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Seth MacFarlane's Reign Of Offensiveness Now Includes AIDS Jokes About Karl Rove
Posted by Defamer Hollywood at 9:10 AM on July 16, 2008
Kudos today to James Hibberd, the Hollywood Reporter TV blogger who is perhaps the only reason we have any clue (or rather, care to have any clue) about the horrors unfolding presently at the Television Critics Association summer press tour. Apparently the Florence Henderson/Ed Asner days are over, with the one-two punch of confirmed buddies Karl Rove and Seth MacFarlane taking over Monday as the off-colour star tandem to beat.
First came Rove, who, with new Fox News colleague Chris Wallace, sought to defend the appropriateness of his hiring as an election-season commentator after he recently refused to testify to the House Judiciary Committee. "It is not between me and Congress; I have not asserted any personal privilege," Rove said. "It's between the White house and Congress." A few hours later came MacFarlane, who fell back on the quintessentially good taste we've come to expect:
"Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don't want to get AIDS."That's Seth MacFarlane, startin' things off classy. Of the hundreds of people that will have taken a turn on the Beverly Hilton ballroom stage by the end of the Television Critics Association's semi-annual press tour, the Family Guy creator is probably the only one who could come within 30 nautical miles of pulling that off that joke. It's interesting the things one can get away with saying once people have a certain expectation of your personality.
Funny — we'd say the same thing about Rove. Tell you what, TCA: Bring these guys back every six months and we'll order a stay of press-tour execution.That is television worth watching.
[Photo Credit: Getty Images]
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Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Shumina
Posted 10:23 AM 16/7/08
Okay, NOW I have a man-crush. I golfclap you, Seth.
Shumina
Sloth
Posted 10:55 AM 16/7/08
Wifezilla: january 15 1981
Sloth
Wifezilla
Posted 10:52 AM 16/7/08
Am I the only person who hates Seth MacFarlane and wants him to go away? Before you answer that, let's view a scene with entirely unrelated to what we're talking about. Then we'll cut to commercial.
It makes me angry and shouty that this guy is becoming the king of cartoon media. His shows aren't funny. Seriously. Since when did mediocrity become acceptable?
Wifezilla
heidiho
Posted 10:36 AM 16/7/08
This reminds me of the time blah blah blah.
heidiho
Desk_hack
Posted 10:27 AM 16/7/08
Hmmm, there was something I wanted to say about him, but right now I can't remember what it was. Allow me to clear my throat first:
*hack* *hack* *hack*
Ah yes, that's better. Now where was I?
Desk_hack
Wifezilla
Posted 11:00 AM 16/7/08
@Sloth: What happened on 1/15/81?
Wifezilla
Dr. Spaceman, Esq.
Posted 11:27 AM 16/7/08
@Wifezilla: Karl Rove invented AIDS.
Dr. Spaceman, Esq.
Losin_it
Posted 12:28 PM 16/7/08
@Wifezilla: To answer your question: No.
Losin_it
Sloth
Posted 1:17 PM 16/7/08
@Wifezilla: As far as I can remember
Sloth
Plankton420
Posted 3:22 PM 16/7/08
Yeah, that sounds like a Seth MacFarlane joke alright: It's not funny if you take even a nano-second to think about it.
(And no, it's not not funny because he said "AIDS." It's not funny because there is no real connection between Karl Rove and AIDS -- except for maybe that they're both responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people...)
"Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don't want to CATCH EVIL!"
"Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don't want to get SUBPOENAED!"
or even
"Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don't want to get SHOT IN THE FACE!"
would have been, if not funny, at least, jokes.
Plankton420
DrFeelgood
Posted 4:22 PM 16/7/08
Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because the seat's wet and smells of urine.
DrFeelgood
UnklStinky
Posted 5:30 PM 16/7/08
"Is this where Karl Rove sat? Well, that explains my sudden inability to maintain an erection."
UnklStinky
Werrick
Posted 11:12 PM 16/7/08
I love Seth MacFarlane. He says all the things that I wish I could say, and am invariably thinking.
And he's fearless... which is in short supply these days.
Werrick
Maude Buttons
Posted 11:22 PM 16/7/08
@Werrick: You want to say that Karl Rove gave you AIDS? Someone -- or, maybe, something -- is keeping you from this Make-a-Wish dream?
Maude Buttons
gwendolyn
Posted 1:54 AM 17/7/08
@Plankton420: The 'real' connection between Karl Rove and AIDS might be the alleged sexual relations he 'might' have engaged in with Jeff Gannon, notorious male prostitute turned White House press journalist and born-again Christian blogger who was planted by Rove in press conferences to throw softball questions to either President Bush or whatever WH Press Secretary was working during the period around 2004-2005.
