Kathlyn Hotynski

Two of my favorite American institutions are being destroyed – political debate and comedy.

In between checking my e-mail and Facebook a few days ago, I was drawn to a rather peculiar article off the CNN.com home page involving the always-quotable Ann Coulter referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a “faggot.”

No sooner than five minutes later, I found myself watching a video of “comedian” Carlos Mencia and Joe Rogan, a fellow comedian, arguing about stolen material and bad racist jokes.

After looking at both controversies, I’ve become increasingly convinced that Ann Coulter and Carlos Mencia are, in fact, the same person. Both say completely stupid things to gain publicity and both enjoy stealing other people’s words while denying it up and down.

As much as I enjoy stand-up comedy and political debates, Coulter and Mencia have somehow found a way to kill my love for both by systematically destroying any logical or creative thought expressed in both professions.

According to a July 10 article written by the Associated Press, various media outlets have called for an investigation into Coulter stealing writings from other publications and pawning them off as her own in her column. Because there are many examples of this, I’m just going to tell you to go to Google, type “Ann Coulter” and “plagiarism” in the search bar and click on the MSNBC.com link. The article also mentions that a plagiarism detection machine found other counts of word-stealing in her books as well.

There are also other sites that talk more about her plagiarism in-depth. And I seriously doubt that accusations of stealing published words can be labeled nothing but propaganda. The truth is in the writing.

Likewise, Mencia, or Ned Holness (his real name – Mencia’s also half-German), has been in an ongoing feud with Rogan, George Lopez and other famous comedians because of his stolen act. Again, the truth is in the monologues.

Mencia’s rebuttal to every one of his critics is that they can’t take a joke and they’re just jealous of his fame. In reality, Mencia’s brand of comedy takes no more skill than tying your shoes; everyone knows how to do it and no one claims they can tie a shoe in an “original” way. And so it goes with Mencia’s terribly offensive jokes.

When some people in society mass stereotype or get too offended racially or politically, comedians use the tension to their advantage to get people to realize that if you can’t laugh at yourself, your life has an increased potential of crappiness. But unlike Chris Rock’s perfected comedy, Mencia just repeats every racist comment you hear from backwoods rednecks and calls it an “act.”

As for Coulter, I could spend a lifetime talking about how bad she has been for the already dirty game of American politics.

With the blatantly obvious racist, sexist and anti-anyone who doesn’t nod their head when she speaks attitude, I swear Coulter’s vomit has more substance to it than any words that find their way out of her mouth. Yeah, I do realize that she is considered the right wing equivalent of Michael Moore, but while he is calling for impeachments of public officials, she is calling for assassinations of politicians. You pick which is worse. Even most conservatives, with the exception of FAUX News, think she’s insane.

A good example of the difference between the two can be seen when USA Today hired Coulter and Moore to cover the Democratic National Convention and Republican National Convention in 2004, respectively. The newspaper rightfully terminated Coulter’s contract after, among othre things, referring to Democrats as the “Spawn of Satan.” In contrast, Moore’s columns were published without a hitch.

This is not the first time Coulter has been removed from publications. In 2001, the conservative Web site, National Review Online, severed ties with Coulter and the Arizona Daily Star dropped her column in 2005 because of negative feedback. Luckily, after her most recent name calling, FAUX News has decided to keep her as a commentator. I was worried they were moving towards credible reporting.

I don’t have a problem with political jabs from the left and right because that’s what makes American politics so entertaining. But Coulter just says the most illogical, fact-less things to get people to read her plagiarized columns. Sadly, America loves it when someone uses their right to free speech to claim truth to something normally reserved for the Onion.

It doesn’t matter if she believes what she writes or not – the fact is that other people believe her when she calls Sept. 11 widows “witches.”

When normally conservative groups are denouncing Coulter and comedians, in a profession that requires each person to stick together, are turning against Mencia, it’s time for someone to pull the plug.

Debates are healthy for political thought and racial jokes are good for loosening tension in society when things seem too uptight, but clearly

Coulter and Mencia don’t represent a rational majority in their respective professions. The only thing worse than listening to both of them would have to be living as them. Ugh.

McCormick is a sophomore print journalism major and editorial editor of The Spectator. McCormick’s Musings appears every Thursday.