Ask A Genius 937: Roast of Joan Rivers
Author(s): Rick Rosner and Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Ask A Genius
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/05/11
[Recording Start]
Rick Rosner: Right, so you just showed me a clip from the roast of Joan Rivers featuring Gilbert Gottfried, where he describes in great, flowery detail what it is like to have sex with Joan Rivers. It was all made up, but it went on for a long time. I’ve seen him perform “The Aristocrats,” which is the dirtiest joke that can be told.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Because he made it last for eight minutes of sheer perversion. This is pretty much like that. He’s got that grating voice, so he did a good job. It’s a little daunting because I’m trying to write something very dirty.
Rosner: I’m writing this novel, and I want parts of it to be fantastically dirty. It’s hard to come up with stuff that’s dirty in a time where…
Jacobsen: Well, okay, it’s two things. One, you can have Gilbert Gottfried tell this filthy, filthy, made-up story about Joan Rivers where she orgasms and her lady goo shoots out of her vagina and burns a hole in the floor, with a hundred details like that in this bit that goes on for three or four minutes—a long bit to describe one sex act.
Rosner: Filthy as that. On the other hand, we’re in a hypocritically and falsely puritanical time. In 2010, the Republicans implemented a plan to engage in small-ball politics. Instead of focusing on national offices like senator or congressperson, they decided to concentrate on state legislatures and governors. They took over three-quarters of the legislatures across America.
Jacobsen: It’s cheaper to win a state legislature race, to become a state senator than a national senator. They realized this and understood that the state legislatures determine the congressional boundaries, so you can win by gerrymandering. By following this small-ball strategy, they dominated national politics for a decade until the Democrats.
Rosner: Republicans are still fucking us. Lately, in the past five years, they’re playing even smaller-ball politics by trying to take over school boards and library boards. It’s even cheaper to win those elections, and you can generate a lot of indignation from idiot…
Jacobsen: Conservative voters get all upset about, you know, like the book “Gender Queer,” which is probably the number one banned book in America right now. It’s a graphic novel about a kid growing up gay, and so these…
Rosner: School board invaders. School boards are supposed to consist of local parents or grandparents, people who have some stake in the local school system or library board. Instead, they come in without any kids in the district and…
Jacobsen: They engage in hardcore electoral politics in these piddly little races. Because of this strategy, there’s now a lot of discussion in America about banned books and adult books that kids shouldn’t see, and legislation being passed to protect kids. It’s all garbage. It’s all designed just to rile up the base.
Rosner: It’s probably easier to write something that people will find offensive. So, on one hand, you’ve got Gilbert Gottfried, and on the other, these hypocritical assholes.
[Recording End]
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In-Sight Publishing by Scott Douglas Jacobsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Based on a work at www.in-sightpublishing.com.
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