Sarah Silverman is brilliant

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/14/ted-organizer-trashes-speaker-fails-social-iq-test/

by krav • 16 years ago

82 90 16 years ago

techcrunch.com

I so wish I could have seen this talk @ TED.

dantheman• 16 years ago

Was this a joke or did someone earnestly write this: http://twitter.com/gaberivera/status/8976199410

I find Sarah Silverman to be hilarious.

barredo2• 16 years ago

From it's Twitter Bio "Sometimes I say what I mean. Sometimes I say the opposite." — That's a good alibi.

adamhowell• 16 years ago

Gabe is the founder of Techmeme and, from what I've read of his, both heavy on the sarcasm and a little anti-Valley. I'm sure that was how this was intended.

barredo2• 16 years ago

It's very interesting. It reminds me that here in Spain, we use 'f-words' constantly. We say "negro" (black) to our black friends and is nothing bad. Why would I say the ultra-political-correct "african" or "afroamerican"?

Same with gay, homosexual, etc. Doesn't mean anything bad.

I'm quite surprised with all the videoclips/songs, tv shows and videogames that avoid f-words or are edited (with noises).

People sometimes want to harm with words, words themselves mean nothing.

gcheong• 16 years ago

Reminds me of this: http://ccinsider.comedycentral.com/2008/09/12/louis-ck-hates...

As far as censorship goes, look what we can do now thanks to years of bleeping and blurring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Vh9_Hi1kY

philwelch9• 16 years ago

And then there's this old classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXFz7vqbk1o

qeorge• 16 years ago

I end up having an if-by-whiskey argument with myself about this, especially regarding the "n-word."

If by saying the n-word casually, you mean removing the hatred and power behind a word which has divided our people for centuries by giving it a new and friendly connotation, then of course I am for it.

If by saying the n-word casually, you mean flippantly dismissing decades of institutionalized enslavement and murder, and a constant reminder that for all our progress we are still very much two nations, then I despise it.

Its clear to me though that the n-word still causes a great deal of pain to many of my brothers and sisters, and I want no part of that. So even though I hope that someday the n-word will lose this meaning, you're not going to hear it coming out of my mouth.

axod3• 16 years ago

I don't think being offended by any word is rational. Be offended by actions and events.

The list of outlawed words is growing by the day which is just ridiculous.

Nigger is used in rap music all the time.

You'd hear it come out of my mouth:

  1. If singing along to R&B Rap etc
  2. If quoting some comedy or trying to be funny

Certainly wouldn't use it in an aggressive/hateful way, and that's what you have to always bear in mind - context.

jff• 16 years ago

In the US, "negro" was once the accepted term; you'll hear it in old TV and radio or in literature, and all in the same tone as one might say "caucasian" or "asian". Eventually, we decided it wasn't so great and switched to "black". When you, in Spain, say "negro", it's the equivalent of us saying "black".

I don't think any of us say "afroamerican", but we do use "African American" even when the person in question is not American--it's kind of silly.

And yes, we say f*ck (censored because I don't remember the HN rules) constantly here too, but that's generally in a specific context: working on something with friends, out with other college students, etc. My friends and I, and most people I know, tend to not swear much around our elders or children; it's censored on TV because the audience is much wider than the couple friends you're hanging out with.

philwelch9• 16 years ago

Spain is a bit further down the euphemism treadmill than we are--calling black people "negros" (btw, in America calling them "black" is acceptable) is okay because the actual racists still go to soccer matches and make monkey noises and throw bananas on the field whenever an African player has the ball[1]. In America, racism is taboo and that kind of nonsense will get you kicked out of the stadium (plus it makes no sense to heckle the majority of the athletes), so the actual racists can only act a little coy, forcing the rest of us to be extra polite, just so we don't seem racist.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Etoo#Racism

narag• 16 years ago

barredo, I'm very surprised you say this. I don't use to watch TV, but every time I do, I find the politicians are noticeably more politically correct in their language than the previous time: "subsaharianos", "ciudadanos y ciudadanas" (even if Spanish, unlike English, doesn't ask for this kind of distinction), "discapacidad", "etnia"... IOW se la cogen con papel de fumar :-)

pistoriusp2• 16 years ago

I wish I could see her performance for myself, as I find her hilarious, but the description of Sarah's performance made me cringe.

