When Did People Get So Humorless?

In general, I'm talking about any and all special interest groups who take themselves too seriously - equally on the right and the left.  Everyone has gotten so focused on being politically correct and supporting their personal causes these days, that we've gone to the other extreme and have become a nation of humorless gits.

Yesterday, I was watching television and saw a rather amusing commercial for Newcastle Brown Ale. At least, I found it amusing. (BTW, you have to check out Newcastle's website - it's pretty impressive.) Anyway, I googled the commercial to watch it again and instead came across a Ms. Magazine blog post about how this commercial was degrading to women and sexist! Umm...What?!  Before I give you my opinion, take a look:

When you watch the commercial, it's obvious that the "female brewmaster" is a man and therefore can be considered an unattractive woman. What is all the brouhaha over this dumb 30 second commercial? The Ms. Magazine post was not the only complaint. There were a few other blogs which registered some woman's fury about this commercial. Now, I'm an intelligent, well-read, modern woman who believes in feminist causes but I'm not going to go to such an extreme with my beliefs that I lose my sense of humor over things. This commercial is not offensive. It is funny! Maybe these women just don't get British humor, but I personally save my ire for things that actually matter. Oh, like the fact the women's reproductive rights are being whittled away by right-wing extremists (see my Vagina Warriors post). That's something to get angry over, but a beer commercial??  No! I've got way too many other things in my life that are far more worrisome.

Should men get upset every time a commercial shows them as being witless buffoons?  If so, they'll be picketing pretty much every ad agency and corporation on a daily basis. You have to give men credit for that! Or maybe it's just that men recognize that they are witless buffoons, so they just laugh at themselves and move on.  (See what I did there?)

I saw another posting about whether saying "that's so gay" is derogatory. <sigh> Really? Has it come to this? As with everything, it's the context in which these statements are being used that is offensive. In general, most people who use that phrase aren't using it as a homophobic slur.  I know I've used this statement myself and I'm not homophobic. This statement has been around for so many years that it has become completely innocuous, except when some homophobic jerk uses it. Then you have reason to get upset.

Maybe we should all take a word of advice from George Carlin - there are no bad words, just bad context.  [Warning: explicit language - unsurprisingly]

Thank you, George, for once again being the voice of reason and sanity.  RIP!