Alternate Title:  “To Bee or Not To Bee”

Two days ago, Samantha Bee and TBS f***** up!  All of the apologies and lost sponsors cannot undo the damage.  And Bee’s supporters have spent the last 48 hours trying to parse the difference between Bee’s vulgarity and Roseanne Barr’s racist comments.  Get ready for a different perspective.  It is not about the unprecedented use of the c-word on basic cable.   (Even though the audio was bleeped out, there was no question what Bee said.)  Programs have been pushing that envelope continuously.  In fact, the same night, FX Channel censors approved the use of the f-word on the finale of “The Americans.”  And Comedy Central has given Trevor Noah free rein to call bulls*** by its full name instead of BS.

Samantha Bee’s “crime” was hypocrisy in the first degree.  If you believe Roseanne’s comparing Valerie Jarrett to an ape is racist, you also have to believe referring to a woman as a c*** is misogynist, even when the speaker is female.  The comment was triggered by a Twitter photo of Ivanka Trump holding up her child while her father was tearing families apart along the the U.S./Mexico border.  What would Bee have said if the picture was of Jared rather than Ivanka?  Certainly, not the c-word.

Imagine yourself in the writers’ room.  I have no doubt someone might have said, “Can you believe the nerve of that c***?”  But that’s where it should have ended.  The task was not to share “writer  room chatter” but to make the point in a way consistent with the program’s entertainment as well as social mission.  Consider what the reaction would have been if Bee had shown the Twitter photograph on the screen and asked.

Now what would YOU call a woman who would post this on the same day Daddy is making sure immigrants and refugees will not have the same opportunity?  [Pauses and puts her finger to her temple. Gets ready to say something then pulls back. Finally, faces the camera head-on.] Callous!  Heartless!  Inhumane! Sadistic! Vicious.  Hard-hearted.  Cold-blooded! Malevolent. Unfeeling. Unkind.  Feel free to add your own.

A writer’s best friend is NOT SpellCheck.  It’s thesaurus.com.

Let’s be clear.  Bee’s remark was never intended to be funny.  The studio audience did not laugh, they gasped as I’m sure most home viewers did also.  My first reaction as I watched in real time Wednesday night, “Another holiday (oops Christmas) present to the alt-right cultural warriors.”  And once again, I thought of my favorite Ben Bradlee line to Woodward and Bernstein in All the President’s Men.  “You did something I didn’t think was possible.  You made people feel sorry for the President.”

In truth, the best adjective to characterize  Bee and her writers is LAZY.  Why?  Because ever since Jeff Sessions announced the administration would separate children from their parents as an anti-immigration tactic, I wanted to write a clever, yet insightful commentary to expose the policy for what it is, cruel and inconsistent with American values.  Below is the best I have come up with to date, a news story a la The Onion.

Dateline:  Washington, D.C., May 31, 2018

Today, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration had expanded its efforts to deter immigrants and refugees from entering the United States.  In addition to ripping children from their parents arms, in limited cases, the Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is separating  husbands and wives while being processed for deportation.  In some instances, the wives have been be sent to relocation centers.  Thomas Homan, ICE’s acting director, admitted under media questioning the policy shares some of the same problems with the parent/child protocol.  A number of spouses are currently unaccounted for.

One high profile case involves a 46 year old Slovenian immigrant who has been reported missing since May 12th.  She was last seen among the crowd welcoming home three Korean-Americans who had been released by North Korean leader Kim Jung-un.  Unconfirmed sighting have been reported in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida.

No knee-slapper, but neither is it a personal attack on any of the misguided individuals who think what they are doing will make America great again.  Writing this blog has given me a greater appreciation for the writers associated with programs like Saturday Night Live or Last Week Tonight.  I marvel at the teams that assemble the opening monologues for late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers who are under the gun to present current events as entertainment 200 times each year.

Until Wednesday night, I felt the same way about Samantha Bee and her staff.  This morning, however, I join the chorus of those who believe TBS should take her show off the air.  And please don’t suggest I am violating her First Amendment rights to freedom of expression.  This is about the disservice she and her staff have done to the other professionals in the field of satirical humor.  There are enough people outside the profession taking pot shots at an American tradition dating back to Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain and Will Rogers.  The last thing any of us, especially supposed allies in the resistance, should do is give fodder to support the efforts of those who want to divide the nation along cultural lines.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP