In case you missed, Paris Hilton showed up at last night's MTV Movie Awards -- the night before checking into jail (mug shot). In the most embarrassing moment I've ever seen on tv, Sarah Silverman does a major take-down. The reaction shot is so painful. Could a backlash to the backlash ensue? Yeah, probably not.
i love SS and have no interest in PH, but that is really a lot more mean than funny. jokes about paris hilton being a slut? it doesn't get easier than that. except when she's sitting right there and going to jail in a couple hours.
this might sound crazy, but it seems to me that PH has carried herself with something approaching dignity(!) in the last couple days, and dissing her in these circumstances seems like a cheap shot.
posted by adm at 3:36 PM on June 4, 2007 
But, at the same time, SS seems to almost acknowledge that. It's a weird little dance they do. I know this sounds strange to say, but SS was almost obligated to do a PH bit. Especially since she showed up.
My first thought for Paris was "What on earth was she thinking?" I assumed I would read today about her handlers getting fired. But then I thought, ya know, maybe this is somehow good for her. Maybe there's some weird bit of dignity in doing this, in showing that she's prepared for her comeuppance.
I dunno.
posted by Rex at 3:43 PM on June 4, 2007
I can't help but feel that the 'dignity' on display is simply that she fucked up and is willing to accept her punishment. That doesn't sound dignified to me - it just sounds slightly less like the petulant, dim-witted waste of space we've come to know and obsess over and vaguely more like a normal adult. And while I might usually bemoan the cheap shot by Silverman, it seems fair in the case of Paris - after all, her fame is derived from notoriety and fame itself, nothing more. Doesn't that make her fair game?
'Course, I just realised that makes Paris Hilton the prototypical fimoculous organism and I'm now I'm very very sorry for even thinking that.
posted by Nav at 4:21 PM on June 4, 2007
Jokes like that are just lazy. The comment wasn't particularly witty, it was just designed to get the audience to gasp at how "outrageous" SS is and make sure the cameras could have a memorable shot of Hilton's face.
I say there's a difference between SS being "almost obligated" to make that joke and it just being expected/predictable--"ooh, PH is here, she's going to jail soon, let's do something with that."
Good comedians shouldn't just go for the expected joke, and they definitely shouldn't take the easy way out and just shoot ducks in a barrel.
posted by Lauren at 7:32 PM on June 4, 2007
Lazy Joke? YES!! Funny as hell? YES!!
posted by mblind at 10:48 PM on June 4, 2007
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