The career of Janeane Garofalo is a strange case study of the non-starlet’s path in Hollywood. Janeane started out as a stand-up comic in the late 1980s, then crossed over to legitimate television and film work, doing The Ben Stiller Show, Saturday Night Live, The Truth About Cats & Dogs, The Matchmaker, The Laramie Project, and The West Wing, among many others. She’s currently working on 24. In between film and television commitments, Janeane has always taken on stand-up work all around the country.
She’s also one of Hollywood’s most vocal liberals, and she’s spent the better part of a decade speaking out on various liberal causes like ending the Iraq War, separation of church and state, and gender and race relations in America. Janeane hosted a radio show on Air America, and she is a frequent guest on political panel discussions on CNN and MSNBC. Lately, her political interviews have mostly been with Keith Olbermann on Countdown.
It comes as no surprise that Janeane was invited to do a stand-up act at the Somerville Theatre in Boston. The surprise is that Janeane is going to face some sort of organized protest with her stand-up appearance. This is all related to her last interview on Countdown, where she was criticizing the “teabagger” parties and protesters. Her words, to Keith, were “Let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.” To protest Garofalo, the protesters have decided to… get this… buy tickets to her show so they can heckle her. Brilliant plan!
It may be no laughing matter when Janeane Garofalo takes the stage at the Somerville Theatre May 8 to do her standup schtick. Because the rabble rousers who staged the tea party protests in Boston earlier this month are planning to focus their wrath on the “24” star for mocking their mission!
Fueling the tea party-goers’ ire was Janeane’s appearance on Obama apologist Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show earlier this month wherein the left-leaning funnygal painted the tax protesters as a bunch of redneck racists.
“You know, there’s nothing more interesting than seeing a bunch of racists become confused and angry . . .,” she said. “Which, let’s be very honest about what this is about. It’s not about bashing Democrats, it’s not about taxes, they have no idea what the Boston Tea Party was about, they don’t know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.”
Well, it seems that many of the protesters beg to differ. And one sent a raaather nasty e-mail to the director of The Alternative Comedy Festival, which is bringing Garofalo to town.
“This (bleep) is gonna hear it from Boston,” the anonymous e-mailer said. “All us bigots and racists are buying up tix to let this piece of excrement hear it from us. shame on her.”
Alternative Comedy Festival head Brian Joyce said there’s been a lot of talk on conservative talk shows about Garofalo’s comments and “the tea party-goers are none too pleased.”
“It’s really been blowing up,” Joyce said.
Joyce said the festival doesn’t plan to add extra security or personnel for the show. But if the protesters get out of line, they will be dealt with like any other out-of-control heckler.
“If people disrupt the performance, they will most likely be removed from the theater the same way they would any other comedy show,” he said. “That’s not a political thing, it’s a comedy thing. Bottom line is, Janeane is here to tell jokes, not spark a revolution. And we’re really happy to have her.”
File Under: Party Guys.
From The Boston Herald
I’ll give some credit to the protesters – they’ve got a non-violent plan to disrupt Garofalo’s set. That’s a start. And they’ll probably succeed in disrupting her more than if they were just standing outside the auditorium, yelling their heads off. But to actually buy tickets? That, to me, is like people who used to buy records just to burn them in some sort of protest bonfire. You bought the album! That money is going to the musician you’re protesting! This is the same thing… the more tickets are sold, the better it is for Janeane. Well, maybe. If they don’t heckle her off the stage.
Janeane Garofalo is shown hanging out with Cheri Oteri and Illeana Douglas at the Farmer’s Market in LA on 11/22/08. Douglas has a sign that reads “start filming homelessness in America.” Credit: GVK/JRS/bauergriffinonline.com
I have to admit that I agree with the protesters – Janeane’s suggestion that any disagreement with Obama equals racism is stupid. I hate it when people try to shut down honest debate by calling names – racist! sexist! facist!
But I disagree with their plan to heckle her, and find it unacceptable when any type of organized hecklers try to drown out a speaker. This frequently happens to right-wing speakers on U.S. college campuses: left-wing protesters make so much noise that the speaker can’t be heard.
Let people express their opinions, regardless of their politics, and let the listeners judge.
I thought she was dead.
