The joke concerns a group of schoolchildren discussing the definition of “tragedy” as opposed to “great loss” or “accident.” The punch line comes when one child says that if an airplane carrying Obama and his wife, Michelle, “was struck by a ‘friendly fire’ missile and blown to smithereens,” the event might be a tragedy “because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss, and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”
Bullshit spin of the day: Austin admits to forwarding the distasteful joke to his political contacts. But he did not know what the email said. The article states that Austin accidently forwarded the email to two reporters.
Update: a source confirmed to me that Austin sent the email to William March.
The Buzz published the email.
Finally at the back of the room, Little Johnny raised his hand. In a quiet voice he said: 'If the plane carrying you and Mrs. Obama was struck by a 'friendly fire' missile and blown to smithereens that would be a tragedy.'
'Fantastic!' exclaimed Obama. 'That's right. And can you tell me why that would be tragedy?'
'Well,' says the boy, 'It has to be a tragedy, because it certainly wouldn't be a great loss and it probably wouldn't be an accident either.'
The joke isn't even funny as politically incorrect comedy.
It's not original, either. I first heard that joke about John Howard, the former Australian Prime Minister, when I was in primary school... this actually makes me feel quite conflicted (why is it funny when it's a white guy, but horrific when it's a black guy? If the joke had been made about McCain, would anyone care? Etc.)
ReplyDeleteI've heard it as a joke about Bush. I thought it was kind of a funny joke then, but then it was just a crash - not "friendly fire."
ReplyDeleteWhen it was a plane crash, it wasn't killing them, it was just a statement that we don't really care about our politicians (or at least the politicians on the other side). Making it something more controlled, though...it kind of feels like they want to do that.