Not because of the word "retarded," but because she said she would adopt a terminally ill person. I struggle to see how she could make light of something like that...

ErrantX• 16 years ago

I think it was actually a really good. It was pushing poltically correct ideas to the extreme.

Comics like this are meant to shock and disgust us with what they say if nothing else to throw our own thoughts into perspective.

gojomo2• 16 years ago

She makes light of everything. The things that make you cringe are her favorite topics. You can get a sense from her movie, 'Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic', or Comedy Central TV series, 'The Sarah Silverman Program'.

If TED organizers didn't expect as much, their planning was performed in an intellectually-disabled manner. (Is that phrasing R-Word-campaign-approved?)

Devilboy2• 16 years ago

TED has special needs

retro• 16 years ago

The claim about Sarah Silverman's 'brilliance' seems to be this:

"Saying the word 'retarded' can only have extreme negative power if you let it and Sarah Silverman is brave, because she got on stage in front of some global minds and dropped it over and over and over."

To call Sarah Silverman 'brave' for repeating this naughty word in front of a TED audience really is retarded. If this is what it means to be a subversive comedian in 2010, Richard Pryor must be turning in his grave.

grandalf• 16 years ago

What's subversive about it is that if she'd not used the word "retarded" her routine would not have had impact.

There is a sense in which PC language suppresses the real struggle that comes with difficult social issues, sterilizes them for us, and makes them into abstract problems that everyone can claim to care about but do nothing about.

Silverman's insight was that by breaking out of the PC mold she was able to shine the spotlight on a difficult social issue.

Is it the highest level of subversive comedy? Probably not, but it's certainly a courageous form of activism.

shib71• 16 years ago

You have simultaneously missed the point of the article and demonstrated it.

From the descriptions, there is no question that Sarah used the word 'retard' in the technically correct context, and NOT as a derogatory term. Sarah's brand of humour is based on shock and blatant unabashed selfishness. It clearly shows the difference between using a 'politically incorrect' word a few times and being genuinely offensive.

Using the word 'retard' as an insult (the way you just did) doesn't just insult the person being referred to - it implies that people who are actually retarded have something to be ashamed of.

I understand why the audience may have been outraged by the jokes (i.e. adopting a vulnerable child for self-aggrandisement). YOU have also managed to be offensive.

dwwoelfel6• 16 years ago

Making fun of mentally retarded people isn't funny. They are victims of circumstance, and its sad that they'll never be productive, self-supporting individuals.

Making fun of people like Sarah Palin, who believe that they are virtuous because they choose to bring mentally retarded people into this world, is funny. In this case, the comedian attacks a cruel ideology that puts pain and suffering on a pedestal.

Sarah Silverman should have made it more clear who she was making fun of. Her audience was uncomfortable because they thought that she was making fun of retarded people.

dwwoelfel6• 16 years ago

To anyone who down-voted, I'm curious to know why. There have been at least 5 down-votes, but no replies.

fnid22• 16 years ago

My guess, no one thinks she was making fun of retarded people and everyone knows she was making fun of Sarah Palin and her campaign to neuter the english language.

petercooper2• 16 years ago

Because this reads like a pro-choice joke:

Making fun of people like Sarah Palin, who believe that they are virtuous because they choose to bring mentally retarded people into this world, is funny.

Sarah Palin is an idiot, but people who don't kill their own children merely because they have some issues are relatively virtuous.

Well you asked..

gojomo2• 16 years ago

An interesting question is: will the TED video of Silverman's talk be made equally available as other talks?

There's a spectrum of things the organizers might do to try to distance themselves. Most extreme would be to not put Silverman's video up at all, or bleep it. Milder options would be hiding her talk from indexes, demoting it in search results, or wrapping it in disclaimers.

(I hope they treat her talk exactly the same as every other TED talk, but they may not be able to resist the strong social pressure to show 'sensitivity' and thus shun Silverman at some level.)

