Denis Leary Promotes Rescue Me With Homophobic Slur, Jokes About His Children Burning Alive
If you are gearing up to promote your television series on a talk show, you have several choices: 1) You can prepare a TV-ready anecdote about something hilarious that happened on-set (See: Jonah Hill's story about being reprimanded by his hero while filming Curb Your Enthusiasm); 2) You can prepare a TV-ready anecdote about something interesting in your personal life (See: Kristen Stewart's description of her real-life pet wolves); or 3) If you are Denis Leary, you can put together a startlingly homophobic anecdote about something that was said in poor taste to Derek Jeter on the set of Rescue Me.
The coarse comic visited The Daily Show last night, where he first tried genuinely complimenting Jon Stewart's usage of puppets. When that did not go over well, the Rescue Me star told the audience about the time Derek Jeter tried complimenting Leary and Leary's co-star Steven Pasquale on their work as television heroes. What followed was a punchline that conflated acting with a homophobic slur (one that Leary has defended before) and, by extension, being a sissy. Gay firefighters will no doubt be thrilled. To further illustrate the gag, Leary went on to joke: "If one of my kids caught on fire, I would probably start screaming louder than them and then roll them around and scream and cry." Classy.
All of which raises the question: When is it right for a talk show host to scold his/her guest on-air -- and when is it right for a talk show host to double over with laughter in response to his guest's epithets, as Jon Stewart did last night? Consider Exhibit A:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Comments
Some of you are pretty f*cking weird. The guy who says he makes it a POINT to be anti-gay, um, to be that angry and hateful towards people who aren't doing anything to you, says everything needed to know about the type of person you are.
It's about respect. First off, Denis Leary lied or misremembered, Steven Pasquale did not use that word. Secondly, people making excuses for this. No, it's not even handed. You don't hear people calling blacks the N-word, women the C-word or Hispanics any assortment of slurs. You do NOT hear this. You don't hear people making fun of cancer patients, or war heroes, and if they do, they are condemned.
What this comes down to truly is, a large portion of society unfortunately doesn't take gay/lesbian people seriously, do not respect them, and then blame THEM for being offended while bigots use degrading and offensive words. This would ALL be avoided, had Denis Leary had the respect to not be as offensive as he was. And he doesn't, and neither do any of you apologists. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Treat others the way you want to be treated, something I learned when I was a child. Why grown adults cannot do this, I don't know.
You have no problems using the word faggot referring to homosexual persons, even when you know full well that word is offensive and the meaning behind that word carries a lot of pain. But you wouldn't dare call a hispanic man a spic in his face. You wouldn't call a woman a stupid b*tch and c*nt in her face in front of her kids. People like you don't respect gay people, and you don't see gay people on the same plane as other people. You don't hear comedians saying these sorts of things about blacks, and if they did, there would be hell to pay. People like you have this lower-than-humanity view of LGBT people, and that is exactly what this comes down to. And you denigrate them and use lower-that-humanity speech directed towards them. If someone called you a breeder redneck 100 times, I'm sure you wouldn't like it. But you genuinely don't see anything wrong in being anti-gay. And that's exactly why words like this need to be condemned. Because it is wrong to be anti-gay. And no excuses will change that fact.
The fact the audience laughed at his homophobia is basically nothing more than reprehensible. Pussies is not=women, because women are more than a pussy. He said fags, INTENTIONALLY, because he connected being a FAGGOT=weak, bitch, loser. Let's get real, the joke was intentionally anti-gay in nature. Who are you to say what isn't homophobic? Um, if gay people are offended, there is a reason for that. I'm not gay, and I was extremely offended, because those words cause all sorts of problems to the people they are directed to. It is NOT an overreaction when words like fag are used every day to abuse gay people for who they are. And dude, look in the dictionary, gay=happy and is also means homosexual. There is no if, and or buts about it, faggot is a known gay slur. It's OFFENSIVE and DISRESPECTFUL towards gay people. But I guess, since you have no respect towards gay and lesbian individuals, you think you can say whatever you want about them. I wonder if you would defend Denis Leary calling Asians chinks.
And don't worry, LGBT groups are doing what it takes to make sure they are afforded all of the rights as heterosexuals. And that starts at the bottom. If people think it's OK to slur and disrespect people for their sexuality, and don't take the issue seriously, then progress will never be made. And a kid will kill himself because of the hatred and indifference of people like you. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Do you even realize you are guilty of the very thing you are railing about, when you use the phrase, "People like you. . ."? What kind of "people" do you mean, the type who lumps large segments of citizens into a convenient category?
People like you=People who have no problem using gay slurs=anti-gays=bigots.
Unfortunately, large segments of society are anti-gay bigots. Unlike being gay, which is a perfectly legal thing which affects no-one, being anti-gay affects us all, as it creates a climate of hate, stigma and negativity. So, what am I guilty of? Being a realist with the sad reality of how many people behave.
Well in my circle there are numerous gay men. Our female friends refer to them as "fags", and "Queens", they refer to the women as "fag-hags". Me and my ilk are sometimes called "breeders", "rednecks", and even "Nazis". So by that formula all in the crowd are the bigots?
As you know, it's the intent and context and the attitude behind the word. Saying "what's happening my fags" "hey nigga, what's poppin'" or "you stupid breeder, you don't know what's hot" in joking ways is different than saying "faggots are weak and spineless crybabies who aren't REAL fighters or really brave, ie. they are not real men". That is EXACTLY what Denis Leary said, that faggots=weak. Faggot=not a man. That is basically homophobia 101. And this is something Denis has said in the past. So no, he does not get a free pass for his comment. It was beyond hurtful, offensive and degradation against gay men, and really, an apology is worthless, because it doesn't change his mindset or what he was thinking at that moment. But it's sad when someone who is as popular as him on a show as popular as the Daily Show would go as far as he did in trashing a group of people who get trashed enough elsewhere. Comedy Central you would think would be a station about laughs, of course some will be offensive, but to flat out degrade a group of people? Not funny, not acceptable.
You are so angry and hateful towards people who are doing absolutely nothing to you. That shows everyone that it's you with the problem and you are blaming your issues on others. Instead of spreading irrational hate, maybe try to be a good person and a positive person, that makes the world a better place to live for everyone.
You don't hear people calling blacks the N-word, women the C-word or Hispanics any assortment of slurs. You do NOT hear this. You don't hear people making fun of cancer patients, or war heroes, and if they do, they are condemned.
Yes, yes you do, at any comedy club in the country, and no, they're not condemned. If it's material that's carefully crafted by someone talented (Carlin, Louis CK), they get laughs. Leary is a comedian and a guest on a comedy show, hosted by a comedian. I don't agree with his word choice, and I'm glad that Steven Pasquale has spoken out against it, but I'm also not surprised when it comes up between two comics.
For fags sake people get a fucking sense of humor. I have gay friends and even THEY use the word "fag". Cast the first stone assholes.
This is great! How did you learn this stuff when you were getting started?
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