If you bothered and/or were unfortunate enough to read my ramblings last year, you might remember me coming to the defense of actor/comedian Gilbert Gottfried after insurance provider Aflac fired him over comments and jokes he made on Twitter in the wake of the tsunamis that hit Japan, took many lives, and even initiated a nuclear meltdown. Even though his jokes were probably in bad taste and were ill received by many (excluding, of course, those of us with a more morbid sense of humor), I did not think that Aflac should have been surprised by his jests, nor did I consider it fair that they fired him from the famous series of television ads in which his face never appeared.
Well, as far too many professors in the history department have repeated in far too many classes I’ve had over the years, history is constantly repeating itself.
Last week, controversy broke when storied country music artist and potential senatorial candidate Hank Williams, Jr. took to Faux … err pardon me … Fox News and expressed his opinions on President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner playing golf this year with Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. He said that the game was a major political mistake. When asked to elaborate, Williams stated, “Come on. That’d be like Hitler playing golf with (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.” When the ever-ditsy Gretchen Carlson asked him if he just compared the president to the most hated man in modern history, he didn’t back down, saying, “Well, that is true. But I’m telling you like it is.”
That happened last Monday morning. That night, when ESPN’s Monday Night Football aired, it was without its customary musical introduction from Williams. “Are you ready for some fooooooootbaaaalll, a Monday night party?!” was nowhere to be heard. ESPN had pulled Williams’ intro because it didn’t want to face a potential firestorm in the aftermath of his analogy.
Honestly? This story irked me, and, trust me, it’s not because I am a great fan of Hank Williams, Jr.’s music. Quite frankly, I find country music to be just above polka when it comes to brainless drivel. No, I was more frustrated over the fact that he was fired simply for speaking his mind in a supposedly free country, much like Gottfried was fired for making jokes despite the fact that he’s a comedian by trade.
First of all, ESPN’s parent company, the Walt Disney Company, really has no room to talk. Their company has a long history of utilizing unflattering depictions of non-whites in film and television. Moreover, they’ve long been known to be in bed with the Republican Party, much like their founder was. Their chief lobbyist in Washington, D.C. was even discovered to be assisting the effort to raise funds to elect Republican candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Hank Williams, Jr. got fired for saying exactly what many of the company’s board members probably think.
Second, if you look beyond the offensive nature of the comparison, Williams was spot on. “I was simply trying to explain how stupid it seemed to me — how ludicrous that pairing was. They’re polar opposites, and it made no sense. They don’t see eye-to-eye and never will.” If the leaders of the opposing political parties would like to have the people of this nation believe that Williams was totally off base, they certainly have not been and are not trying to do so with their words and actions.
Finally, and most importantly, Williams’ comments, below the surface of his ill-chosen analogy, express a deeper meaning than two polar opposites collaborating to play a game. There is undoubtedly a certain absurd quality to the whole situation, which Williams noted better than I could ever try to put into words: “Working-class people are hurting — and it doesn’t seem like anyone cares. When both sides are high-fiving on the ninth hole when everybody else is without a job, it makes a whole lot of us feel angry. Something has to change.”
Look, I’m a self-professed liberal and, more often than not, lean towards the Democratic Party. Still, Williams was not at all off-base with the comparison. It was just the examples he used that got him into trouble. It was ESPN/Disney’s prerogative to fire him, but they were wrong in doing so.
Who knows, maybe Fox News will hire him full-time to introduce all of their shows. “Are you ready for some bull …” Ahem. Well, you get the point.
— Derek Mullins is a senior in political science. He can be reached at dmullin5@utk.edu.
