Yep, them jokes will get you in trouble if you are of the political persuasion, I remember when ole Earl Butz told the one about “loose shoes…” - Pretty much finished him, wonder what Earl would have said about Gandhi.
Of couse I don’t believe Hillary reached that level, this appears to be much ado about jack-shit.
I suspect that if she beat a homeless beggar with a stick, it would be much ado about jack-shit to her faithful munchkins.
Making jokes about racial stereotypes hardly makes one a racist. Makes one insensitive, yes, but hardly proves that one actually believes in the inherent superioirity of one race over another.
Oh, and
Or some joke about “Gandhi’s Gas Station and the Evil that is Hillary”, in any case 
Agreed.
. . . and if she gave the homeless beggar $500, the rest of you would find something evil about that, too. She can’t win for losin’.
Well, of course. She’d be buying his vote. 
Well, damnsure betcha ol’ GeeDubya wouldn’t beat him with a stick! He has people for that sort of thing, and he wouldn’t be caught dead in that part of town in the first place.
Could someone explain how this joke is funny?
I am not particularly offended by this, and I am not even being sarcastic (mirabile dictu), but I don’t get the joke. Is it because I never heard of an Indian owning a gas station?
I have heard jokes about Pakistanis owning 7/11s, but that is a different country. Is that why it was considered offensive, that she can’t get her stereotypes right?
This must be the first time in recorded history that other people are offended by something Hilary said, but I am saying, “huh?”
Regards,
Shodan
I think Revtim got it exactly right.
I don’t think for a minute that Hillary Clinton is a racist, but she is a consumate politician. The Gandhi comment showed a tin ear for racial comments that is very surprising coming from her, especially since, whatever some of you want to believe, Democrats do tend to come down like a sack of bricks on anybody making any statements that can remotely be described as “racist.”
For those of you saying “she didn’t mean it that way”: come on. It doesn’t make any sense at all as a joke if you don’t make the “Apu and the Qwik-E-Mart” connection.
This is getting overblown though. Having said some dumb things myself in the past, I can’t really bitch about this.
Shodan, you’re not confused enough not to start your own thread pitting her anyway, are you? Everyone but you knows you hate without reason. Why not make it unanimous?
Shodan – I like Little Plastic Ninja’s explanation: "I looked at the joke and thought “Okay, she’s making a joke like ‘Who, Elizabeth Regina? Isn’t she that girl at the diner?’” Y’know, like, haha, everyone knows who this is, I’ll understate their position/history/whatever and everyone will laugh.
Obviously, everyone didn’t laugh, but I think that’s the kind of joke she was going for.
I think it does. A mistaken identity/clueless speaker kinda thing.
Well, I can see a joke structure here, kind of a lame one, but Ms. Clinton is not known for her quips.
Its kind of like describing Einstein as a patent clerk, or saying “Jefferson, that Virginia farmer…” One mentions someone for whom one has considerable respect, on the presumption that the hearer shares that respect, and then makes a jape about humble status or meager accompishments.
If half or more of us cannot see a connection between East Indians and gas stations, why should we assume that Hilary does? For that matter, has she ever even seen the Simpsons?
Not guilty by reason of “huh?”
Was this a Simpsons joke?
Regards,
Shodan
psst… shodan… read exgineer’s post near the end of page one…
I did, but yours confused me. You said the joke made sense even if I did not get the “Apu and the Quik-Mart connection” as
Which left me more at sea than ever. Is Apu a Simpsons character?
Once and for all, is this supposed to be funny because all Indians own gas stations? So Gandhi owned a gas station?
This is like reading Zippy the Pinhead. It not only isn’t funny, I don’t even see what is meant to be funny about it.
It isn’t even offensive, just incomprehensible.
Regards,
Shodan
This is called “Humor of Incongruity.” It was a silly thing to say, but not racist- the stereotype Indian runs a 7-11 or drives a cab. If she had actually said something truly racist like “Mahatma the cabdriver,” most of the Left would have slammed her. Instead we get a buncha bizarre PC crocodile tears from die-hard Clintonbashers. I’m sure if she says something bad about eggs, or wears funny-looking shoes that prove she’s a lesbian vampire who drank Vince Foster’s blood, BJ308 and his ilk will be there to notify America.
“Guess what I had for breakfast? BLOCKS!!”
-Matt Groening’s example of a child discovering Humor of Incongruity. Maybe funnier than Hillary’s joke.
I think it should be mentioned that the Quik-E does not have gas pumps. The day they had some built they were mortored by Skinner’s men.
Not if it’s in shining armor.
[sub]Yes I know, we’ve moved from people not watching Python to people not watching Simpsons. I just got here.[/sub]
elucidator sort of has a point with this:
“Ms. Clinton is not known for her quips.” It kind of encapsulates that whole post.
My question then is: why did she try? She’s smarter than that. She knows not to try things her speechwriters gave her when she’s not comfortable with the subject. I repeat, I’m very surprised. She’s much better when she just starts talking about issues without the business-manual “opening joke.” That’s all the “Gandhi” joke was meant to be, obviously.
Addressing my personal opinion a bit more:
I don’t particularly care for her politics, and I was prepared to vote for Rudy. He dropped out of the Senate race when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and the NYRP replaced him with Rick Lazio, prompting most New York voters to scratch their heads and ask “Rick Who”? He did okay, considering that he had two months to campaign and his only real base was the “ABC” vote.
I ended up voting for Lazio anyway on that “ABC” basis. I’m embarrased about that. But hell, I voted for Pataki on the same basis, and we’re doing much better in this state now. Nevertheless, I don’t want to slight Mrs. Clinton.
Hillary Clinton is not an idiot.
She is also not a racist, she is not opposed to smart foreign-policy decisions, and I think she’s had time to re-think the whole “socialized medicine” thing, but she does have a lousy sense of humor. I won’t vote for her for President in 2008 (or maybe I will, depending on who the Republicans put up, but I’ll primary for Joe Lieberman), but she really didn’t do anything wrong here.
All she did was something that should have pissed off the PC crowd but somehow didn’t. So what?
Upon Preview:
How in hell is any reasonable person supposed to respond to this? Please, debate the point or keep silent. This just a personal attack, and you should be ashamed of yourself. You know better, I’ve seen it.
And then there’s this:
What?
You think she meant “I was just driving through St. Louis one day, and I ran into a gas-station attendant named “Gandhi” once, and I said…” as a prelude to a stand-up routine?
Nope. Ain’t buyng.
She was in a hurry and didn’t have time to review her speech and said something stupid. As I’ve said, I’m not judging her for that. I wouldn’t judge anyone for that.
The Simpsons reference in Ex’s post, as I read it, was meant to say that there is a stereotype of Indians working at convenience stores, not that Hillary’s joke was from The Simpsons, or referencing it, or anything at all related to it other than that they share a stereotype.
In my post, I intended to state that while there could be humor found in Clinton’s joke by someone who thinks it’s funny that Hillary was, intentionally or otherwise, referencing what is apparently a stereotype, that’s not the only way to get humor from the joke. See elucidator’s post above:
Does that clear it up, Shodan?