You’d figure that the Zen master would have acted smarter than this…His ”Brokeback gay joke” had the media in stitches a few days ago, but his apology was weird also..
Download | Play 
Download | Play
Does it sound like he feels badly about it? More here:
Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he deserved the reprimand he got from the NBA on Wednesday for making a gay sexual reference in a comment following the Lakers’ loss in San Antonio.
The Spurs made 13 three-pointers in their 107-92 victory on Tuesday night, and Jackson was asked if too much penetration was leading to open outside shooters. ”We call this a Brokeback Mountain game, because there’s so much penetration and kick-outs,” Jackson said. ”It was one of those games.’
Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation president Neil G. Giuliano issued a statement saying, ”Phil Jackson’s been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers’ performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes.”
No Trackbacks To “Phil Jackson uses a “gay joke” as analysis for the Lakers. Weird apology follows.“
Phil,
That’s not alliteration.
Frankly I thought it was a cheap sex joke, that’s all. I think the only thing that made it a Brokeback joke is that the “penetration” involved an all-male cast, like the guys on the court. Inappropriate? Sure. Gay bashing or otherwise anti-gay? Not by my estimation. I have heard a lot of callers to radio shows say the same.
Meh.
wait. so he apologized to cowboys and horses, but not to gay people?
Phil Jackson has a perfectly plausible reason for telling such a bad joke. The good comedy writers are currently on strike.
Oh, man. I don’t like sports; it’s an all-men club, and that means a lot of homophobia and ‘gay jokes’ abound. And everyone goes ‘ha-ha, isn’t he funny?’ because if they don’t, they’re called ‘gay’ or ‘faggot’ too. The first step to stopping stuff like this is stopping the hatred of gays, and making sure that everyone knows jokes like this are not okay. I highly doubt it’ll do much, but it’s worth a shot.
Is this even worth a mention? It’s a gay joke. I like to make gay jokes, racist jokes and jokes about all kinds of “shocking” things but that doesn’t mean I hate gays or black people or whatever. People should lighten up.
Who cares? Everyone’s guilty of making a “gay” joke at some point in their life.
Bad Karma dude
As a gay man, I actually found Jackson’s joke quite funny…
that comment was made by a coach with LOTS of job security. Grow a thicker skin, world, a joke is a joke, no matter what the subject, or how lame. It wasn’t “bashing” in any way. Here’s one for you:
A skeleton walks into a bar and asks for a beer and a mop.
Any skeletons offended? How about Bartenders? Alcoholics? Janitors? Jeez…
Blah.
Who hasn’t laughed when one of his/her coaches spoke of “penetration?” That was tied for my favorite with the times a coach would grab someone off the bench and say, “Go give him a blow.”
so that joke was offensive because…???? Come on GLAD, ever hear of picking your battles?
A little inappropriate, maybe, but this didn’t sound like a derogatory comment at all. In fact, if we are going to have mainstream hit movies about gay cowboys, then we should expect sexual references derived from such films to enter the public lexicon.
Sounds like some group needs attention. Neil G. Giuliano is just another Phil Donahue.
Hey! I like Phil Donahue. =(
Here’s one you have to say out loud for it to work:
A guy and a giraffe walk into a bar, they proceed to drink whisky until they are both totally s#!tfaced. The giraffe passes out and falls off his stool and lays out toes up on the floor. His pal stands up, downs his drink, and walks toward the door. Just then the bartender yells at the man, pointing at the giraffe, “Hey! You can’t leave that lyin’ THERE!” The drunk turns and says, “Thats not a lion, its a giraffe!”
Okay,…a GAY giraffe, then, if that makes it fit the thread better.
dudes i am gay and i saw nothing wrong with it, i mean seriously leno after the movie came out over used the jokes to death, and there was a slight anti gay feeling in it any gay person could tell that, but this guy was not attacking any gay person, was not putting us down was not being harrassing at all, lighten up on him he could have been alot alot worse, not everyone that says a gay joke is wanting to hang all gay people, just like everyone that says a black joke is wanting harm for blacks if that was so mad tv would have been off the air along time ago.
Alex @ 8:
That’s pretty much what I keep hearing.
It was clever and it had proper context: two all-male casts and some penetration. I didn’t sense any malice here. Besides, people make sex jokes all the time. Are the people that are all worked up about this freaked out because it is a gay sex joke? Geez; that’s pretty condescending, if I am using the right word for this situation.
Now, is a sex joke of any kind appropriate during a post-game interview? Criminy, I personally don’t really care, but if others get offended, it’s really a matter of personal boundaries and I respect that. It would have been wiser for Phil to have not made the joke at all, in the end, what with all the delicate flowers out there in tv land.
What struck me oddest was that, if you’re going to talk penetration, why the focus on gay sex? Isn’t hetero sex much more likely to result in penetration of some kind?
I got the gist of what he was up to, however. He all but called the opposition fags, which you know is what he really wanted to say.
