Letter to the Editor: Oversensitivity to Galifianakis performance is unnecessary and out of place
Issue date: 9/22/09 Section: Opinion
I am an avid reader of The Greyhound, and I was looking forward toward the opinion on Zach Galifianakis. I am a personal buff of comedians and can name acts, rants and names at the drop of a joke. However, the oversensitivity portrayed in this article ['The Hangover' star Galifianakis performs controversial set, by Sara Carr; Sept. 15 Greyhound] bewildered and upset me. I completely disagree with this opinion. We hired Zach to do his job. If we want to criticize Zach for his performance (which was nothing more than ordinary of his usual bits so often shown on Comedy Central and YouTube), then we should have looked for something less offensive.
There is a large spectrum of comedy offensiveness, Jeff Foxworthy being the most innocent, and Bob Saget being the most profane. If you feel like there was a problem with Zach's performance, or that is was inappropriate, you should be commenting on the people who booked him for an apology. Just like you wouldn't book a death metal band to play at a senior center. If you felt that the conduct was inappropriate, it was due to a lack of research by the student government. Further, it is common knowledge that people disturbing a comedian are bound to be heckled, and that is what people are paying to see. We payed to see a comedian do his job.
As for the N-word comment, it was not used out of hatred, only as a way to portray the joke about southern culture. To bring up another example, if a professor says the N-word while teaching about the Jim Crow laws of Reconstruction, where they played an important factor, would we fire him because of it? There are comedians all over that use this word, and just because you have not broadened your research past the Michael Richards incident does not mean you can put it out of context. Richards' comment was severely different from the small crack [by Galifianakis]: "When I get drunk, I start saying southern things like 'Ya'll' and 'N--."
Was it offensive the way Michael Richards said it? Of course. However, I plain and outright think that people are being oversensitive about Zach's joke, and this is just another case of political correctness taken to the extreme.
Louis Contaldi
Class of 2013
There is a large spectrum of comedy offensiveness, Jeff Foxworthy being the most innocent, and Bob Saget being the most profane. If you feel like there was a problem with Zach's performance, or that is was inappropriate, you should be commenting on the people who booked him for an apology. Just like you wouldn't book a death metal band to play at a senior center. If you felt that the conduct was inappropriate, it was due to a lack of research by the student government. Further, it is common knowledge that people disturbing a comedian are bound to be heckled, and that is what people are paying to see. We payed to see a comedian do his job.
As for the N-word comment, it was not used out of hatred, only as a way to portray the joke about southern culture. To bring up another example, if a professor says the N-word while teaching about the Jim Crow laws of Reconstruction, where they played an important factor, would we fire him because of it? There are comedians all over that use this word, and just because you have not broadened your research past the Michael Richards incident does not mean you can put it out of context. Richards' comment was severely different from the small crack [by Galifianakis]: "When I get drunk, I start saying southern things like 'Ya'll' and 'N--."
Was it offensive the way Michael Richards said it? Of course. However, I plain and outright think that people are being oversensitive about Zach's joke, and this is just another case of political correctness taken to the extreme.
Louis Contaldi
Class of 2013
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