The Ugly Minnesotan

By Mitchell

Via Amy Welborn, an exchange between an irate Catholic and Garrison Keillor, the oily host of A Prairie Home Companion, and one of the main reasons for anyone to be embarrassed to be from Minnesota. Keillor is, and for years has been, a...well, I can't really say what he is, other than that it rhymes with "thick." There are plenty of people I don't like (and I say this with no sense of pride), but with Keilor I go beyond simply not liking him to actively disliking him. Because he's supposed to have this down-home, wry sense of humor, he's been able to get away with some extremely vicious, truly nasty attacks on people over the years. He's as bad as Bill Maher and some other lefty "comedians" who, for one reason or another, have a much worse rep than Keillor.

There's quite a bit of controversy in Amy's combox as to whether or not Keillor is actually funny. I personally think using the words "Keillor" and "funny" in the same sentence is kind of like "Kennedy" and "ethics" (or "military" and "intelligence," if you prefer). But I'm not about to trade insults with anyone who thinks he is funny, except perhaps to suggest that they're guilty of extremely bad taste. :)

In the end, as I mentioned in my own comment, it's probably not worth arguing about. I do think it's worth pointing out to people what kind of person Keillor really is, but aside from that it's just a waste of time. As Malcolm Muggeridge once suggested in regards to Monty Python, taking his arguments seriously implies that he should be taken seriously, and nothing could be further from the truth.

By the way, if it comes down to the Pope vs. Keillor, I'm taking B16 with the points.