Actually, I followed those protests (not on mainstream of COURSE)and read as they unfolded on the internet. They had nothing to do with racism. It was to stave off the impending tax increases over the giant deficent, protest unemployment, and illegal immigration. For mainstream news to use a pornagraphic term openly like “teabagging” was disgusting. What she had to say about the protestors was silly, uneducated and unfounded. However, heckling her will make the protestors look ridiculous. But for those of us who knew what the protests were about, she looked like an uneducated moron.
She was great on the Gary Shandling show, too. Love her. The look on her face in this pic is so droll. I think she’s a smart woman with a smart mouth. You go, girl.
Ugh. She’s just such a narrow minded, hate filled troll.
Janeane ROCKS! I LOVE her stand up and I think she’s a very smart woman.
I love the sign Illeana Douglas is holding!
Um, no. It’s about taxes, Janeane.
I do not know how this woman ever got to be a political commentator in the first place? She is totally hate filled, and I think racist herself. I hope they give her a good taste of her own medicine. She so deserves it.
First I am offended, but not surprised by the sophomoric use of the word ‘teabagger’ in the header of this thread. It exhibits immaturity and ignorance, I am saddened that CB has allowed it.
Ms. Garofalo is a complete waste of oxygen. She is one of the most hateful people I have had the misfortune to listen to.
Ms Garofalo is an arrogant, uninformed bigot and is making sweeping generalizations on something she knows nothing about, quite a trend in Hollywood.
Did she attend a tea party? NO. She assumes, just as Olbermann does. They’re clueless. I expect nothing less from them.
Oh please. The people involved in these protests (including my own father in law) happily used the word “teabagging” until they were told what it meant.
As for Garafalo, I doubt she cares much about the protests. I know I wouldn’t. If nothing else, these people might just give her career a boost.
What? What does teabagging mean?
Never mind. I just googled “teabagging” and now feel that much the wiser. Thank God for an internet education.
Well having been in Boston during the PRE-ELECTIONS, I can tell you for a FACT that in many bars there were MANY a person claiming not to want to have a BLACK person in the White house, the same was also said about a woman.
People who keep saying it is not race related have a jaded belief of some of their fellow Americans.
There is still racism in America, not as much as 30 years ago, not as much as 5 years ago, but it is still present.
First of all, the “Teabag” protests were not about taxes and Garafolo is correct that it is about race. Look at the crowds who participated, it wasn’t grassroots, becuase little or no minorities participated. The signs at this protested were RACIST! Go to Huffington post and look at the slideshow. Pictures don’t lie people, and also look at the two muliple shootings in Florida and Pennsylvannia where law enforcement officers were killed. Those murderers believed Obamaa is outlwaing guns, the same hate speech propagandized by the “Teabag” movement. Glad its working out for Fox news, Limbaugh and the boys. Your party is unraveling at the seams!
And I expect nothing more from you an obvious Republican. You just going to hate on anyone who isn’t a republican and expresses their thoughts. I went by a “teaparty” and yes they were racist. I heard most of them talking about “that N****r” and how he’s the worst president we’ve ever had. LOL!!! Yeah in less than 100 days (at that point) Obama has become the worst president. PLEASE! The teabaggers WERE stupid. Get over it. Just because you republicans can’t handle that someone you don’t like got into the office, instead of one of the “good ole boys” you have to CRY CRY CRY about it everyday. We had to deal with Bush. A man who killed our young men in an unjust WAR. Deal with Obama he actually cares about this country and not just showing off for his daddy. Also, all you had to do was watch video footage of the “tea partys”. They may have said they were doing it for one reason but unless you are blind and deaf you could tell what they were really there for. You, Daisy are arrogant and uninformed. Get over yourself and your hatred of Democrats.
BTW I am not a Democrat I just got really angry at her absolute stupidity.
Also, I would not be surprised if this “protest” was organized by Bill OReilly. He is the king of ambushing anybody who he disagrees with. So get mad and disrupt a show, where her fans are planning to go innocently and hear standup? I’d be mad as hell if I was at the show and an organized group disrupted the flow or order of the show with that mess. I beleive in free speech and she was a guest on a show and asked her opinion, so now she’s a target? This Country is going to hell fast folks!
Sorry to get all serious on a celb gossip site, but this topic is emotional to alot of people and we should not be targeting people personally for the opinions, but uneducated fluff ain’t cutting it either.
