For those who missed it...

[sabotabby]

If you don't have time to watch Borat this weekend (and you should, especially for the Montana rodeo scene), watch this clip of Ralph Klein talking about Belinda Stronach at a banquet. It has much the same effect.

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That joke wasn't even funny when someone used it on me as a pick-up line when I was 15. Also, true colours and all that.

Comments

Aw, Lighten Up!

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

As a pick-up line, I can see how such a remark wouldn't be funny - whether one is 15 or 55.

As a sleezy euphemism in a speech, though, all I can say is, "Tee hee hee hee..."

But that, I've always had a soft spot (as it were) for sleezy euphemism.

Re: Aw, Lighten Up!

[sabotabby]

The line, from John (a cute boy with a fauxhawk who was about a year or two older than me) was—if I recall correctly—"Do you have any Irish in you? No? Do you want some?" He could pull it off because sleaze at 17 isn't as inexcusable as sleaze at 55, and I'm fairly certain that he knew he was being lame. That's still one step up from "I love every bone in your body, especially mine."

I must admit that I found Klein's speech funny, but not for the reasons he intended.

Re: Aw, Lighten Up!

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

If he knew he was being lame, it probably was excusable. Irony has to start somewhere.

As for Klein, I suspect I found the excerpt you posted (I haven't heard the whole thing) funny, both for the reasons he intended and for the reasons you had.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Yuck yuck yuck. Christ, what a putrid old man.

[sabotabby]

My friend used to have a picture of a rat that some scientists force-fed to see the long-term effects of obesity, and then shaved for reasons I don't quite understand, up on his fridge, next to a picture of Klein. He didn't even need to write "Spot the difference" underneath.

[threeliesforone.livejournal.com]

i know this is so obvious, but..

dude, how drunk is he?

[sabotabby]

Dude, that's Klein when he's sober.

[wlach.livejournal.com]

Didn't he swear off the alcohol after that incident with the homeless shelter (see my comment below)?

Not that I ever felt alcohol was much of an excuse for his obnoxious behavior. My gut feeling has been that what a person says or does while drunk is representative of who they really are (perhaps all the more so because their inhibitions are relaxed).

Alcohol and Inhibitions

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

I think that's mostly true, but on occasion, too much booze will bring out aspects in a person that that person, while sober, would consider both reprehensible and shameful. Most of us, I think, have little bits and pieces of our selves that we don't like and that don't represent who we are on the whole.

(And yes, I speak from (a couple of shameful) personal experiences.)

[xol0tl.livejournal.com]

It's a testament to my ignorance of Canadian politics that I don't know who either of them are, but regardless... Eww.

[sabotabby]

Ralph Klein is the soon-to-be-ex premier of Alberta. (Think George Bush, governor of Texas, before he sobered up and became a fundie Christian.) Belinda Stronach is a MP from my hometown who was a member of the Conservative party and switched to the Liberals in exchange for a cabinet post. Also, some people find her hot, although I personally can't see why. She takes a disproportionate amount of crap because of it.

[xol0tl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't see it either. She kind of resembles a slightly less skeletal Ann Coulter...

[threepunchstuff.livejournal.com]

He just made a romance explosion all over her ego. High five!

[sabotabby]

Stick to humans!

[99catsaway.livejournal.com]

I have heard about Belinda, but I don't know the relationship he's alluding to. Either way, that's pretty vulgar for a political speech, even if it is a joke. Is this guy an elected official?

Maybe this tripped my feminist nerve, but something doesn't seem right about sexualizing a politician just because she happens to be a young-ish woman. Then again, I read Wonkette, who sexualizes all politicians. :)

[sabotabby]

He's alluding to Belinda's breakup with Peter MacKay, a Conservative MP. She broke up with him when she switched parties. He was a big fucking drama queen about it. And alas, the good people of al-Berta did elect Klein as premier. More than once.

I don't care for Stronach or the Liberals, but a male politician in her position would not be called a "dog," "bitch," or be lambasted as a home-wrecker, or this. Your feminist nerve is right to be tripped.

[wlach.livejournal.com]

Wow, impressive-- although I don't think it quite tops the time he went into a homeless shelter with his bodyguards (while drunk) and berated the men inside to "get a job".

What a fucking tool.

[sabotabby]

Nothing tops that.

[chailash.livejournal.com]

Um, ew. And also, inappropriate.

[sabotabby]

Apparently the audience felt differently.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

The Voice and I got into a discussion about this. On the one hand, Klein's speech took place at a political roast, where politicians can expect to have any part of their lives, personal, political, or both, dragged into the spotlight and mocked. On the other hand, male politicians rarely use such gender-loaded, dismissive language when lighting into each other, even at roasts, I don't think. Mind you, I haven't done a comprehensive rhetorical analysis of the Canadian political roast, so I don't know how male politicians traditionally insult each other. Does anyone talk about Peter McKay bending over and taking it in from Harper? 'Cause that's pretty much what he did in the talks that led to the present incarnation of the Conservative Party.

It's true that Stronach, who, incidentally, crossed the floor in part because Harper's Conservative Party is misogynist to the core and she didn't feel that she could work under the conditions he set up and encouraged (or at least she's said something similar), gets into a disproportionate amount of flack for her actions, largely because she's a young-ish woman who clearly has a sex life, but also because she ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party, so her crossing the floor was a Big Deal and a real Statement.

[sabotabby]

I think the big difference is that no one jokes about the sex lives of male politicians (unless they're gay, I guess), making this a clear case of OMG patriarchy.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

I think we should make jokes about the sex lives of male politicians. But not Clinton, because I'm bored of his sex life, and he's not Canadian anyway.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

If you don't have time to watch Borat this weekend (and you should, especially for the Montana rodeo scene), watch this clip ...

I was wondering if you had a chance to see that in Seattle.

I still don't know if the frat boy scene was real or staged.

[frandroid.livejournal.com]

Aren't the fratboys trying to sue him? That would point to legitimacy...

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Last I heard, the frat was unable to locate their members.

Here's the Newsweek story on it, although it may be out dated.

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Whoa! You're right: It's legit!