Broadway’s ‘Avenue Q’ Follows Obama’s Marching Orders

Back in February, my Big Hollywood colleague and super-funny-dude Tim Slagle wrote a series of posts on the Broadway musical “Avenue Q”.  The show was going through a mini-crisis/publicity stunt because one of the big punch lines to the song “For Now” was no longer valid:

A song called “For Now” has the puppets reassure each other that most things in life are temporary, like hair and sex. Until recently, one of those temporary things was “George Bush.” Knowing that Obama was to be shortly inaugurated, the producers and writers were perplexed for a replacement. I know it should be obvious to everyone else, but Broadway producers don’t think like you and I. So they threw a contest to decide a better verse.

Two weeks later, Slagle followed up with the big announcement of the new lyric: (more…)

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Tags: Avenue Q lyric contest, Bill O'Reilly, broadway, Fox News, george bush
Posted Oct 27th 2009 at 6:51 am in Theatre | 25084255 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/10/27/broadways-avenue-q-follows-obamas-marching-orders/Broadway%27s+%27Avenue+Q%27+Follows+Obama%27s+Marching+Orders2009-10-27+13%3A51%3A25Stage+Right

If I Were A Guest on the New Joy Behar Show

(Applause. The air is titillating.  The mood rambunctious.  The atmosphere tense.  Over the loud speaker we hear, “3, 2, 1 and …”) 

Joy:  Hello, Victoria.  So, I hear you’re a Tea Partier!  (Sarcastic smile.  Eyes roll.)

Victoria:  Oh, well… 

Joy:  I suppose you like Sarah Palin!  (Sarcastic smile.  Eyes roll.) 

Victoria:  Oh, well, I love her, she is so… 

Joy:  She is so dumb!  (Sarcastic smile.  Eyes roll.) 

Victoria:  No, I don’t think that… 

Joy:  Just like George Bush.  He was an idiot!  (Sarcastic smile.  Eyes roll.)  (more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, george bush, healthcare, Joy Behar, Obama
Posted Oct 20th 2009 at 8:21 am in Celebrity News, Politics | 249298133 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/vjackson/2009/10/20/if-i-were-a-guest-on-the-new-joy-behar-show/If+I+Were+A+Guest+on+the+New+Joy+Behar+Show2009-10-20+15%3A21%3A10Victoria+Jackson

Daily Gut: An Olympic Fail

So while chuckleheads like Jesse Jackson and Senator Roland Burris hilariously blame George Bush for Chicago losing the 2016 Olympics, whiny columnists like Mike Lupica are up in arms that conservatives might be gloating over President Obama’s big screw-up. Apparently laughing at all this is somehow anti-American, because Obama is our President, and he was doing this for all of us.

You know… kind of like when Bush was trying win a war in Iraq – and all those left wingers stood behind him.

And that’s my first point: The right has every right to gloat over Obama’s humiliation, because, thankfully, NO ONE DIED. Unlike, say during the Iraq war, where, whenever there was a roadside bombing, the progressives did their own special victory dance – using the consequences of war to gloat over an embattled president and an unpopular country. I didn’t hear much of the smarmy press calling them out. (more…)

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Tags: 2016 Olympics, chicago, Cuba, george bush, iran
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 2:38 pm in Daily Gut, News, Politics | 241042114 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ggutfeld/2009/10/05/daily-gut-an-olympic-fail/Daily+Gut%3A+An+Olympic+Fail2009-10-05+21%3A38%3A34Greg+Gutfeld

The Straight Poop On Radical Islam

I suspect that because George Bush and Condoleezza Rice were so respectful of Muslims, constantly telling us that theirs is a religion of peace, some otherwise sensible Americans actually began to believe it.  Now we have a president who not only kowtows to a Saudi prince, but carries on as if Israeli homes are more threatening than Iranian nukes.

What is wrong with our leaders?  Are they worried that they won’t be invited to those cool Ramadan parties?  The Islamists have been actively at war with us for 30 years and generally at war with western civilization for well over a thousand years, and still we pay lip service to these people in a way we never did with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan or the Soviet Union.  Is it because the Muslims commit sadism and murder in the name of religion and not country?  If anything, I would think that would make their evil acts all the more contemptible. (more…)

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Tags: 9/11, Africa, al qaeda, Barbara Boxer, Barney Frank
Posted Aug 13th 2009 at 8:52 am in Politics, Religion | 204482108 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/08/13/the-straight-poop-in-radical-islam/The+Straight+Poop+On+Radical+Islam+2009-08-13+15%3A52%3A13Burt+Prelutsky

Principles? Leftists Don’t Need No Stinking Principles

I often find myself thinking that if liberals didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all. 

