I put this in Great Debates because that’s where my Crystal Ball told me it would eventually end up (though I argued passionately with it that MPSIMS was the more appropriate spot for the thread, it won the argument [again] so here we are).
I am completely on the opposite side of the stimulus plan/spending bill argument from Rep. Cantor, but I just think this video is fuckin’ hilarious.
Best of all, even as it tries to deride AFSCME members as foul-mouthed cretinous goons, it actually stands up for them by showing a WASPy Republican type driving around and realizing for the first time that somebody (but not him, thank God!) actually has to do all the crappy and thankless (but necessary) work that AFSCME members toil at while he’s at the investment bank office, behind the wet-bar, fucking his WASPy blonde secretary.
Once we get past the usual “What’s wrong with it, can’t you take a joke, and it’s no worse then what the Democrats do so that makes it o.k.!” responses from the true believers, would someone from the right side of the aisle like to try to defend this?
On the one hand, I don’t think it’s anything worth getting angry about, or that it really needs defending, but on the other hand, it also looks pretty pointless to me, and not at all funny. I outgrew the phase where someone saying bad words on TV was funny about 25 years ago.
To be fair, the video in question was never broadcast, but still.
Of course the main problem with it is, as the OP points out, its crappy propaganda. The Union goons are kinda likable guys doing the real work, and the guy in the suit seems detached. Sorta like those Mac ads where the PC character is memorable and fun and the Mac character comes of as a douche.
That exactly where I come down on this. Just like the ‘Obama the Magic Negro’ kerfuffle recently, I say leave the comedy to the professionals. Even though it might be funny on it’s own merits this stuff has no business being sent out from an elected official’s office. Our tax dollars at work indeed!
it appears to be an old video that’s been around on youtube for some time. A staffer in Cantor’s office sent it as a “joke”…and now that staffer has apologized. What needs defending?
Hmmmm… after reading some of the replies I am mildly surprised, but then, there is no accounting for personal taste (I’m talking about mine here, and the fact that in this case, I’m even having a little trouble accounting for it:p).
I don’t even know why I found it funny-- I am not the type that finds humor in anything simply because it’s “potty-mouthed”, but the swearing here was only to help establish the character of the narrator. I suppose I found it funny because it is just so odd-- odd that a Repub would use it to try to make his anti-stimulus bill point–especially considering that he probably hides behind the Flag and Family Values Shinola, yet sent out a profanity-laced video.
And as I mentioned earlier, I also find it odd because I think the video is more sympathetic to the unions then to the knob-gobblers who would cum on their own faces if they managed to bust them.
Ohh— I want to add that mostly I started this thread just to link to the video so others could see it. Whatever.
Cantor’s a chump, but that video is hilarious. It’s pretty much a non-sequitur as a response, so you wonder if the staffers really understood the humor. But it’s not like he read it into the congressional record.