In today’s Salon, there’s a quote from Jerry Lewis concerning Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks. Lewis told the NY Daily News:
I’m old-fashioned. You don’t make fun of the Queen of England, and you don’t make jokes about the President of the United States. I resent those that do. The Dixie Chicks are embarrassed that he’s from Texas? You don’t say that about a sitting President. The First Amendment says you can say anything you want in this country, but it should have an appendage, ‘Try to do it with class.’
This is, of course, the same Jerry Lewis who said, “A woman doing comedy doesn’t offend me, but sets me back a bit. I, as a viewer, have trouble with it. I think of her as a producing machine that brings babies in the world.”
You know, there was a point, once upon a time, when the man was funny.