On June 25, the A.V. Club posted an interview with comedian Janeane Garofalo. It was a fairly substantial piece in which the interviewer, Sean O’Neal, asked about everything from Garofalo’s stand-up routine, to her political outrage, to her criticisms of Tea Parties, and matters touching on religion.
Not surprisingly, the self-loathing Garofalo was moderately introspective before going out of her way to insult every aspect of traditional American life she could.
I think those of you who’ve read the interview will agree with me when I say that Garofalo has some serious problems. Not necessarily because she aimed her criticism at historically conservative matters, but because many of her answers were simply irrational.
For example, early in the interview, after O’Neal asked her if she was “ready to laugh again” now that “the Bush administration” was gone, Garofalo replied that the Obama administration isn’t that great, that the media is “getting even worse,” that the “the teabag racists [are] adding insult to injury,” that the Obama administration is disappointing, and that the election of 2000 was stolen, in that order. And her answers never really got clearer.
She varied from this pattern long enough to discuss the fact that she had, in fact, referred to Tea Party participants as “racist rednecks” and then tried her best to convince O’Neal that “the ‘racist redneck” thing is a state of mind, not a geographical location. So [she didn’t] mean to imply that it’s just Southerners.”
The problem with this particular exchange was that O’Neal never brought Southerners up. Instead, Garofalo brought them up ostensibly to assure everyone she wasn’t talking about Southerners when she said “racist rednecks.” But watching her try to do this was somewhat akin to watching a suspect tell a policeman he threw the gun into the pond behind the building before the officer even asks him for his name.
At one point, O’Neal said to Garofalo: “It’s not that I totally disagree with you, but I suppose the presence of minorities in [Tea Party] videos and such is their way of showing that they aren’t racist.” Nevertheless, Garofalo made it clear that the presence of minorities at Tea Parties didn’t mitigate in her belief that the movement itself is racist. (O’Neal didn’t ask Garofalo what she thinks about the fact that Tea Partiers have historically opposed more white candidates than black ones, but her answer would have been interesting.)
O’Neal did express concern that talking about Tea Partiers the way Garofalo does might create an “us-vs-them” atmosphere. To this Garofalo replied: “I don’t think it does. I think what hinders the argument is when people are afraid of hurting the feelings of racists and people who are genuinely–some of them–out of their minds.”
As for the “stolen elections” of 2000, I suppose Garofalo doesn’t know that presidential elections are decided by the direct votes of the Electoral College, not the indirect votes of the people. Thus, although Al Gore won the popular vote by a few hundred thousand ballots, he lost the presidential contest because Florida’s electoral votes went to Bush. (Yes Gore then tried to steal the election, but I bet that’s not the thievery that bothers Garofalo.)
When O’Neal brought up Garofalo’s protest of the Iraq War, which Garofalo carried out against those “who like to wrap themselves in the flag, hide behind Jesus, and be aggressive,” everything fizzled out. Garofalo intimated that “wrapping [oneself] in the flag and hiding behind Jesus” is violation of “the separation of church and state.” (I promise I’m not making this stuff up.)
Garofalo’s best answer of the interview came when asked if she ever watches herself on television. To this she said: “I [once] made it through about 35 seconds and decided I would rather be hit in the face with a board repeatedly than listen to me, the sound of my voice.”
I bet a lot of people can relate.
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