It does suggest what we’re talking about here, which is there’s too much money in politics. Gay, for her part, agreed: “It’s an incredible way of putting it. Instead of pointing out that actually, each of the 327 million Americans would have gotten less than $2, Williams called that “an incredible way of putting it.” So far, so good, sure, but then the tweet suggested that Bloomberg could have given each of the 327 million Americans $1 million and still had money left over, which would have been a better use of the cash. “Buying a calculator, brb,” tweeted Gay herself Friday.ĭuring her discussion with Williams on former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s short-but-expensive presidential run, the duo examined a now-hidden tweet that pointed out Bloomberg spent about $500 million of his own money. I’m speaking of the tweet we both misinterpreted.
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On air, Williams corrected the mistake the segment after making it: “While I have you both and our audience paying attention, turns out Mara and I got the same grades at math. Yahoo Finance editor-at-large Daniel Roberts mused that “ the craziest part of this insane clip is when Brian Williams says ‘don’t tell us if you’re ahead of us on the math and you think he’s about to realize on air that it’s wrong– and he doesn’t.”Īlso Read: Bloomberg Spokesperson Talks Up Campaign's Chances Despite Early Super Tuesday Losses (Video)įox News’ Mark Levin kept it simple, calling the MSNBC anchor “dumber than ever.” Some media and television veterans, like former Fox Newser and current Sinclair host Eric Bolling, pointed out that MSNBC’s producers were also at fault for creating a whole full-screen graphic of an unverified assessment from a third party and letting Williams and Gay discuss it without ever checking the math. Of course, they got ridiculed online, but not just by amused viewers. Every once in a while, he remarks that, oh, boy, he’s in trouble now, like a mischievous little boy who just can’t help himself.New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams were mocked Friday for a not-so-great demonstration of their math skills on the air Thursday night when neither realized that $500 million divided among 327 million people would not give each person $1 million. At times, his voice lowers to a hoarse whisper, preparing us for a grand stroke of wisdom - but it never comes. Chappelle’s rants are extraordinarily dated, the kind of comedy you might expect from a conservative boomer, agog at the idea of homosexuality. He reaches for every low-hanging piece of fruit and munches on it gratuitously. community, as he has been in recent years. Chappelle is singularly fixated on the L.G.B.T.Q.
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But when an entire comedy set is designed as a series of strategic moves to say whatever you want and insulate yourself from valid criticism, I’m not sure you’re really making comedy. He’s just stating “facts.” He’s just making us think. He’s just being “brutally honest.” He’s just saying the quiet part out loud. Chappelle makes obvious but elegant rhetorical moves that frame any objections to his work as unreasonable. If there is brilliance in “The Closer,” it’s that Mr. The self-proclaimed “GOAT” (greatest of all time) of stand-up delivers five or six lucid moments of brilliance, surrounded by a joyless tirade of incoherent and seething rage, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia. The set is a 72-minute display of the comedian’s own brittleness. Chappelle spends much of “The Closer,” his latest comedy special for Netflix, cleverly deflecting criticism. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times. Chappelle explains that he didn’t in fact threaten the woman: “I felt that way, but that’s not what I said. Roxane Gay’s writing appears in Best American Mystery Stories 2014, Best American Short Stories 2012, Best Sex Writing 2012, Harper’s Bazaar, A Public Space, McSweeney’s, Tin House, Oxford American, American Short Fiction, Virginia Quarterly Review, and many others. Ain’t nobody around here.” The audience cheers, before Mr. “Before I kill you and put you in the trunk. “Shut up,” Dave Chappelle recalls telling a woman who had the gall to challenge his comedy, using a sexist slur and laughing at how witty he is, as if he’s the first man to ever deliver such an original, funny line. You’re the one who’s narrow-minded or “brittle” or humorless. All criticism is forestalled with this setup, in which when you object to anything a comedian says, you’re the problem. Comedians, in particular, are going to punch up and down and side-to-side.Īlso true: Comedy is not above criticism, even if the most famous, wildly wealthy comedians will keep insulting those who question them.
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Sometimes good art should make us uncomfortable, and sometimes bad people can make good art. Let’s address those upfront: Art should be made without restriction. We generally have the same debates about comedy over and over.