or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
March 30, 2005
The Worst Historical Reference In History
Through mankind's history, many people have made many moronic historical references. But this weekend, John Gibson of Fox News may have made the moronicist:
Just to burnish my reputation as a bomb thrower, I think Jeb Bush should give serious thought to storming the Bastille. By that I mean he should think about telling his cops to go over to Terri Schiavo’s hospice, go inside, put her on a gurney and load her into an ambulance. They could take her to a hospital, revive her, and reattach her feeding tube. ... So Jeb, call out the troops, storm the Bastille and tell ‘em I sent you.
Let's compare and contrast.
STORMING OF THE BASTILLE
• undertaken by commoners
• revolt against executive (ie, the king)
• commoners faced armed forces of the executive
STORMING OF THE "BASTILLE," AS URGED BY JOHN GIBSON
• undertaken by the state executive, himself brother of the nation's chief executive
• revolt against rule of law
• armed forces of the executive would face staff of hospice
That's not to say there would have been NO parallels between the two situations. For instance, both involve humans.
(Via DC Media Girl, via Crooked Timber.)
Posted at March 30, 2005 01:16 PM | TrackBackJonathan,
Only a militant penguin would harp on the "human" element to this story. A shrill, self-loathing penguin.
Posted by: Harry at March 30, 2005 02:13 PMOf course, Jeb HAS already tried to "storm the Bastille", at least if by "storm" you mean "get some state troopers who chicken out when the find out local police will prevent them from going in."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/11233240.htm
Of course, Jon missed a very obvious parallel between the two situations. The people who stormed the Bastille subsisted on a diet of rats. I'm fairly sure that Gibson eats rats too. Not sure about Jeb.
Oops, I see the oyster picked up the same story. Sorry about that.
Nevertheless, I think the eating of rats parallel deserves further study. Or perhaps eating one's firstborn, which in Gibson's case could be the same thing.
At least Gibson eats the more pious, chanting rats first.
Posted by: oyster at March 30, 2005 10:39 PM
