November 23, 2018

CBS Thanksgiving football humor: QB Alex Smith "broke his drumstick last week."



Smith badly broke his leg in a game — with the break and his suffering witnessed by the television audience. Is it all in good fun to talk about him in turkey terms? Lots of that's-not-funny criticism on social media, but I wonder if it's coming from people who like to watch football, which is a spectacle that entertains (in part) by showing us men daringly risking injury and courageously weathering pain. I'd like to know if Smith was asked how he felt about using his name in the promo and calling his leg a drumstick. Maybe he thought is was hilarious and was all for it. How do the men who actually play football do humor? I'm more interested in that than what some delicate homeviewers think. And yet, I'm sure CBS will want to soothe the sensibilities of its general audience as The Era of That's Not Funny toddles on.

What about the animal imagery? Was CBS trotting into Roseanne Barr territory by visualizing Alex Smith as an animal? Consider that the drumstick is what we routinely call the "dark meat." But Alex Smith is white. I don't think CBS would have used the joke if he were not.

26 comments:

David Begley said...

The NFL is dead and irrelevant.

tim maguire said...

I think it's funny and Alex Smith likely agrees. Habitual offense takers on social media can go pound sand.

mockturtle said...

Seriously, Ann? Or just trolling again?

caplight45 said...

This is getting sooooo old. (Not the Professor raising the issue but that she has to raise it at all). Even if it is a bad joke - big deal.

Ann Althouse said...

"Seriously, Ann? Or just trolling again?"

This is why it's The Era of That's Not Funny.

Those who feel uneasy about where the humor is and how much of what's being said is humor voice their displeasure. This is the culture of the era.

Hagar said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Matt Sablan said...

Is he going to make a full recovery? Even if not: is he offended by it?

rhhardin said...

What about the animal imagery? Was CBS trotting into Roseanne Barr territory by visualizing Alex Smith as an animal?

It's monkey, not animal, that's the problem. Blacks resemble monkeys facially more than whites do, and you're not supposed to notice it. It's offensive to whites because they know they're not supposed to notice it, virtue signalling; and it's offensive to blacks because they notice it too.

Monkeys have hands that resemble human hands, white or black, but nobody has a problem with that.

So it's monkey as suggesting blacks are not very smart, at bottom, via facial resemblance. Suggesting whites are not very smart via hand resemblance doesn't work because whites seem to be pretty smart.

I'd suggest stop noticing the insult, and stop identifying as black. Go for American as an identity.

mockturtle said...

Rhhardin proposes: Blacks resemble monkeys facially more than whites do

More whites look like chimpanzees than do blacks. And do chimpanzees not have blue eyes and straight hair?

rhhardin said...

Bush was compared to a chimpanzee I think.

JAORE said...

It's standing room only for the noon worship* at Our Lady of the Perpetually Aggrieved.

* Confession not required.

Saint Croix said...

Consider that the drumstick is what we routinely call the "dark meat." But Alex Smith is white.

He's a Redskin.

Sebastian said...

"Was CBS trotting into Roseanne Barr territory by visualizing Alex Smith as an animal?"

No, because he is not a 1. known Dem 2. member of a protected category. In that order

"But Alex Smith is white. I don't think CBS would have used the joke if he were not"

Correct. Whites enjoy the privilege of being casually insulted.

That's Not Funny, except that it's a Fun to see the Privileged enjoy their Privilege that way.

MadisonMan said...

Drumsticks are dark meat. Alex Smith is White.

Joke doesn't work.

rcocean said...

Well, that's not much of joke.

But why would anyone take offense?

Earnest Prole said...

Is it funny to hand a bunch of schoolchildren a can of gasoline and a box of matches just to see what happens? That’s the equivalent of handing your commenters a post on any racial subject, much less one that contains the words “dark meat.”

Etienne said...

They forgot to say that juicy "dark meat" is my favorite. White meat is too dry.

Lucien said...

Well at least they didn’t say Smith won the Theisman award.

mockturtle said...

I've always preferred dark meat, too.

tim maguire said...

Earnest Prole said...
Is it funny to hand a bunch of schoolchildren a can of gasoline and a box of matches just to see what happens? That’s the equivalent of handing your commenters a post on any racial subject, much less one that contains the words “dark meat.”


Are you really that stupid? Why is there always some putz like you who's so desperate to insult everybody that he can't help but lie about what's being said?

Yancey Ward said...

"How do the men who actually play football do humor?"

The same way most men who don't play football do- without giving a flying fuck about the sensitivities of morons.

Dave in Tucson said...

> Is he going to make a full recovery?

Depends on what you count as a full recovery. He'll almost certainly walk again, but his season (and maybe his career in the NFL) is over.

Jim at said...

That's nothing. Back when Joe Theismann broke his leg, David Letterman - during one of his gift segments - had a Joe Theismann pencil sharpener. With Theismann's lower leg as the handle spinning round.

One of funniest things I've ever seen ... back when Letterman was actually funny.

Anthony said...

Blogger Lucien said...
Well at least they didn’t say Smith won the Theisman award.


*snerk*

Michael Fitzgerald said...

If CBS Sports weren't a bunch of coward progs they would have made a funny about Adrian Peterson announcing that he still beats his children with a belt.

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