Offensive newspaper jab at puppeteers

[Terrence Burke]

Hello fellow puppeteers, please read the Sept. 24th bit from Cincinnati CityBeat:
http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-24118-sept_21_27_worst_week_ever_.html

Here is my blog about this:
http://www.wumpmucketpuppets.com/2011/09/not-funny-citybeat/

If you wish to reply to the author of this unfunny article: CONTACT ISAAC THORN: letters@citybeat.com

 

[D'Snowth]

It seems to me that whoever wrote the article, in general, has a very sharp (not in a good way) and sarcastic sense of humor, and is not just victimizing puppeteers (though I admit that saying puppeteers are child molesters was uncalled for), but just about everyone he has written about in the article; a lot of people write like that, in pathetic attempts to be funny, even though they can be a bit off color at times.

I mean, this article does seem like material written for a lousy stand up comedian to me.

 

[The Shoe Fairy]

Newspapers just don't like puppetry. I recall reading an article about public broadcasting in the US that mentioned SST, saying "The actors that play the puppets..."

Wait what? We have a name and now we have a thing against newspapers. I didn't find that article funny at all, not really offensive but just cringeworthy.

 

[ZeppoAndFriends]

...even though puppeteers would finish second only to the piano teacher in the “What Professions are Most Likely To Molest My Kids?” poll if one were ever taken.

If that's a joke, it's about as funny as The Sorrow and the Pity.

 

[Walter]

That's disgusting... that's not even something to joke about.. I would like to see that writer walk up to one of the poor victims of child molestation and say "I don't take you seriously"

 

[ZeppoAndFriends]

You just expressed what ran through my head when I read that a lot better than I ever could.

Quite frankly, I'd be outraged no matter what profession he was slamming, but singling out puppeteers (and piano teachers) just seems like hitting below the belt.

 

[Terrence Burke]

Thanks for your replies. As a parent of two young children, and as a puppeteer who performs for children and their families, this clown's "humor" really ticked me off. Did he reply? Apologize to the puppet community? Of course not.

 

[robodog]

Forget him. He's an idiot. If this is what he thinks is funny he'd do well to actually watch something done by a decent puppeteer to see what real humor is. Jim Henson has probably crapped things that were funnier than this moron.
I'm not a puppeteer but I highly respect the art form. The ability to breathe life into a puppet is an awesome skill to have. Much more impressive than the ability to make sarcastic, unfunny comments in a third rate newspaper column. I'm not even a puppeteer and this lackwit's comments are making my blood boil.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Dude is writing a weekly column (if you can call it that) for a newspaper in Cincinnati that most people have never heard of, much less ever bother to read. Ignore him.

 

[Puppetainer]

I'm with Buck on this one. Not worth the energy to respond.