May 1
'09
Lisa Rinna thinks her whole family got swine flu and is fine

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You would think that with lips as heavy as hers, Lisa Rinna would have a hard time talking. Or if nothing else, it would take long enough to lift them that she’d have a chance to consider what she was about to say. Given all that, nothing less than Shakespeare should come out of her mouth. Unfortunately that’s not the case, and epically stupid things spew forth from her hot dog lips.

Lisa thinks her entire family had swine flu in April before the rest of the country had heard about it. And they’re fine. I think the implication being “don’t worry about it.”

“I believe we all, except for myself, had the swine flu at our house. How do you know it’s the swine flu? I don’t know but we had all the symptoms. We had it before it came out. I’m serious. I’m dead serious. We had it at our house, I believe, and everyone is fine.”

[From Entertainment Tonight]

Dlisted pointed out that this makes it seem like we can probably blame Lisa Rinna and her family for bringing swine flu to the U.S. You know, if we wanted to skew things that way. And I feel that – if we need someone to blame – Lisa Rinna is as good as anyone. Maybe better. Doesn’t Harry Hamlin look like he’d harbor swine flu? And his last name is Hamlin. Ham-lin. That cannot be a coincidence. *Snort.*

Several commenters on Dlisted’s site have mentioned they had short bad flues in April and are now wondering if they had swine flu. Considering most people get over it on their own, it’s very possible that some people caught it without realizing that’s what it was. Generally speaking, flu season ends in March, though of course this isn’t set in stone. It’s not completely, totally impossible that Lisa Rinna is right, though I still think she should shut her Restylane.

Here’s Lisa and Harry at Los Angeles Confidential magazine’s May/June issue party last night. Images thanks to WENN.com .

Posted in Lisa Rinna, Swine Flu

Written by JayBird         23 Comments »
Apr 30
'09
Controversy over British politician’s joke blaming Swine Flu on Susan Boyle

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Humor is a fickle thing. Often it needs to be heard in person to truly get why something’s funny. So much can be lost without the help of intonation. Then there’s the whole issue of propriety. Personally I’m a fan of most off-color and inappropriate jokes, though there’s obviously a line. And the line is always changing, especially when it comes to current events.

Yesterday a British junior minister named Sion Simon made a joke on his Twitter page about Swine Flu and Susan Boyle.

‘I’m not saying Susan Boyle caused swine flu. I’m just saying that nobody had swine flu, she sang on TV, people got swine flu.’

[From the Daily Mail]

And the Brits are sort of up in arms over it.

Just as Gordon Brown was gravely announcing that two more Britons had been diagnosed with the virus, one government figure, I can disclose, decided that the potential pandemic was a great opportunity for a joke.

In a bizarre attempt at humour, junior minister Sion Simon suggested that unlikely Britain’s Got Talent singing sensation Susan Boyle is to blame.

Tories were horrified by what were seen as ‘insensitive’ remarks.

Even fellow Labour MPs were aghast. ‘It’s infantile, isn’t it,’ one says. ‘Hasn’t he got enough to do?’

For Simon, the minister for further education, was posting what he thought was a witty aside on the crisis just as it was confirmed a 12-year-old Devon girl had contracted the virus.

[From the Daily Mail]

Simon did remove the joke and apologized when contacted by the Daily Mail. It’s not the first time he’s gotten in trouble for his humor. Three years ago he posted a spoof of leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron’s video blog. As Cameron, he “offered people one of his children and the opportunity to sleep with his wife,” according to the Daily Mail. So he’s obviously got an edgy sense of humor, especially for a politician.

Like I said, I like inappropriate humor, but I can certainly understand why this particular joke would offend a lot of people. In the last few days I’ve heard at least ten Swine Flu jokes, and this was certainly no more offensive than the rest of them. Though to be fair, most of the others played on pigs as the theme. And while Simon’s was based on Susan Boyle – and was really more of a humorous observation than a joke – it wasn’t actually mocking her, and that’s obviously not why people were offended. It was due to making fun of something so serious.

I’ll let the commenters weigh in on the propriety of the joke.

PD*2977090

Sion Simon

Posted in Humor, Politics, Swine Flu, U.K.

Written by JayBird         57 Comments »
 
 
 
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