Irwin stingray

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It's very easy to snarl "no taste!", "oh, my God!" or "how could he do this!"...but showing a mock-profound lack of taste and sensitivity is where cutting-edge comedy is today. We all know this; we laugh at this. Comedians who don't play some variation of this game do so at their own peril. The truth? When I read about Bill Maher's Steve Irwin-stingray get-up I went right to Google and found it. I'm now leaving to check out the Halloween parade on Santa Monica Blvd. in hopes of finding another one. I'm sorry to offend.

comment #1

cleopatrajones says ...

I saw this yesterday and my first thought was what if Bindi, Steve and Terri's 8 year old, sees this? How does her mother explain that the man is a comedian and is trying to be funny. I doubt Bindi will laugh or understand because I certainly didn't and don't.

comment #2

Noah says ...

It's not particularly original either. It was in South Park. Bill Maher is not a cutting-edge comedian, witness his Jay Lenoesque bits on Real Time every week.

comment #3

LFF says ...

people have been talking about dead steve irwin costumes all through october, before south park and maher. I know at least one person who was pissed that SP had it on there becuase they had already prepared a zombie Steve Irwin get-up, and after that its seemed unoriginal.
(He had a zombie John Ritter not that long ago. Dead celebrity costumes are older than dirt. Not shocking.)

Suck it up folks. How many other children of famous parents have to endure bad jokes, slander etc.? Its part of the gig. Your fame affects your kids, both directions, like it or not. You don't just get to pick the good stuff.

comment #4

funkyfeet says ...

Suck it up Bindi and Bob. How many other children of famous parents have to endure bad jokes, slander etc.? Its part of the gig. You're dad's fame affects you kids, both directions, like it or not. You don't just get to pick the good stuff.

Would someone please get this message to the Irwin children? The idiot LFF has spoken.

comment #5

jeffmcm says ...

Why, oh why, won't somebody think of the children?

comment #6

James says ...

What about the children?

http://www.thunderegg.org/mp3s/16%20What%20About%20(The%20Children).mp3

What choice do they have?

comment #7

Josh Massey says ...

I think Maher should be more embarrassed by how Godawful he looks.

comment #8

lesterg says ...

Agreed, Josh. Maher looks like he's playing the undead version of himself playing Irwin.

comment #9

Mgmax says ...

70 years ago Salvador Dali and his wife dressed up as Lindbergh and the dead Lindbergh baby.

Maher's late to the party. Here's what a blogger points out would have been a truly daring costume:

http://timblair.net/ee/index.php/weblog/mohalloween/

comment #10

Sean says ...

It's weird to me that the people who get indignant and say stuff like "What if his kids see it?" also seem to be, generally, the people who are spreading it all around, saying "Look how distasteful this is."

Which is to say, if people weren't spreading it around saying how distasteful it was, there would be zero chance of the kids seeing it.

So was Bindi the one that Irwin dangled in front of the alligator, or was that the other one?

comment #11

Nicol D says ...

When did Bill Maher turn into Bill Gates?

He looks really ill.

comment #12

christian says ...

bill maher is just not as funny as he thinks he is. i like his show and political outrage, but like a typical desperate comic, he feels impelled to qualify his points with lame add-on humor.

watch his show for proof. he'll make a statement then throw in a quick unfunny dick joke so people won't forget he's a funny guy. it's still a tacky and stupid costume.

comment #13

Mark says ...

True, it's not very original, and a plea for attention, but I'm hardly offended. Bindi's dad jumped on crocodile's backs for living, almost courting death. He was an alternate version of Johnny Knoxville. This isn't exactly a post-assassination JFK costume.

comment #14

MathewM says ...

Un-original and tastless--Typical Bill Maher. I'm still trying to figure out how this guy gets laid.

comment #15

TPK says ...

Here in San Francisco a mother dressed up her child the same way as Maher. The mother herself? She went as a stingray (with no barb).

I know a couple who wanted to go as John Mark Karr and Jon Benet until I told them people would throw things at them.

comment #16

Ashley says ...

I do think this is tasteless, but Jeff makes a good point that being tasteless is one of the only ways to be successful as a comedian these days. Comedians like Maher are regularly rewarded for being insensitive; then they step over somebody's idea of a line and suddenly they've "gone too far"? Come on. It's the same hypocrisy that rewards Brittney and Jessica for turning themselves into sex objects and then tsk-tsks about their destructive example to young girls.

Very few of us have any room to judge.

comment #17

Hallick says ...

Tasteless jokes have to be funny too. The costume just seems mean-spirited, and, worst of all, witless (he could have put a twist on the thing making it more than "he's dead, hardee har har..."). And coming from Bill Maher somehow just bumps it up to asinine.

comment #18

Dixon Steele says ...

After this, the arrogant Maher is due for a takedown, i.e. when he was cancelled by ABC.

Pot bust, perhaps?

comment #19

Krazy Eyes says ...

Jesus . . . even the outrage in this country has become fake and partisan. It's a halloween costume people. If you don't like it or Maher fine, just ignore it. But this fake outrage and "concern for the children" is ridiculous.

I don't even think Maher is a particularly good comedian although I think Real Time has been pretty good so far this season.

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