Stupid people are incredibly entertaining. So entertaining, in fact, that The O'Reilly Factor regularly sends out Jesse Watters to discover new kinds of dumb people to feature in a segment called Watters’ World. Sometimes Watters is unable to locate people with an IQ lower than his, but fear not! He manages to make his segment funny anyway, through video-editing, a healthy degree of white, male condescension, or, as a last resort, some very funny racism. After all, he is a self-described “political humorist.”
Recently, he has come under fire for the “Chinatown Edition.” It seems that people didn’t realize that his attempt at rehashing every Chinese stereotype in the book was just a “light piece.” In the segment, he went to Chinatown and asked people about the election. Along with election questions interrupted by random racist movie clips featuring Chinese people, he also asked people about “light” things like “is it the year of the dragon?” or if he should bow because he is in Chinatown. The upbeat Chinese music in the background really gives gravity to the importance of Chinese opinion on the election. Jesse Watters understands that minority opinions are important — that’s why he asks a random Chinese American civilian to have China “take care of North Korea.”
This wonderful gem of political humor is one of many. Perhaps we here at Princeton remember the segment that Watters filmed on our own campus. Unfortunately, when his questions, meant to ridicule our student body for being too sensitive, were given intelligent, thoughtful answers, he had to struggle to make his segment funny. A mix of hilarious comments like “I bet you’re called ghetto all the time,” “I suck my thumb [when I get upset]” and “You can’t say broad, that’s offensive to women” helped salvage the piece. Add in some funky editing that manipulates what the students say and the characteristic random movie clips, and the segment is ripe with political humor. The cherry on top is when Watters points to a student’s afro and asks if it is “black privilege."
It’s hard to understand why liberal satirists don’t get half as much criticism about their segments as Watters does. After all, only recently, the writers of Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show maliciously tricked the audience into learning more about the political histories of Mike Pence and Tim Kaine by having a correspondent on the show go out and talk to people on the streets of New York. Only later in the segment was it revealed that the people on the street who gave intelligent responses to questions like “Who is Mike Pence?” or “Who is Tim Kaine?” were actually experts in the field who had a vested interest in educating the public about who they were voting for. The Daily Show didn’t get any criticism on their Watters-esque segment because the liberal media is biased and only sensitive to offensive comments by conservatives.
But Watters knows that being funny means you have to offend some groups of people. That’s why he chooses a new demographic to offend in every video. In the guise of a regular interviewer, he ridicules the unsuspecting whether it is in the World Trade Center Mall, in Philadelphia, or my favorite, on Coney Island with Sports Illustrated swimsuit models. Everywhere he goes, he highlights how little people know about issues of national importance.
You often find Watters covering Republican events. Some might say it’s because he belongs to a conservative news show. I, however, believe that he only goes to find people who will give him stupid responses. Watters believes, somewhere deep down, that the real crazy is in the party that has given its endorsement to the funniest clown to ever walk this Earth. Watters must realize that people who support the God Emperor of Cheetos for president are already funny without any added punchlines.
Bhaamati Borkhetaria is a sophomore from Jersey City, New Jersey. She can be reached at bhaamati@princeton.edu.
Read More
Progressives failed a lesson in free speech
Anais Mobarak“The recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.”
“The recent controversy surrounding Charter Club has demonstrated that progressive voices on campus have failed to recognize the value of free speech beyond its usefulness as a political instrument. Thus, as a community, we must work to foster an ideologically-free understanding of free speech.”
Campus through a lens: Announcing the ‘Prince’s inaugural columnists
Eleanor Clemans-CopeReading a series of columns by the same author is seeing things through the writer’s lens — it’s looking at campus through the ‘Christofer glasses’ or the ‘Eleanor specs.’ This is the thinking behind having named columns.
Reading a series of columns by the same author is seeing things through the writer’s lens — it’s looking at campus through the ‘Christofer glasses’ or the ‘Eleanor specs.’ This is the thinking behind having named columns.
Bring back the course packet
Abigail Rabieh“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
“With the recent news that Labyrinth Books will no longer supply the coursebooks for Princeton classes, we are facing a new era in which all readings will only be accessible by some digital medium, whether that be via Course Reserves or online ordering from faraway publishers. While some may see this as a step in the right direction of modernity, the increasing digitalization of our scholarship hurts our learning.”
