Last month page 429 of hate mail was posted, and on it a letter from someone named “Debra.” This last weekend my response to Debra turned a fan into a hate mailer… named Mike. His letter and my response have been posted on that page directly below Debra’s. As always, your comments welcome.
Tetchy! Bob, the letter does not claim that it would be wrong to depict santa being waterboarded, or even to depict santa being waterboarded for no reason. It merely tries to say that if you were to depict santa getting waterboarded just because it looks funny, PEOPLE WON’T GET IT.
Why is there always an insistence on catering to morons? Who gives a fuck if idiots won’t get it? They have countless hours of reality television to enjoy.
Mike,
Look up the word “satire” in the dictionary. Then check it out in the encyclopedia. Read some. I swear, it’ll open up a new world for you.
And then watch the film “The Life of Brian.” Then go write Terry Jones or Eric Idle a hate mail about making light of the Crucifixion.
When you’re done hate-mailing them, please do the same to that Australian guy, Mel Gibson. His crucifixion satire was the WORST!
P.S. to Bob:
There’s only one commandment in the Church of the SubGenius.
FUCK ‘EM IF THEY CAN’T TAKE A JOKE!
Praise “Bob,” and praise Bob, too.
Oh…couldn’t resist:
Hellbound Alleee I quite agree with you except for
When you’re done hate-mailing them, please do the same to that Australian guy, Mel Gibson. His crucifixion satire was the WORST!
Mel Gibson may be as crazy as a shithouse rat that’s been smoking crack and bashing it’s head against a wall for 30 years but he ‘aint no Aussie!
Subject: Ok, NOW I hate you.
From: Mike Pelletier
To: bob@normalbobsmith.com
> In conclusion, suffering fictional characters are a threat to humanity.
Bob, you know that is a gross misrepresentation of my position.
Everyone who sees it knows that. I think I was clear that I was not
commenting on the ethics or morality of what you were doing, but
simply on your artistic ability and honesty. That is, I am not
distinguishing between right and wrong, just fine and poor. It is
intended as criticism, not insult. You know criticism, it’s how you
got to be where you are today. It’s not a bad thing.
Waterboarding Santa — your example, I think — is obviously not going
to literally tear a country apart any more than the Dutch comics did,
or any Tijuana Bible did. My point was that if you were to use the
imagery of (again, merely for example) waterboarding, which has a lot
of modern connotations attached to it, for a stupid throw away joke
that has nothing to do with any of those connotations, you’d have to
be a shit artist who doesn’t really have anything useful to say.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, I also apologized for my comments, which I
regretted making. (Aren’t you editing our correspondence a bit
dishonestly to exclude that part?) I don’t really care to be your
fodder, but I guess I’m easily provoked these days, so here’s some
more. Also, the usual way to conduct correspondence is to reply to
the person you are talking to, which does not seem to have happened.
Technical difficulties?
Good job scoring points, folks. It’s nice to find out what we look like from other people’s point of view. (We don’t look that great.)
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