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Why are the gays loving Lisa Lampanelli?
Queen of Comedy Sleaze, Lisa Lampanelli, is featured in the July issue of Instinct Magazine with a tawdry article written by Lisa herself, explaining why gay men love her. Lampanelli is known for her outrageously racist, homophobic, sexist and everything-else-offensive-on-the-planet comedy — all while she is dressed in pearls and a June Cleaver dress. As Lampanelli herself might say, "what a f**kin' lady." In the embarrassingly entertaining story, Lampanelli goes on a trashy jabber fest — spilling out "faggot" and other anti-gay epithets including “ass pirate” and “cornholin’’ — that’s a new one to me! Lampanelli somehow manages to lower the bar even lower than Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman combined, and in the process seems to be garnering a gay male following. Kathy Griffin has said several times that she loves gay male audiences because we are extremely nonjudgmental and nearly impossible to shock. However, after reading the smutty article by Lampanelli I had to question, "Why do I find this woman hilarious? Why do I have her YouTube clips saved under my favorites? Should gay men question why we are attracted to straight women who talk so much about our community, but are not of the community?” And then I thought, "If it's truly funny, should it even matter?" I don't think that the vulgar Lampanelli is homophobic or racist. She is simply magnifying some of the most ridiculous stereotypes that exist in our incredibly judgmental American culture. She turns the mirror on the public and says, "Now do you see how stupid these stereotypes are?" Not to say Lampanelli is the Al Sharpton of comedy (maybe in weight and the loud mouth — okay, that was inappropriate!), but she seems to be cognitive of the social critique she is making; therefore, I -- and many other gay men -- love her. Lampanelli sums up the reason why she feels the gays love her: “Gay people hate themselves as much as I hate myself — since we’re both abominations against God and man — so I insult them and they give me money. It’s the circle of life. Plus, I’m a living fulfillment of gay’s men’s fantasies: I get paid to say whatever I want, I bang black men and my clothes look fantastic.” Be sure to check out the July issue of Instinct Magazine, which hits newsstands this weekend. And check out the clip below — but be prepared to be offended as this is definitely NSFW!
Submitted by on Thu, 2007-06-21 10:09. |
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i just don't get it
if this was a straight guy comic saying the kind of stuff she does...we'd be talking about boycotts.
http://whitewingeddove.blogspot.com/
Pandering to the lowest common denominator
I suppose I would have to watch more of this woman's "comedy" to truly see what you mean by this statement:
>She is simply magnifying some of the most ridiculous stereotypes that exist in our incredibly judgmental American culture.<
But frankly, after that clip, I never want to see this woman (and her happily chortling-along straight audience) again. You can like it if you want, but I find it merely pandering to the lowest common denominator. "F** jokes" are, after all, easy to make because there is always some a**hole in the audience that will laugh at it.
And I never buy that whole "well, I'm an equal opportunity offender" line, an excuse, if accepted, that just gives the person saying it free reign to continue to do just that ... offend.
It may just be me, but
whenever I hear a gay person say "equal opportunity offender" it generally means that they forgive the comic for homophobic jokes because they think their racist jokes are just so hysterical. And giving them a pass on the homophobia seems to mean that you are allowed to think racism and stereotyping that are demeaning to others is leg-slapping comedy.
Now, don't get me wrong. Sometimes observations about race can be funny. Cultural peculiarities can be odd and pointing them in a clever and witty way can make me laugh. But "nig nig nig nig spick" isn't clever. Or witty. Or funny. Or to me it isn't.
If you are wondering if your comedy is offensive, look at the audience. If it's all straight white folks laughing at racism and homophobia... well that's a good clue.
Double standard
snicks, you made a great point regarding the double standard of how a straight male would be embraced making these same kind of comments compared to a straight female. For some reason straight women are able to get away with using gay men as canon fodder for their 'comedic material' but for straight men to do the same it's a no, no.
As a straight woman, I find it cringe inducing when I listen to straight female comedians talk in such a degrading manner about gay men, and with most of their jokes aimed at what gay men do in their beds. And what's really interesting is the more crude and insulting the material is towards gay men, the larger the gay fandom grows until they reach that 'gay icon' status. Notice nearly all the 'gay icons' are straight women. Personally, I just don't get it. There really is a double standard with what straight women can get away with saying about gay men, and what straight men can say about gay men in a comedy format.
