>What if she's just doing it to be laughed at? What if there's
>no larger motivation than doing it so people laugh, some
>uncomfortably, at an idiot saying these horribly racist
>things?

Well, yeah, that's fine. But then let's correctly compare her to the Andrew Dice Clay's of the world instead of the more lofty comparisons which have been placed on her. I mean, I think that's the real problem for most people in here is her reception more than her actual work. Her work is what it is, but some people are interpreting it as much more.

Are those people loving it disproportionately white hipsters? Is that worth commenting on? Most people I know who are really digging Sarah Silverman are white hipsters (although that could obviously be a more a problem with who I'm spending my time with than anything), and I always think our struggles with race are kind of weird. One of my first posts in this thread was more about that, so I won't repeat myself, but suffice to say I find the white hipster attitude toward race and racism "interesting."

>Just because its shock value involving race people want to
>quantify and label it. The critics who praise her will often
>compare her, incorrectly and without merit, to Lenny Bruce and
>Richard Pryor. Those of you like yourself who find it
>weak-minded and easy are just as incorrect, in my opinion, in
>assuming she's trying to achieve some kind of grandiose and
>lofty notions of breaking down social and cultural barriers
>through a set of ironic racist material. She's saying shit
>just to say shit to make people laugh and point at the dumb
>good-looking bitch on the stage with the foul mouth and dumb
>ideas.
>
>EDITED TO SAY: I think you're criticizing her for things
>you're ascribing to her, not what is actually there.

Fair enough, I guess I am critiquing its reception more than the actual work, but like I just said, does that reception merit some critique? I think it does.

I mean, I understand Dice Clay's joke, even though it went over millions of people's heads, but at the same time after a while he probably should have dropped it, because the irony was gone. So on the one hand I don't really have a problem with ADC's work, but I do have a problem with his reception. I'm not trying to say that Sarah Silverman is on that level (I don't think she is at all), I'm just trying to point out how it might be appropriate to focus on the response in contrast to the work itself. In this case I think the response is very telling.

(And yeah, I don't have any Silverman quotes, I'm just attributing those defenses made in this thread to her, because without them her work is kind of empty.)