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Samantha Bee Called Young Man a Nazi. Then Apologized. Kinda.
Samantha Bee is not funny. She hosts a TBS show named “Full Frontal,” which mimics the hard-left fake-news template of “The Daily Show.” The latter show still exists, hosted by the not-funny Trevor Noah, while the not-funny Seth Meyers and the once-funny Stephen Colbert mine the same depleted vein on their own late-night talk shows.
All of these programs are intended as Comedy, but are better described as Urban Liberals Yelling At Americans Who Disagree With Them. Here’s how the formula works:
- Play an out-of-context clip of a Republican.
- Show the host staring into the camera, crinkling his/her nose, opening his/her eyes wide, or tapping his/her pencil.
- Peals of digitally enhanced laughter from the live audience, as home viewers check Netflix.
You don’t tune into “Full Frontal” for jokes or satire, but common snark and mockery of The Other. It’s Orwell’s Two Minutes Hate with a laugh track. On Wednesday night, Ms. Bee cast CPAC as Emmanuel Goldstein, cleverly labeling attendees fascists. In a segment focusing on the gathering, Bee said, “This year, the bow ties were gone, replaced by Nazi hair, Nazi hair, Nazi hair.” As she said this, several attendees were shown, including 20-year-old student Kyle Coddington.
#LOL #NaziHair
However, Coddington’s sister jumped on Twitter Thursday morning with the backstory:
When @iamsambee makes fun of your brother for having “Nazi hair.” He actually has stage 4 brain cancer, but whatever floats your boat. pic.twitter.com/ULJC8nA3IX
— Megan Coddington (@meg_kelly16) March 9, 2017
After the above tweet received much attention, “Full Frontal” staff apologized.
@meg_kelly16 We deeply apologize for offending you and @_that_kyle. We only learned of his condition today & have removed him from the piece
— Samantha Bee (@iamsambee) March 9, 2017
In addition, the show donated $1,000 to Coddington’s GoFundMe page, which notes he’s fighting stage 4 glioblastoma.
We rarely see apologies offered between partisans of the left and right, even of the weaselly “we’re sorry you were offended” variety. That, combined with the generous donation, deserves credit. But several right-leaning partisans tossed the olive branch in a wood chipper.
Sure, she apologized to the cancer victim, but what about the others? Will she stop calling everyone to the right of Hillary Clinton a Nazi? How about her nightly deceptive video edits ridiculing figures public and private?
Granted, it’s up to Mr. Coddington alone whether to accept Bee’s apology and forgive her ugly behavior. I turn to you, Ricochetti: Should he?
Published in General
Not my call. However, her apology appears to be little more than kabuki theater. I had heard of Bee, in the same way I’ve heard of Kathie Lee Gifford. I’ve never come across their work in the course of my normal diversions and when I did, I was more puzzled as to how and why others consider them noteworthy.
I believe @catorand comes the closest that Kyle should, in that it’s not worth much more consideration. Though, as Jesus says, Matthew 5:43-48, our call is to forgive the unforgivable.
Bee’s “right” apology would be to apologize to everyone, and take up landscaping for a living.
There should be a Post called “John Stewart Daily Show Derivatives”. This post would go through the less funny, much more lame, less creative, and redundant spin off shows (or wanna be’s) of the original Daily show. The former Colbert Report is the exception – because he created his own brand character that was a hit in its own right, now at CBS Colbert has gone down hill w/o his character. Whether you like Stewart or not, he really built up a show that became a cultural force. Stewart’s Daily show was something more novel and creative though. Stewart was a liberal, but he made an effort to not totally pile on. I heard him actually say some positive things about the Tea Party and some conservatives. He tried to make some effort to be more objective in cases, but never abandoned his bread & butter. These Derivative shows are like moral neo-Puritan progressive preachers yelling at you on how to be. I’m worn out on it and tune it out now. I no longer bother with certain areas of entertainment shows.
Agreed. that is the Quote of the Day.
Am I the only one who sees the irony in Samantha Bee mocking any hair style when half her male demographic is sporting “man buns”???
That she has to mock haircuts is telling, in and of itself. There is no “there” there.
I hope I might live to see the day when snark is no longer considered to be comedy.
Sounds like Kyle is not happy with the “apology”. Oh, and he’s a Democrat according to USAToday.
Jon, before I even got to the conclusion of the piece, I was thinking the same thing. I think it’s safe to assume that none of the people with “Nazi hair” chose their hairstyles to evoke Hitler and the National Socialist Party. It’s almost irrelevant that Kyle Coddington’s haircut was the result of his illness. If none of the objects of derision chose their haircuts because of an admiration of Nazis, then they all deserve apologies – not just those who have illnesses.
There’s another fact worth noting: Samantha Bee is not a U.S. citizen. Of course she has a right to appear on U.S. TV and make fun of Americans. But whenever I read something about her or John Oliver or Piers Morgan criticizing our country and its citizens, I think the same thing: I cannot imagine going to another country, appearing on their television networks, and criticizing them. In fact, I can’t even imagine doing it if I were to become a naturalized citizen of the country. I might have the right to do it, but it wouldn’t feel right to me.
He should accept the apology on his own behalf but continue to criticize her for doing that to others, including people without cancer, in the first place. (Apparently it is also a common hipster haircut.)
I think we want to encourage people to show remorse. But I think her apology is too narrow. The fundamental lesson is about not judging a book by its cover and I don’t think she got it by a long shot. We should encourage the conditions for both magnanimity and remorse while at the same time making sure that we are serious about remorse and not letting people skate by on empty gestures.