Peace
I don’t consider the separation of church and state a liberal issue. My father, a religious hard core right winger, and his like-minded friends, have always focused intensely on this crucial facet of our constitution. This separation protects individual rights, so it is of utmost importance to religious folks who don’t want the state to determine which of the many forms of christianity is the “rightest” one.
As far as the J.G., I suppose she’s the Anne Coulter of liberals, but not as phony. To her credit, I saw her on a news show and she protested her own invitation to appear as a pundit by using her airtime asking why they got a comedian to represent the left rather than an expert on the subject at hand. I thought that was astute and honest and interesting.
@pop, reading your anger towards me makes me laugh.
I am not a republican or a democrat, I’m an American who votes her conscious not what a specific party thinks, I do my own thinking and decision making. I did not vote for GW and abhorred the spending he/congress did in the WH. In all of the years I have been voting, I voted for ONE republican – Reagan. Jimmy Carter was the first president I voted for. So stick that lame ass argument/talking point back in your pocket.
I didn’t just ‘drive by’ a tea party and claim I was informed about what went on at one, I actually attended one in Cleveland. I speak from what I witnessed first hand, not from clips that were on the web or TV.
I never once saw or heard racial slurs of any kind on the teaparty website for Cleveland or at the rally I attended.
Evidently it is easier to assume that anyone who disagrees with your view is a racist or “crying”. I seem to remember alot of that going on during GW’s term. I don’t care what political party is in the WH, what sex, nationality or color they are, I am an equal opportunity protester. But, if it helps you sleep easier at night thinking the ‘opposition’ is stupid, dream on. I don’t need your approval.
btw, my sign read “Term Limits Now” with a picture of the capitol.
My husband’s read “Stop the Bailouts”, and he’s a registered Democrat.
I totally agree with her, there was reports that the KKK was strongly represented and were in some places signing people up.
The good news is that the “teabag party” was a failure, and it showed the impotence of the Republican party. Now we know that they are now just a ragtag fringe group, no longer that Strong “Grand-Old-Party”, an fringe group that needs to depend on the KKK to mount a demonstration.
People have to get accustomed to the idea that sometimes the “smartest guy in the room” can at times be Asian/Black/Hispanic or White, so we need to be open to the best without regard for color.
Like those pre-integration baseball records, they will never be totally valid because everyone who should weren’t allowed to participate, so you didn’t get the best in America, just the privileged in America.
There are people who refuse to look past race and gender because they were from the bad old days or they trained their children to love the bad old days where racial hate was a badge of honor.
The Teabagging Parties were definitely NOT about taxes in some cases. There was a guy who had Obama as HITLER. Like, Adolf Hitler. Like the guy who led the Nazi Party. There was a man carrying a sign with President Obama dressed as Hitler and with a Hitler-style mustache.
Others were shouting racial slurs (I watched this on, ironically, my local Fox News affiliate, not the national one), made signs portraying him as monkey/ape/drinking Kool Aide. Whenever you get a bunch of people protesting Obama together, you will inevitably attract some racists. It’s just gonna happen. So stop denying it happens. Some of your Republican Conservatives are racists and they show their asses at protests.
Anyway, Janeane Garofalo is a great comedian and I think a brilliant woman.
I think the Miss California situation should be compared to this; you don’t see/hear a bunch of liberals trying to burn her britches for answering truthfully to Perez’s question.
@georgiagrl: I don’t think you put enough html tags in your argument to win it ;p
“the “Teabag” protests were not about taxes and Garafolo is correct that it is about race”
Well, now we know you and she are both wrong.
Daisy we agree today! I’m totally depressed over the bailouts. Temporarily nationalize the banks Obama and kick those fat cats to the curb! Guess all those bribes – oops, I mean lobbying dollars- are paying off! Repubs, Dems all take lobbying $ and it pisses me the f&*@k off. It’s an evil system.
When people protest, there’s always the “loud” element that gets the lion’s share of media attention. Not everyone who opposed WTO is a window smashing masked anarchist and not everyone at a teabag protest is a racist. (but I’d bet most of the teabag protesters are getting a sweet tax cut this year).
Gymo
You’re my hero!
Great post!!!
@barneslr, Amen to that.
@Trillion, glad to agree!! They need to clean up their own mess. That’s like giving my son another credit card when he maxed the first one. Term limits set for congress, without it, creates/cultivates the greed & corruption you speak of. Must be nice to set your raises & retirement. Your comment is spot on, except for the tax cuts, for me at least.
