just saw Carlos Mencia at a comedy club

[AlanCranston]

he's one of my favorite comedians. Now he likes to make fun of the political system and our outlook on our own country. Now one thing that struck me is that he said that a lot of people are starting to think that "America sucks" and that listening to the news reaffirms that. But he is originally from Honduras and doesn't understand this at all since Honduras is a real shithole. He explains that America has it better than most countries to the extent that our worst day is better than most countries best days. He proved this by saying that in America, even the poor people are fat. I'm not saying we shouldn't focus on advancing our agenda, however, it is some food for thought to think about the next time you feel you got the shit end of the stick.

[JuniperLea]

1. Perspective is everything...

Mencia is pretty awesome. He doesn't let anyone get away with being willfully ignorant.

[Scuba]

2. Fat because the junk food marketed to the poor...

...is actually bad for you? Fat because they can't afford health club memberships to work it off.


By the way, their are hungry People in America. One in four American children is growing up in poverty. Shameful.

[underseasurveyor]

5. Yes and shit food is cheap.

[hootinholler]

17. That's because it's mostly not food

It's "food"

-Hoot

[JohnnyRingo]

26. McDonald's = Soylent Green 2.0

It tastes like shit, adds incredible amounts of fat to the diet, but it's cheap and keeps the masses from starving to death.

I'm still waiting for the plot twist at the end where an investigative journalist discovers what a Big Mac™ is really made of.

[Starry Messenger]

3. Ned needs to get out more often.

Otherwise one would have no choice but to conclude that he has less brains than a can of catfood.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Was he doing his own material

Mencia is most notorious for being a comedy material thief.

[fishwax]

10. no -- apparently he was stealing from free republic

from 2005: "America, where even the poor are fat".

[Maru Kitteh]

19. Well - isn't that interesting! n/t

[notesdev]

6. People are fat because they eat unhealthily

not because of any great surplus of food

You can pour as much HFCS down your gullet as you please, and it will make you fat - but the nutrition value is horrible and it leads to an epidemic of diabetes.

[lame54]

7. the same people that ares crewing this country...

are also screwing other countries - just more successfully

we are in a better position to stop them

that is what we should be focusing on

[fishwax]

8. I don't see how "even the poor people are fat" proves that things are great in America

And it's an old joke anyway.

[stuntcat]

38. Yah. and "fat" means nothing but unhealthy.

can't afford healthy food? no time or means to prepare it? Fast food is cheap for a reason.

"even the poor people are fat" lost it's meaning too long ago, I can't believe anyone would still say that. We have grossly obese 6-year-olds, but that does not mean they are well-off.

[CreekDog]

41. how do you argue with someone whose reading on the subject is watching Mencia?

doing stand up!

:banghead:

[xchrom]

9. that was a stupid thing for him to say -- & misdirects the real horrors of hunger & poverty

in america.

& it's a great right wing talking point -- the poor have it so bad -- they're fat!
:puke:

[RandiFan1290]

11. CSB

[xchrom]

12. good god

:rofl: now that's funny.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

13. You had to be there.

Or did you leave out the funny parts?

[eShirl]

14. “I’m glad Hurricane Katrina happened. It taught us an important lesson: Black people can’t swim.”

ha ha ha ha
(for clarification: :sarcasm: )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Mencia#Hurricane_Katrina_remarks

[Cleita]

15. True we are still better off, but we should be improving

to be even better, not descending into third world country misery as seems to be happening. I lived in South America during my growing up years and saw some really dire poverty and misery. I was always happy to return to the USA because even the poor people had food, homes and basic health care delivered through county welfare and hospital systems. It's not so today where, we have institutionalized homelessness now, and many people are going hungry and lack basic healthcare. These are issues that weren't a visible epidemic back in the years following WWII after we were pulling out of the Great Depression.

[RaleighNCDUer]

36. Exactly. Pre-Reagan 'homeless' referred to the guys living on skid row

who ate at soup kitchens and crashed at the Salvation Army shelter. There are no reliable statistics because it was not a big enough problem to track. True homeless numbers were probably between 100,000 - 200,000 nationwide, and the vast majority of them actually had semi-permanent beds through the charities of the time.

We hadn't seen family homelessness since the height of the depression.

If you wanted examples of homelessness, you referred to Calcutta and Mother Theresa where thousands literally (gasp!) lived on the streets twenty-four hours a day!

IOW, we are becoming 1970 India.

