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The Excuse Falls Flat Monday, September 24, 2007

#1 User is offline   Chefelf Icon

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Posted 24 September 2007 - 10:52 AM

The Excuse Falls Flat

I hate myself for commenting on this but here it goes.

Last week on The View Sherri Shepherd admitted that she did not know if the Earth was flat or not. This was after an exceptionally poor attempt to begin a debate on evolution, which Sherri also does not believe in. Everyone, of course, jumped all over this to quickly point out that she was an idiot and revel in the fact that their sixth grade education made them better than her. Understandable. People love that sort of thing. After last month's Miss Teen South Carolina Debacle, the average dummy already had reason to feel good about themselves. Sherri Shepherd just gave them an extra boost.

Ms. Shepherd made an ass of herself. Just watching the the look on Joy Behar's face during Shepherd's embarrassing tirade pretty much sums up how everyone watching the clip feels. Just watch.



Whoopi Goldberg very simply puts it, "Do you think the Earth is flat?" Ms. Shepherd responds that she does not know to which Whoopi responds, "Well, what do you think?" Ms. Shepherd says that she's never thought about it. Then she goes further to say that what she has thought about is how she was going to feed her children. This is a classic game where the defender brings up something that is more important and tries to imply that a human being cannot, in the same lifetime, both think about whether or not the Earth is flat and think about how to feed their children. There is also the argument to be made that someone who's spent the last decade on television and playing roles in Hollywood films is probably not struggling too hard to feed her children. At least not hard enough to cloud her brain and leave her unable to answer a question that an average six-year-old could answer correctly. One would argue that there are those out there who struggle a little bit more financially on low five-figure salaries and can still tell you the general shape of the earth is at least three-dimensional rather than two-dimensional.

So she's an idiot. Fine. I can deal with that. What I find annoying is that she was back, naturally, the next day to defend herself with this:



Taking a page out of the Universal Idiots' Playbook, Ms. Shepherd claims that she didn't understand the question because she was nervous. We've all been nervous. I'm willing to believe being nervous will make you stumble on your words. I believe it will make you misunderstand a complicated question. I'm willing to believe it may make you forget the answer to a question on a game show or make you answer incorrectly even if you really know the right answer. I am not really willing to believe it will make you misunderstand a question so fundamentally that even after having Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters repeatedly ask you follow ups you will still fail to answer the question correctly.

Perhaps what nervousness really does is make you incredibly stupid until the cameras are off you and spend a few hours consulting people with brains and having a very long and difficult conversation with your agent.

Ms. Shepherd's two excuses are:
  • "I was so nervous, all I heard was, 'How many triglycerides does it take to make Pluto when the Robitussin comes and the Earth's sun?' so when they asked me I was like, 'I don't know!'"
  • "You know, you have one of the senior brain poopy moments."

Yes. Wow. Firstly, if that's the best complicated question she could come up with given 24 hours then she's not winning anyone over into the Sherri-Shepherd-is-not-really-stupid camp. Secondly, a senior moment? That's cute when an 85-year-old woman says it because she momentarily forgets the name of one of her 17 grand nieces. Not so much when a 40-year-old woman actually doesn't know that the Earth is round and is trying to backpedal to not seem stupid.
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Posted 24 September 2007 - 03:01 PM

That's brilliant. I know what she was trying to say, that she doesn't take the word of people who support Evolution just because they say it, and that as far as she knows it's as provable as anything she's only got on hearsay, like the shape of the Earth. Of course, since she probably knows loads of people who have flown in planes and has probably flown in a plane herself, this was a pretty stupid analogy. She should have used something like the size and shape of neutrinos or the duration of the reaction of pigments in the eye to light, which is frankly something I still have trouble with. Not that it takes 200 femtoseconds, but that we know that. Like, who measured that and how? That blows me away. But no, she used the flat Earth analogy probably because she heard someone else use it once at a party, and he was a handsome man with a strong voice, and noone disagreed with him because he was so self-effacing with it. See, he no doubt recognised that it was a rhetorical observation, and if confronted he would have belittled his own comment and fished for another one. But in her experience of memory, noone did that, partly because they were all nice charitable types who wanted his analogy to work, but mainly because at the time he was probably using it to say "I don't believe in Evolution," which they all agreed with.

Anyway, I'd never heard of this broad before you mentioned her on this site, so thanks for that. I followed the link to her website and read this on the front page:

QUOTE
Guess Who's The Newest Co-Host on The View????


Your Prayers Worked!!!

I just want to give a heartfelt thank you to all of my fans who tirelessly emailed and wrote Barbara Walters, Bill Geddie and the ABC executives on my behalf. To think that you all took time out of your busy lives, leaves me speechless.

To those of you who prayed... let me tell you ... PRAYERS WORK! Because it is a miracle of God that I am now a co-host on The View.

To those of you who fasted for me to get this job... YOU CAN EAT NOW!

I just want to say again, I appreciate all of you from the bottom of my heart for your belief in, and support of, me and while I can't begin to personally answer all of the emails that I have been receiving, I am reading my webboard and chat line.

Now just keep praying, that every morning I don't put my foot in my mouth - but if you know me, it's bound to happen ohmy.gif)

God Bless You

Sherri


I can't tell whether she's kiddng when she suggests that people might have fasted to make sure her agent secured a deal for her on a daytime talk show. Or that God wanted her to be on this show so bad after hearing all those prayers that he secured a miracle for her. But anyway, her use of commas is attrocious.