For instance, consider the uproar from the left when Don Imus opened his silly yap about the black women on the Rutgers basketball team.  Now compare that to their response when David Letterman made his smarmy cracks about Sarah Palin and the governor’s 14-year-old daughter.  The liberals immediately sprang to his defense, pointing out that Letterman is nothing more than a TV personality and is therefore free to make offensive jokes without fear of censure.  So what do they think Don Imus is?  The secretary of state? 

Or consider how choleric those on the left become any time that Dick Cheney defends the former administration.  Well, if Obama and his cronies didn’t constantly attack Bush and Cheney and their policies, the chances are the ex-vice president wouldn’t feel compelled to set the record straight. Furthermore, Jimmy Carter never stopped bashing George Bush during the eight years he was the president, and yet nobody on the left ever suggested he shut up.  On the contrary, he was hailed at the 2004 Democratic convention, and even had the honor of being seated next to the patron saint of left-wingers, Michael Moore.  Speaking of Carter, how is it that he, who is always volunteering to monitor elections anywhere on earth, including the Westminster Dog Show, wasn’t in Iran, making sure that Ahmadinejad got 110% of the vote?  (more…)

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Tags: "China", Ahmadinejad, David Letterman, Don Imus, george bush
Posted Jun 27th 2009 at 3:03 pm in Featured Story, Politics | 16615423 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bprelutsky/2009/06/27/liberals-don%e2%80%99t-need-no-stinking-principles/Principles%3F+Leftists+Don%27t+Need+No+Stinking+Principles2009-06-27+22%3A03%3A42Burt+Prelutsky

Late Night Round-Up: Huckabee and Stewart Spar on Abortion

After a week that will go down in history as the moment Republicans finally stood up for themselves, comics are not laying off John McCain’s former running mate just yet. Bill Maher said that Iran was propped up by oil revenue and run by a religious whacko, just like Alaska. Letterman, despite frequent jokes about the amount of hate mail he has been receiving, couldn’t help mentioning that Gay Pride week was the only time of year when you can see hundreds of men dressed up like Sarah Palin.

The big topics of the week were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the presidential fly killing:

The election of Mahmoud was compared by the talk show hosts alternately to the 2000 Presidential and the 2008 Minnesota Senate elections. Fallon claimed that now that his opponent lost, he’ll go on to make a documentary about Global Warming.  David Letterman actually did a joke almost every single night, changing the punchline from Florida voting machines, to Pat Buchanan, Al Gore, Al Franken and Jeb Bush.  Bill Maher used Norm Coleman then criticized his audience for not knowing who he was talking about. The funniest line was Ferguson’s who claimed that Iranian politics have finally gotten as corrupt as Chicago. (more…)

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Tags: 2000 Presidential elections, 2008 Minnesota Senate elections, Al Franken, Al Gore, ashton kutcher
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 at 6:42 am in Entertainment, Political Humor, Politics | 1660825 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/tslagle/2009/06/23/late-night-7/Late+Night+Round-Up%3A+Huckabee+and+Stewart+Spar+on+Abortion+2009-06-23+13%3A42%3A38Tim+Slagle

Ernest Borgnine: All-American Badass

Compared to the generic twerps the Hollywood machine pumps out today and labels as “stars,” at 92, Ernest Borgnine remains the real deal. He is to the genetically-engineered robots like the Zac Effrons and Robert Pattinsons of the world what a shot of straight-up Jack Daniels is to a watered down cosmopolitan served with a straw. Borgnine has lived a real life, full of ups and down, and his face shows it. In contrast, today’s stars look like they were raised in protective cocoons after being genetically engineered to perfect their bone structure, dark eyebrows and pouting lips. And that’s just the guys.

