Greta Christina Angry about Oscars

This morning, after reading a blog by former attorney and political writer Dean Obeidallah, I decided to write a blog about Instant Outrage.

 “We live in a time of instant outrage. The explosion of social media and the demands of the 24-hour news cycle let us immediately express our self-righteous anger about any incident, while the content-desperate media eagerly report -- and repackage -- our rage.” 1

When I get an idea for a blog, I like to let the idea marinate for a while. After some thought, I was not sure if I wanted to write any entire blog about people who get their panties in a bunch for trivial crap. Most of you know the kind of people I am talking about. They manage to get pissed off about every little thing, and feel the need to tweet about it. Those people who are constantly streaming their Facebook status updates with things that pissed them off that day. We all know the type. I conducted a google search “ free thought blogs seth macfarlane”, when what to my wondering eyes should appear, but Greta Christina, whining about the Oscars like she needs another beer.

Ah, Greta the Goblin. Know for whining about this, moaning about that, the woman is never happy. There are three things certain about life: Death, Taxes, and Greta Christina pissed off about something. 

This time, she is outraged that Joan Rivers made an off color joke about Heidi Klum. (A joke Heidi Klum does not mind at all.) She is all pissed off about MacFarlane song, “Wesaw your boobs!” I know what you are thinking right now. We should be talking about fixing the budget, cutting military spending, putting more money into public education, or occasionally, the unjust Indian caste system. But hey – it is Greta Christina and she has a bigger fish to fry.

Let’s talk about Joan Rivers first. Being the vapid person Greta cleary is, she neglected to complain about the fact that Rivers show was prerecorded, screened, and the network decided to air the joke anyway. You know, checking facts, getting more information, not just blowing a fuse anytime something off color appears on the tube.

As for Joan Rivers, this is what she had to sayabout the incident, ““Apologizing for what?” she exclaimed. “For what?! … Heidi didn't mind it. That's the joke, Heidi Klum didn't mind it. We didn't mind it. So somebody else minded, you know, then don't watch ‘Fashion Police.’ Next.”

It is irrelevant that Joan is Jewish, and her husband lost family in the Holocaust. It was a joke. But here is what Greta complains about, “Waaa, I am so tired of people saying ‘it is just a joke’, waaa, waaa,” You know Greta – maybe it IS JUST A JOKE. This woman is acting like Sean Penn on crack.

If only we could say that Greta cannot see the forest for the trees. It gets worse.  She wrote the following, “I think there’s a bad logical fallacy that some comedians make. They think that being transgressive and cutting-edge and iconoclastic typically means offending people… and that therefore, if you’re offending people, it somehow automatically makes you transgressive and cutting-edge and iconoclastic.”

Greta is arguing that Joan Rivers and Seth MacFarlane sat down, thought about it, and decided that they were just going to offend people, because if they offend people, that automatically makes them cutting-edge and iconoclastic. One would have to ask, what evidence does she have that this was the thought process of both Rivers and MacFarlane? These people have been in the entertainment industry for years. According to Greta, they just up and decided to start offending people left and right to be an iconoclast.

Iconoclasm: Definition:  the deliberate destruction within a culture of the culture's own religious icons and other symbols or monuments, usually for religious or political motives. It is a frequent component of major political or religious changes

Okay, lets take a step back. Greta Christina claims that Seth MacFarlane and Joan Rivers used the Oscars as a medium where they would destroy religious icons, symbols, or monuments for religious or political motives? That is the definition of iconoclasm, and if they were trying to be an iconoclast, that is what they would have been trying to do at the Oscars.

If Greta seriously believes that is what Joan Rivers and Seth MacFarlane were up to at the Oscars, she is seriously disturbed.

Joan Rivers is 79 years old. I fell in love with her comedic art when she appeared in an episode of Louis CK. In the episode, she agreed to sleep with Louis, warning him, “Okay, let’s do this. But do not tell anybody we had sex, this is not for my benefit but yours. Nobody likes a necrophiliac.” I thought it was hilarious. I guess Greta Christina would not agree. I can just imagine her sitting on her davenport with a bowl of Hagen Das, angry grimace smeared on her face, “eeee that is so offensive to old people and negrophiliacs. Errrr..Stop saying ‘its just a joke’, errrr old people and necrophiliacs have feelings too! OMG, I am so sick of them saying we need to relax and take it easy! OMG, I am sick to death of them saying it is just comedy! ”

The entire premise of Greta’s argument was a strawman. She created an enemy, construct an argument defeating their enemy, then congratulated herself on being master of the universe. She went on schooling Rivers and MacFarlane about what it truly means to be cutting-edge and iconoclastic. Greta of all people know, after all, she is the one with several hit televisions shows and millions of dollars in the bank. In other words: Joan Rivers and Seth MacFarlane do not need to accept ‘donations’ from people so they can go out and buy a $200 pair of shoes. Rivers and MacFarlane are not stripping naked for calenders either. (see image below)

Greta the Goblin went on to write, “And this idea that any violation of social norms automatically makes you courageous and transgressive… it’s childish. It’s adolescent. It’s a cheap, easy way to make yourself feel rebellious and edgy… when you’re actually squarely in the center, reinforcing the very structures you’re pretending to rebel against.”

She called Joan Rivers and Seth MacFarlane childish, adolescent, and making cheap jokes to feel rebellious and edgy. Wow. Thanks for that coffee shop wisdom Greta. You have just made the world a funnier place. 

WTF Was She Thinking?