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November 1, 2004
The Stranger Riles 'Em Up
The Stranger is getting floods of traffic and nasty emails (and many admiring ones) over our cover and "Scariest Halloween Costumes" feature this week.
The most popular thing to complain about it making fun of Nancy Reagan, because, you know, once someone's husband dies, it is no longer appropriate to utter their name in anything but hushed and reverent tones.
The other popular criticism is the use of children in our parody. Yawn. It really amazes me how people will fly off the handle for something like this involving children and then gleefully sit their kids down in front of a television to watch countless depictions of murder. Or dress their kids up as dead people or murderers and send them off trick-or-treating. Clearly, these things are fine, while reminding people of the horrors of Abu Ghraib is somehow out of bounds.
We have even been told we should be charged with child abuse.
This just in: apparently some group of "concerned" puritans is actually filing a lawsuit against us, claiming the children in those photos are being abused.
In other news, Vice-President Dick Cheney trotted his granddaughter out on stage at a recent rally dressed in a skeleton costume (PAGAN!). His wife Lynne quipped, "This is John Kerry's health plan." (L.A. Times)
I can't believe they would exploit an innocent child like that. I think I'll sue them.
A final point: the emails we're getting from people who are upset about the costumes are invariably some of the most hate-filled screeds I've ever read.
Posted by ahecht at November 1, 2004 12:33 PM
Previous Comments
I thought the Halloween costumes were pretty funny. The Nancy Reagan may venture awful close to the realm of bad taste, but what's wrong with humor pushing the envelope?
Posted by:
Paul at November 1, 2004 7:03 PM
Are you going to have a "best of" screeds compendium?
Posted by:
Luke at November 1, 2004 8:17 PM
Hey, was it not Richard Nixon who said "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke"?
Maybe not... i'm a little unclear on that...
And hey, I'm sure the little girl woke up and said "I wanna dress as the Grim Reaper, Mommy! And then please, PUH-LEASE take me to a partisan fundraiser!"
Lawsuits? Jesus jumped up christ in a sidecar that's ridiculous...
Ok, now a quote I know for sure the source of... Hunter S. Thompson:
"We beat them like shit-eating dogs. They came, they failed, and now we will gnaw on their skulls. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, eh? Right! Fuck those people! Death to the Weird! We will march on a road of bones!"
Of course, he meant that strictly as a fanciful jest, and that is all that is being implied here. Of course we good right-thinking people would never advocate the gnawing of skulls, right?
My advice? Get in touch with a good lawyer, one that will salivate at the very thought of taking these pigs to court, one that will counter sue and take from them all that they hold dear, their homes, their livelihoods, their happiness... perhaps they will descend into an ever-deepening spiral from which there is no escape, and end up washing your windshield with spittled-down windex at some flyover in Tacoma before heading back down to the waterfront to suck cock all night for greasy five-dollar-bills.
Nah, that won't happen... but we can dream, can't we?
Posted by: TheGhostOfHumor at November 1, 2004 8:25 PM
Don't the let the dumbasses get you down. Humor of any kind is something they really need to learn to appreciate. Without humor we will become like Pakistan, Iran, North Korea or communist China. Twisted humor is more American than apple pie and if you don't like it then LEAVE MY COUNTRY!
Posted by: JJ86 at November 1, 2004 9:31 PM
