1550: Ladies' Man

[Enunciated Piffle]

Impossible. Peter Parker is black...

[powderjester]

Originally Posted by Darrknox

See, this is what I'm thinking, people think the poll is "Is Pat a Misogynist?" even though we all know he's not. No one is calling Pat anything, the poll is clearly titled: "Is Pat Dixon's comedy misogynistic?" Which I'd be hard-pressed to understand how it's not, considering the demographic it disparages. It's still funny, and Pat's a great guy, but try to be objective.

In the name of science!

hehe, science.

[Incognito]

Misogyny is a hatred of women, which I do not think Pat's comedy falls under. I think he is merely working an easy angle to get an expected response (i.e. make fun of women's value placed on appearance, their legitimacy in the workplace, etc.), which he does. Even the women are laughing at it and as with any crowd, there will be at least one person who will be outraged over it, but that's really not at fault with Pat if they get offended.

I would qualify Pat's material as more sexist than anything else. But, he's also a man who knows what he wants and typically gets it, an attractive quality in a person, so clearly the female audience members aren't that too upset at his shows.

[Darrknox]

Originally Posted by Incognito

Misogyny is a hatred of women, which I do not think Pat's comedy falls under. I think he is merely working an easy angle to get an expected response (i.e. make fun of women's value placed on appearance, their legitimacy in the workplace, etc.), which he does. Even the women are laughing at it and as with any crowd, there will be at least one person who will be outraged over it, but that's really not at fault with Pat if they get offended.

I would qualify Pat's material as more sexist than anything else. But, he's also a man who knows what he wants and typically gets it, an attractive quality in a person, so clearly the female audience members aren't that too upset at his shows.

Misogyny isn't just hatred though, that would be the extreme side of it, and is an easy out for people not quite at hatred but definitely past just general annoyance. Misogyny can be classified as dislike, or illogical mistrust of women, which I think the comedy does fall into the definition of. Just like Misanthropy can be called a hatred of people, as people will always be people there's obviously a large gray area. I consider myself misanthropic, but I definitely don't hate people. I sometimes need to be away from people, and a bit too often dislike people, but the jump to hatred bypasses a whole lot of runs on the way up. So you see why that's a stretched definition don't you?

Why, or why not Pat chooses his comedic route has no effect on what the comedy ends up being. The way the a piece is written is the way it's written. That's not to say people shouldn't take Pat's intention into consideration, of course they should, which is why no one is calling Pat misogynist a distinction made explicitly multiple times by Keith and Chemda on the episode.

I've been known to find a racist joke extremely amusing, as well as jokes making fun of the disabled or mentally challenged; but that doesn't mean the jokes aren't racist, or the material doesn't specifically disparage people of those situations. Who does or does not get mad at it, is completely up the person, but the category of which the comedy falls under is quite black and white.

Laughing at a racist joke, or being offended by a racist joke has no bearing on whether or not the joke is racist. Anyone would say it was, without hesitation. To claim that, because some black people find a racist joke hilarious (ding ding, that's me) detracts from it's racism because those who disparage are okay with it is a bit crazy, and would even be mentioned in most other politically incorrect jokes.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say, I'm a stickler for logic.

[DrGiggles]

Regarding the kid that died.... He didn't just have cerebral palsy, you mentioned he also had muscular dystrophy. The MD is important because kids with MD have short lifespans, and their lives are often complicated by recurrent illnesses especially pneumonia (this develops as the respiratory muscles begin to fail). Keith even mentioned he had multiple hospitalizations. By the early/mid teens they often require mechanical ventilation. This is a decision point for families, where they must decide whether to allow the child to pass away naturally (which will happen anyway), or to temporarily prolong life via machine.

All of this is to say the article you read may not have told the entire story. It's certainly possible the neck brace could have contributed to his death, however, it's also possible his disease had progressed and he died naturally. If this is true, the parents may very well simply be looking for someone to blame and get a payout, and the neck brace may have had absolutely nothing to do with it. To the contrary, it sounds like the teacher cared about him enough to try and find a way to help him see in class (i.e. help him feel more like a normal kid in school). It's certainly possible she's an evil schoolmarm who was upset he wasn't looking forward during class, but that's not how the story sounds to me. This possibility would mean that the kid was simply a victim of a terrible disease, and it's really the teacher/school that's a victim of a lawsuit over a situation they had nothing to do with. The real question is what is a kid with cerebral palsy, MD, and a limited lifespan doing in school in the first place?!