Penn's Hillary Joke

For about the past two or three months Penn Jillette has been discussing his Hillary joke on Penn Says. In one of his recent Penn Says episodes he talks about his discussion of the joke on MSNBC. The joke is simply that in February Obama did well because it was Black History month, and in the next month Hillary did well because it was white bitch month. I do not think this joke is funny; however, it is not because bitch is a sexist term and that is a cruel thing to say about a woman running for office. The joke is not funny because there is nothing comedic about it. The entire joke rests on the shock of the word bitch. In that sense it is not even a joke. It is really just a shocking statement. However, I am not shocked by it, and people should not be shocked by it. What does the word bitch even mean? I believe bitch technically means a female dog or something like that, while in the sense that Penn used it I guess bitch means angry and annoying woman. Of course, some people will argue that the word is also sexist. Maybe it equates women to female dogs also. I am really not sure, and Penn basically says the same thing. In his latest episode he classifies "bitch" as a spacer word. Obviously, I completely agree, and I think his point is best made by his explanation of the joke on MSNBC. Apparently, the male, aside from Penn, is named Scarborough or something, and according to Penn the female may be either Misha or Mosha. Anyway, the female's reaction to the joke perfectly captures Penn's argument. At the end of the clip Misha, Mosha, whatever says the joke was offensive and "bad." I cannot understand how this joke can be funny or offensive. Mosha's reaction was like Penn's joke was sexist and that she needed to rally the feminist movement for a retaliation.

As it appears to me, people who are offended by such words choose to be offended. Obviously, people use these words with the intent of offending others. For example, Penn was using the joke assuming people would be purely shocked. However, these words such as fuck, ass hole, bitch, cunt, jack ass, bastard are probably the least offensive statements. I would consider it more offensive to says that Hillary did better than Obama because it was Hitler's Birthday. That is actually implying something, and actually something false I might add. That joke implies Hillary shares views with Nazism, and since she does not it is also a lie. However, people would probably be just confused with this alteration of the joke. They would neither cheer nor jeer. They would only ask, "What?" However, if the word "bitch" is used instead some will cheer and others will jeer, when "bitch" has almost no meaning. All people know is that it is an insult, bu why? Does it tell lies about the person? Does it falsely identify the individual as a rapist, Nazi, communist, or member of the KKK?

Scarborough also offered a great comment in response to the joke, which is somewhat unrelated to the overall point of swear words having nearly no meaning. Scarborough said that if a woman runs for office and is strong and determined she is called names, while a man is not. This may be true. I really do not care. I do find it to be a double standard. I think it incorporates a fair amount of irrationality and collective judgment. Alright, done with that point. The more interesting point is that Scarborough identified "bitch" as name calling. I will give it to him it is name calling. I am not really sure what name women are being called when they are labeled "bitch" but it is calling them a name. However, Scarborough's tone when addressing this point indicated that he thought it was almost heinous and a serious offense to call someone "bitch" in an election. I would like to point out that campaigns have actually mellowed over the years. When Thomas Jefferson campaigned for President he was labeled an infidel. Now, that is saying something. That is calling someone a non-believer. Maybe in God, or maybe just a moral relativist. Obviously, the former is not so bad, but the latter is detrimental. I believe when Andrew Jackson campaigned for President his opponents identified his wife and mother as whores. This is also saying something. Unlike "bitch" the word whore actually incorporates promiscuity, and thus ill-morals. If "bitch" is the worst name calling in an election, and it is not even spoken by the politicians, there is no offensive speech in modern elections.