@HB, not trying to start something with you, but the same can be said for GW’s image on web sites & posters. Google George Bush Hitler, click on images and behold.
As far as the images you saw on TV, you’re right, there are bad apples everywhere, it makes me want to puke. But to condemn all of the protesters due to a few asshole’s shows the bias that you complain of from the other side.
Fortunately, the protesters where I was, were orderly, friendly and the only thing we chanted was; ‘USA’.
Please refrain from calling racists, my Republican Conservatives. They’re not mine, and never will be.
She’s got a right to her opinion the same way they had the right to protest non-existent tax hikes. But, let’s be honest, anyone who read the signs from some of the protesters and listened to their interviews, they didn’t have a coherent message and seemed to be spreading a lot of hate filled and (in some cases) racist rhetoric. She never said that you couldn’t disagree with Obama, she said that many of the people protesting, were not protesting actual policy, but were protesting Obama, personally. Considering that many of their complaints were about things that Bush did in the last few months of his administration, TARP, etc, their protests made absolutely no sense. If you didn’t complain for the last eight years as Bush drove the country into the ground and put us in massive debt then it seems a little strange that NOW you’re organizing protests. Please someone let the teabaggers know that grassroots is not conservative think tanks and politicians dreaming up faux populist rage.
The teabaggers were racist, just as way too many whites are. I love Janeane Garofolo and hope her fans will help straighten out the numbnuts who still don’t have a clue.
Well, that was interesting seeing the “experts” here post on a few photos they saw ans some CNN coverage of radicals. There are a few of us here ( I am NOT republican or democrat because both parties are too corrupt) who DO know what the protests were based on and followed the information WEEKS before it even happened. It was as I stated and it was promoted, planned and executed to be such. If the racists tagged along (or did what they didnt purposefully to be filmed) that is apparently all you know. It started as a protest with people sending in real teabags in the mail (like the Boston Tea Party) to their Senators and Congressmen but a few got arrested for (good gawd SUCH a CRIME) so they took to the street. Since when does mailing a teabag make you the start of a racist movement? Research, read, learn the truth
And it was apparent the mainstream media (with their corporate motives) were making fun of the protestors…..doesn’t it make perfect sense that they would ALSO pick the dullest TOOLS in the shed or the racist tag-alongs to interview?? It was actually a very intelligent, thoughtful protest that was demonized by the press.
Oh by the way (sorry to post again) , for those that love mainstream media. CNN just did an article warning people to reduce their deductions or next year they will probably end up OWING (especially married couples and those working two jobs)……..ohhhhhhhh but its NOT about being TAXED!! Nevermind, Im just a racist. I think I’ll go admit that to my half-BLACK son.
@daisy, unlike you, I don’t operate in absolutes. If you had read my post and then comprehended it properly, you would have seen that I used the word “some” i.e. not “ALL”. In other words, there are always SOME idiots who parade themselves at protests. The kind that showed their asses at the Teabagging protests just happened to be Conservative Republican bigots.
Kindly quit trying to find problems with my logic or my arguments where there are none, I’m starting to tire of it.
Hashbrowns, it was a “TEA PARTY” not a teabagging -pornagraphic made up concoction from CNN, MSNBC & FOX. When will some people GROWUP and NOT define the world by what a few news stations say who are created to MAKE you think a CERTAIN way? Just research the topic. Just using the world “teabagging” shows you just watched the mainstream news (no other research)……know nothing about what you are talking about…..and are ignorantly blissful thanks to our friends (ya right) on television. By the way Miss Garofalo comes from an extremely rich and and influential family…….research THAT. They have great stock in what you believe. And HER family has great stock in the way the news plays out.
Know when you’ve “been PLAYED”…
Thank you Yae, for thinking out of the box, well done.
HB, I don’t have to keep trying to find problems with your logic, your comments speak for themselves. I don’t have to lift a finger.
Hmmm, I wasn’t aware of any tea parties when GW was in office, if there were I would have attended one. As I stated earlier, I am in favor of term limits on congress. TARP is only one problem of many, the stimulus and trillions of $$ of “massive debt”.
I’m lucky being the age I am, you younger citizens will be paying it off until you’re older than I am…and that’s just the interest.