This post has been edited by civilian_number_two: 24 September 2007 - 05:33 PM

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Posted 24 September 2007 - 04:04 PM

If I was her, I'd apologize and resign.
Seeing this clip all over the internet has got to be embarrassing for some Americans. Hell, I'm embarrassed watching it, and I'm not American at all!
PRECIOUS VELIUS....
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Posted 24 September 2007 - 07:12 PM

I'm also sad that Whoopi is on such a horrid show. I love Whoopi and while I think her presence makes the show less abysmal than it would be without her, it's sad that she's on it at all when she could be doing such greater stuff, or even just... not. It'd still be better than being on that show.

...Chef, what are you going watching the View anyway? tongue.gif
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Posted 24 September 2007 - 09:21 PM

QUOTE (Spoon Poetic @ Sep 24 2007, 08:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm also sad that Whoopi is on such a horrid show. I love Whoopi and while I think her presence makes the show less abysmal than it would be without her...


You're forgetting, I presume, that she was the one who defended Michael Vick's little dog-fighting operation as "part of his upbringing"? dry.gif
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Posted 25 September 2007 - 11:56 AM

QUOTE (civilian_number_two @ Sep 24 2007, 04:01 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
She should have used something like the size and shape of neutrinos or the duration of the reaction of pigments in the eye to light, which is frankly something I still have trouble with. Not that it takes 200 femtoseconds, but that we know that.


That seems very unlikely given her "triglycerides" rant where she tried to construct a random tricky question.

QUOTE (looktothesky @ Sep 24 2007, 05:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
If I was her, I'd apologize and resign.
Seeing this clip all over the internet has got to be embarrassing for some Americans. Hell, I'm embarrassed watching it, and I'm not American at all!


Why should I be embarrassed to be an American? There's not need to be embarrassed based on nationality, gender, race or even species. She's an idiot and I am not. I certainly feel the sympathy embarrassment that most do but I think she's only really embarrassing herself.

QUOTE (Spoon Poetic @ Sep 24 2007, 08:12 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
...Chef, what are you going watching the View anyway? tongue.gif


I'm not watching The View any more now than I was during that horrible Bob Dylan muscal thing. I can't remember where I saw the initial clip but it was all over the place on YouTube and various television shows.
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Posted 25 September 2007 - 12:49 PM

I figured as much, Chef, I was just teasing.

(And Bond, I hadn't heard that bit about Whoopi. And if it's true, it's a little sad that that's her opinion, but I still love her and think she's ultimately pretty great.)

I'm just glad this Sherri Shepherd person isn't from SC, too!
(Who was she before The View, anyway?)
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Posted 25 September 2007 - 03:44 PM

QUOTE (Chefelf @ Sep 25 2007, 12:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Why should I be embarrassed to be an American? There's not need to be embarrassed based on nationality, gender, race or even species. She's an idiot and I am not. I certainly feel the sympathy embarrassment that most do but I think she's only really embarrassing herself.


I stand corrected. smile.gif
Sorry for sounding so ignorant. sad.gif

...I still think she should resign because of this, though. If they chose her for the show, I'd hate to see the people who auditioned and didn't get the part.

This post has been edited by looktothesky: 25 September 2007 - 03:45 PM

PRECIOUS VELIUS....
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Posted 25 September 2007 - 04:35 PM

QUOTE (looktothesky @ Sep 25 2007, 04:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
...I still think she should resign because of this, though. If they chose her for the show, I'd hate to see the people who auditioned and didn't get the part.


Pat Robertson and Fred Phelps, perhaps? wink.gif


I can just imagine:

"So, Fred, what are your views on Ellen DeGeneres' new book?"

"GOD HATES FAGS!!! BUUURN IN HEEEELLLLL!!!"

"Um... oo-kay... now, Pat, what do you think of Joy's part on the new DVD The Secret?"

"You worthless pagan, I'm-a gonna keel you an' your family... I think it's time we took Joy Behar out."

"Uh... okay, Sherri gets the slot!"


Priceless. tongue.gif
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Posted 25 September 2007 - 07:33 PM

This little number was in the "related videos" section at the end of the clip. I think it sums the situation up quite nicely.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SGwtWHE0UQw
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Posted 25 September 2007 - 07:56 PM

Is it just me, or does that song say "muh----fuckin'? It sounds like the word "mother" is being edited, and not the word "fuckin'." ...unsure.gif
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Posted 26 September 2007 - 05:42 PM

QUOTE (Spoon Poetic @ Sep 25 2007, 10:49 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm just glad this Sherri Shepherd person isn't from SC, too!
(Who was she before The View, anyway?)


She was/is (whatever) an actress

i mean she hasn't really done anything to deserve being on The View
but then again the same could be said about Elizabeth
Yeah, Sherri Shepherd was in Less than Perfect

and that Everybody Loves Raymond
episode where Robert marries Amy
thats all i've ever seen her in

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Posted 29 September 2007 - 09:23 AM

my reaction:

is the earth flat?
I dunno?

lol, wut?

I'm more worried about feeding my kids, etc. etc.

ohh, I see! she's making subtle commentary on the fact that many people's political views will be more informed by necessity than by random topics of timely interest. she's saying that if she were someone who actually had to *worry* on a day-to-day basis about feeding her kids, she'd be more interested politically in, say, government benefits for the poor than in, say, stem cell research policy. she's playing devil's advocate! that's clever.

apology mumble mumble triglycerides mumble mumble backpedal

oh. never mind.

This post has been edited by Emu: 29 September 2007 - 09:23 AM

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Posted 11 October 2007 - 02:37 PM

Wait, IS the world flat? I'm curious to know and can't seem to find a definitive answer. I always thought it was a plate on the back of a turtle. Help a brother out here!!
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