[Cleita]

39. Actually somebody did do a study in Seattle and wrote

a book about it back in the seventies. It was called, "You Owe Yourself a Drunk". I forget the author's name. It turns out most of the skid row bums actually did have rented rooms somewhere called flops and they paid for them by working, doing day jobs, and panhandling. They often slept on the street because they were too drunk to get home. They also committed misdemeanors to get thrown in jail for thirty days to dry out when they felt they needed it because they were feeling sick. It was kind of their way of getting a sort of free rehab. When they were released from jail all clean and sober, they would go out and get drunk again because they felt they owed themselves a drunk, hence the name of the book.

As far as Calcutta. When homeless people arrived in droves on the main street above the street where I lived in Santa Monica in the early eighties, I remember asking my husband when did we turn into Calcutta? when we walked to the local convenience store to pick up some supplies. We were bumping into these poor people asking us for money and who were literally sleeping on the sidewalks at night.

[immoderate]

16. Only the poor are fat.

Rich folks eat better, and get to work out and play sports, and go to the gym. They have health providers and trainers. They can get surgery.

In bygone days when the poor did physical labor, they were buff and the rich were fat and pale.

--imm

[hootinholler]

18. Glad you enjoyed yourself

Sure you're on the right board?

-Hoot

[TheKentuckian]

20. I'm sorry

[savalez]

21. You know that was a joke, right?

Comedians intentionally over simplify issues to trick you into laughter. That's the craft. My guess is not everyone was laughing for the same reason, most were probably laughing at the absurdity of the comparison.

[Codeine]

22. Carlos Mencia is a fat, unfunny joke thief.

Fuck him.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

23. He's still allowed inside comedy clubs? nt

[Codeine]

32. Where else can Joe Rogan show up and embarrass the fat fuck?

:evilgrin:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

43. Well, as much as I'd rather take a nail gun to my junk before watching "reality TV". What if,

bear with me now, there was a reality show where real comedians show up at is door with a film crew and embarrass him at home too? I'd watch that.

:think: :evilgrin:

[PeaceNikki]

24. He's a hack.

[murielm99]

25. I don't know anything about that comedian.

I am glad you enjoyed him.

But saying that we are better off than third world countries is not saying anything good about us.

We need to make sure that everyone here has nutritious food, decent housing, health care, a job that pays enough to provide a decent lifestyle with a few luxuries, a quality education, and the right to vote without jumping through hoops.

When we have all that, we will be living up to our promise.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

28. He's not much of a comedian. More like a stenographer. He usually just reads the

material of actual comedians. But on this one it sounds more like he was at the new Bill O'Loofah Dennis Miller "comedy tour"

[Uncle Joe]

27. No doubt Haiti, Bangladesh and Burma are shit-holes too but as the supposed

most powerful and wealthiest nation on the planet leading the world in multiple fields for a large chunk of the 20th century, "relative comparison" is an important consideration in determining national suckery.

Compared to the developed, industrialized nations of the world, ie: Europe, Japan, etc. etc. we're either mediocre or poor, in critical segments of society, ie; health care, infrastructure, energy, social safety net, environmentalism and education.

Thanks for the thread, AlanCranston.

[Dreamer Tatum]

29. He's a documented material-stealer. nt

[Cerridwen]

30. But how do we compare to other "first world" countries?

If you have to head to "third world" countries in order to make the US look good...something is wrong, or, we're no longer a "first world" country.

Do you remember that little brain teaser some of us played as kids: "One of these things is not like the other"? It's an exercise comparing like to like.

How does the US "look" compared to other "like" countries?

edit typo

[Cleita]

33. We don't even look that good anymore compared to

third world countries. Stats from OECD and other data collecting organizations confirm it.

[Cerridwen]

35. Yep. Precisely. n/t

[piratefish08]

31. I agree with you completely - perspective is everything.

In the US we should compare ourselves with other parts of the world.

Like the Quality of Life Index. Countries ranked based on Health, Education, Wealth, Democracy, Peace and Environment.

We rank 31 - just below Lithuania.



So, the next time you feel you got the shit end of the stick - maybe you are..

[izquierdista]

34. Interesting that Poland is above the U.S.

When I drove from Germany into Poland (#9-->#29), I got the same impression that I got driving from the U.S. into Mexico (#31-->#52) -- "what a dump". Just a personal anecdote that seems to back up this ranking. So yes, coming from #98, I bet Carlos would think he'd rocketed all the way to the top. He's certainly worked hard to adapt to his new country, adapting Sam Kinison's material, George Carlin's material, Andrew Dice Clay's material, etc.

[devilgrrl]

37. Carlos Mencia is a joke stealing hack.

:popcorn:

[CreekDog]

40. do you count seeing his show as college credit?

:rofl:

might as well go drinking now, you done all the learning you need to do!

[alfredo]

42. Being sent overseas while in the military was the best

education I could have hoped for.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

44. This hit and run thread was funnier than Ned Mencia could ever hope to be. nt