Maybe it was a bad idea for me to go see Margaret Cho this past Saturday in Boston. I’m as straight and white and Catholic as they come, and I’ve been told by people who follow her closer than I do that she’s gotten, shall we say, more “polarized” since the last time I saw her about ten years ago. But I figured, “Hey, I’m reasonably open-minded, I can take a bit of flak, and **the Miss ** wants to go, so why not?”
So off we went. Yes, I was in the distinct minority, owing to my straightness if not my whiteness, maleness, or Catholicism. But so what? Wasn’t the first time, won’t be the last, no beer allowed in your seat, keep your feet off the seatbacks in front of you, here we go.
I certainly wasn’t surprised when she came out with ten minutes of “New Pope Bad.” For her audience, His Holiness is a pretty good target for a lot of reasons. And his vestments certainly do look like a dress, and they’re very ornate, and he does hang around with a lot of men, and he does own a lot of antiques (the Chruch does, but for the purposes of the routine, sure, he does). I was smiling. Pope wears a dress. Pope is gayer than us gays. A bit old, but when done right, can be funny. That night, it was pretty funny.
Jiltin’ Jenny? Comedy gold. Hilarious. There’s no way this crazy woman couldn’t be funny. Very well done. Miss Cho is going, firing on all cylinders, doing comedy and doing it well.
Until she ran out of comedy and dove right into outright falsehood and hypocrisy.
News flash, Margaret:* Jim McGreevy was not forced to resign as governor of New Jersey because he was gay.* He resigned in order to avoid an ethics probe that centered around lots of ugly things including mismanagement of money, political cronyism, and deception. He hid behind the gayness in order to keep his boyfriend from dropping the bombshell and to give him a reason to cry persecution while he ran for the hills.
This just in, Margaret: Martha Stewart was not sent to jail because she was a strong woman. Martha Stewart was jailed because she made illegal gains from insider information.
And, ummm… Margaret? If you’re going to say that it’s evil to stereotype “your people,” then it’s probably bad form to stereotype your people in the same sentence. “It’s wrong to stereotype gay people, and until they stop, we should just have all the wedding planners go on strike,” is slightly funny, but exactly counter to the point you’re trying to make.
And wouldn’t you know, the audience ate all this up, shouting and hollering in approval, cheering wildly. And hey, I’m all for denigrating the opposition (especially if the opposition is being oppressive), but this person on stage is either willfully ignorant or flat-out lying, and, if you’re pushing an agenda or a set of ideas, a platform of untruths is a bad way to start.
The problem with Margaret Cho’s “comedy” is that she doesn’t have to try any more. She’s found her niche and she’s playing to it. The problem is that her niche isn’t as concerned with being knowlegeable as it is with being reactionary. They want to be angry at their perceived oppressors, and they want to be “inside,” and put everyone else “outside,” so that they will feel power in solidarity.
All of which is nice, but to build that feeling based on things that are just not true is an exercise in futility.
Better luck next time, Margaret. Not that you need it; your income stream is pretty much set. But it won’t take long before you realize that nobody’s taking you seriously not because they’re trying to suppress your message, but because you’re lying, and more importantly, you aren’t funny.
