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May 23, 2013
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Don Rickles Joke About Obama and Mop Scrubbed From TV Land Tribute Show

By Tim Graham | June 13, 2012 | 08:00

A  A
Tim Graham's picture

“Viewers of TV Land will not be able to watch insult comic Don Rickles compare President Barack Obama to a janitor at the recent American Film Institute tribute to Shirley MacLaine,” The Hollywood Reporter revealed. “I shouldn’t make fun of the blacks...President Obama is a personal friend of mine,” said Rickles. “He was over to the house yesterday, but the mop broke.”

"He is not being censored," a Rickles agent told the paper. "Before all of this started, we knew Don's spot would be cut a bit for time, as would others, including possibly Shirley herself since the show ran over and we knew it was likely that might be edited.”

“It’s not going to make it on the air —that’s all I’ll say about it,” says a spokesperson for the Viacom-owned cable channel, which presented Rickles with its Legend Award in 2009.  Viacom is notorious for loading its channels like Comedy Central with anti-conservative humor and tasteless humor of all times (on race, see South Park on Jesse Jackson). Liberals were not offended when the omnidirectional Rickles mocked Sarah Palin as he sat beside her daughter Bristol on the Jay Leno show. The paper’s story added:

Was it racist… or just Rickles? Dennis Haysbert, himself skewered by the comic for appearing in Allstate Insurance ads, carefully tells THR, “I thought what Don said about me was very funny.” (Rickles has appeared with him on The Unit.)

But, observes Tamara Rawitt — who attended the AFI event and co-created and produced In Living Color — of the POTUS slam: “What was kind of magical was watching a room of deeply discreet A-listers secretly get off on watching someone getting a day pass to rant and rave. You need two AARP cards to get away with stuff like that.”

Speaking of Palin, you might recall PBS edited out Tina Fey's very political and very insulting remarks against Palin and "women like her" in 2010 when she won the Mark Twain Prize for Humor from the Kennedy Center:

"And, you know, politics aside, the success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women [applause before the joke kicks in] -- except, of course, those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape kit and stuff," Fey said. "But for everybody else, it's a win-win -- Unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years - whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us -- unless you believe in evolution. You know -- actually, I take it back. The whole thing's a disaster."

About the Author

Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow Tim Graham on Twitter.
  • Barack Obama
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Comments

Come on. It HAS to be a good

Submitted by texastommy on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:12am.

Come on. It HAS to be a good joke. The Bamster doesn't know what a mop's for.

"Occasionally, and randomly, problems and solutions collide. The probability of collisions decreases geometrically as the size of the committee created to force these collisions increases."
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Of course he doesn't know

Submitted by KornKing on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 9:58am.

Mop is above Urkel's pay grade

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You embarrass yourself.

Submitted by Colininla on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 4:41pm.

Petty and juvenile posts don't advance the discourse and accomplish nothing.

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Lighten up. At any rate, his

Submitted by Lgbpop on Sun, 06/17/2012 - 3:53pm.

Lighten up. At any rate, his post was more entertaining than anything you have to say, judging by this post.

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Ok, ok, ok...heres one....

Submitted by c5then on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:32am.

Two socialists walk into a bar...they both order a drink and when the bartender brings them over and asks, "whos paying", they both point at the other and say "he is".

 

Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it! 

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Hmmm...almost funny....

Submitted by gopcongress on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 1:44pm.

Well, it was funny, but here's the change...

The bartender asks "Who's paying?", they both point at HIM and say, "YOU are!"

"The news and truth are not the same thing." -Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER

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no Hundred percent right!

Submitted by Termlitetsforal... on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 5:20pm.

one Hundred percent right!

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What about Clinton's joke to Ted Kennedy?

Submitted by Kingfish17 on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:34am.

....Where a couple of years ago, Obama would have been serving them coffee? Kennedy didn't get the joke though, because he only drank vodka.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama

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Oy vey. Rickles used to literally excoriate Sammy Davis Jr.

Submitted by SickofLibs on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:53am.

at those roasts, which were the highest rated shows on TV back in the day.

But then again Sammy had a sense of humor. And so did everyone else.

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Ugh

Submitted by jon_torlin on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 8:58am.

Good grief, I'm running out of channels to watch on TV.

-Jon

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Don you aren't being

Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 9:22am.

Don you aren't being censored, you are being relocated to the east.

Non, je ne regrette rien. "You aren't angry because I might be a racist, you're angry because you know I'm right".
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Good grief! Thin skinned, aren't we?