__david__• 16 years ago

Well I read an interview with the founder guy and he indicated that only 66%-75% of the talks ever make to videos on the site. Given that 25% to 33% of talks never make it up then even if Silverman's doesn't appear it's not necessarily been "singled out" or treated specially.

amohr2• 16 years ago

Given the amount of press around this particular talk, I'd say it's too late to claim that it's not being singled out. But there is a delay, and they might be able to give it a soft veto if all this blows over.

faryl• 16 years ago

I seem to remember a talk about Abu Ghraib where the TED folks tagged a warning about the disturbing nature of some of the photos to the beginning of the video. I think they also censored the more disturbing photos (omitting them completely).

I'd hope, at a minimum, they post a bleeped version!

People are going to be asking to see it after all the attention it's received.

Plus it sounds like a number of folks gave her a standing ovation - so it's not exactly like it was a complete disgrace. Kind of bad enough for Chris Anderson to slam an invited speaker so publicly - hopefully TED doesn't act petty about it.

TEDtalks are licensed under Creative Commons. Anyone know if speakers have the right to obtain a copy of their individual talks to share, even if they don't make the site?

antidaily• 16 years ago

While I agree with the headline, the word "brilliant" isn't used in the article.

jonmc12• 16 years ago

Best line in article: "The world needs to take many things seriously and many things less seriously. The world needs to get its sense of humor back. It needs to allow people to express themselves without feeling the overwhelming pressures of society bearing down and being a social pariah."

psawaya• 16 years ago

It doesn't matter if you're a fundamentalist Christian or a liberal progressive, the temptation to take something at face value and act morally superior is stronger than the one to interpret the intent behind what's being said.

jcmhn• 16 years ago

Now I'm just plain confused. I had finally figured out that the tooth fairy, bigfoot, jimmy carter, and women with a genuine sense of humor were all just made up by my parents. And now you tell me that at least some of them are real?

protomyth• 16 years ago

Season 1 - Episode 4 of Dinner for Five has Sarah Silverman as one of the guests. One of the "segments" has a discussion of a similar incident with Sarah Silverman and another word. Kevin Pollak and Ron Livingston's commentary is pretty interesting.

callmeed3• 16 years ago

Personally, I can't really stand Silverman. She seems like more of a "female shock jock" than a "brilliant comedian" to me. Maybe I don't know enough about her, but I really have to wonder: (a) why was she even invited to TED to speak? and (b) what on earth did people think she was going to talk about–world hunger and infant mortality?

Furthermore, was Silverman really making a statement about political correctness and free speech–or was she just going after Palin?

On the actual issue, I have mixed feelings. On one hand, it bothers me when kids use "retarded" or "gay" or "fag" as an insult. On the other hand, everyone is way too sensitive about language and being a victim any time someone else says something careless.

nfnaaron2• 16 years ago

"everyone is way too sensitive about language and being a victim any time someone else says something careless."

I'm still thinking in my own mind about the other points you raised, but +1 for exactly this.

Kids (and sometimes adults) should be taught or reminded that it's careless and insulting to use words like "retarded" and "gay" and "fag" in a careless or insulting way. It's a matter of good manners, not a March on Washington.

amohr2• 16 years ago

Exactly, it's not whether or not a word is universally hurtful, it's just that some words are only acceptable when you are talking to an audience you're comfortable with. I have close friends to whom I can say pretty much anything - that doesn't make everything I say to them ok to say at christmas dinner.

I can call my friend a 'retard' (I don't, as a result of habit/upbringing) but I had a professor once who had a daughter with CP. I would never DARE say that word in his classroom (or any other, really) not just because of the offense it would cause, but because it has no place in a scholarly discussion.

Know your audience - trying to make a splash by saying something crass or unnerving just to watch people squirm is a fun game and it has it's place - but that's not really what the TED stage is for. Granted, I'm not qualified to make that distinction, but I think Chris Anderson (if anyone) probably is. The tone at TED is generally challenging, but tempered with a good dose of respect, which Sarah notoriously lacks.

ryanelkins• 16 years ago

Although, like the article mentioned, there are plenty of words that we use without serious regard that are just as bad, we just have become numb to what they actually mean. For example:

moron - having a mental age between 8 and 12

dumb - slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity; lacking the power of human speech;

idiot - a person of subnormal intelligence

imbecile - retardation more severe than a moron but not as severe as an idiot

maniac, lunatic - an insane person

We throw these words around (as a society) all the time without regard to their original intent. Is this simply a case of forgiving the past and trying not to repeat those mistakes going forward? Where do we draw the line with allowing words to be used outside of their initial purpose?

