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Hitchens being an ass

jmcvann

Navel Gazer
jmcvann
Joined
Oct 22, 2006
Messages
660
From New York Magazine's coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner...

By the end of the night, Christopher Hitchens was of course the last man (barely) standing, and he had some choice words for the evening's headlining comedian, Wanda Sykes. "The president should be squirming in his seat. Not smiling," he said. "The black dyke got it wrong. No one told her the rules."
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I'm kinda liking Hitchens less and less as times goes by.
 
Hitchens seems to get a lot of leeway here on these forums. He's a talented polemicist, but when it comes to being a public figure he's got a lot of rotten characteristics and behaviors.
 
What did she get wrong? What rules?
I'm not quite following his point.
 
The comments after the NY Mag story had several mentions of Hitchens' "drinking problem." It's apparently what the "(barely) standing" comment meant. Anyone know anything about this?
 
jmcvann said:
The comments after the NY Mag story had several mentions of Hitchens' "drinking problem." It's apparently what the "(barely) standing" comment meant. Anyone know anything about this?
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Hitchens admits to drinking heavily; in 2003 he wrote that his daily intake of alcohol was enough "to kill or stun the average mule." He noted that many great writers "did some of their finest work when blotto, smashed, polluted, *********, squiffy, whiffled, and three sheets to the wind.
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Hitchens claims to have detected a new, personalised nastiness in the attacks on him, especially over his fabled consumption of alcohol. He welcomes being attacked as a drinker 'because I always think it's a sign of victory when they move on to the ad hominem.' He drinks, he says, 'because it makes other people less boring. I have a great terror of being bored. But I can work with or without it. It takes quite a lot to get me to slur
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I love Christopher Hitchens.
 
why is he allowed to use an ad hom argument when others are not?
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Which is?
Are you suggesting that he uses the adhom that his opponents are boring as a debate tactic???
 
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For what it's worth, Wanda Sykes' jokes were kind of lame and cheap. She is terrific on Curb Your Enthusiasm but her stand up is often hit and miss- why Chris Rock used her so much on his show and called her one of the funniest people in the world is a mystery. If you are going to attack Rush or any other public figure, do it right.

Nevertheless, if Hitchens said that, he was way out of line.

Though he probably doesn't give a hoot and would probably say it again.
 
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jmcvann said:
From New York Magazine's coverage of the White House Correspondents' Dinner...



I'm kinda liking Hitchens less and less as times goes by.
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So since you agree with her attack on limburger, and Texas, etc, any attack on her by someone who disagrees is "out of Line"?
Hypocrit much?

BTW-I agree with her assesment of Tush limberger
 
Let's face it, Hitchens considers a day in which he does not offend someone as being a wasted day.
 
rwguinn said:
So since you agree with her attack on limburger, and Texas, etc, any attack on her by someone who disagrees is "out of Line"?
Hypocrit much?

BTW-I agree with her assesment of Tush limberger
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He called her a "black dyke". That's going too far.

If she had insulted a Republican (or anyone else) by attacking their race or sexuality, I'd say she was out of line.
 
EeneyMinnieMoe said:
For what it's worth, Wanda Sykes' jokes were kind of lame and cheap. She is terrific on Curb Your Enthusiasm but her stand up is often hit and miss- why Chris Rock used her so much on his show and called her one of the funniest people in the world is a mystery.
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This is my view of her as well. I think she is really funny but can't pull off her jokes.

To Disecting her joke a bit:
Simply calling Rush a Druggy would have been a hack-standard.
However, accusing Rush of being a terrorist is conceptually quite funny. Now, claiming he failed as a terrorist because of his drug use is comedic gold. If done well.

However, she completely failed in the execution of the joke. It was the wrong venue. Preaching to the choir is a minus 100 point deduction on the funny scale. There's no risk to that. It was hamfistedly delivered. Rush wasn't there. If you really want it to be funny, make the joke in the presence of the person.
 
EeneyMinnieMoe said:
He called her a "black dyke". That's going too far.

If she had insulted a Republican (or anyone else) by attacking their race or sexuality, I'd say she was out of line.
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You would, true, but the standards are different depending on who's the target.

I wasn't aware she was a comic in the first place. I thought being funny was a prerequisite.
 
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