@daisy: Hilarious that all you can say is that my comments speak for themselves because you can’t find anything wrong with them. LOL.
AND you haven’t said anything about the fact that I don’t operate in absolutes and you do because…wait for it…you were wrong and can’t admit it.
@yae: I am very aware that they were called Tea Parties. I think the concept was lost on them in terms of what the Boston Tea Party was and thus TeaBagging Party is so much more appropriate.
By the way, the term “teabagging” was not “made up” by the networks. “Teabagging” the term and concept has been around for a loooooong time which is why it’s so funny that a lot of people at the events didn’t know what it meant and were saying that they were “Teabaggers” and such.
By the way, I don’t watch tv; I don’t own a television set. I read things from various sources, watch stuff on CNN, Fox and MSNBC’s websites, and come to my own conclusions.
I.e. I use my own mind and think about the information I’ve watched and read.
HB, I used to get angry at my teenager daughters for arguing with their much younger brothers. I feel I am dealing with the same situation here.
Below is an example of how your comments speak for themselves;
..”The kind that showed their asses at the Teabagging protests just happened to be Conservative Republican bigots.” That is an absolute = having no exception. Including the word some in the prior sentence isn’t a pass. So, anyone who is a racist is also a Conservative Republican?
Although I grew tired of the argument, but does pertain in this instance, I absolutely disagree with your contradictory comments on the Colbert thread. Your comments were stereotypical, just like Ms Garofalo’s.
Your summary on tea parties and what motivated people like myself to attend is another misconception you have. Your comments clearly show that.
I knew what the term ‘teabagging’ was when you were still a glint in your father’s eye.
The malevolent mocking of your fellow citizen with with that term, only shows shallow spitefulness of something (tea party protests) you obviously don’t understand. Why is it so hard to believe that people are fed up with the spending in Goverment, period?
I admit when I am wrong. I am not wrong in the way I feel here. Being personally involved, know what I experienced, but nice try.
If you try going on different websites and other channels for your news/facts, it will help to give you a more well rounded view, from both sides of the political fence. Knowledge is power.
“Like, Adolf Hitler. Like the guy who led the Nazi Party.”
Although you chose to omit it from your reply, I wonder what the google search on GWB/Hitler turned up for you…..
I started my post before your last comment was posted;
“…watch stuff on CNN, Fox..”
If this were true, then you would understand what motivated my husband and I to attend.
Also, I only saw your talking points on MSNBC, CNN Cooper/Roesgen, NYT, HuffPo & Daily KOS.
Yes, I read all of them, daily.
Ummm… She’s totally dead on. My Mom and Dad were all about the tea party nonsense…. and as much as it hurts to say it : they are racist. But the kind that always starts some fucked up comment with ” I’m not a racist but….” Wow, I have never been so damn disgusted than to see all those people pretending to give a shit about taxes so they could hate on the black man in a public place. Really. She’s right. Totally. I wouldn’t go so far as to say EVERYONE that went are bigoted assholes, but I am def. giving Daisy424 the sideeye right now….
Anyone who says the tea party protests were not racist did not go to a rally in rural midwestern America. I live in Ohio, and the people here are FREAKING out. They really believe we will become a completely socialist nation. I simply do not think they would feel this way if our president were a white male named Barry O’Bama,
The taxes are Bush’s. So WTF are they talking about?
I love how they have no problem with money being poured into Iraq, but the minute we invest money in rebuilding our own country, they cry socialism.
Basically, 9/11 is too far past to frighten people with terrorism, so Repubs are using Socialism to scare people into voting for them. Socialism with insidious racial undertones.
THEY are the ones tearing this country apart. Remember that.
A. Huffington was a guest on Olbermann about the bailouts last week.
Are others starting to see it the way people like I do? Listen to their ‘tea party’.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/vp/30527175#30527175
another;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sophia-a-nelson/jeanine-garafolo-on-racis_b_189448.html
@wresa, The Tea parties are not exclusively about taxes, just a fraction of why I went.
Socialism is an economic system based on government control of capital; banks, companies, etc., rather than private enterprise. Cooperation rather than competition.
How exactly are we now rebuilding our country with trillions of $ of lobbyist driven pork spending? Could you be specific?
This is a no brainer,the difference between Sarah Palin and Janeane Garofolo is this; One is a fat tattoo pig and one is a lady.. You figure it out.