In addition, Mr. Gannon was signed into the WH but not signed out around 100 times in that same period. You heard little about any of this because, outside of the left blogosphere, the lips of the MSM were totally glued to the asses of the Bush Administration.
Seth McFarlane, whatever you might think of his 'humor' (and I have only seen about 5 minutes of 'The Family Guy' and none of the five minutes were funny), does know his Bush Era sleaze and corruption if he can make the 'Karl Rove = AIDS carrier' 'joke' -
Disclaimer - I worked for two AIDS service organizations for a total of 9 years and I don't think there is any such thing as a funny AIDS joke. Just my personal feeling.
gwendolyn
CourageousCoward
Posted 2:32 AM 17/7/08
Seth, Karl Rove called to say Peter Brady wants his face back and Karl would be happy to shoot it off for you both.
CourageousCoward
KNau
Posted 3:41 AM 17/7/08
Okay, old timers - Y'all can go sit in the corner with Bill Cosby and cry in your diapers about how comedy just isn't funny anymore. The rest of us are trying to watch Mr. Belvedere here.
KNau
DanLar75
Posted 4:20 AM 17/7/08
@Werrick: This!
Also: Hope Karl Rove has the Aids, maybe hell die soon!
DanLar75
DanLar75
Posted 4:19 AM 17/7/08
Karl Rove does not have Aids, I would be more worried about stumbling into a deal with the Devil or maybe being sucked into an alternate dimension where everyone is white, 80 years old and evil..
DanLar75
Losin_it
Posted 4:56 AM 17/7/08
@DanLar75: If it wasn't/isn't funny when certain people openly wished gays/blacks would die of AIDS, I am not getting the hilarity about hoping the same thing happens to Karl Rove. That's just me though. Snark is one thing, but hypocrisy can still rear it's head.
Losin_it
alice__k
Posted 6:06 AM 17/7/08
By claiming Karl Rove has AIDS, Seth MacFarlane is putting Karl Rove in the same bullpen as the people Karl Rove loathes. And so, SM is expressing his loathing for KR himself and KR's loathing of people with AIDS (or any other vulnerable demographic) by being ironic.
No one associates Karl Rove with AIDS, so SM is publicly taking the very powerful KR down a peg by verbally including him with a group of people that KR himself would love to annihilate.
I agree that Seth MacFarlane is fearless, and only people who are unafraid of taking risks will bring about change in this world.
alice__k
Colonel Mustard
Posted 6:48 AM 17/7/08
@KNau: ACCORDING TO OUR NEW ARRIVAL, LIFE IS MORE THAN MERE SURVIVAL!
Colonel Mustard
Losin_it
Posted 8:41 AM 17/7/08
@alice__k: Does Rove REALLY want to "annihilate" anyone? I think people can disagree or dislike him without engaging in the same kind of crazy hyperbole that they accuse the other side of using. I don't see anyone on either side of the aisle that's really the personification of evil, the opinions of many thousands of over-stimulated bloggers aside. Politicians are just people, with good and bad in them. Demonizing those who we disagree with is childish.
And while courage is something to be admired, I don't find MacFarlane's bashing of Rove, to a receptive audience, to be very courageous. It's not like he criticized Obama before the NAACP. He really risked very little. I don't see the bravery.
Losin_it
Plankton420
Posted 10:40 AM 17/7/08
@gwendolyn:
Oh.
I didn't realize that Jeff Gannon had (or was rumored to have) AIDS, or that he gave it (or was rumored to have give itn) to Rove.
In that case, Seth MacFarlane was being way too obscure... I consider myself pretty up on politics -- I knew all about Gannon and his more than 100 trips to the White House without ever being given official access (which would have required a Secret Service background check, I believe)... But I've never heard any of these AIDS rumors...
And "Family Guy" still sucks. (Except for that one parody of Randy Newman, in the nuclear attack episode... I love Randy Newman, and that satire was DEAD ON!)
Plankton420
gwendolyn
Posted 2:25 AM 18/7/08
@Plankton420: I have absolutely no idea whether Mr. Gannon has AIDS or any other illness. I was just exploring the possible connection that Seth McFarlane was making between Karl Rove and the disease. After all, although Mr. Rove is married and has one child (and this is public knowledge), I believe throughout the left blogosphere there have been multitudes of rumors about why Jeff Gannon, who will admit (since his website made it pretty ridiculous to deny it) he was a male escort a/k/a male prostitute, was admitted into the WH many, many times. I just figured Seth must have heard those same rumors and decided to jump on the opportunity to make what would seem to be a fairly obscure joke about those rumors.
It was tasteless and non-funny to the tenth power. I was just thinking out loud about how Mr. McFarlane came to make that joke.
gwendolyn