Matt Walsh lashes out at conservatives criticizing a Babylon Bee post: “Old school ethnic stereotype jokes are almost always at least mildly amusing”
Walsh: “Some corners of the right are truly becoming as woke as the left”
Published
Citation
From the January 17, 2024, edition of The Daily Wire's The Matt Walsh Show
MATT WALSH (HOST): OK, this is not exactly a major headline, but I do need to address it. I don't know if I need to, but I will. Yesterday, the Babylon Bee posted an article with this headline -- Trump promises Vivek an administration position running the White House 7-11. You can see the screenshot there, with the picture, with the accompanying photo. And the photo is what really sells it, I think. That's what takes it over the top. And taken together, you know, you have to admit, like, it's kinda funny. I mean, it has to at least get a smirk out of you. Right? And yet, if you look at the comments under this post, you'll find that lots of people are offended by it. And to be clear, the people offended are, for the most part, people on the right, conservatives. They -- a bunch of conservatives are -- in fact, I think the Babylon Bee is trending right now because a bunch of conservatives are complaining that this joke is racist and in bad taste. And not ironically. I mean, there are some complaining ironically. I did leave a comment saying I was reporting the Babylon Bee to the FBI for hate crimes. But many of these comments are not ironic and not meant to be a joke.
...
And, again, these are comments, for the most part, not from the left. I mean, these are people on the right actually offended by this very tame joke. So let me just clarify a few -- three things. One, this is an old school, you know, ethnic stereotype joke. OK? It's like -- it's an oldie. It is. But old school ethnic stereotype jokes are almost always at least mildly amusing. I don't think I've ever heard one that wasn't at least kind of amusing. It's a classic. Like, these are classics for a reason. And, you know, these -- in fact, these dated ethnic stereotype jokes are only becoming funnier. Like, they're increasing in funniness. So, you know, these old ethnic stereotype jokes have always been, like, kind of funny. And then, you know, you could follow the trajectory, and then they kinda -- I'd say they -- they were the least funny about 20 years ago. Because that was -- about 20 years ago, like everybody was saying them, and so they're not as funny anymore. They're still pretty funny, but they're not as funny because they're -- but now, people are actually offended by them again, and so that just makes them more funny.
...
But it is a small microcosm of something that worries me a lot, which is that some corners of the right are truly becoming as woke as the left. This is one little -- it's another bit of evidence. If you were worried about that, it's just one little -- one small bit of evidence that would seem to confirm that very disturbing suspicion that you -- that this is happening -- that on the right, this is -- this -- there is this mentality, and to me, it seems to be getting worse over time. You got some on the right who are, you know, they're kind of backing away from some of these cultural issues. They don't wanna talk about them anymore. They're softening their stances. They're on -- you know, they're getting offended or pretending to be offended by really tame ethnic jokes and that sort of thing. So that's something that we should watch out for.