Look at his life. Borgnine was born to Italian immigrant parents in 1917, spent 10 years in the Navy, including all of World War II, then bummed around as a second string character actor for another decade before snagging an Oscar in his first major role. The closest thing to life experience one of today’s stars has is a three week stint at $5,000-a-day rehab resort getting seaweed facials and talking about how his daddy never told him he loved him during group therapy while secretly gobbling the vicodins he smuggled in inside the liner of his Louis Vuitton cosmetics case. (more…)

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Tags: " "ER, Bad Day at Black Rock, Budweiser, Ernest Borgnine, Ethel Merman
Posted Jun 17th 2009 at 9:04 am in Entertainment | 1601346 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/06/17/in-praise-of-ernest-borgnine-2/Ernest+Borgnine%3A+All-American+Badass2009-06-17+16%3A04%3A52Kurt+Schlichter

Jon Stewart Courageously Defends His Bottom Flank

It takes a big man to admit he screwed up and take a principled stand. It takes a phony liberal elitist to apologize for the sake of protecting his television ratings.

Jon Stewart makes Arlen Specter look principled.

Like Pee Wee Herman, Jon Stewart launched his intercontinental ballistic missile, and he could not put the missile back on the launching pad. In his case, the only thing that seeped out was stupidity.

Jon Stewart, for those who are not “trendy,” “hip,” or “cool” (brie-cheese-eating-elitist-snobs according to the Tygrrrr Express dictionary), has a nightly political television show where he presents the news with all the accuracy and fairness of the Jayson Blair Times. (more…)

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Tags: "Crank Yankers", Al Queda, Arlen Specter, Bill Clinton, Cliff May
Posted May 7th 2009 at 8:03 am in Celebrity News, Entertainment, Media Criticism, News, Politics | 1272622 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/egolub/2009/05/07/jon-stewart-courageously-defending-his-bottom-flank/Jon+Stewart+Courageously+Defends+His+Bottom+Flank2009-05-07+15%3A03%3A36Eric+Golub

The Streisand Effect – or People Who Don’t Need People

I have a confession to make: when I’m alone in my car – or in iPod isolation – I sometimes listen to Barbra Streisand.  And I’m neither a big fan of pop music nor of the current state of liberalism – the cushy, comfy, groupthink kind with which Streisand has become closely linked in recent years.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Whenever I’m feeling a little down, Streisand’s rousing, patriotic rendition of “Before the Parade Passes By” (from the Hello, Dolly! soundtrack) is the next best thing to shooting up a Diet Rockstar.  The movie may be deadly, but that track is classic Barbra: starts out quiet, plaintive, then slowly builds to an almost militaristic crescendo of chorus, trumpets, beating drums – and Babs, screaming her head off above it all with a heroic, never-ending high note that sounds like a war cry.

I know - that’s so gay.  But for me, the song is musical comfort food – and proof of the power of the human spirit: a rusty Main Street USA antique, shined up and brought back to life by a disadvantaged ugly duckling from Brooklyn, with a voice straight from God, who beat the odds.  That’s when Streisand was still one of a kind.

But that was 1969.  This is now.  Today, “Before the Parade Passes By” would probably be called something like “Whenever the Trans-Cultural Community Gathering Happens to Reconvene.”  And it would probably be sung by Sheryl Crow. (more…)

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Tags: a star is born, Arnold Scaasi, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Barbra Streisand
Posted Apr 17th 2009 at 5:03 am in Celebrity News, Featured Story, Politics | 999786 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cwinecoff/2009/04/17/the-streisand-effect-or-people-who-dont-need-people/The+Streisand+Effect+-+or+People+Who+Don%27t+Need+People2009-04-17+12%3A03%3A37Charles+Winecoff

Profiles in Courage: Major General David Blackledge

General David Blackledge (rt) in Iraq

Major General David Blackledge is not a superhero. He’s a human hero. 

In February of 2004, Major General Blackledge’s convoy was ambushed in Iraq. The interpreter, who was sitting next to him, was shot through the head. Taking fire, the vehicle rolled. But the survivors were able to escape. He sustained a broken back and ribs, with other injuries requiring eleven months of recovery and physical therapy.  

Fifteen months after the ambush, Major General Blackledge was deployed back to Iraq. While in Amman, Jordan for meetings, he was in one of three popular hotels that were struck by terrorist bombs. The explosions killed over 55 people and injured over 110. He suffered a neck injury.  (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, army, cycling, george bush, Iraq
Posted Apr 14th 2009 at 10:33 am in Military | 105554No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/r2r/2009/04/14/ride-2-recovery-profiles-in-courage/Profiles+in+Courage%3A+Major+General+David+Blackledge+2009-04-14+17%3A33%3A04Ride+2+Recovery

Why Air America Sucks

As a talk radio pro who defends and cherishes free speech, it’s time for me to weigh in on why Air America sucks.  It’s not that I want them to fail – they already have once.  As a free speech advocate, I cheer for their success – unlike what many liberals hope for conservative talk which I helped establish in America.  But, since its inception, Air America has been a failure.  After its first financial disaster, it is attempting to make a comeback and has new and credible leadership in industry veterans Bennett Zier and Bill Hess.  But, it’s a long climb out of a deep hole.

