Is This Supposed to be Funny?

I normally eat lunch at my desk. This is mainly because I am cheap, but, lately this has given me an added bonus of not having to give up my parking spot. For some reason there has been an explosion of cars in the parking lot and coming back from lunch at 1:00 can almost guarantee the loss of several gallons of gas to find a spot.*

Anyway, I didn't manage to make my lunch last night because there was too much going on. So this morning, I decided to take make a run to the local deli and grab something and come back. My plan was to do this EARLY so that I could get back and get my parking spot. Great plan, right? Well, it didn't work, I wasn't even completely out of the parking lot and my spot was gone, but parking is NOT the point of this post.

As I drive, I listen to NPR. I enjoy the news and human interest stories on NPR and I feel like they are as unbiased as anyone else (and less biased than A LOT). I really only listen to the radio in the car. There is no way I could pick it up in my office and someone always has the TV on at the house. So there I am, driving to get some lunch and hear the news or possibly be a little entertained. Instead I get an interview with Roy Blount Jr. I had personally never heard of this guy, so I am listening, listening and frankly, I am thoroughly offended.

I am not easily offended. The only thing that will make me lose my mind, normally, is racial jokes or slurs (and Dubya, but that is for all sane people). But this guy is an ass. From what I have read on Wikipedia and then on the NPR website, the guy was born in Indiana and grew up in Georgia and, apparently, spends all of his time making fun of the south. This isn't your garden variety "You Might be a Redneck" stuff. I am not and never have been offended by Jeff Foxworthy. Some of his stuff is funny, some of it is stupid, but none of it is offensive (and some of it reminds me of portions of my family).

Blount, however, makes sweeping generalizations about the south and southerners that have nothing to do with the region. I can't quote him here, but he seemed to believe the south was responsible for neo-conservatism everywhere, that the south made fun of the north but not the other way around, that we were the only obssessive football fans in the nation and the comments he made about the Civil War were just assinine. On top of that, he sounded like a moron, uh, uh, uh, um, uh. A moron with a southern accent.

I like a good laugh as well as the next person, but do we have to make fun of people for it to be funny?

*Sadly, I had a very shady spot this morning. It isn't about how close you are, but how many trees you can park under.

EDIT: I forgot the part about the U.S. going to hell in a handbasket. That is the result of Southern Presidents, starting with Jimmy Carter, in case anyone was confused.