Coincidentally, I watched a couple of episodes of 'All in the Family' tonight. Norman Lear put many words of prejudice in Archie Bunker's mouth, and yet he remained a hero of the kind of progressive activists who are such "a drag" about issues of equality, fairness and decency. Why is Archie allowed to allude to "lazy Mexicans" etc. and get a hearty laugh from thinking people?
Archie was created with the kind of sly intention with which people would like to credit Lisa Lampaneli, but which she so truly does not deserve. Viewers heard Archie make his un-enlightened comments while observing characters who embodied the arguments against those comments sharing the screen with him. African Americans, Hispanics and gay characters were represented in plotlines that showed them to be decent, upstanding, hardworking, etc. We watched as Archie's prejudices encountered living proof of their Falsity. Often, we saw Archie himself learn the truth and come to regret--or, at least, ammend--his beliefs.
I trust that Master Bates knows that there is no real truth in Lampaneli's gleeful repetition of slurs against different groups. But how many in her audience are not there to mock the hate speech but just to have a good old non-PC laugh?
And after an hour-long set of spewing vile, hateful comments, Lampinelli's 30 second all-purpose abrogation of responsibility--"Thanks for being here tonight folks--you know I'm just joshing, right???" is nothing but a whitewash and a desire to put some retroactive politically-correct veneer on an evening of the laziest, most childish kind of humor there is. In my opinion.
You think, what do you want?
You think, make a decision...