Air America’s newest ace is none other than former TV huckster Montel Williams.  He follows Jerry Springer who followed none other than…..Al Franken.  Now, there is some name value in all three, but the first two failed in radio.  Franken was an absolute disaster.  As I wrote in my upcoming book “Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio,” Franken didn’t know he had to have something between the ears to do a three-hour radio talk show each day.  And, that’s what so many of these non-radio personalities don’t get.  Doing a three-hour radio talk show takes hours of prep time.  Most hosts spend about three hours of prep time for each hour of on-air time.  These guys just walked into the studio and thought it would happen automatically.  Listeners would flock to them….they were superstars…NOT!  There are no teleprompters in radio! (more…)

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Tags: Air America, Al Franken, Bennet Zier, Bill Hess, Ed Schultz
Posted Mar 27th 2009 at 2:04 pm in Media Criticism | 90358No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bjennings/2009/03/27/why-air-head-america-sucks/Why+Air+America+Sucks2009-03-27+21%3A04%3A20Brian+Jennings

Sarah Palin Proves She’s No George Bush

Back in January, when the media firestorm over my “Media Malpractice” interview with Governor Sarah Palin erupted, I wrote on this website that it was my belief that she was no George W. Bush. I can now say with even greater certainty that I was absolutely correct in that assertion.  

The reason I felt that way initially, was that after several days of the news media cherry picking snippets from my interview with her in an out of context way that appeared designed to make Palin seem whiny and weak (the exact opposite of what she actually was during the interview), she had a couple of choices. Basically she could try to pretend the interview and the issue of how the media lied to destroy her candidacy didn’t really exist, lick her wounds, mitigate whatever perceived political damage there might have been (though with her base the interview was CLEARLY a huge hit) and never speak of the topic again, or she could continue the fight for the truth regardless of the potential consequences.   (more…)

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Tags: george bush, john ziegler, news media, sarah palin
Posted Mar 26th 2009 at 2:47 pm in Media Criticism, Politics | 895345 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jziegler/2009/03/26/sarah-palin-proves-she-is-no-george-bush/Sarah+Palin+Proves+She%27s+No+George+Bush2009-03-26+21%3A47%3A10John+Ziegler

Paglia & Co. Blame Everyone-Anyone But Man In Charge

I occasionally like to poke around Salon.com for a healing dose of tolerance, inclusion and progressive enlightenment whenever my heathen conservative predilections get the better of me. Imagine my shock when browsing through some reader comments when I saw the sort of lowbrow discourse usually reserved for people who couldn’t get into Swarthmore or Brown and never drove a Saab: “go fuck yourself;” “you’re so full of shit;” “shut up idiot;” “get a fucking clue;” “screwball… crank;” “bitch;” “whore;” and the never encouraging, “cunt.”

What's it going to take to put you in some Hope & Change today?

What was happening here? A good-n-proper reaction to the obligatorily reviled Ann Coulter? Did Sarah Palin say something unacceptably state-schooly on TV again? Did an enemy trollette deposit some right-wing talking point in an otherwise high-minded and compassionate Salon discussion thread?  Alas, something much more catastrophic had occurred: one of the flock strayed and had to be punished.  (more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, Camille Paglia, george bush, Gordon Brown, salon
Posted Mar 13th 2009 at 8:07 am in News, Politics | 78770149 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/rhunter/2009/03/13/don%e2%80%99t-blame-lil%e2%80%99-barry-he%e2%80%99s-just-hanging-with-the-wrong-crowd/Paglia+%26amp%3B+Co.+Blame+Everyone-Anyone+But+Man+In+Charge2009-03-13+15%3A07%3A53Riley+Hunter

Ashley Judd Shows Off Her Public Education

I grew up in a small town in Eastern Kentucky. There were two major industries there - an oil company and a steel mill, and yet I’m only the seventh most famous person from that town.

There was Henry Clay back in the pre-Civil War day who was a senator and known as “The Great Compromiser, ¨ which means he was the John McCain of his day with no core beliefs he wouldn’t drop for the sake of getting along.

