Board 8 > Ken Jennings old TWEET has come back to HAUNT him!! Is it Offensive????

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46 y/o Ken Jennings has become interim Jeopardy Host after the death of Alex Trebek but has already sparked outrage after an old tweet resurfaced which is extremely offensive!!

He addressed the insensitive post in 2018 but the messaged has regained light since he is now taking over the role of host .

He said he apologized "personally" to those he reached out to him about it as he called it an "inept" joke

And now he is facing the wrath of of twitter....

Do you think what he said was offensive?

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It's "offensive" but in an insensitive way rather than a hateful way.

The fact that he knows what ableist means leads me to believe that his apology is genuine.

Granted I don't exactly keep tabs on Ken, I'm willing to believe this was a "I said something stupid, my bad" scenario and not a "I'm sorry I got caught being an asshole" one.

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If he already got "called out" for it 2 years ago and went through the whole public apology and repentance thing back then, does he have to go through it all again just because someone reposted his tweet again? Does he have to repeatedly respond to it any time someone brings it up for the rest of his life? At what point can he actually get over it if he already did everything that he needed to do the first time?

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-hotdogturtle-- posted...

If he already got "called out" for it 2 years ago and went through the whole public apology and repentance thing back then, does he have to go through it all again just because someone reposted his tweet again? Does he have to repeatedly respond to it any time someone brings it up for the rest of his life? At what point can he actually get over it if he already did everything that he needed to do the first time?

Welcome to our new clown world.

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Even as far as edgy internet humor goes, that's rather on the tame side.

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Surprised at "No" runaway winning this poll. I think it has more to do with everyone liking Ken Jennings than the tweet itself. If you took that same tweet and claimed someone like Tucker Carlson authored it, then "Yes" would be winning in a landslide.

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Do people really like Ken Jennings that much?

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Thats because Tucker Carson has a full time job being a liar on Fox News Who says offensive things constantly, you realize thats why its different, right?

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I chuckled.

If Tucker said it I would have still chuckled, simultaneously knowing Tucker is a massive piece of shit for a neverending number of reasons that have nothing to do with a dumb joke.

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Webbernet posted...

Thats because Tucker Carson has a full time job being a liar on Fox News Who says offensive things constantly, you realize thats why its different, right?

context does matter. some people have trouble wrapping their brains around that

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TomNook posted...

Surprised at "No" runaway winning this poll. I think it has more to do with everyone liking Ken Jennings than the tweet itself. If you took that same tweet and claimed someone like Tucker Carlson authored it, then "Yes" would be winning in a landslide.

The poll doesn't exactly leave room for nuance. It's clearly an insensitive thing to say, but I'm not personally offended by it. It's also probably not universally offensive - I bet some people in wheelchairs would agree with the sentiment. Mostly I voted no because I voted as if the question was "Is this offensive enough that it should be being brought up again 4 years later"

Everyone should be given some benefit of the doubt.

Tucker exhausted his long ago.

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Dels posted...

I bet some people in wheelchairs would agree with the sentiment.

....really?

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Doesn't seem offensive to me. I'd have been fine being called hot when I had to use a wheelchair.

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There needs to be a statute of limitations on how far back you can dig up old tweets and drag someone for them, unless they're particularly egregious or relevant to the moment.

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"i meant something different and i regret how other people read it" is not the most genuine apology

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

If he already got "called out" for it 2 years ago and went through the whole public apology and repentance thing back then, does he have to go through it all again just because someone reposted his tweet again?

did anyone even care about him two years ago beyond being a footnote

you can't vaccinate drama by addressing it when noone gives a shit then when people do give a shit sweep it under the rug

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One time Ken Jennings came to do a talk at my school. I saw him walking right past me in the cafeteria, and I said "Hey there's Ken Jennings!", and he said "Where??", so I think he woukd not be a very good host for Jeopardy, if he doesn't even know where he is.

