America Just Can’t Handle The Truth!

By now everyone has heard Ricky Gervais’ funny sign-off from the Golden Globes broadcast when he said, “And thank you to God for making me an atheist.”  Being more interested in the fashion police than the thought police, I missed the festival of indignation that followed. Now more than a week later, Richard Dawkins linked to this article from The Sunday Times of London and I got caught up (available free from The Australian):

The US has 210 television market areas, or regions. By the Monday morning NBC bosses had had their ears bent by managers from dozens, ranging from the liberal Bangor, in Maine, to the deeply conservative Corpus Christi, in Texas. The problem was Gervais’s final flourish, and they questioned why NBC had not “bleeped” it out as it would swearing. The truth was, NBC did not see it coming.

I’ve lost the ability to be surprised by this behavior.  It’s sort of like when my nervous maltese hears the phone ring and goes berserk.  I’m used to it by now and trying to stop him just adds my noise to his.

Seriously though, I can’t reason with my dog and no one can reason with these folks.  Gervais was just poking fun at the thank you’s his colleagues are always directing to their gods.  The Times writer found a solid American to explain to the rest of the English speaking world that messing with religion just ain’t ‘ceptable ‘round these parts:

“Britons who make it in America are often too urban to realise how honestly offensive they are in what program-makers dismiss as the ‘flyover states’,” says Hal Hinson, a former TV critic for The Washington Post. “And that was 10m of those who watched the Globes.”

Please.  Does he really think that Gervais is an idiot?  He was f*****g with people!  Remember Kathy Griffin’s 2007 Emmy speech?

“A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus,” an exultant Griffin said, holding up her statuette. “Suck it, Jesus. This award is my god now.”

That line was NEVER heard again on commercial TV!  No one who subsequently re-broadcast the show or her speech ran it unedited.  What do Ms. Griffin and Mr. Gervais have in common?  They are atheist comics who use humor to express their opinions.

Too bad so many real Amurricans can’t abide hearing someone else’s opinion.