[This anti-gay cartoon was published in a student-run newspaper at the University of Notre Dame]
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“What’s the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?"
“No idea.”
67 comments
My word. It took me a moment to figure out what that actually meant; when I did... wow.
Because someone being violently attacked with a blunt implement and beaten so viciously they're left brain dead for no other reason than that someone doesn't like their sexuality is just hilarious, right?
To Nithing and 1107506 this can hardly be seen as a parody of homophobes or as a "shock joke" no matter how you look at it. So I definitely do not call Poe on this one. To even attempt to justify it is sick. However, you and the author of the cartoon are entitled to their opinions -- narrow and ignorant opinion -- but entitled none the less.
...well, I wouldn't say it's fundie.
Tasteless, yes. Fundie, no.
"What are the best uses of a virulently anti-gay christians?"
"I have no idea. What?"
"Garden lamps, impaled vulture bait, and dog food."
The thing about Poe's law is that parodies of extremism are indistinguishable from the real deal.
So debate all you want about the cartoon, but you will get nowhere until you know the author's intentions.
How far a homophobic cartoon can spread! Even to rural Pyrenean France. I suppose Europeans should not be surprised. We value the concept of 'liberal' as a virtue associated with generosity of politics and thought. It is a dirty term in America. So perhaps we should not be surprised that such a cartoon should emerge in young, Catholic America. Matthew Sheppard would probably agree with us on this. It would be interesting to know what steps, if any, the Notre Dame authorities have taken to chasten those responsible. A mild ticking off is hardly enough. That would show that they do not take the matter seriously. They probably don't, anyway. But Matthew Sheppard surely would. So do I, and the others in my small village to whom have shown the cartoon. Frankly we are shocked that this should emerge from a seat of learning. It it reflects on the university, and makes those students look like immature, knuckle-dragging, trogloditic thugs - even a la Hitler Youth. (Are you taking this in Benny - you and Georg? That is the image this idiocy conveys in liberal societies where homosexuality is no longer a burning issue of societal hatred.
This reminds me of a cartoon that ran in my school paper when I was there. The first frame asked what you'd do if you had a gun with two bullets and you walked into a room with Hitler, Stalin, and an abortion provider. The answer: shoot the abortion provider twice.
Religious conservatives have no concept of what is funny.
I doubt this was meant to be anti-homosexual. More like a crude pun, intended to shock people. That being said, I think it was in poor taste for them to publish it; they certainly wouldn't have published a similar joke if it had racial overtones.
Eh, just a stupid joke.
Meh.
For everyone who says that this is just a joke, tell me something: would you so casually brush this off if the cartoon was talking about lynching a black man? Or raping a woman? Or throwing a Jew into an oven?
I thought the purpose of jokes was to make people laugh, not to point attention to the speaker by being as tasteless and offensive as possible. You really think that a gay kid at this university who's afraid to come out of the closet for fear of death threats is going to find this funny? Plenty of gay kids ARE beaten by baseball bats and other objects in real life. No doubt their attackers find that to be funny, too.
I think there's a difference between this and "how do you make a Venetian blind?". No one hates Venetians, except maybe Genoese. In the era of identity politics at a deafening crescendo, I can't imagine what UNIVERSITY NEWSPAPER would print this. Something is seriously amiss at UND.
I don't find this overly offensive.
That said, I laugh at dead baby jokes, so...yeah.
Not funny, but not that bad IMHO.
the original punch line was "AIDS"
but this was ok.
great instincts that editor had, huh?
... it took THREE PEOPLE to come up with that?
I mean, one person making that comic is bad enough. But this was a group effort.
My heart goes out to their mothers.
It's an old 'joke'. I probably first heard it 30 years ago. I accept their explanation and their apology as sincere (linked to on page two of these comments by the commenter 'one').
To all of you saying "it's just a joke" and "I LOLed", I'm sorry you feel that way. You probably wouldn't if you'd had a friend beaten with a baseball bat and put into a coma because he was gay. Nor would you if you'd been threatened with physical violence, loss of job, loss of rental housing etc.
Posting that kind of physical violence as the answer to a 'joke', as the solution to a perceived problem gives people who are already on the edge of sanity, the perception that they're not alone, and it's ok to act like that.
Aside from all of that, I choose to read it as that's how to turn a watermelon, into a squash...
Wow, so I guess it's totally OK to physically attack people you don't like? Good to know next time some bible thumpers come to my door.
*edit* From reading the apology, apparently it was a (lame) attempt to poke fun at or expose homophobes for the bigots they are. That's why the character telling the joke is a saw (because he's a "tool") and the straight man is a person.
That being said, though, it is in bad taste. And I even like jokes that are in bad taste. But the only way I can see myself actually enjoying this joke is if I were a bigoted homophobe myself.
@macahi
I dunno...I guess going on this site has desensitized me to a lot of things that I probably should get upset about. Don't misunderstand me. The joke is rather tasteless, and not funny, but it didn't hit on my radar as anything other than another homophobe's impotent saber rattling. And it pinged even less so discovering it was an attempt at satire gone South.
How do you disguise a goat as a sheep?
Seriously, the joke in this newspaper is absolutely atrocious.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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