Mocking Mel — the right and wrong ways

Everyone, it seems, is having a field day with Mel Gibson’s DWI arrest and drunken tirade against the “F’ing Jews.” Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, David Letterman — they all must be thanking their lucky stars for this latest brouhaha that ought to keep thim in material for weeks.

Even I got into the act. A Boston talk show invited people to call in and defend Gibson, so I took them up on the challenge. I defended Gibson’s use of the phrase “F’ing Jews.” I pointed out to the hosts (one of whom is rather proudly Jewish) that a significant percentage of the leading figures in the adult film industry are of the Hebrew persuasion, and I would not be a bit surprised if Ron Jeremy or Nina Hartley (main page PG-13, the rest most likely NSFW) listed “F’ing Jew” on their resume’s.

But not all humorists are created equal. Some have taken Gibson’s fall from grace and gone in very unfunny ways.

Including one person right here at Wizbang.

Over at the Bomb Squad, the highly-prolific John Lillpop decided to write about Mel’s accusations of the Jews being the cause of so many of the world’s problems. He did this by repeating them, then going on to basically list a bunch of the standard anti-Semitic talking points about how terrible the Jews were. He tried to shake that off by tagging it with the “Humor” label, but it really fell flat — it was the equivalent of saying “just kidding” after saying something horribly offensive.

The problem was that there was no real attempt to wring humor out of it — and there was plenty to be had. There was no hyperbole involved — he didn’t blame the Jews for the current heat wave. He didn’t link New Orleans and the flooding caused by Katrina as the work of some crazed Jew who wanted to be the next Moses and trying to part the floodwaters. He didn’t even bring up the old gag about blaming the Jews for the Titanic. (“Iceberg, Goldberg, what’s the difference?”)

And now that I’ve written all this, I go and see that the piece in question is gone. I don’t know if Lillpop himself pulled it, or if Kevin went in and deleted it (I spoke with him about it earlier, and it’s too late now to call him and ask), but please take my word for it — his piece was all I said it was, and more.

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