Maher explains liberals’ derision towards Palin and Bachmann

Conservatives love to claim that the reason behind all the liberal dislike of Sarah Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) (along with others, such as Ann Coulter and so on) is that the Left is really just sexist and doesn’t like conservative women. Here’s Bill Maher doing a great job at debunking this idiotic armchair psycho-babble and once again explaining that, actually, the reason for all the leftist scorn and derision towards those women in particular is because they are raving loons:

My transcript: (click the [+/-] to expand/collapse →)

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[From ‘Real Time with Bill Maher’ (07/15/11)]

MAHER: And finally, new rule: Republicans have to stop thinking up intricate psychological explanations for why liberals don’t like Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann. Lemme save you all some time. Are you ready? Because they’re crazy people. [laughter and applause] People who are not that bright and full of awful ideas. It’s pretty much the same exact reasons we didn’t care for George Bush and made jokes about him. So, trust me: It’s not because they have breasts; it’s because they are boobs.

[massive laughter and applause]

MAHER: Now, I’m not saying sexism doesn’t exist and isn’t real. But we can’t throw around the word ‘sexist’ just to stop people like me from pointing out that Michele Bachmann, now running second for the Republican presidential nomination, is a dangerous nincompoop. And when I point out that Sarah Palin is a vainglorious braggart, a liar, a whiner, a professional victim, a scold, a know-it-all, a jizzler, a bully who sells patriotism like a pimp – [mild laughter and applause] – and the leader of a strange family of inbred weirdos – [louder laughter and applause] – straight out of The Hills Have Eyes – [audience laughs] – that’s not sexist. I’m saying it because it’s true – [applause] – not because it’s true of a woman.

But, you know what is sexist? Ignoring poor Tim Pawlenty just because he’s not pretty. [mild laughter] He was a governor who finished his term; why doesn’t he get the cover of Newsweek like Sarah got this week?

[PICTURED: Newsweek cover featuring Sarah Palin posing in sweatshirt/hoodie, subtitled “‘I Can Win’”]

[mild negative reaction]

MAHER: And this cover she got a few months ago?

[PICTURED: Newsweek cover featuring Sarah Palin posing full-body in tight outfit with short black shorts, titled “HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE SARAH?”]

MAHER: The short shorts are a metaphor for an era of economic limits. [mild laughter] And this one –

[PICTURED: Newsweek cover featuring Sarah Palin posing in plainclothes with hunting rifle over shoulder, titled “Palin·tol·ogy”]

— about the Second Amendment? And this one –

[PICTURED: Newsweek cover featuring Sarah Palin posing with hands in prayer, titled “Saint Sarah: What Palin’s appeal to conservative women says about feminism and the future of the religious Right”]

– about the Separation of Church and State? And this one –

[PICTURED: Newsweek cover featuring close-up of Sarah Palin’s face, subtitled “She’s One of The Folks”]

– about Halloween masks? [laughter] And this one –

[PICTURED: Newsweek cover featuring Christine O’Donnell, Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann and [?], titled “The Bear Truth: Will the ‘Mama Grizzlies’ Really Protect America’s Kids?”]

– where Newsweek just said “fuck it” and did their first all-Tea Party swimsuit issue. [laughter and applause] I just hope no sexists get the wrong idea.

If you wanna know where most of this nation’s sexism is really coming from, you don’t have to look any further than the one person who makes the cover of Newsweek more often than Sarah Palin.

[PICTURED: Four Newsweek covers featuring Jesus Christ]

[mild negative reaction]

MAHER: In America, you’re allowed to justify almost any kind of bigotry, sexism or intolerance if you source it to God’s big book of bad ideas. God. [applause] God. That’s Jesus’s dad. Someone who definitely had issues with women.

Michele Bachmann proudly tells the story of how she had no desire to become a tax lawyer, but her husband commanded her to. That’s right: He commanded her to become a tax lawyer. And what’re you gonna do? It says so right in the Bible. She quotes it: “Wives, you are to be submissive to your husbands.” And I’m the sexist? [mild laughter and applause] That’s weird.

But you know what’s really weird? Michele Bachmann tells her husband, ‘I’ll do anything you tell me to do,’ and his response isn’t, ‘Let’s have a three-way, or –’ [laughter and applause] ‘– or I wanna cover you in Cool Whip,’ it’s ‘Be a tax lawyer.’ That is some sick, twisted shit. [laughter and applause]

“[T]rust me: it’s not because they have breasts; it’s because they are boobs.” Love it.

Relatedly, I’d like this opportunity to make a little point. I keep hearing (from people in general, notably those on the Left) about how Maher is supposed to be sexist himself because of some of the jokes and jabs he makes, but frankly, I just don’t buy it. Yeah, he makes a few crude jokes here and there, but that’s not bigotry; it’s comedy. It’s going after an easy target. To me, it’s no more inherently sexist to make a joke about women than it is otherwise intrinsically intolerant to make a joke about Blacks, or gays, or Jews, or folks with physical handicaps or deformities, or just about anyone for any reason. Of course, some attempts at humor can be outright bigoted in themselves (such as those loathsome “Obama witch doctor” chain emails the Tea Party is so fond of), but my point is that any joke about ethnicity, sexuality and so on is not inherently bigoted; it’s just a cheap laugh. Anything can be made into a good harmless joke, if only it is developed and delivered with expertise.

As I’ve said before, jokes are by very definition not meant to be taken seriously. Just laugh or ignore them. Kvetching about humor, however lame or insulting it may be, is simply not a credible argumentative tack.

(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

Tags: Bill Maher • Sarah Palin • Michele Bachmann • Newsweek • conservatives