In a classic "diversity" turn at National Public Radio, Thursday’s Morning Edition promoted the comedic career of Indian-American Hari Kondabolu, who writes for the FX comedy show “Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell.” He also has a forthcoming album of stand-up comedy. Anchor David Greene declared "The brainy, young comedian cuts through any polite talk about race or gender. And his incisive anecdotes are making a whole lot of people laugh."
NPR reporter Elizabeth Blair unsurprisingly plucked out a routine from a recent show at the indie-music venue the Black Cat in Washington, DC, where Kondabolu mocked the Bible as a ridiculous guide for someone’s beliefs on homosexuality. He compared the snake in the Garden of Eden to a “Jungle Book” scenario:
I don't know how true this is. There was a talking snake involved. Maybe you shouldn't base your values on a "Jungle Book" type scenario. What would Baloo do? What about Shere Khan? What about Winnie the Pooh?'
Oh, is that a different world? Does it matter at this point? (Laughter) That's a "Jungle Book" type scenario. Look, I'm an Indian-Hindu, alright? I know all about "Jungle Book" type scenarios. That is a "Jungle Book" type scenario.
Kondabolu told Blair it was bisexual leftist comedian Margaret Cho as the artist who inspired him to get into stand-up comedy with her outsider ethnic approach to humor. She also "cut through polite talk" by suggesting she would like to engage in hate sex with Sarah Palin.
Here’s some hate speech NPR somehow left out. In 2010 on radical Grit TV, Kondabolu complained that Obama didn’t achieve the socialist dream of banning private health insurance in favor of a Canadian-style “public option.” To make that proposal seem centrist, he joked the Left should have first proposed killing the rich and giving their organs to the poor – and eating some of those organs as a delicacy, like a Marxist band of Jeffrey Dahmers:
My health-care plan wasn’t so much about redistribution of wealth. My health-care plan was about redistribution of organs from rich to poor. And you’re thinking "Oh, you mean after rich people die, you would take their organs from them." Yes, friends! After rich people die. And after we kill them, like a bunch of scalpel-wielding Robin Hoods of the night. Dude. Kill these rich people and take their organs from them, cause there’s a lot of poor people who need those organs, friends, for transplants, and of course, for food.
And as we all know, rich people’s organs are a delicacy. Oh yes, how we would force-feed these rich people organic grains and get them all plump, their organs all juicy and succulent. And of course we’d have them all walk around their very large estates. They’d be free-range – free-range rich people. And then very humanely, because they’re human beings, we would kill these rich people, take out their organs, and we’d feast! We’d eat a little meal I call “Justice.”
And you’re thinking "Hari, that’s so unreasonable," and yes, friends, if we’d started out with that proposal, we’d have the public option right now. That’s all I’m saying.
