Good As You

I didn't hear "up the butt," but I did hear "under the bus."

Listen to the last 10 seconds..

MATT: Al's here with tire tracks up his back

MEREDITH: I thought they were up his butt actually

Meredith just gets excited about being able to say "Up his butt" on national TV.

Meredith def. has her bawdy side, which I actually find likable.

Wow, you're right. She's so naughty.

I don't think the "Today" show folks' laughter was inappropriate. The reader of the story was responding to the guy saying, "Oh, uh, I apologize" after stating something so incredibly awful, which, while crudely put, was clearly his honest feelings. She was laughing at the absurd, insane insensitivity. I think the whole "Today" team perceived it similarly, and could not contain their reaction. It reminds me of how a graduate school friend and I used would sometimes laugh a little when our adviser would make a crude comment that he thought was funny. But we were laughing not at the supposed humor of the comment; we were laughing at how inappropriate it was. Like, it was absurd that a grown man would say such a thing.

That may be the excuse that the today show team would use, and it is a weak one for professionals in the field of broadcasting who are expected to maintain composure when discussing all news. but once again, if you imagine that he had been saying these things about black people, they most assuredly would not have laughed. i think if he had said those things about women or asians, anne's reaction would have been quite different. I think if an out gay cast member of the today show (ha ha ) had been sitting on that couch they wouldnt have been guffawing. ho ho thats so ridiculous, well gay people know that homophobia is not so ridiculous and, as absurd as hardaways excuse was, it was a sad and frightening thing for some gay people to see powerful role models reviling them, and then hope to escape censure by such an insincere apology.

Bezoar: I wrote the comment just above your 2/16 2:39:12 pm comment. You make a good point that if the "Today" show team directly felt the pain of homophobia, they wouldn't be in the mood to laugh. And yet I was still pleased because their laughter was not "neutral": They were expressing unequivocal disapproval of Tim Hardaway. If they were to pick a moment to break their composure and editorial neutrality, they choose a very good one. If a former NBA player said "I hate gay people" 20 years ago, it would probably (a) would never have been reported in the first place, and in case it had been reported, it (b) would NOT have elicited laughter about its being awful-to-an-absurd-degree. In a way, that laughter is a mark of cultural maturity. But I do, at the same time, completely see your point that the reality of homophobia is no laughing matter. (And I suspect the "Today" show cast would completely agree.)

I saw Charles Barkley on ESPN, doing just the same thing. Laughing it up like it was funny, with macho qualifiers like " I don't know why anyone need to tell me they are gay , anyway!" Really not much better than Hardaway. It really disturbed me.