The Kicker
The Worst Kind of Toilet Humor
By Gal Beckerman Thu 30 Aug 2007 02:33 PMGetting worked up over anything in the New York Post can be a little dangerous. The paper does such a good job embracing its own campy tabloidiness that you risk sounding like a humorless prig for taking it seriously. That said, every once in a while it crosses so far over the line of good taste that it’s impossible not to call them out. This morning, it did indeed traverse that line and headed so far in the direction of meanness (and an unfunny meanness at that) that I had to take note.
It shouldn’t be so hard for the playful headline editors at the paper to do something with the story of Larry Craig and Toiletgate. The jokes pretty much write themselves (and for a good example, just go and check out Slate’s take on the police report). Instead, next to their straight news story about Republican senators throwing Craig overboard, the Post provided a strange sidebar titled, “Are you a gay senator?” The faux questionnaire resuscitates some of the stalest of gay stereotypes. Question one: “Do you sing showtunes in the car between political events?” Question four: “Did you quit the “Singing Senators” barbershop quartet because the bowties didn’t match the seersucker suits?” If you answered more then three questions correctly, the Post tells you to “go to Chelsea and start doing your thang!”
So it’s not funny. Is it offensive? I thought so. It just stunk of a certain decrepit kind of homophobia, an old man’s idea of what gay people supposedly do. Again, I know this is the Post, but the bigger question is this: Does being an unabashed tabloid, glorying in its wacky headlines and trashy stories, absolve the paper even when it seems to be engaging in what clearly looks like a little lite gay-bashing?
CJR
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