The New Church Ladies Are On The Left
"Church" Ladies. Ironically, that's a Dana Carvey Saturday Night Live character.
Classic Saturday Night Live humor -- back from when it was funny -- will get you axed from social media these days.
Quin Hillyer writes at WashEx about experiencing this personally -- and P.S. We all used to go around saying this back in the day:
Twitter, you ignorant slut.The randomness, humorlessness, and cultural tone-deafness of Twitter's censors is a sight (or maybe a site?) to behold. My Twitter account has been suspended because, in reply to a direct request for 1970s-era Saturday Night Live references, I repeated, yes, a once-famous, 1970s-era SNL line.
On Twitter, people often have fun with random nostalgia games. Somebody named Jon B. Wolfsthal posted this : "Tell me you watched SNL in the 1970s without saying you watched SNL in the 1970s." To which, almost immediately, playing off the phonetic similarity of his first name with that of onetime SNL star Jane Curtin, I wrote: "Jon, you ignorant slut." As my reply was directly responsive to what Wolfsthal had requested, he quickly both "liked" and retweeted it.
After all, for some 20 years or more, for those of a certain broad age range, the saying "Jane, you ignorant slut" was a catchphrase, a way for people (at parties, or while watching ballgames with friends, or whatever) to laugh while feigning mutual displeasure.
For the uninitiated, SNL stars Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd did a mock "Point/Counterpoint" segment every week in which they pretended to debate some item in the news. After Curtin made her first point, Aykroyd would start his response by saying the "ignorant slut" line . If Curtin again replied, she often would start by saying, "Dan, you pompous ass." Or worse.
It was a spoof, and the way those two did it, it was usually hilarious. And to this day, Curtin defends it as contextually appropriate and funny .
Anyway, after my brief reply Tweet, I smiled and went about my business. This was a rather unremarkable, friendly Twitter exchange.
Until about 24 hours later -- that is, on Saturday evening, when I received a note from Twitter saying my account had been "locked for violating the Twitter rules. Specifically for: Violating our rules against hateful conduct. You may not promote violence against, threaten, or harass other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease." And it said the "slut" Tweet was the one in violation.
...Well, as I knew I had not harassed or threatened anyone or belittled any of those classes of people, I was baffled. I took Twitter's offer to appeal and wrote a very polite note explaining the context of Wolfsthal's Tweet and of the SNL skit. And, very quickly, I received a reply: "Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision."
Still suspended. And the only way I can reactivate it, according to the instructions sent by the "support team," is to admit I violated their rules.
Well, I violated no rules. Not theirs, and not any rules of ordinary politeness or respect, either. For that matter, Twitter is a site that allows all sorts of obscenities to be written out -- but, being old-school, I don't. Ever. I'll always use euphemisms or asterisks, and I frequently urge other Twitter followers to keep things respectful.
So writing out the F-word is OK, but repeating a well-understood, non-profane comedy line is not.
I'm looking forward to the day the DOJ falls back into Republican hands and they start a manhunt for all Youtube or Twitter or Facebook fact-checkers and impale them on stakes along the interstates. Sort of like a Spanish Inquisition style cleansing. I truly believe that these fact-checkers are a clear and present danger to humanity.
There was an interesting video of a UK doctor responding to something scientific he posted that was fact-checked. Who the fact-checkers were was quite enlightening. Mostly journalists. Surprise, surprise.
https://www.waronflu.com/dr-john-campbell-daily-coronavirus-updates/
(The one title Alternative Facts.)
ruralcounsel at November 14, 2021 8:46 PM
The Ackroyd/Curtin skit was a parody of the James Kilpatrick / Shana Alexander Point-Counterpoint segment on 60 Minutes aired by NBC rival, CBS.
Nicholas von Hoffman originally anchored the liberal side of the weekly debate, but was later replaced by Shana Alexander after being fired for referring to Richard Nixon as "the dead mouse on the kitchen floor of America, and the only question now is who's going to pick him up by his tail and throw him in the garbage."
