Say what you will about Glenn Beck, but he might have a sense of humour

Look, Glenn Beck is a wily con man at best and an ignorant, paranoid, xenophobic freak at worst. We can all agree on that, right? If you can’t, then let’s do each other a favour and agree that you should stop reading this blog right now because it’s a threat to your freedom.

Okay, is everybody gone except for the intelligent adults and the small children who haven’t yet been taught to fear everything? If so, then let me take a rare brief moment to give Glenn Beck a little credit. I’m digging into the archives here, but because what I’m about to say is still relevant, I hope you’ll indulge me.

Beck has an account on Twitter, and at the time of this writing he’s got close to two hundred thousand followers. But when it comes to who he follows, he’s much more selective; he’s currently following only seventeen accounts, including the official account of the Onion. Not only that, but because I’m a glutton for punishment and Beck’s account was one of the first I looked up when I joined Twitter, I happen to know he’s been following the Onion for a while.

Specifically, he was definitely following the Onion when they published this video a few months ago. The fact that he’s still following them means he either knows how to laugh at himself – which I’d imagine is a necessity when you’re that ridiculous a person – or he doesn’t actually read the Onion and he’s only following them because it makes him look cool.

Call me a fool, but I like to look for the good in everyone, including a scum-sucking schmuck like Glenn Beck. So I think it would be good for the soul if we all took a moment to picture him watching that video and enjoying a hearty laugh before going back to perverting American discourse.

By the way, all jokes aside, Beck tweeted his latest tweet in the wee hours of Saturday night. “Up with my five year old son,” he said. “He has a fever of 103. Please add him to your prayers. Good night.” If that doesn’t tug at your hippie heart, then you need to get over yourself. Who among us, after all, can’t put their partisan preconceptions aside and acknowledge that we ought to pray for Glenn Beck’s kids?

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4 Responses to “Say what you will about Glenn Beck, but he might have a sense of humour”

  1. jason says:

    I get the impression that the Beckster tends to throw the P-word around a lot, though. In a commercial he does for some outfit that sells gold (ostensibly for times of financial panic, which he works pretty hard to incite), he tells people to “think about it, pray on it, and hopefully you’ll come to the same decision I did.”

    The problem is, the Right doesn’t do satire very well. Do they even get satire? Is that somehow handled by the part of the brain which handles compassion, too?

  2. Matt says:

    Humour’s definitely not a strong point of the right’s most vocal advocates, I’ll give you that. I guess that’s what comes with taking yourself and the world around you way too seriously.

    Frankly, I’m just glad the first comment on this piece was a friendly and sensible comment from someone I know. I haven’t had much luck with the angry Glenn Beck fans in the past. I guess that’s what happens when your blog is the world’s leading search result for “Glenn Beck asshole idiot.”

  3. Matt says:

    Yeah, I’ve been meaning to replace it. A friend who’s also using Textpattern sent me a useful script a little while back. It’s on the list of things to do.