women’s championship. He made the remark based on how rough they looked on the court compared to the better looks of their opponents. Four days later, somebody caught wind of that comment and a media crucifixion began.

Of course, who of all people decided to champion the cause of these poor girls? Why the race-baiting and anti-semetic Rev. Al Sharpton. Yes, Al “bloodsucking Jews” Sharpton, the same man that also was so confident that the Duke rape case was an open and shut one. The same Al Sharpton, who stood behind poor Tawana Brawley when she was raped by six men, some of which were police officers….oh wait, that event was made up as well. Yes, Al sure has a way of picking worthwhile causes……but I digress.

So, Sharpton decided that he must once again become the beacon of the black community and pursue this evil, reprehensible, white devil that is Don Imus. God forbid he uses the “N” word. No, not the one that Michael Richards screamed over and over in that infamous set at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles a few months back. No, the other “N” word that the non-black community can no longer use: Nappy. There I said it, I’ll probably burn in hell for that.

Hang with me for a moment on this. You see, if you go to amazon.com and search for the word nappy you’ll find quite a few entries of books, songs, etc., that make use of the word. Even Halle Berry is gearing herself up to star in a movie entitled “Nappily Ever After”. Mind you though, what we’re all being told by Imus-gate is that this is an incredibly offensive term that, if uttered aloud, should be greeted with and countered by taking away a person’s livelihood.

There is also another angle to this story. That’s right, rap music. A genre built on discussion about nappy-headed hos, bitches, niggas, etc. Of course, you never hear Sharpton calling for the record companies that employ these rappers to summarily cut their ties to said rappers. Why is that? Honestly, I’d love an answer to that one.

You see, call me crazy, but before you can call a crotchety old man to the mat about an off-the-cuff remark meant in jest, I’d think you’d first want to look right in your own back yard for a little accountability. It’s like a drug dealer telling somebody that dealing drugs is bad. Right Snoop? See, Snoop Dogg is upset about this whole thing too. He says that his lyrics aren’t even comparable to Imus’ comments because ‘we’re talking about ho’s that’s in the ‘hood that ain’t doing shit’. Right, sorry Snoop, I missed that disclaimer on your albums. Good to know that you’re such an upstanding guy. Keep fighting the good fight. That’s probably what that weapons/drug charge (not his first, by the way) is all about, eh?

Even Whoopi Goldberg has jumped on the bandwagon that currently is dragging Imus behind it. She thinks this whole thing is a horrible event, yet she seems to take offense when asked why she’s not defending Imus’ joke as she did Ted Danson. If you forgot, Ted Danson donned black-face and presented her with a tray of watermelon at a tribute to her. Something, she said, the media blew way out of proportion. Yeah, I guess when it’s a friend of yours, racially insensitive comments and actions are ok. Similar to when white guys say, “it’s ok, I have black friends”. Ah, I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning.

All in all, it boils down to one thing. The hypocrisy of some people who seem to want a double standard in what people can or cannot say. Jesse Jackson (another who’s been vocal about this) can refer to New York City as ‘Himietown’ during his 1984 presidential campaign, but he better not catch you saying nappy headed hos or it’s your ass. Comedian Patrice Oneal called Imus’ comments ‘hilarious’. You can see Oneal’s interview on the matter in two parts: part one & part two.

Refreshing, considering that according to the media, all of America is outraged at Imus’ comments. However, due to the phenomenon called ‘white guilt’ nobody seems to care about the people out there who are more outraged at the media blitz of the whole thing, than the actual comments themselves.

Somewhere, I think Martin Luther King Jr. is just scratching his head wondering how in the hell Al and Jesse weaseled their way into his shoes, and how all his hard work has been reduced to something like this.

In closing, I’ll leave you with these thoughts from Jason Whitlock (I beg you to read his article):
We have more important issues to deal with than Imus. If we are unwilling to clean up the filth and disrespect we heap on each other, nothing will change with our condition. You can fire every Don Imus in the country, and our incarceration rate, fatherless-child rate, illiteracy rate and murder rate will still continue to skyrocket.

As always…..

~Enjoy

Sure, I could move to Cincinnati, but that’s a bit extreme. I could also plunk down the money for the NFL package, but that’s beside the point. The point is, network TV should use better judgement when deciding what to show when there are no local teams playing in the time slot. Needless to say, it would have been more exciting to watch the Texans/NY Giants game. Where am I going with this? No clue. I’m just bitter about the broadcast schedule of the NFL this year. I have yet to come across more than 2 or 3 games (other than the Raiders games) that I truly enjoyed. All the while, there are quite a few games that don’t wind up on TV here that would have been much better options than the drivel I’ve been forced to sit through. It’s reminiscent of the Monday Night Football schedule two years ago in which week after week the matchups included sub .500 teams battling it out in lackluster performances. FOX, CBS, are you listening? Don’t be ‘that’ network.