Comments on: Toby Keith on the War on Christmas

By: aunt carol

aunt carol — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:47:50 +0000

loved it toby way to go. your fan for life.

By: Nate Avery

Nate Avery — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 20:20:12 +0000

Uh… yeah, it’s satire. Funny, but a little too long.

By: Step

Step — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:31:48 +0000

The only people I see taking this at face value are some of the people posting here.

Honestly, you all are as bad stereotyping “Christian RightWing Nutjobs” AND lumping all those stereotypes into one group as us nutjobs are for lumping liberal, atheist, God-hating baby-eaters into one group.

<– Note intentional sarcasm of using “you all” to lump commenters into one group, even though some commenters above are clearly quite intelligent and got varying aspects right.

By: Spacesocks

Spacesocks — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:55:08 +0000

Excellent satire. For those of you who are having trouble figuring out whether it’s “real,” or who thinks Toby Keith is really singing about those awful atheists attacking Christmas, listen to the lyrics again:

“You can call me a Christian, but that’s not true, ’cause have I got a present for you!” [explosion, gun, whatever]. Translation: it’s not “Christian” to get all up in arms about the Christmas Wars, and it’s contrary to the “Christmas spirit.”

And “separate church and state, that’s what some lawyer said” [picture of Thomas Jefferson] “I think it’s time we separated him from his head.” Translation: it’s ignorant and unpatriotic to demonize advocates of church-state separation.

Unfortunately, as Phlebas pointed out, there is probably a sizable demographic that will take this at face value, and agree with every word (as long as they ignore the “you can call me a Christain, but that’s not true” part).

By: tamarind

tamarind — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:37:24 +0000

I thought it was funny. This kind of thing really shouldn’t be taken too seriously. It was good satire.

By: phlebas

phlebas — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 15:39:25 +0000

When we were watching it, we kept thinking “should I be enjoying this?” But by the end, it was all so over the top that we were sure Toby was being as satirical as Willie Nelson.

But we did check, and it appears that’s not one of his songs from his albums. It appears to have been written just for the Colbert Christmas special.

That said, I bet Toby has a lot of fans who agreed with it…

By: Katsu

Katsu — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:26:56 +0000

It’s honestly hard to put Toby Keith in a simple box or caricature; he’s definitely got his own opinions about things, and I don’t think he toes anyone’s party line. Knowing what I do about him (I actually like his music as well)… I mean, it’s *possible*, but considering we’re looking at a video that involves dropping Christmas trees like bombs, a santa-hat-wearing mushroom cloud, and Jesus flying a WWI style fighter plane, I just have a hard time believing it was intended seriously. Especially not on the Colbert Report. You can usually tell when people are trying to take themselves seriously on that show, and this really doesn’t seem to be one of those times. I’d tend to place it as Toby Keith giving the middle finger to both sides – us because he’s Christian and likes Christmas, and the religious right because calling this a war is as utterly ridiculous as… well, dropping Christmas trees like bombs.

By: Falterer

Falterer — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:52:41 +0000

This isn’t a joke on the “Christian right”, but neither is it truly a part of it. It’s an uneducated and intentionally unrefined attempt to satirize political sensitivity to the word “Christmas”. Popular public perception is that militant atheists (I know, I know) and misguided politicians are trying to get rid of the word. It’s seen as part of a silly trend of foolish political over-correctness. This isn’t so much about atheism as it is about that trend, and how annoying Toby Keith finds it. We’re supposed to be endeared by the gruff, unrefined, in-your-face, anti-politically-correctness of it all.

By: Cain

Cain — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:35:05 +0000

I’m pretty sure Keith knows exactly what he’s doing. Despite his jingoistic tone after 9/11, he’s always described himself as a Democrat and supported Obama this year. He’s definitely in on the joke here.

Although I admit, this is a great example of Poe’s Law.

By: Badger3k

Badger3k — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:55:37 +0000

I found myself confused as well. Keith has pretty much fallen into wingnut-land full throttle, but the way the song was done (and written) sounds like bad satire instead of something serious. However, much of what the fundies do sounds just like satire, so I am unsure. Poe or not Poe?

Likewise, Colbert’s views are as muddled. I knew he grew up Roman Catholic (IIRC), and he supposedly was going to Church during his “this week in god” parts. But then he’s lately made comments (during the show) that make me wonder how much is satire and how much reflects either a very liberal christianity that has no problems poking itself with a sharp stick, or if he is leaning towards a freethinker of some kind. Penn Gillette claims to know, but (at least from his old radio show) he wasn’t going to say.