I’m more offended by the apology than I am by the original joke.
So when the guy from the Catholic league gets upset about a joke, hes a nut job. But when someone from the defamation league gets pissed off about a sexual reference not even a gay joke, we have to support them 100%. Stop being so knee jerk C&L.
I wasn’t aware of a gay sex act called a “kick-out.” Is that anything like a donkey punch?
Here’s another one to read aloud:
A joke you can tell the kids:
a guy walks into a GAY psychatrist’s office and says, “Doctor, doctor! You gotta help me! I keep having recurring nightmares! First I dream I am a teepee then I dream i am a wigwam!”
The doctor looks at him and says, “Every night you have this same dream? First you are a wigwam and then you are a teepee? It’s easy, my friend, you are just too tense!”
idiocracy!
Lollimom @ 18:
Nah-h…he wasn’t talking about THE METS!!! BWahahahahaha!
Would he be applogizing if he said it was “a porno game”?
Things like this cause people like my red state mom, to say that Liberals (cuz gays speak for liberals) don’t have a sense of humor and are always whining about being offended.
Lol.
”Phil Jackson’s been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers’ performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes.”
GLAAD’s agenda aside, (which I probably support) I’m not sure I follow the logic of this statement.
I hate the Lakers.
I hate Phil Jackson.
I am gay.
I thought that joke was funny.
And, if you follow his joke through to it’s natural conclusion, he is saying that gay basketball trumps straight basketball. It’s about the penetration, after all.
GLAAD, what a waste of time, really.
GO SPURS!!!!!
You’ve got to be kidding me. There is no bigger hippie liberal in the entire NBA than Phil Jackson.
Some people have too much free time on their hands.
Look at it this way, though - I bet GLAAD filled up some of their coffers for 2008 with this pseudo-crisis. It reminds me of the way the NRA pokes around once in a while when there isn’t a real gun control crisis at hand.
If a great American coach like Phil Jackson can no longer tell a gay joke; the terrorists have won.
Who hasn’t said anything inappropriate? I have, but I thought it was a weird joke to make publicly…
And by the way, Phil, I’m from Houston, TX and no offense was taken here.
I probably would have made the same joke- among my friends who know me- not on television in front of reporters. Hello…
Why is this on a politics blog?
tdizzle @ 35:
Uhh… let me see if I can do this….
Crooks and Liars is run by Amato…
He appears(ed?) on the Young Turks that broadcast out of LA…
LA is home to the Lakers….
The Lakers are Coached by Phil Jackson…
Phil pissed off GLAAD with his comment….
GLAAD is a political action group….
that probably likes Kevin Bacon
If I had a quarter for every blond joke I’ve heard I would be rich, but I wouldn’t be offended.
I have a hard time taking any man seriously who spends so much time playing with his balls.
pissed off patricia @ 37:
Cause you didn’t get them?
sorry, couldn’t resist.
I don’t think he has a thing to apologize for. I chuckled when I heard what he said.
gwen @ 11:
I guess they do, because I’ve been on a few news sites, and don’t seem to see any comment from GLAD on this matter. It was the NBA that issued the reprimand and i think they over-reacted.
I’m gay and find it funny. Some people really need to lighten up. Life is far too short.
Anyway GLAAD I understand you need to get the base ‘fired’ up but part of being accepted as part of the mainstream is being referenced in the mainstream without being offended.
Just some poor judgement - mostly on the part of GLAAD.
With all of the justified battles to be waged, this kind of scolding just undermines their position (pun intended).
Okay Filthy Harry, that was excellent and I am laughing at your comment :lol:
And yes, I got it!
Herby @ 41:
OOPs sorry, I was wrong someone from GLAD did say something… My Bad… Still think it’s been blown out of proportion.
Herby @ 41:
“Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation president Neil G. Giuliano issued a statement saying, ”Phil Jackson’s been coaching long enough that he should be able to talk about the Lakers’ performance without resorting to cheap gay jokes.””
sheesh…..much ado about nothing…..damn..people need to lighten up…bad joke or not….
I’d call them a bunch of tight asses, but I think that may actually be considered a cheap gay joke.
This is getting out of hand. Too much PC is not a good thing.
Amazing - not one comment on this thread actually condemning Phil Jackson’s comment, but rather dozens of comments wondering why this is even an issue, and they are all being shown.
This is why C&L is a much better forum than those right-wing asylums. Oh, and by the way, this really is a total non-issue. Phil said nothing derogatory about gays, instead referring to a movie that has been made fun of by literally hundreds of comedians with little to no anguished cries or rending of clothing.
As a gay man I did not find the “joke” offensive but I found the apology very offensive. What an a** hole. Richard from Toronto.
Cheap gay jokes? As opposed to what other kind of gay joke?
Come on people, we know what sports are all about… a bunch of men running around trying to get balls. That’s what the team sport mentality revolves around. However, if you take alook at, say, swimming…
Am I the only one that thinks the apology was even better than the joke?