Jon, I have tried three times to reply. Thanks for this post, by the way. I had heard a little about the story, but you covered it well.
Every time I have tried to reply, it just turns into a rant.
This Canadian has a net worth of $2.5 million that she made by making fun of the country that made her the $2.5 million.
I wonder where she gets her health care?
That’s all I am willing to extract from my previous rant. Thanks again, Jon. I’m keeping an eye on this piece of trash.
Look on the bright side. At least when called on it, she didn’t respond “Hey, even Nazis get brain cancer”.
Nazi hair…
Nazi hair…
Nazi hair…
Nazi Hair…
Isn’t 47 a little old to be telling juvenile Nazi “jokes”? Even for a Canadian?
That “Nazi Hair” is actually very popular with urban hipsters, and I associate urban hipsters as Lefties (but I suppose not all men wearing their hair like that are Lefties…. just mostly)
As I interpret the apology-tweet it came from Ms Bee’s “team”, not from her personally. Maybe it was the team that came up with the nasty tweet in the first place but it’s under her name and she should apologise on her own behalf. Ideally she should tweet a video of her apology. Anything less is just weasel-words.
So, if I get this right, she apologized because its obvious that a guy with cancer can’t be a Nazi, but anyone else with a similar haircut is a Nazi.
How dumb do you have to be to watch these shows?
Bald Heads Matter
Because I’m a bad Christian, I say he should not accept her apology unless she extends it to every single person who attended CPAC. And gives each apology personally — not from her “team.” Then I would find a good lawyer and sue her for defamation of character.
A former president once said “Punch back twice as hard.” The only way to get Samantha Bee and her ilk to stop is to make it painful for them.
Exactly. Which makes her apology meaningless.
Sue her into oblivion.
Far from there being too many lawyers, there are not enough lawyers being employed by conservatives to make life more painful for the left.
Interesting statement from this young man:
Pitch-perfect I’d say.
Another Canadian import we don’t want or need. Why does Canada hate us? Build a Wall!
An apology is merely an expression of regret that something happened. Had the fellow not had cancer, she wouldn’t even have said that.
Furthermore, she not only did not acknowledge any fault on her part, but she did not ask him to forgive her. I doubt seriously she cares if he does.
I had not heard of this controversy until this post, and so the photo here is the only photo I have seen. We don’t have a big “hipster” crowd where I live, but I have seen quite a bit of this type of style very short or shaved along the sides, and either bushy or carefully coiffed on top (along with other styles that require careful and frequent maintenance – which at $50 – 60 every couple of weeks makes my hair guy very happy as he puts up with giving me my $12 buzz cut).
Since I just see young men wanting to have unique hairstyles that are different from their fathers’, I guess I’m missing some supposed social controversy?
This. The question is how? And there are probably multiple ways.
One thing all these celebrity elites share in common is the desire to be loved and respected. They crave it. So – I would think one of the better ways to respond is with with a taste of their own medicine – mockery. The foolishness and absurdities spewed by leftist celebrities should be dissected and mocked on-air. A regular half-hour program starring the likes of Dennis Miller would be a good start.
I wonder why She doesn’t show Men with beards, robes, and turbans and call Them “terrorists.”
Well, actually 47 Canadian is only about 35 American; and 35 year old Americans live with Their Parents and are on Their insurance… so….
One of the dumbest things about it is that the haircut doesn’t even look like Nazis anyway. It’s merely the latest hair trend among the young. It has zero to do with political affiliations; in fact, you can find this haircut frequently among young left-wingers:
They need to bring back the dry look.
I watched Samantha Bee once and I watched Amy Schumer once. I do this with all the comedians that the hep, kool kids dig because I like to keep up with the culture. Samantha Bee is profoundly unfunny and Amy Schumer is only slightly better. It’s a truism put forth by Jimmy Norton that as a general rule female comedians are just not as funny as male comedians. The newer crop of comedians are just not as funny as those who preceded them. Saturday Night Live needs to be put out of it’s misery since it’s no longer a comedy show but an hour and a half of humorless left wing agitprop. Trevor Noah is painful to watch and if you were able to outlaw the making of goofy faces while playing news clips Jon Stewart would have no act at all. I was lucky enough to catch Jay Leno doing a live stand-up at a theater in L.A. back in the 80’s and he was absolutely hilarious. I don’t remember one curse word and when the show was over his political leanings remained a mystery.
That is similar with Jim Gaffigan. He first came on the scene, in a big way, in the early 2000s. About five years ago, in an interview, he was asked “Why don’t you go into politics in your act?” His response was essentially this (a paraphrase) “I wanted to remain relevant for longer than one presidency. Everyone that was anti-Bush when I came on the scene don’t do shows anymore. But, I’m still selling out arenas because I talk about food and everyone can relate to that.”
Agree! Leno and Gaffigan are hilarious, and clean. I grew up listening to albums by one of the funniest men who ever lived, but is now sadly persona non grata, Bill Cosby. “Driving in San Francisco” and “Why is there air?” and “Noah” and all of his tales about him and his brother Russell, have never been matched for hilarity, in my opinion. “Bill Cosby: 49” is a must-watch for anyone nearing, at, or over that age.
Yet all those albums, all those videos, he never stooped to the curse word to get a laugh.
I exercise the Benedict option when it comes to popular culture. Intellects that are a mile wide and an inch deep don’t hold my interest, except to prove that some adults are quite capable of drowning in the shallow end of the pool.