Ashland Kentucky also produced that achy breaky Billy Ray Cyrus, game show host Chuck Woolery and three Judds. Ashley Judd wasn’t born there but lived back in the land where coal meets iron off and on as she was growing up. Ashley went on to study at The University of Kentucky where she majored in anthropology, theater and woman’s studies, which meant she was destined for Hollywood, a counseling job at the U of K student center or management at the local McDonalds. (more…)

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Tags: Animal Rights, Ashland KY, Ashley Judd, Barack Obama, george bush
Posted Feb 7th 2009 at 2:00 pm in Celebrity News, Politics | 4455893 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjena/2009/02/07/the-vast-right-wing-conspiracy-ashley-judd-let%e2%80%99s-her-public-education-show/Ashley+Judd+Shows+Off+Her+Public+Education+2009-02-07+22%3A00%3A16Jeffrey+Jena

Spitting In The Eye Of Half Your Customers

Before 9-11, I was a neophyte musician and ex-New Yorker living in Venice, CA. I liked both political parties to a degree, but wasn’t heavy into beltway rubbernecking. Clinton seemed cool in a “I can’t believe my teacher had beers with us” kind of way and Republicans in no way seemed as scary as the press made them out to be. However, 9-11 was a defining political moment for me as I’m sure it was for many Americans.

It was obvious to me that America and Americans were in for some serious soul searching. Many of us shifted right and continue to reside on that side of the political spectrum. Others came to different conclusions. (more…)

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Tags: Adam Goldberg, Bush Cheney 04, george bush, Julie Delpy, Link Paris
Posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 8:48 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 38534190 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jromano/2009/02/02/two-days-in-paris-mcdonalds-and-gwb/Spitting+In+The+Eye+Of+Half+Your+Customers2009-02-02+16%3A48%3A51John+Romano

Can’t a song be a song? Or does it have to have ideology?

Bruce Springsteen and I both released albums this week. Mine is “London Paris” by The Sugarmen and Bruce’s is “Working on a Dream.” You’d be hard pressed to think of two more starkly different approaches to recording. Bruce has admitted that his hatred of President Bush inspired his latest CD. “London Paris” was inspired by traveling with the band between two major European cities. That’s right. You guessed it. Prague and Cologne.

In my opinion, what worked about rock in the 60’s and 70’s was that the music really was asking questions of society. There was a clear difference between those in power and the musicians who rebelled against the norm. Some of it was show for sure, but who can argue with the power and emotion of “What’s Going On” by Marvin Gaye? (more…)

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Tags: Barack Obama, bruce springsteen, Cologne, george bush, John Romano
Posted Jan 30th 2009 at 5:15 pm in Celebrity News, Entertainment | 3683887 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jromano/2009/01/30/can%e2%80%99t-a-song-be-a-song-or-does-it-have-to-have-ideology/Can%E2%80%99t+a+song+be+a+song%3F+++Or+does+it+have+to+have+ideology%3F+2009-01-31+01%3A15%3A12John+Romano

Bashing Bush = Boffo Broadway Business!

I know that as the guy on the “Broadway Beat” I should have a take on the Will Ferrell one-man show due to start previews at the Cort on Inauguration Day, “You’re Welcome America, A Final Night with George Bush”, but, so far, I’m just bored with the idea.

Sure, it’s going to be a 90-minute SNL sketch, but instead of the opening sketch that always grabs you and pulls you in to watch through “Update”, I expect it’ll be like one of those sketches thrown in after the second song from the musical guest.  And it will feel like they never quite figured out how to end it…  you know, those excruciating sketches which force you to say “Why am I still up watching this?” 

I like Will Ferrell…  he almost always makes me laugh.  But, there is something about his Bush impression that has gotten pretty mean.  He always played W in that stereotype kind of dim, frat-boy kind of way.  But when he looked into the camera and said “Strategery” during the mock debates against Darrell Hammond’s awesome Al Gore, he had an earnestness that made the caricature endearing.  Now, his Bush has lost the charm and it’s just not as fun to watch. 

Here’s a promotional video, see if you agree:

(more…)

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Tags: broadway theatre, dana carvey, george bush, snl, will ferrell
Posted Jan 12th 2009 at 7:00 am in Celebrity News, Politics, Video | 1352528 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/01/12/bush-bash-boffo-broadway-business/Bashing+Bush+%3D+Boffo+Broadway+Business%212009-01-12+15%3A00%3A37Stage+Right