KirinDave2• 16 years ago

> Furthermore, was Silverman really making a statement about political correctness and free speech–or was she just going after Palin?

Both. So, here's the events in not-quite-chronological order:

1. Rahm Emanuel calls recalcitrant liberal democrats "retarded."

1.5. Palin is outraged.

2. Rush Limbaugh mentions the "retard conference."

2.5. Palin is not outraged, because "satire" is okay.

3. Sarah Silverman accepts this bet and makes a comedy routine that is incredibly outrageous, but obviously satirical.

Is it okay? Of course it's not okay, because Palin is a hypocrite and only cares about the issue as far as it is political leverage; she's been accused of using "the r-word" on multiple occasions from multiple sources.

So then Silverman's satire is a political joke of high caliber and razor wit. But, it's also highlighting a larger issue that people have with doing generous things for selfish and calculated reasons. The actual substance of her talk is basically that she wants a special needs kid because this makes her an awesome person.

philwelch9• 16 years ago

I just don't see how this kind of passing, topical crap that goes on at the shallowest level of politics is worth discussing somewhere like TED. This is the kind of crap that blows over in a couple weeks--and if you want to make a statement about how useless this surface level political dialogue is, there are better ways of doing it.

callmeed3• 16 years ago

What do you mean by "accepts the bet"? I still think you might be giving her too much credit. I agree certain issues were raised (at least among those who actually consider said issues) but I'm not convinced she did it on purpose.

I'd guess her thinking was "Palin says it's okay as satire so I'll trap her with the most outrageous, offensive satire possible." Then again, I'm not in her head.

Thanks for the rundown of events btw. It was helpful.

gridspy• 16 years ago

Amazing comment from original post (BenT):

Oh for pete’s sake it’s Sara Silverman! She’s a shock and insult comic! WTF did they expect!? Had they never seen a show of hers?

"Oh my god I bought this grenade pulled out the pin and it totally blew up my house! This grenade sucks!"

fexl• 16 years ago

retard, v. To slow the progress of; impede or delay

retarded, adj. Slow or backward in mental or emotional development

Those sound innocuous enough to me, but "challenged" is the vogue and should be safe for 20 years or so.

sgoranson• 16 years ago

IMO, Silverman had less of a chance of getting away with this at a TED talk because she's really not that clever. Her schtick is: cute innocent jewish girl + naughty words = hilarity.

I cringed when the article compared her use of the word 'retard' to Colbert's routine where he calls Palin a 'fucking retard'. Here's the difference: Colbert spent about 10 minutes building up to the slur. The political allusions, the searing sarcasm, and the final shockingly unsubtle slur was brilliant. And made me cry from laughing.

Silverman, OTOH, has reached the level of humor that I got bored with in 7th grade. If her routine actually had some intelligence to it, she probably could have gotten away with much worse.

leftnode• 16 years ago

Everyone needs to lighten up. I like Sarah, I think part of her standup is funny. The joke isn't that she's using the word retarded, the joke is the utter ridiculousness of her approaching an adoption agency and saying, "please give me your most retarded baby, but I also want them to be terminally ill."

Maybe I'm insensitive or too immature, but that makes me laugh like crazy. Just imaging the look on the adoption agency person's face is hilarious.

Here's a similar clip of Evil Dave Letterman from the Howard Stern show calling an adoption agency asking for a black kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXrhI2q-EeI

rogermugs• 16 years ago

disagree.

words have power, and that aint going anywhere.

joe-mccann• 16 years ago

There are essentially two types of comedians: "intelligent humor" and "dick and fart jokes". Silverman falls into the latter; Bill Hicks in the former...

covercash• 16 years ago

Based on the reaction Sarah Silverman got, I'm pretty sure the TED audience would have lynched Bill Hicks.

scythe• 16 years ago

>It pisses me off to no end that I can’t use that word out of fear for my own life

This is easily the most offensive sentence in the article. Black people are not mythical stabby monsters.

Sarah Silverman is brilliant

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