Quoting Chrissie Hynde From SUSAN WHITALL, Detroit News: The rhubarb over Annie Coulter's true age reminds me of something Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders said to me one time during an interview. She laughingly derided anyone who skins a few years off their age. "Why bother slicing off a year or two, that's pathetic!" On the contrary, she advised making yourself older. "That's what I do," she said, "then when I'm drunk and under the table, they say 'Wow, she looks great for 46!'" (Chrissie has now of course surpassed that milestone in actual years). Quoting "Spinal Tap" From ANDREW MILNER: In the fracas over Ann Coulter's "joke" about Timothy McVeigh, I take the position of Alan Dershowitz who defended to the death David Horowitz's right to be published in campus newspapers but added that Horowitz "is naive to expect polite responses to his provocations. Provocateurs should not expect -- as he apparently does -- civil libertarians to rush to defend the substance of their views. Provocateurs shouldn't whine -- as he does -- when they succeed in provoking irrational responses." And I'm also reminded of the quote from This Is Spinal Tap: "It's such a fine line between stupid and... clever." On par with Carrot Top? From RICHARD ZITRIN: I'm willing to accept the notion that Ann Coulter has some comedic talent, but I think she has a long way to go before she can join the likes of geniuses such as Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, George Carlin, or even Cheech and Chong [letter below]. If I had to compare her to a humorist, I'd say she's right up there (or should that be down there?) with Carrot Top. Coulter and American tradition From DAVID MACARAY: As much as I regard Ann Coulter as a shrieking pedagogue, I thought her McVeigh joke was quite funny, well within the tradition of "sick humor." I'm old enough to remember Mort Sahl's quip during the height of the anti-LBJ, anti-war protests: "Where's Lee Harvey Oswald now that we really need him?" Then there was Richard Pryor's first comedy album on which he announced that Evel Knievel's next dare-devil stunt would involve "trying to jump 15 niggers with a steamroller." And there was Lenny Bruce's 1962 remark on the trial of ex-Nazi Adolf Eichmann: "I don't know why we're so mad at this guy. I mean, anybody who kills 6 million Jews can't be all bad." These examples are outrageous, tasteless, even potentially harmful to the community; but they are all part of America's rich tradition of dark humor. As is Coulter's. > MICKEY DOYLE REPLIES: Thanks to David Macaray for explaining to us thickheaded sourpusses the proper context for Anne Coulter's edgy humor. The pantheon of groundbreaking comics--Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Richard Pryor and...Anne Coulter? Please keep us posted about when she tapes her HBO stand-up special.
