{"id":565,"date":"2011-01-26T13:42:00","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T13:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/01\/america-just-cant-handle-the-truth.html"},"modified":"2011-01-26T13:42:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-26T13:42:00","slug":"america-just-cant-handle-the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/01\/america-just-cant-handle-the-truth.html","title":{"rendered":"America Just Can’t Handle The Truth!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By now everyone has heard Ricky Gervais\u2019 funny sign-off from the Golden Globes broadcast when he said, \u201cAnd thank you to God for making me an atheist.\u201d\u00a0 Being more interested in the fashion police than the thought police, I missed the festival of indignation that followed.\u00a0Now more than a week later, Richard Dawkins linked to this article from\u00a0The Sunday Times<\/i>\u00a0of London\u00a0and I got caught up\u00a0(available free from The Australian<\/i><\/a>):<\/p>\n

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\u2019s final flourish, and they questioned why NBC had not \u201cbleeped\u201d it out as it would swearing. The truth was, NBC did not see it coming.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019ve lost the ability to be surprised by this behavior.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like when my nervous maltese hears the phone ring and goes berserk.\u00a0 I\u2019m used to it by now and trying to stop him just adds my noise to his.<\/p>\n

Seriously though, I can\u2019t reason with my dog and no one can reason with these folks.\u00a0 Gervais was just poking fun at the thank you\u2019s his colleagues are always directing to their gods.\u00a0 The Times <\/i>writer found a solid American to explain to the rest of the English speaking world that messing with religion just ain\u2019t \u2018ceptable \u2018round these parts:<\/p>\n

\u201cBritons who make it in America are often too urban to realise how honestly offensive they are in what program-makers dismiss as the \u2018flyover states\u2019,\u201d says Hal Hinson, a former TV critic for The Washington Post. \u201cAnd that was 10m of those who watched the Globes.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Please.\u00a0 Does he really think that Gervais is an idiot?\u00a0 He was f*****g with people!\u00a0 Remember Kathy Griffin\u2019s 2007 Emmy speech?<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cA 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,\u201d an exultant Griffin said, holding up her statuette. \u201cSuck it, Jesus. This award is my god now.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That line was NEVER heard again on commercial TV!\u00a0 No one who subsequently re-broadcast the show or her speech ran it unedited.\u00a0 What do Ms. Griffin and Mr. Gervais have in common?\u00a0 They are atheist comics who use humor to express their opinions.<\/p>\n

Too bad so many real Amurricans can\u2019t abide hearing someone else\u2019s opinion.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By now everyone has heard Ricky Gervais\u2019 funny sign-off from the Golden Globes broadcast when he said, \u201cAnd thank you to God for making me an atheist.\u201d\u00a0 Being more interested in the fashion police than the thought police, I missed the festival of indignation that followed.\u00a0Now more than a week later, Richard Dawkins linked to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogentries","tag-atheism"],"yoast_head":"\nAmerica Just Can't Handle The Truth!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By now everyone has heard Ricky Gervais\u2019 funny sign-off from the Golden Globes broadcast when he said, \u201cAnd thank you to God for making me an atheist.\u201d\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/01\/america-just-cant-handle-the-truth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"America Just Can't Handle The Truth!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By now everyone has heard Ricky Gervais\u2019 funny sign-off from the Golden Globes broadcast when he said, \u201cAnd thank you to God for making me an atheist.\u201d\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theatheistrabbi\/2011\/01\/america-just-cant-handle-the-truth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Atheist Rabbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-26T13:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey L. 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