--Josh Billings
Below is an open letter to "Anonymous" who left a comment regarding my post, "So You'd Like to Cater a Gay Wedding." You may read the original post here.
Anonymous said...
This was really offensive. I'm a member of the gay community and found this in poor taste. What the fuck is wrong with you?
Dear Anonymous:
If you found this entry offensive then you really haven't been paying attention to the rest of my blog. Seriously, I’m sad to learn you are missing the good stuff. Check out this post where I declare my habit of popping Everybody's Nuts into my mouth. It might be hard to summarily categorize the content on Acme Instant Food, but the one constant here is that I try to marinate even my most gristly cooking adventures in humor. I’ll let you decide which is harder to swallow, my humor or my sugar free/fat free brownies.
There is no doubt that words can hurt, can inflict pain, and harm. Warner Brothers corralled up eleven of their classic cartoons, which they deemed inappropriate due to their depiction of harmful stereotypes (mostly about blacks). These shows have been placed on permanent lockdown in the vault. I agree that children's programming is not an appropriate place for a cartoon entitled, "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs."
The lines of where it's acceptable to bundle stereotypes with humor, and where it is not, are hard to define. Saturday Night Live has weathered 33 seasons, through skewering just about every public person, ethnic group, or religion available with a few strokes of their writer's pens. SNL is a comedy show. It's a place where people turn to laugh, frequently at themselves. And Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld made it okay to laugh at Jews during prime time. Do all retired Jews move to Coco Beach and drive their Cadillacs to dinner at 4:30?
Also very hard to define is just how certain African-American people can refer to themselves by a term that would be, and should be, unspeakable to anyone who isn't of such decent. But in fact, some of them do, and without any good explanation, is it quite acceptable to them.
Some of the most confident, self-assured people I've ever met have an incredible ability to laugh at themselves. It never comes across as self-deprecating, rather it shows an enviable ability to never take oneself too seriously. Our far too sensitive, political correctness has veered off the path it was intended to travel. In our quest to be universally sensitive we've lost sight of our humanness. I believe that in the examples above, people have chosen to laugh at stereotypes not because they lend credibility to them, but because they recognize the absurdity of the idea that they represent an entire populace, race, or religion.
I wished the world laughed more. I wish we could laugh at ourselves more. Acme Instant Food is a place where people can come to read about my cooking, knowing that my recipes come with a side dish of my irreverent writings. I feel Acme is a perfectly appropriate place for such humor as my obvious parody about catering tips for gay weddings. Although I have trouble finding much time to do so, I hope to continue posting here, including the occasional spoof, without apology. My regular readers (all 3 of them that are left after my absence) expect it.
I myself am a gay man. I’m also a gay man who happens to be engaged and is very excited for the day the sunshine state wakes up and overturns this ridiculous Proposition 8. There will be numerous wedding details to be planned. And I can safely project that none of the details in my “So You’d Like to Cater a Gay Wedding” post will be included (except for the bar—hunky bartenders not required but never purposely omitted). It’s just not the wedding style that my fiancée and I would want for our day. However, anyone who might be planning a wedding where phone numbers are exchanged at the bar and guys check their shirts before dancing to Debby Holiday on the dance floor, please contact me through this blog. I’d be delighted to celebrate your big day with you, with or without my shirt! And I’d be proud and honored to eat lasagna and numerous slices of wedding cake with any happy lesbian couple. Just shoot me an invite as I want to come and dance with you on your gloriously gay day.
8 comments:
Ouch! All credit to you for leaving the inane comments on your blog. I get quite a few and when they cross the line and become offensive I generally delete them. But you really shouldn't take this shit too seriously. My parents always tell me that there were just as many really thick people around in their day, except they were forced to spend all day in factories and were kept away from keyboards. After even a cursory glance at my own blog (never mind the notice in my sidebar about commercialism), you'd have to be pretty thick to email me asking me for a reciprocal link to the website "World's Yummiest Cupcakes". But I get 'em. Pretty much every week. So hang cool and keep doing what you do, which is make a lot of us laugh. Even those of us amongst your readers who are heterosexual. And especially those of us who are reasonably literate.
I didn't realize that being gay required membership.
Holy crap, now do I have to pay some sort of fee?
A world without satire would be a cold dark dreary place, sort of like a world without gays. Oops, I just stereo-typed gays as all happy, warm loving people but I hope you get my straight attempt at humor.
I love your blog and wish you'd post more but I so understand. I'm rather hit and miss at blogging.
So do keep your tongue inside your cheek and write more. What you do with your tongue at other times; your own business.
Trig: I shall keep on keeping on!
David: So you've been crashing the party? I'm gonna need some hush money--maybe 5 lbs of John-Charles Rochoux chocolates shipped tuit de suite!
Moon: And a world without gays? Oh man, just think what would happen to the spring fashion lines! :)
Wow, life is hard enough ... for me being able to laugh at it makes it bearable. I can't imagine a life without a sense of humor. I feel kind of sorry for your commenter.
You go on with your bad self and write what you want because your posts even when they are infrequent make me jealous, they are always so funny and stylish.
Personally, I think that post was one of the funniest I've ever read. I was (and still am) incredibly jealous.
What a lame-o.
Mr or Ms anon needs a funny bone. I thought that your post was hilarious. It is time that everyone learned to laugh at themselves a wee bit more.
Jewish,Mormon straight female not offended at all you go boy. Keep it up....That was not suppose to be funny..HAHA
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