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Monday, February 09, 2009

That damned Poem

What's Mallard raving about today?

Reverend Lowery, Poetry.

Number of times Mallard expressed outrage over Reverend Lowery's poem: 1 (so far).

Number of times Mallard expressed outrage over descriptions of President Obama as a terrorist, during the campaign: 0.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mallard is naturally an expert on insults to poetry, since he writes insults to poetry himself quite frequently.

Michael Foley said...

The guy who wrote this and this has no right to call anything an insult to poetry.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone besides me suspect that Mallard secretly wants to BE Asian?

Anonymous said...

Standard Mallard: "You can't say anything without being called a racist! Here's some bad poetry to prove my point."

Today's Mallard: "What he said was racist, and also bad poetry!"

Anonymous said...

OK, I just need to ask: Am I the only white guy in America who recognized what Lowery was alluding to?

The original bit of doggerel has been around of ages, as a description of how racism works in the world:
If you're white, all right.
If you're black, step back.
If you're brown, hang around...
[etc]

Tinsley, let me explain this simply: Lowery's verses were simply an ironic [look it up] play on this but of folklore.

I can accept that Tinsely is too dense to be aware of this (or, perhaps more likely, is pretending to be in order to make his "point"). But most of the other coverage of Lowery's talk seemed to think all of this was original to him; or at least existed without any background.

Jazzbumpa said...

You folks have pretty much covered it. (Except for making some reference to that horrible old Donavan song. Maybe y'all are too young.) I'm only posting to share my awesome WV with the world.

Yakedem - Tinkley's state of mind as he scratches out the next bit of bitter Blallard drivel.

Hold the presses! This just in - from Wikipedia: The phrase "mellow yellow" appears on page 719 of the first American edition of Ulysses, where it is used to refer to Mrs. Marion Bloom's buttocks, but it is not known if Donovan got the phrase from there.

Mallard is deeper than we think. Henceforth we must look for coded messages.

Anonymous said...

NLC, out of curiosity, what are the original lyrics? I didn't know the reference either.

rewinn said...

1. Reichwing Talkin' Point of the day: If you talk about race, then you are racist!

2. Are there any real Asian-Americans (or even cartoon ones) who were offended by the poem?

3. Tinkley's jealous that Lowery left out:

"When about a duck
We give a f*ck"

Anonymous said...

Perhaps the media is ignoring the "seemingly racist" poem because they, and the sane portion of America's population, understand that it's not. While I'll admit that the references to color are a tad dated, any person of reasonable discernment can sure recognize that the Rev. Lowery's bit of whimsy was intended to add a bit of levity to the proceedings while holding out hope for race relations in America. Duh.

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

When I told my brother--who, wisely, does not closely follow wingnuttery--that various right-wingers were feigning OUTRAGE! by Lowery's invocation, he was skeptical. Ha! More fool him!

You know, whether or not your like Barack Obama, ordinary people who saw Lowery recite this took it for what it was--a funny, light-hearted invocation to racial harmony and tolerance from a beloved civil rights leader. When WINGNUTS saw it, by contrast, they instantly thought, ohboyohboyohboy! We can pretend to think think this is DEEPLY OFFENSIVE and use it as a cudgel to ATTACK a beloved civil rights leader and by extension the whole administration! SCORE!

Needless to say, these people are beneath contempt. I have to say, though, I naïvely imagined that Tinsley wasn't enough of an asshole to go there. In retrospect, I don't know why I misunderestimated him.

Anonymous said...

So who else thinks Mallard's only outraged at this because Michael Savage told him to be?

Anonymous said...

New Ben and Jerry's flavor...

Ben and Jerry's is coming out with an unbelievable new ice cream in honor of the new messiah in the White House. It is being churned in Washington DC and appropriately being named: Baracky Road. Half chocolate and half vanilla surrounded by fruits and nuts.

Should sell well with this group of MF haters.

Anonymous said...

exanonymous said...
NLC, out of curiosity, what are the original lyrics? I didn't know the reference either.

Just to clear, the fragment I quoted above weren't lyrics as such, rather just a "street saying".

WV: fiapholo

Anonymous said...

Personally, I'd be glad to eat some Baracky Road. Anyone who has ever had a tropical Blizzard from Dairy Queen will recognize the superiority of the fruit/nut/ice cream triumvirate. Add a little chocolate and you've got frozen treat nirvana.

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

MOTHERFUCKER, why was my comment eaten? The basic point was, a., anonymous has now been reduced to attacking libruls for hypothetically liking a politically suspect ice cream flavor, which is about as close to rock-bottom as you can get; and b., a quick google search reveals that there was ALSO a limited-edition McCain ice cream, instantly invalidating whatever "point" it thought it was making--so not only is trollypants reduced to the most hysterically inconsequential whining--but it can't even get THAT right! A more impressive display of incompetence and ineptitude I have never seen, outside of the Bush administration.

Anonymous said...

Shorter Republican Party:

"Why does everyone think we're racist? P.S. Obama is half chocolate and half vanilla, lol."

Michael Foley said...

GeoX: a troll leads with a racist/homophobic ice cream flavor, and you take the bait? Tsk, tsk.

For the record, that ice cream does sound good. Especially since I'm moving back to San Francisco in a couple months, where I will be once again living amongst the fruits and nuts. I wouldn't have it any other way.

WV: antsco = the desire to eat a scone when visited by "aunt Flo".

Anonymous said...

I found the lyrics:

http://www.lyricstime.com/big-bill-broonzy-black-brown-and-white-lyrics.html

There's something about all this that bothers me. Lowery in his speech did not advocate violence or even hatred against any particular group. While his comments offended some people, it should not be enough to minimize his importance and work. It's like there's this perverse idea that if you make civil rights leaders appear "racist" for relatively inconsequential comments today, the entire history of enslavement and segregation never happened. Or worse... that they deserved it.

Kaitlyn said...

Ex - or if you catch them doing or saying something "racist" than it invalidates their work in the Civil Rights movement, and probably the movement as a whole.

I had no idea anyone was upset, since the only thing I watched was the live thing, the Daily Show, and the Colbert Report. And he was so awesome!

And like the perfect looking grandfather, you know?

The drawing isn't too hideous, so I wonder if we'll hear about the SHOCKER that they used Obama's middle name at the inauguration tomorrow. I'll admit, when I heard it, I felt a little shock, like, where's Palin, I thought this was over! But then, no, that's his full name, nothing else. So damn awesome. *cue goofy grin*

Anonymous said...

exanonymous:
Thanks; I never realized that this was actually a lyric.

In fact, you can hear it on You-tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZLw5ahxm-Q


WV: strigia