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Thursday, May 3, 2012

Comedy / Religion Tweakers

Posted by Dan Savage on Thu, May 3, 2012 at 12:28 PM

I'm a fan of yours and you've helped me out before (you answered a letter of mine ages ago, and your advice was good), so given how annoying it must be to be the recipient of so much hyperbolic, misdirected, and ignorant vitriol right now, I thought I'd share this with you. I'm a standup comic, and I've been doing this joke for at least five years. The point of the joke—particularly the part that starts about two minutes in—is basically the same point that you were making. I think it's a completely accurate and fair point, but some crowds just freak the fuck out when I do this joke. It used to bother me but now I realize that their reaction just comes with the territory because I am intentionally tweaking ways of thinking that need to be tweaked. As were you.

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Religious bullshitters. They're in a constant state of persecution, aren't they?

Posted by emma's bee on May 3, 2012 at 12:44 PM

I went to his website and watched some of his other clips. He's a very funny man. I particularly liked the bit about the man who wouldn't have any gay friends for fear that they might turn him gay.

Posted by PaulBarwick on May 3, 2012 at 12:52 PM

My dad (who like me is Jewish) has a coworker who is an Evangelical Christian. And because the coworker is a decent guy, he doesn't go around preaching in everyone's ear. Wish there were more like him.

Posted by venomlash on May 3, 2012 at 2:37 PM

Great self-promotional score, landing on slog. I won't hold it against you though, since the bit was funny (and topical). Kudos for successfully leveraging the Interwebs.

Posted by Pablo Picasso on May 3, 2012 at 3:23 PM

Dan, I hope this gets you on Chris Hayes' or Mellisa Harris Perry's show soon. This argument seems right up thier alleys.

Posted by Jersey on May 3, 2012 at 3:23 PM

I'm with him about spending ANY amount of time around a camp fire with those preachy sacarine hypocrites.

Posted by alisamc

on May 3, 2012 at 10:56 PM

Unfortunately, the way Mauer reads the bible passage(s), segueing from Matthew 5 to (without mention) the Leviticus prohibitions against man-on-man and man-on-dog sex makes it sound as if Jesus actually said these anti-gay words. Jesus never said *anything* about homosexuality. Rather it's the more vocal and idiotic of Jesus' contemporary followers who put things in their Savior's mouth. (Insert sexual joke here.) But truly, I say unto thee, this kinda sh*t really F*cks up Jesus' message--which was Matthew 5: the beatitudes..."blessed be the peacemakers..."

Posted by Sally Hemings' daughter on May 4, 2012 at 3:55 AM

#7 That's probably why he switched to the obviously not-king-James-version bit inbetween ("Oh and by the way...").

Posted by AT777T on May 4, 2012 at 6:25 PM

#8 Yeah, I got the joke. I even laughed. But my point is that both Mauer and the "Christian" homophobic bigots he (rightly) pillories are guilty of mis-attribution--and to Jesus, who isn't even able to dispute this defamation.

Posted by Sally Hemings' daughter on May 5, 2012 at 6:55 AM