Submitted by Mary Louise Turner on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 9:57am.

Ears, and his make believe media toadies have to be the most thin skinned people on earth. You cannot tell even the mildest joke about him without it being censored... What even happened to real humor, humor without the "f-bomb" every few seconds?

By the way, TV Land qualifies as a make believe media outlet, since its parent company, Viacom, also owns CBS.

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huh?

Submitted by dubuqueman on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 9:58am.

I understand the offense taken with the mention of Obama and a mop, but can someone tell me where the joke is here? The punchline seems like a nonsequitur.

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He's Don Rickles. He's a

Submitted by Outback Jon on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 11:07am.

He's Don Rickles. He's a legend. It must be funny.

I didn't get it either.

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That is all ObamAA+ is

Submitted by Free Stinker on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 11:24am.

That is all ObamAA+ is qualified to do.

 

   /// Sarah Palin Fan since July 11, 2007 ///    خال

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"I understand the offense

Submitted by ckc1227 on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 1:56pm.

"I understand the offense taken with the mention of Obama and a mop, but can someone tell me where the joke is here? The punchline seems like a nonsequitur."


"He's Don Rickles. He's a legend. It must be funny.

I didn't get it either."

 

You two wouldn't happen to be blondes, would you?


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Sounds like Rickle's comments

Submitted by celator on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 10:01am.

Sounds like Rickle's comments don't fit into the liturgy of the Obama worship service at TV Land.

"This is not your mother's Democratic Party"--Andrew Breitbart, CPAC, February 2012
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I fear for Rickles

Submitted by Unsane on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 10:28am.

Has anyone seen him since? I fear he is being subject to 18-hour beating sessions and sensory deprivation for daring to utter a critical word about Him.

"CONSUMED DEMOCRACY RETURNS A SOCIALIST REGIME" - Slayer, "Fictional Reality", from Divine Intervention (1994)

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Good morning Unsane

Submitted by cocodrie on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 11:23am.

Don will probably be OK as long as Obabble doesn't pay him a grandma visit.

 

Jesus Loves You so much He died for you

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Sir Paul's Bush joke

Submitted by metaphorsbwithu on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 11:31am.

When Paul McCartney told that George Bush joke at a White House concert, PBS "censored" it from the broadcast (as I recall).

However, the general liberal reaction was to criticize the deletion and complain, "Hey, it's just a joke!"

Of course, to liberals, funny is when a conservative falls down a manhole.

Same old double standard but what else is new?

metaphorsbwithu
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➚ Metaphors

Submitted by Cool Arrow on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 12:05pm.

Of course, when a liberal goes down a manhole, it's just an alternate lifestyle.

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As Don would say,,

Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 12:01pm.

What hockey pucks! And what yutzes!

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. BEN FRANKLIN
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HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA

Submitted by liberalsarefunny on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 12:04pm.

HA HA HA HA HA HA H

I'm sure Rickle's grandmother was "a typical white woman"....

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Yes, making fun of Herr Dear Führer is verboten in the brave new

Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 1:59pm.

Amerika.

And you just know there is a Herman Cain-style IRS anal audit exam in Don Rickles' future.

-Dave

Vote for the American in November

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Rickles~

Submitted by GG_NB on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 2:07pm.

He is just one of those rare ones who can be funny about anything and not offend me in the slightest -- he is an equal-opportunity yuckster, amd I believe never is scheming or with malice.

He's also a nice guy. Check out his mannerisms toward Bristol (even patting her leg once, which shows sensitivity to her, and don't get weird on me about that, guys!) -- when he was yucking it up about her Mom. There is kindness and sensitivity to him that I have always detected under the surface -- not this seething hatred/meanness disguised in jokes, like you get from some "comedians."

Even with Obama, he can say stuff like that and not offend most because you know he really ISN'T racist. He just likes to be FUNNY. And he's not worried about being PC because I just really think he's a decent guy with no guile.

But I'm with folks on here that the mop joke just wasn't all that funny, just because it wasn't funny, which is unusual for him.

But he's a classic.

"If not us, who? If not now, when?"
~Ronald Reagan

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Where have we heard that before?

Submitted by Model850 on Wed, 06/13/2012 - 4:01pm.

"Before all of this started, we knew Don's spot would be cut a bit for time...."

Hmmm. Edited for time. Where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah!

"Saturday Night Live" producer Lorne Michaels says there was no political motivation behind his decision to cut a Barack Obama sketch from Saturday's show, adding that the show's planned opening was replaced "for comedy" and because the show ran too long.

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