Dear Adam Carolla:
I understand that you’re supposed to be a comic or something. That’s awesome. No, really. How many people get to make their living making jokes? That’s pretty cool. And I see that you make jokes about your kid, which, again, cool, I get that. I mean, I do it too, sort of.
Here’s the thing, though: I recognize that there’s a limit to how dark you can go with humor that involves your kids. I mean, Chris Rock did that whole ‘keep your daughters off the pole’ schtick and that was kinda edgy, but it worked because he was taking an anti-pole position, which, you know, is what you really sort of expect a decent parent to do. So it takes the edge off. On that logic, if one were to make a joke about, say, their daughter developing an eating disorder, you really sort of expect that such a joke would skew in the anti-eating disorder direction, instead of, you know, pro.
Because – and I really shouldn’t have to point this out to you – eating disorders are kind of a serious thing. Like, the kind of thing that kills. So, making a joke along the lines of – “I measure (my) girl ’cause I want to give her an eating disorder… I just told her, you know, if you’re heavyset, daddy’s not going to love you. I mean he’ll love you. He’ll always love you. But not as much” – kind of goes in a direction akin to “I wish my kid would get cancer and die, so that I won’t have to pay for college.” Which might be funny to you, but maybe not to any other human being with a soul. So you maybe want to watch that.
I’m just saying.
Yours,
A concerned non-fan
source: http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/axed_comic_laughs_last_BMNnvjKgZNUxTiWKBX5JlI#ixzz0raQCO8ZF
About Her Bad Mother
As someone who was measured and then developed a warped perception of body image, I couldn’t agree more, this is a definition of ‘really bad joke’. I can still remember the first time I was told I had huge saddlebags (at 72lbs) like it was yesterday and also how my young mind processed that warped moment into years of f’d up body issues. And trust me, I have an awesome sense of humor but this is just one of those ‘don’t go there’ areas that I don’t find funny.
.-= katie | motherbumper´s last blog ..Big and Small Inspirations =-.
The tears still sting my eyes as I remember my Grandmother calling me Thunder Thighs (and I was in 5th grade, and TINY.) But to this day… (and many many days in between) it was the beginning of an awful effect on me.
Steph
.-= Adventures In Babywearing´s last blog ..M e t a =-.
My mother once compared my body size to that of my taller, skinner, blonder, blue-eyed, more athletic cousin, and it’s a comment that has never, ever, EVER left me.
Ever.
God, is he still around? It’s particularly disturbing to see that the centerpiece of the “joke”–a father withholding and bestowing love based on his assessment of his daughter’s body–plays on the correlation between eating disorders and childhood sexual abuse. What the hell is wrong with him? It’s so sad when an adult is stealing jokes from his middle-school self, desperate for attention at any cost.
he deserves a junk shot for that one. terrible.
.-= MommyNamedApril´s last blog ..I Can’t Believe I’m Recapping Another Week Already. Oh Yeh, and Happy Monday to You. =-.
Huh. Ok. So, I VERY CLEARLY remember crying to my dad once that a little boy on the playground had called me fat. My dad’s response was, “Well, it’s your own fault, because you ARE fat.” I was 5 years old at the time.
(To my dad’s credit, he apologized for saying that when I was in my 20s and told him that was my earliest memory of him. But I still haven’t forgotten it.)
On the behalf of little chunky girls everywhere: screw you, Adam Carolla.
Some people will do anything for a buck. Even ruin their kids lives.
I honestly don’t think parents realize sometimes just how badly words can stay with a kid. That doesn’t excuse it, though. That kind of stuff will fuck you up for life and keep you in therapy for years. (Ask me how I know….)
Isn’t this the guy who works with Dr. Drew on Loveline? Maybe Dr. Drew needs to do an intervention….
.-= Major Bedhead´s last blog ..Ten =-.
My Dad, who would never, EVER say anything to make me feel bad, once told me in my teens that he was concerned about my eating habits (which were terrible). When I waved it off, he told me that if I kept eating the way I was, I might get fat.
THAT stuck with me, and that came from a place of concern and love. So I can’t even begin to imagine how Carolla thought that gag was remotely funny.
That is seriously fucked up.
Like a girl needs extra pressure about food.
He’s an Idiot.
What a douche canoe.
If it makes you feel better, my teenage sons don’t even think he’s funny. Pathetic, yes, funny, no.
Sorry peeps. Can’t agree with any of you here. Your body issues are your own. Own them. Joking about things won’t affect the actual issue. Adam Carolla can’t make it any better OR any worse.
If you like I can mail you each a quarter…so you can go buy a sense of humor.
Kinda like when your aunt offers you a nose job for your 16th birthday.
A dad can’t say anything about his daughter’s appearance, good OR bad. When I was fifteenish, my dad observed in passing that I had “great stems.” (Not in a skeevy way. And in that heroin chic way, I DID have good legs.) But I was thin as a rail when the comment was made and as I grew up and filled out and my legs got more muscular, that comment stuck and definitely affected my self image.
JN, I don’t think the issue was whether or not the joke may have been funny to some people, but whether the price of it might be too high when his daughter hears and internalizes it.
I know this is old, but this guy is awful. I have perfect teeth-just a genetic point in my favor-people think i lie when I say I never had braces, BUT my mother made an off-hand comment when I was 10 about my teeth & it took me YEARS to smile with teeth in a picture. Years.