You read that right. Bubba The Love Sponge has an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal. Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been taking heat from Media Matters after the liberal organization dug up some old tapes of Carlson when he was a regular guest on Bubba’s radio show.
In the opinion piece called, ‘The Speech Police Come for Tucker Carlson,” Bubba calls Carlson’s appearances insult comedy and harkened back to the days of Lenny Bruce.
“To be sure, we say really mean things on my radio show, and we laugh instead of getting mad. Why do we allow things to be said in comedy that wouldn’t be acceptable elsewhere? Believe it or not, scientists have studied comedy for an answer, and they found one. It’s called benign violation. We laugh when social norms are exceeded—the violation. But it’s not permanently harmful—it’s benign. No one called into my show authentically outraged about what Mr. Carlson said—not once—because everyone knew we were goofing in the spirit of the show.”
Read what Bubba writes HERE (WSJ Subscription required).
I had the privilege of working with Bubba in the late 1990’s. He was rude, crude, obnoxious and funny. Ridiculously funny. I had met him briefly before when he was working at XL106.7 in Orlando, but when he arrived at the Power Pig in Tampa to do nights, he was unlike anything we had ever seen before – and broke almost every “rule” of radio that we had been taught. It was a culture shock.
Working with Bubba was a non-stop learning experience. But the one thing that I learned that has stuck with me longer than anything else, was that Bubba has mastered the craft and art of charisma and persuasion. Bubba should have an honorary Phd. in Psychology. I’ve never seen anyone who was smarter or craftier when it came to breaking down social barriers and knocking down the walls that people erect around themselves to hide who they really are from the world.
I hope that I am not giving away a trade secret here, but another mistake you make at your own risk, is thinking that Bubba is a stupid radio jock. Because underneath that facade is a sly, crafty and intelligent man who makes a living out of playing a much less intelligent person than he actually is behind closed doors. You can read his op-ed in the WSJ and clearly see that he has no trouble writing a piece that fits right in alongside the intelligent material that the publication regularly hosts.
You may find him disgusting, gross or even offensive, but he is not stupid. He is a smart guy. And quite honestly, it is hard to argue with what he has to say about this issue. Political correctness is trying to kill comedy and posting short excerpts of spoken humor on a text-only site makes funny things look serious and not funny, which is why we shouldn’t be doing that. I applaud Bubba and Tucker for standing up to this. I stand up alongside them and I want to say that I believe in free speech and I believe in fighting political correctness and caving in to every offended person who demands that we no longer say anything that might offend someone else.
I still don’t even quite know how we went from, “I may disagree with or even abhor what you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it,” to “I won’t even risk my job or social standing to speak up for someone’s right to say something unpopular or unpleasant.” But we did… and broadcast companies need to stand up for the 1st Amendment again, and protect their talents again, or it will eventually destroy the entire industry, and more.
Tom Steele
The Hawk and Tom Show
WFBC-FM B93.7