Friday, August 20, 2010
Truth In Comedy: Ground Zero Edition
A not-quite-at-Ground Zero/not-quite-a-mosque anecdote:
Last night, your humble blogger participated in the fifth annual Funniest Reporter in New York show last night (alas, his inability to carry off a too-tight little black dress, flowing blonde tresses and a reticence to make jokes about oral sex severely hampered his chances of winning).
At the start of a series of jokes about "the mosque," I asked the crowd at the Gotham Comedy Club: "Who thinks it's really insensitive to build this down near Ground Zero?" Near-universal round of applause and catcalls. I then asked, "Who thinks it's OK to just let it be built?"
Dead silence.
Not a peep.
Now keep in mind that this wasn't a general tourists-off-the-street audience: It was an early show (6 PM) in Midtown Manhattan's Chelsea/Flatiron areas, populated with a lot of New York professionals -- the majority in media or public relations. In other words, this was a fairly well-educated, middle-to-upper class, predominantly white, fair to guess, liberal New York audience. And, even stipulating that Jews might be over-represented in such a demographic, the fact that there wasn't one even blase clap in favor of the Park51 project is, in many ways, a more devastating snapshot of how powerful are the headwinds against supporters.
Fair? Probably not.
The reality? Most definitely.
|
Last night, your humble blogger participated in the fifth annual Funniest Reporter in New York show last night (alas, his inability to carry off a too-tight little black dress, flowing blonde tresses and a reticence to make jokes about oral sex severely hampered his chances of winning).
At the start of a series of jokes about "the mosque," I asked the crowd at the Gotham Comedy Club: "Who thinks it's really insensitive to build this down near Ground Zero?" Near-universal round of applause and catcalls. I then asked, "Who thinks it's OK to just let it be built?"
Dead silence.
Not a peep.
Now keep in mind that this wasn't a general tourists-off-the-street audience: It was an early show (6 PM) in Midtown Manhattan's Chelsea/Flatiron areas, populated with a lot of New York professionals -- the majority in media or public relations. In other words, this was a fairly well-educated, middle-to-upper class, predominantly white, fair to guess, liberal New York audience. And, even stipulating that Jews might be over-represented in such a demographic, the fact that there wasn't one even blase clap in favor of the Park51 project is, in many ways, a more devastating snapshot of how powerful are the headwinds against supporters.
Fair? Probably not.
The reality? Most definitely.
Labels: Ground Zero mosque, NY's Funniest Reporter
