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Louis C.K. has decided not to host the White House Correspondents’ dinner this year, possibly in response to a blog post written by FOX News’s Greta Van Sustern. Hopefully there is still time to book Billy Crystal with or without the black face. (BADUMP.)
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Billy Crystal wasn’t in blackface.
He was in Sammy Davis Jr. face.
There is a difference.
It’s not blackface if a jew is imitating a jew. It’s a loophole, sure, but it’s a loophole I’ll take advantage of every single christmas with the in-laws.
What I mean is blackface is a style of make up that broadly caricatures and stereotypes black people. Roger in Mad Men wore blackface. Those Australian guys on that Aussie talent show judged by Harry Connick Jr. were in blackface.
Billy Crystal was made up to look like Sammy Davis Jr, an impression he is known for and had Davis’ blessing to do it. He was even wearing prosthetics to look more closely like Sammy Davis Jr., one specific individual.
It’s actually above and beyond the level of makeup that Fred Armisen wears for his Barack Obama impression (Armisen’s ethnicity, like Crystal’s, does not consist of any African). I can assume that Armisen is spared because Barack is fairly lightr-skinned, and so the level of makeup Armisen wears isn’t too far off from his own skin color. Not that this makes a particular difference when it comes to actually defining and assigning instances of blackface. Black people have even worn blackface before.
I’m not even saying Crystal’s Sammy Davis Jr. at the Oscar’s wasn’t a misstep, considering the sensitivity that surrounds so many issues in today’s social climate, and the blogger backlash of Crystal’s impersonation was evidence of that. I’m just saying that people love to be offended, especially on behalf of other people, and often times don’t take too long to consider whether or not it’s actually something they need to get worked up about, or often look up the definition of words they are assigning to things.
So it’s not that Crystal has a loophole to put on blackface because Sammy Davis Jr. was Jewish. It’s that Crystal was doing a specific impression of Sammy. Maybe if Crystal and Davis Jr. were as relevant today as Armisen and Obama then there wouldn’t have been backlash. 25 to 30 years ago they were relevant, and there wasn’t any backlash.
Whoo-boy. I also would like to mention I had no intention of getting into any of this, but for some reason the Crystal reference had me writing and posting and next thing I knew it was on the blog.
These are all good points, but none of them are going to spare my christian In-laws from spit-taking out their politely-purchased-kosher Hors D’Oeuvres when I walk in the room.
Could you maybe videotape this and share with the class?
Sure but let’s be very clear about a few things before everyone gets very unnecessarily offended:
1) I don’t do a very good Sammy Davis Jr. impression
2) I don’t look anything like Sammy Davis Jr.
3) Nowhere in my routine is there any mention of who I’m supposed to be imitating.
4) My routine also includes no references to any Sammy Davis Jr.-related information.
Serious question: How do glass eyes factor into your impression?
See #4
Valid points. I personally didn’t think the Sammy Davis Jr impersonation was offensive or racist. Just dated.
Greta Van Susteren is a Scientologist? I guess it’s not as shocking as finding out that she’s not a lesbian.
To be fair, backing out because of that ridiculous article would still be a better excuse than “He just didn’t want to do it anymore.”
Agreed. However, I really do think he backed out because he didn’t want to do it. I thought there was some interview he did where he talked about how he didn’t want to do it, and he was nervous about doing it. It makes sense that he backed out. Too bad, he’s funny.
Also, I’m a chick, and I always appreciate a good C joke.
That’s refreshing to hear. You’d be surprised at how many people around here get offended if you dare to call them “conservative.”
Van Sustern’s blog post is written at the Wolf Blitzer reading level. E.g., “Louis C.K. Comedian? I don’t think so. Pig? yes.” I also appreciate the style of putting the really outrageous text in bold red font. Nothing beats imitating those erudite right-wing mass e-mails.
Greta Van Sustern referred to Louis C.K. as a pig, and the article referred to her as a reporter. So to be fair, they’ve both been mis-categorized.
This just make me outraged and frustrated by the double standard of the media and the left. And Establishment Republicans play along with it too.