I might lose my Man Card for admitting this, but I started watching Chelsea Lately on E! a couple of weeks ago and I thought it was funny. I didn’t watch it every night, but I saw it a couple of times and I really liked it. I don’t think I’ll ever watch it again, though.
The show is kind of a cross between a gossip show and a late-night talk show. The host is Chelsea Handler, a comedienne I’d never heard of before. I’m kind of clueless on a lot of pop culture things, so maybe she’s pretty famous. I don’t know. But she’s really funny, at least to me. She has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor. She’s pretty witty and I could watch her every night. I could care less about the stuff she talks about, but I like her jokes.
I don’t know much about the show, but it seems she has a few sidekicks on the show and they’re OK, but together, they complement each other pretty well and it’s a good show. I won’t tune in again, though, until a legitimate apology is issued through the media for their discussion on “pajama jeans” last Wednesday.
They joke about all sorts of things, and since each person on the show has a different sense of humor, the approach on the same issue is a little different and it’s funny to hear them go back and forth. They were talking about “pajama jeans,” which apparently is a pair of pajama pants that’s designed to look like denim. It’s an idea made for one of those “Not sold in stores!” commercials on cable television that probably won’t be successful.
My memory of the show is a little foggy, but the lazy, vulgar woman at the roundtable thought they’d be cool, because she doesn’t care what people think of her and they seemed easy. The guy wouldn’t be caught dead in them. I can’t write it to come across funny, but they did a good job with their jokes on the show.
But then there was the woman sitting next to Chelsea Handler, who tried to be sharp and witty, but wasn’t too funny. She went way too far, in my book. She started saying she wouldn’t wear them, because they’re something a special-needs kid would wear. And she went on and on for a good minute or so. I was sitting there watching with my wife, and we were both shocked at what she was saying.
If you say that one time, it’s a big screw-up. But she was just ripping into special-needs kids for way too long. I’m biased, obviously, because I have a special-needs kid, but that kind of humor went out of style with parachute pants in the 80s. We just sat there with our jaws dropped, totally stunned.
After a minute or so, Tiff told me she didn’t think it was a very funny show. I totally agreed and changed the channel. I sent a pretty long email to the show the next day. I thought I might actually get some kind of response, but I didn’t. I know not every letter writer is going to get feedback, but I know that somebody there read what I wrote and I am actually surprised they didn’t get back to me. I’ve been checking online to see if there was any flack from it, and there wasn’t. It kind of annoys me that something like this would happen and nobody spoke up on it.
I don’t care if nobody with the media’s ear picked up on it, though. I did, and I think it was terrible. I did a little bit of reading on Chelsea Handler, because I don’t know much about her. Apparently, she’s pretty close friends with Jim Carrey and Jenny McCarthy. As most of you probably know, they’re very actively involved in the autism community because McCarthy’s son has autism. In my letter to the show, I mentioned that if those two were on the show that night, they probably wouldn’t have laughed at the special-needs jokes.
Chelsea didn’t look like she was laughing all that much during those jokes, but she was smiling a little bit. I told Tiff that maybe she was just kind of shocked and didn’t know how to react. Whatever the case, I haven’t heard a thing about it, and until I do, I’m not watching the show. I hope there’s a lot of people out there like me doing the same thing.
Ally Phillips says
Sooo, I have only watched her show a few times, but, I’ve always found her sense of humor funny and I think she’s a pretty smart lady–after all, it takes brains to be funny. (for the most part)
But, after I saw your Tweet about this last week, I don’t think it’s so fuuny.
Given, I didn’t see the show in question, but, still, it’s never OK to make comments like that about special needs children (or adults for that matter). Obviously, if she is friends with Jenny McCarthy, she has experience with special needs children and should know better (well, everyone should know better!). Maybe she didn’t know how to react, but, still, some sort of apology should have been made after the fact.
But, sadly, maybe E! assumes that it’s a comeday show and because of that, they don’t owe anyone an apology. Either way, it’s LAME that people are making jokes about that. E! needs to step it up and say something. Or Chelsea does. Just ignoring it is not cool. And I’m surprised that there hasn’t been any kind of backlash about this. Sheesh.
And PS, I’d totally wear pajama jeans! I mean, I could look like I’m fully dressed when really, I’m in my PJ’s? This is my idea of clothing heaven, personally 😉 (I lived in yoga pants, sweats and and baketball shorts for 3 years when I was a gymnastics coach, I’m all about comfort)
Melissa G says
Long before I had a child with special needs (and even before I was old enough to realize my little brothers both have their own special needs), I never got what made those sorts of jokes funny. I guess I don’t have a good sense of humor, since making fun of other people has never appealed to me.
The show sounded interesting at the beginning of your blog, but I won’t waste my time watching it now. Add “Chelsea Lately” to my Ambercrombie & Friends list of shame.
Jamie Fellrath says
Funny… you said Man Card and Chelsea, and I thought you were talking about English Premier League soccer.
Of course, soccer hooligans have more class than those who mock special needs kids for their own comedic interests.
Tiffany Felsenfeld says
Just to add something to this, when they joked around about the pajama pants, they said,”Wearing these pants don’t require much thinking. They’re for ones like special needs kids to go with their velcro shoes.”
I think it’s funny that as soon as a comedian, like Cramer (can’t remember his real life name), make a racist joke on stage, the media’s all over it. But poking fun at kids who were born with a disability is apparently acceptable.
At the end of the day, they’re the ones who have to go home and live with their poor choices.