No Apology Necessary
University of Tennessee men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl is funnier than most coaches. But one of his recent jokes fell victim to political correctness. Resulting in a quick but perhaps unnecessary apology.
The other day Pearl, with perfect comics timing, joked about how he deals with the various cultures of the players he coaches.
“I’ve got a tough job. I’ve got to put these guys from different worlds together, right?” Pearl said. “I’ve got guys from Chicago, Detroit … I’m talking about the ‘hood! And I’ve got guys from Grainger County, where they wear the hood.”
You can clearly hear the laughs. Was the audience wrong for laughing? Or was the joke just painfully funny?
Other questions also come to mind.
Can we joke about the klan? Why should Pearl have to apologize for a joke about racism?
I suppose its all in the context. Had Bruce Pearl been a comedian doing the very same joke in a comedy club in Tennessee he would have gotten huge laughs. Even the father of one of the white players says he didn’t find the joke offensive. He said it was just a joke.
Bruce Pearl is a smooth, glad-handing guy with jewish roots who has worked the south with ease. If anyone knows how to balance the racial and ethnic confusion that we live in it’s Bruce Pearl.
We are far too politically correct these days. Jokes are meant to collide with the truth.
Sometimes the truth needs to be laughed at.
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I certainly can’t regulate what makes people laugh and I do believe we have taken political correctness too far. Clearly it was a joke and as long his players and their parents are cool with it… I have no complaints.
If we all had microphones or watchful eyes on us all the time, I dare say, we might be apologizing on a weekly basis.
I covered Bruce Pearl’s news conference when he got hired at the University of Southern Indiana years ago. I could tell then the program had a bright, enthusiastic coach on their hands. Much like we tell beautiful women, if you’ve got it, flaunt it. Pearl has plenty of personality in an otherwise drab fraternity of coaches so let the man have his fun.
Heck, I miss Bobby Knight too.