Retraction Request: Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert has been on our radar since we noticed his twitter tirades against Sarah Palin and “teabaggers” last week. We have identified yet another tweet we would like him to retract:

We have established that we differ on the last sentence, but his claim he did not know that “teabaggers” is a pornographic term until the MSM (mainstream media) told him is provably false. We know it’s false because in 1998, Prof. Ebert reviewed a film containing this scene (NSFW):

[youtube Gi9hgqZr6fs nolink]

The above clip is from the John Waters’ film “Pecker” starring Edward Furlong. Not only did Ebert review the film, but he acknowledged the “tea-bagging” scene in his review.

His sister Tina (Martha Plimpton) is the emcee in a male go-go bar, issuing dire warnings against such misbehavior as “tea-bagging.”

So he was aware of the term at some point, but is it fair to say this tweet is a lie? Perhaps we should give Ebert the benefit of the doubt and assume he had simply forgotten this scene and his own review. But what about all those other “teabagging” references that may have occurred in any of the countless films he has scrutinized with his professional eye over his decades-long career? Take for example, this scene (even more NSFW) from a 2008 movie Ebert also reviewed called “Step Brothers“:

[youtube bAFNAyomUTQ nolink]

Given Ebert’s professional body of work, it is clear he was aware of exactly what the term “teabaggers” means and has been aware long before the Obama-era “teabaggers” ever held their first rally. We kindly ask Prof. Ebert to post a retraction to his statement.