A pity, there were plenty of things they could have contributed to in terms of promoting skepticism for all.

As for the rest – yes, in other work, Minchin has mostly stereotyped male characters as being the target of his parody and satire. He’s quite open to criticism – in fact, the entire episode of ABC’ ‘Enough Rope’ interview with Andrew Denton could be seen as a direct and powerful investigation of claims that Minchin had a racist reference prominent in one song – and went into depth into how Minchin acknowledged and changed his work after serious consideration about what he really intended to say with his work and how it could be misinterpreted. I hope that the example of Jamal is of use to Aerik, despite it all.

People are more than open to contact Minchin himself about what he does; there is a fan-forum board where Questions/ Answers are posted and got back to in a fairly timely manner (well, with touring schedules and all).

This does not mean that I’m saying that the stereotype is an accurate representation of the New Age population. I don’t believe it is. But you have to use something when you represent a population, and a stereotype is usually useful, as long as it is not offensive (such as the many negative racial and gender stereotypes). I don’t find the stereotype used by Tim to be that offensive at all, since I do know people like that. And when you have two genders to pick, it’s 50-50.

Posted by Tim on November 4, 2008

ok… go easy on jamal. he got pissed off, which is understandable to an extent. we’ve chatted. i like him. he’s smart.
x

And the ‘entire new song – which deals with the issue of the power of the language of prejudice’ that he mentions is featured on an earlier blog-post of mine. You can find it here at the end of another blog post – it is called ‘Taboo’: http://podblack.com/?p=1113

In that work, you might very well say that he’s endorsing ‘a hatred of straw-men and their insufferably emotional immaturity and shallowness’. Or is that not allowed in comedy either?

As for the rest – I think you might have to ask Minchin about his use of hyperbole and whether he actually disrespects women? I know that on the comments on his site, he is more than happy to talk about accusations regarding his work. You may find that he doesn’t deserve your summation, quite frankly.

The link is here: http://www.timminchin.com/2008/11/03/australian-tour-2009&pagetype=comments#comments

And forgive the cut-and-paste, but here is how he responded to another person about the accusation of ‘racist material’:

Posted by Tim on November 4, 2008

Response to Jamal. (Comment on Nov 3rd)

Hey there Jamal, thanks for your comment.

I haven’t yet seen the Enough Rope interview… it certainly wasn’t my intention to whinge about people not getting the joke. Maybe it was edited in such a way that removed my contrition. The whole reason I dropped the joke was because I didn’t think it was worthy of the offense it may cause and would even agree with you that it was stupid of me to try to get away with it.

However. It is – I’m sure – offensive to SOME people when I use the phrases “cot-death”, “i love jesus, i hate faggots”, “Thalidomide kid”, “boombalata motherfucker”, “jew in the ku klux klan”, “architect of the world trade centre”, “cunt”, “fuck”, “your mouth is for sucking cock”, “evolution is right”, “if your daughter gets raped and refuses to marry the rapist, stone her to death”, “finger up the bum”, “let me video you while you wee”… i could go on and on and fucking on. I assume you haven’t heard a great deal of my material, but I do manage – believe it or not – to say all the above things and still have people happily laughing, whether they be young, old, male, female, black, yellow, white or fucking indigo.

One of my main interests is examining what causes offense and in creating contexts within which we can laugh at them. Regarding the line in question: some of my friends thought the “n-word” should stay in, some thought it should go. I have black friends who thought I should leave it (although admittedly they were also comedians who believe you should push the boundaries of taste)! I removed it because I decided most black people wouldn’t find it funny, and I don’t want to be the sort of comedian that divides audiences because of their race. I want to divide audiences in other ways! There are some jokes that offend people which I leave in, because I’m not in the habit of creating comedy that caters only for people who have knee-jerk reactions. It’s nothing to do with who has had a uni education, it’s to do with thoughtfulness.

By the way Jamal, you’ve done pretty well in your description of me. I don’t know if I’m particularly “sensitive”, and i’m certainly not “new-age” (a great deal of my material is rather critical of vague, new-age thinking), but I do like soy milk in coffee (it just makes it nuttier which I like – do you have a particular issue with milk-types?), I am university educated (for which I’m very grateful – is it bad? should I have not taken the opportunity to go to uni? – although the vast majority of my learning I have done since then through reading books and stuff), I have voted Labour (although I’m not a massively political being, I was appalled by the Liberal party’s fear-mongering over immigration, unimpressed by their work-place relations legislation, unhappy with their support of the arts, not particularly enamored of their lofty attitude to the plight of Aboriginal Australians and very much against their support of the invasion of Iraq), and I do like to think I’m quite creative and arty (should I not be?).

At the risk of going all latin on your ass, “ad hominem” attacks are a form of argument where rather than dealing with the issue, you attack the character of the person you disagree with. The second half of your message was cool, even if I feel the need to defend and explain myself. The first half was fucking nonsense which merely put you offside with me and pretty much everyone else who reads this page. Something I learn more and more in defending my contentious material is that there’s no point trying to argue your case if you immediately put the “enemy” offside.

You also damaged your cred by claiming that I think I can use the “n-word” whenever I want… which is so clearly not the case. The whole reason the discussion is even happening is that I DON’T think it can be used whenever one wants… in fact, it turns out i don’t think it can be used EVEN after asserting that racism goes hand in hand with ignorance.

I do however, have an entire new song that deals with this issue of the power of the language of prejudice. I think you’d like it.

With respect (honestly),
Tim.

As if it weren’t in fact mostly male spiritual hucksters in control of anti-science ideologies everywhere.

And also, when you call somebody a “hippie” you lose the argument immediately. It’s as dependable and revealing of the speaker’s mind as Godwin’s Law.

What the fuck is with the “butterflies on their titties” bit at the end? He didn’t say he ever saw the woman’s breasts. What possible purpose does this imagery serve but to invoke a hatred of straw-women and their insufferable emotionally immature sluttiness?

As if there weren’t enough men with stupid tattoos, with ‘tribal armbands’ and “chinese characters” and the like.

As if woo leaders aren’t usually, you know, very supposedly ‘wholesome’ and usually old. Richard Hoagland, Kent Hovind, John Edward, Sylvia Browne, Benny Hinn, etc. etc. etc. And their followers are largely middle-aged as well.

… just… fuck this guy.