Oh Emmys, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways.
I know that this post is a little late, but it really does have to be said. Sure, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell were awesome. But what else is new? The Kanye West/Rainn Wilson rap battle made me laugh out loud, particularly Kanye’s “I never win anything.” But the rest. Shitty, offensive or shitty and offensive. And no, I’m not even talking about the censoring of Sally Field.
First there was Ryan Seacrest wearing an absolutely ridiculous outfit (you can see it at the beginning of the Kanye clip), for what seemed to be the soul purpose of calling it “gay.” Haha– get it, gay is gross and feminine, so gay is funny! Let’s just forget the fact that no self-respecting gay man would ever wear that outfit (and no, you don’t get to bring up Carson Kressley or Ant. I said “self-respecting”).
Then there was Brad Garrett’s seemingly endless string of misogynist jokes. I couldn’t find the clip anywhere, but it’s partially quoted here as one of the funniest moments of the night (it wasn’t). And it was a lot worse than that. How long do you think that you can berate, mock and shamelessly objectify a woman on stage for daring to show some cleavage? A long, long time, apparently.
And this, I thought, was the worst of all. The Jersey Boys Tribute to The Sopranos. I don’t know why other feminist bloggers haven’t been all over this one– maybe because The Sopranos is supposedly so fucking untouchable. Look, I’ve never watched the show. I don’t get HBO, and I quite honestly do not have any desire to follow the lives of a bunch of violent white men. But hey, whatever, to each their own.
What I have a massive problem with is the point almost 3:00 into that clip where scenes from the show depicting extreme domestic violence are accompanied by a song apparently called “I Love You, Baby” by the Four Seasons called “Who Loves You, Pretty Baby?” –all about how the guy loves and cherishes his female partner. Um. You know, I can only hope and assume that the original context of the Soprano’s clips portrayed these men as been completely unredeemable pieces of shit. So what the fuck is going on here? Oh, yeah, I get it: “irony,” right? Well guess the fuck what, people: just because you’re being “ironic” doesn’t mean you’re being funny. And “irony” is not a free license to offend and laugh off violence against women. And acting as though domestic violence is a joke is really just reinforcing and sanctioning its existence, “ironic” or not. Really. I know, it’s shocking. But the sooner we realize it, the better. And the sooner I can stop wanting to throw my television out the window.
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i’m glad you were paying attention, because I was semi-watching and mostly drinking. Sometimes, it’s not worth the stress, you know?
Haha– unfortunately, I was stuck in a hotel room with no alcohol, or I probably would have done the same!
The songs that the cast of Jersey Boys sang were:
Walk Like a Man
Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You
Who Loves You, Pretty Baby?
All Four Seasons standards.
Well, there you go. Sorry, I’m not a Four Seasons fan. But thanks for that– I can now look up the lyrics, which are here. So yeah, incredibly, outrageously inappropriate.
I happen to be a huge Sops fan but montages like the one at the Emmys underscore how misunderstood the show oftenis. Yes, the men doing the “whacking” including Tony Soprano himself, are shown to be horrible scum in episode after episode. It’s an essentially anti-violent show and it questions the myth of manliness, but there are a lot of fans who watch it for the complete opposite reasons. My bf and I who are both rabid Sops-heads turned off the TV in disgust during that “tribute.” As Tony would say, whaddya gonna do?
Well knowing that the scenes were not intended to be used in that manner makes me feel slightly better, and allows me to safely confirm that my anger is not with The Sopranos, but with this performance. But it does make me wonder who the hell authorized it in the first place, and who is to blame? A Sopranos producer? The Emmys? The Jersey Boys? And surely this had to go through more than one level before making it onto national television– how the hell did no one speak up?
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