The Point-Counterpoint debate segment on 60 Minutes was so prominent in American culture at that time, that Saturday Night Live didn't have to explain what it was parodying. Even children's shows used the format. The Electric Company used two silhouetted faces, a man and a woman countering each other, to show word pronunciations.
In the mid-nineties, I worked with a woman who used the "Jane, you ignorant slut" line on everyone who disagreed with her or vexed her. No one took offense at her use of it, usually delivered with the same exaggerated resignation used in the original delivery by Ackroyd.
Conan the Grammarian at November 15, 2021 5:31 AM
Some of this is actually ageism, We are old enough to remember SNL being funny, the Twitter team is too young and woke to know what comedy is.
It's become an inside joke to those over 25, and that just makes those under 25 even more envious, furious, and vengeful.
Joe J at November 15, 2021 6:06 AM
I didn't watch much of SNL in those days, or ever, but "Jane you ignorant slut" flooded out into the general pop culture.
In modern terms, it was a meme. I think Joe J has a good point.
I R A Darth Aggie at November 15, 2021 7:08 AM
Twitter, you ignorant slut!
I R A Darth Aggie at November 15, 2021 7:12 AM
I guess radical liberalism fills the same place in people's lives that the church did a decade or two ago. The old lady that would have given you the dirty eye for skipping church in 1991 will now scold you for not putting up a BLM sign on your lawn.
On the other hand the church ladies of the 90s were pretty much right about everything. I remember how I used to think the slippery slope argument on gay marriage was ridiculous; but 6 years after gay marriage we live in a society which accepts and encourages castrating little boys (to turn them into girls or something).
I guess some woman are made to enforce the dominant social paradigm of their society. They are annoying and unpleasant but they serve an important purpose as long as the social norms they are enforcing are good ones. Since schoolmarms are always going to exist I would rather they embrace Baptism than wokism.
ElevatorGuy at November 15, 2021 7:43 AM
So, Twitter has the same disease as the people who sneer at the nasty girls in Hustler, yet eagerly reach for that Cosmo with the article on new ways to get your boyriend off.
Not a surprise.
The sluts of Twitter manly object to the "ignorant" part, not the "slut" part. They have to hold that up as an example of female empowerment.
Radwaste at November 15, 2021 8:18 AM
"Twitter, you ignorant slut!" I R A Darth Aggie
Very true.
Joe J at November 15, 2021 9:16 AM
I got my Twitter account suspended a couple of months ago for "encouraging self-harm" which I didn't do. I will not bow down to Herr Twitler and "admit" I violated their rules when I didn't just so I can be on Twitter again. Why would I lie to give them legitimacy? So I have no Twitter account. I had recently been informed by a few people that they never saw my tweets anyway, so it's no loss.
Kent McManigal at November 15, 2021 9:17 AM
I just find it interesting slut is ok but f*ck is not.
Ben at November 15, 2021 9:21 AM
"Dan, you misguided scrag!"
mmmwright at November 15, 2021 10:11 AM
"I'm looking forward to the day the DOJ falls back into Republican hands and they start a manhunt for all Youtube or Twitter or Facebook fact-checkers and impale them on stakes along the interstates."
Don't hold yer breath. Even if the GOP captures both houses of Congress and the presidency, I'm not sure they'd be in a position to make the DOJ do something they'd certainly insist was blatantly political (and they wouldn't be wrong). Further, entrenched bureaucrats are pretty difficult to stir, and without much leverage, the GOP is unlikely to stir them.
Old RPM Daddy (OldRPMDaddy at GMail dot com) at November 15, 2021 3:58 PM
You are assuming they would even want to change the DOJ, RPM.
Ben at November 16, 2021 5:09 AM
" the church ladies of the 90s were pretty much right about everything"
Tipper Gore: she's like Jesus. He didn't like rock music either, y'know.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 16, 2021 9:25 PM
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