Marley, I see your warning, but I don’t think what I’m going to say is political:
If the late-night comedians were attacking Al Gore about his alleged hyprocrisy with respect to the environment (which I won’t debate one way or the other here), that’d be valid. But they still make jokes about how he’s unemotional and wooden. That’s what’s so stupid.
If that’s political, I apologize.
I remember people talking about her weight while the show referenced in your linked photo was actually running. And there were an awful lot of cloaks and long tunics and dusters in Alley’s wardrobe for that show. She wasn’t into “Fat Actress” territory yet, but she was definitely on the run-up. And I don’t say this as criticism…I don’t care how much she weighs. If she’s happier thin, good for her. If she’s happier fat, good for her. But the weight gain stuff began at least as early as the run of VC.
I think discussing Gore as a figure in popular culture is fine, it’s the policy debates that belong elsewhere. As for jokes about Gore being wooden- it’s like doing jokes about Martha Stewart being evil. Everybody was doing it 10 years ago and it’s no longer interesting or funny.
Which is pretty much the OP’s point.
That only makes sense if Kirstie Alley were stuck up, especially about her physical appearance. I can’t find any evidence that that’s true. She’s apparently been difficult to work with according to some of her former writers, but it wasn’t about being vain about her looks but about being demanding about plot and dialogue for her characters. She has always seemed to have a pretty open, bawdy sense of humor that doesn’t seem to go along with the idea of her being snooty. (Recall upon winning, I believe, an Emmy, she thanked her then husband for giving her “the big one” every night in front of a live international broadcast audience. That’s not what a snob does.)
It’s not schaudenfreude, it’s cheap and easy fat jokes. It’s playground taunting, not a thing more sophisticated. The stuff of 11 year olds.
Which has nothing to do with the things for which he’s pilloried by comics, who poke at his weight, his appearance (especially for the period when he was wearing a bear), his speaking voice, his alleged lack of charisma and so on. It’s not topical, it is, again, easy pickings playground taunting.
I’d love to see a picture of Al Gore wearing a bear!
Now, I don’t watch every late night show, but who’s making fun of Al Gore? The only time I ever hear him get made fun of, is if he does something newsworthy. So it would be something like "Al Gore is writing a new book, it’s called [joke about Al Gore]. And then he’s not mentioned again until he does something else.
You never knew who was in the “masturbating bear” suit until now, I guess?
I used to watch Veronica’s Closet (it was on after Seinfeld), and I remember them always referring to Kathy Najimy’s character as Kirstie Alley’s “plus-sized” friend/co-worker, but I always thought they were the same size.
Does this mean “Lincoln was gay” jokes are now off-limits?
You misspelled “Letterman”.
In part BECAUSE Limbaugh and O’Donnell are famous for being a vicious attack dog and a shrill harpy. The strong impression they convey for other aspects of their personality would distract from the fat jokes. Nowadays Alley is famous mostly for being the target of fat jokes, so she’s easier to write jokes about.
But Kirstie is also famous for being a Scientologist, and as everyone knows, Scientology has the solution to every problem a human, sorry, a *thetan *could ever face! Except, apparently, taking the fork out of their mouth. Being a shill for the cult makes her as much of a human joke as Tom Cruise, and the fact that she donates all kinds of money means that she is helping the cult enslave even more impressionable young people. So she is evil, and I don’t really care if she is ridiculed as long as she shills for the evil cult.
When dropping the name stops getting laughs the late night guys stop using them.
As long as the audience laughs, those people are “funny” and can be used as the target of jokes. It’s that simple.