Ching chong WHAT!?!

Rosie O'Donnell is an ass clown.

This has been here and there in the news, and a lot of people who aren't affected by it or don't really give a crap about what happens on The View probably don't know about it. I definitely fall in the second category of not giving a crap about The View, but I do feel affected by the so-called "joke" that Rosie made last week on the show. And its something that pisses me off everytime I see something about it, so I just need to vent.

Basically, while discussing the story that Danny DeVito was drunk on The View, Rosie remarked that this was such big news everywhere that people in China were probably saying "ching ching ching chong Danny Devito ching chong ching chong drunk on The View ching chong (etc.)". And everybody laughed and said "oh yay for Rosie, so clever! going for the cheap-laugh ching-chong joke!" On her website, Rosie responded that the joke was not meant to mock and she was just saying how odd it was that the Danny DeVito news was all over the world. Lady, your joke was based on reducing the Chinese language to a bunch of unintelligible, stereotypical sounds. Thats what I would call mocking.

Rosie and others have defended what she said and don't understand why Asians are calling it racist - but maybe its because when she said it, memories of being taunted by those same "Chinese sounds" that Rosie joked about didn't come rushing back to them. I grew up in California, in the frikin' Bay Area - and I have memories of kids in my elementary school going "ching chong " to me. It didn't happen often, but I still remember and it still makes me mad. I realize they were kids and they probably didn't know any better. But sometimes those kids grow up and don't change - like those idiots my Senior year at NU who I heard muttering "ching chong ching chong" as they walked past a group of me and some friends, who all happened to be Asian. We were just standing there. wtf.

Rosie is a TV personality, a staunch defender of Gay rights, and a mother. For someone who pretty much flew off the handle recently when she thought Kelly Ripa had made a homophobic remark, I think she is being extremely insensitive and irresponsible. People all over the country watch The View and saw Rosie made a joke about it and laugh it off. The thing is she probably honestly didn't realize that what she was saying is considered offensive and I don't think Rosie is a racist - but she needs to be responsible enough to make a public apology and tell her viewers that what she said is not okay, but hurtful and damaging.

But a rep for O'Donnell said, "She's a comedian in addition to being a talk show co-host. I certainly hope that one day they will be able to grasp her humor."

I like my brother's reaction to this quote:
"So the next time some Asian kid gets taunted on the playground with the good o' "ching chong ching chong ching chong" (news flash: it happens all the time), we're supposed to just sit back, laugh along, and perhaps rethink our "grasp" of this humor. Because Rosie said so? Hell no."

I sincerely doubt that "one day" I'll think its funny.

not funny: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuTspbPmV_g