I've seen some wonderful comedians in the past and they never relied on a filthy mouth to get a laugh out of their audience. A potty mouth doesn't equal great comedy. Silverman, Griffiths and Lampanelli are not really very funny, on the other hand I do find them extremely crude.
Why are some gay
Why are some gay men gluttons for punishment?
I can take a joke, even if it is at the expense of our community. But a "comedy" routine laced with "fag/faggot, ass-pirate, cornholin'" isn't funny - it's trash.
Just b/c someone is "an equal opportunity offender" doesn't mean their heart is in the right place. If such crap were true, then Mel Gibson should be praised & Isaih Washington should've said that he was joking.
No double standards - quit praising no-talent ass-clowns like her, FX, 300, etc.!
UNfunny
I can take a joke as well, but will absolutely no longer sit quietly in an audience while the comedian, who if he has not brought up the "punchline" 'gay' already, hauls out the gay as a punchline gambit when he's otherwise bombing.
Last year, the opener for one of my favorite comedians, Lewis Black, was losing the audience--chatting was getting louder--so he hauled out the gay as a punchline gambit.
I just quietly left and didn't bother to stay for Lewis Black.
Then, a bit earlier this year, some friends invited us to a comedy show. One of the comedians there, after going after some young women for daring to talk during his performance and then started to go after some folks for having the temerity to order drinks from the wandering waitress during his performance, was losing the audience.
So, of course--and I could feel it coming--he brought out "pansy", "fag", and such as punchlines to get back the audience. And back they came, laughing like hyenas or some other form of cowardly pack animal scavengers.
I thought about leaving quietly.
I changed my mind.
I'm 6'5" and weigh in at a fairly solid 350#. I stood up from my scooter--I can walk, just far enough to have gotten the hell out of the club--and in my best New York voice, said: "HEY!"
You could have heard a pin drop.
I called him a no-talent breeder and wondered what he had to say about MY "pansiness". And if he had anything to say, just how close to me he dared to stand while saying it, that I could really show him what a pansy homo could do for him.
I then walked out, still calling him a breeder and a muthaf*cka.
The rest of his set was the bomb it should have been. He came out later, and tried to speak to me. I told him to get the hell away from me or I would not be responsible for what would happen to him. He, of course, got away from me.
My point here is: DON'T SIT IN AN AUDIENCE AND TAKE IT!
DON'T LEAVE QUIETLY!
Call the breeders, male OR female, on it. Make them AND the audience who is primarily straight AWARE that gay as a punchline is simply not acceptable.
MOST straight people, when shown that there are indeed gay people amongst them, are appropriately shamed and contrite realizing that they were playing into the hands of these witless "comedians" at the expense of their gay friends and family.
If a li'l ol' black woman can simply say no on a bus--we can say no in a comedy club.
It's just that easy.
Make a scene. Say NO loudly. And THEN leave.
Randall Brotherton
Lewiston ME
I really love her
Maybe because I grew up in Italian-dominated New Jersey and knew people who really *did* talk like her, but I can clearly see that she's poking fun at a stereotypical racist/homophobic Italian, with the style of her speech, her laugh, her diction and the stereotypes.
She's not making fun of everyone - she's making fun of bigoted Italians!
The stereotypes are so old that they could not possibly be funny by themselves. It's the fact that an "old world" caricature uses outdated, silly stereotypes to facilely and confidently interpret the world - THAT'S funny.
I think she's brilliant. I cried and cried and cried watching YouTube clips of her.
Lampanelli is hideous
I don't know any gay men who like Lisa Lampanelli. I find her routine to be insulting, plain and simple. You will note that she never makes one single joke about straight men. When asked why not, she went into homophobic conniptions. She considers it hate to insult men for being straight, yet considers it acceptable to insult men for being gay. A rocket scientist she ain't. Suzanne Westenhoffer she ain't. She has no act at all worth watching.
Instinct magazine may find that they get a fair amount of objections to their promoting this hate-spewing moron.