During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Republican Vice-President Dan Quayle got in a battle with television character Murphy Brown, portrayed by Candice Bergen. The previous season, the Murphy Brown character had borne a child out of wedlock. Noted spelling champion* Dan Quayle criticized this, saying it ignored the importance of fathers, and encouraged women to be single mothers.Not only was the fight idiotic, Quayle lost, starting a grand right-wing tradition of getting into fights with fictional characters and losing. (see "Jerry Fallwell vs. The Teletubbies").
Murphy got the last laugh: at the end of an episode of Murphy Brown, a truckload of potatoes was dropped dumped at the gate of the White House.The Verdict:
Murphy Brown, by a knock-out
*In 1992, Quayle had infamously "corrected" a child in a Trenton, New Jersey spelling bee-- the child had correctly spelled "potato," but Mr. Quayle insisted that the correct spelling was "potatoe." The student was correct.
9 comments:
I am such a terrible speller that I can't call him on that, but he is still such a loser!
I can't spell either. I remember the potato incident and all the press coverage. It was very funny.
The Murphy Brown issue was funny too. Poor Dan he really did not have enough responsibilty as VP and tried to find a cause to occupy his time.
Reality must have been difficult for him, so fictional characters were his only option.
God, I remember that guy got sooo much shit about that!
Whatever happened to him anyway? It's like he dropped off the face of the earth after leaving office.
Not that we lost anything, but he was good for a laugh, y'know?
I can't spell, but I can spell potato. Then again after all the mess about the "e" after Mr. Quayle, I sometimes forget that it comes back when you have potatoes and I spell that wrong. Damn.
But what about our poor friend the tomato? How come she never gets any love?
Another problem with the "liberal press", he he he.
Oh, now you got me needing to post, JY! I have to look it up, but some crazy right wingy dingy was concerned with Sponge Bob being gay. I'll go find it!
Now you see why my house is always such a mess... gotta love google.
Anon Blogger:
The Spongebob attack was spearheaded by none other than that Fountain of Hyprocracy (So Called) Rev. James Dobson. He was heavily involved with Now Jailed Jack Abramoff. He had his group protest against establishment of certain Indian casinos in the south. Turns out Jack had given Dobson substantial payment to rail against the casinos, as Abramoff was representing competing Indian Tribes. This guy is the scum bag who recently on his radio show "forgave" Next Gingrich for his many adulterous affairs....
Would make a great soap...."As the Wheel of Right WIng Hyprocracy Turns..."
Another ludicrous incident. Great post, as are the others. Good to be reminded that stupidity is as old as dirt.
Skyler's Dad-
My friend Andreas can speak 7 or 8 languages almost fluently, and can't spell in any of them. It's pretty funny.
Cheer34-
I think that most Vice Presidents suffer from responsibilty envy-- they really don't have anything to do except for cut the ribbons opening highways and such. Except for Dick Cheney. He's busy pulling the puppet strings.
Mob-
Actually, in looking him up, I found that he's a biggie with the Cerberus Capital Management company-- the company that just bought Chrysler for a song.
Natalie-
At least you're right more that half the time. And I bet you'd make a lot better Vice President than him.
Skyler's Dad-
Potato? Potahto Tomato? Tomahto? Let's call the whole thing off...
Anon. Blogger-
I remember that, and discussing it with my son-- he was amazed that alleged adults would even discuss that.
Elk-
These guys make the Chicago government look clean by comparison.
Erik-
I think the talk show guys are going to miss this bunch-- plenty of grist for the mill.
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