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agesboy posted...

did anyone even care about him two years ago beyond being a footnote

you can't vaccinate drama by addressing it when noone gives a shit then when people do give a shit sweep it under the rug

We obviously don't have the full scope of the story because duckbear likes posting the bare minimum amount of details and I expect that neither of us cares enough to investigate, so we're all going by what was presented here. But he said that the post was first addressed in 2018, and all of the images that I clicked on were from 2018. so the impression that I got is that what's happening now already happened 2 years ago. People dug up an old post and wanted to hold him accountable for his words in the current year, and he accounted for it. Now they're bringing up the same post again, how is he supposed to act? If he posts another apology, what if in 2022 people start saying "hey asshole, you posted this offensive joke about wheelchair users in 2014"? This is a serious question. Can it ever reach a point where he's allowed to say, "listen, we already went through this same issue twice before and it's resolved already"?

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Wow that's an incredibly fucked up thing to say. The poll results show just how shitty and insensitive people are to the physically handicapped.

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-hotdogturtle-- posted...

Can it ever reach a point where he's allowed to say, "listen, we already went through this same issue twice before and it's resolved already"?

if he's, like, on track to become president of the united states in 2024, yeah, we can bring it back up because more will people become aware of the issue then. but this is likely the peak of his entire life, so it's not likely to actually come up again

it's like how blackface college pics tend to resurface around elections. it's not entirely a hit job, it's also because more people need to know now, because their influence is about to expand. i don't give a shit about some congressman's son committing crimes but if that kid later runs for a district position I hope that shit gets brought back up

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I'm not asking whether it could or should be brought up repeatedly, I'm questioning how he's supposed to respond each separate time that it gets brought up.

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wait Jennings is the new host? Hmmm I don't know about that

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Waluigi1 posted...

Wow that's an incredibly fucked up thing to say

I want you to walk me through how it's "incredibly fucked up"

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it's like how blackface college pics tend to resurface around elections. it's not entirely a hit job, it's also because more people need to know now, because their influence is about to expand

do they actually need to know?

that stuff always feels like a hit job to me too. If some forty year-old political candidate is actually problematic you should be able to find evidence that isnt like twenty years old.

if this one tweet from six years ago is all people can dig up on Ken Jennings, that looks to me like hes a good guy who made an insensitive joke one time. what is accomplished by bringing it up again?
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SantaRPidgey posted...

I want you to walk me through how it's "incredibly fucked up"

Can't tell if you actually intended that joke or not.

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The Utility Man posted...

Can't tell if you actually intended that joke or not.

Yeah... Not gonna dignify that with a response.

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Oh I definitely didn't intend that joke, just a happy little accident

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Waluigi1 posted...

Yeah... Not gonna dignify that with a response.

"I'm going to state a strong opinion going against 80% of the thread consensus and then when asked to explain, I will only let you know that doing so is beneath me."

A strong opinion? Seriously? Saying that insulting people in wheelchairs is a shitty thing to do is a strong opinion?? Wtf is wrong with this board/site.

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I think you misintrepted why you are being called out on Waluigi. I don't think there are many, if any, arguing that what Ken said wasn't insensitive, but you said that what he tweeted was a step further than even offensive as "incredibly fucked up" and when pressed to elaborate, you said no. That is why Dels called you out.
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A strong opinion doesn't stop being a strong opinion just because you think it's the morally correct opinion! It was strongly worded. Someone asked you to explain why. You could just... answer them.

KCF0107 posted...

I think you misintrepted why you are being called out on Waluigi. I don't think there are many, if any, arguing that what Ken said wasn't insensitive, but you said that what he tweeted was a step further than even offensive as "incredibly fucked up" and when pressed to elaborate, you said no. That is why Dels called you out.

Wha? Literally 80% of the board doesn't think it's insensitive.

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Insensitive =/= Offensive
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We already talked about why the poll's two options didn't leave much room for nuance. Also it's a Full Throttle topic, people may not vote honestly.

KCF0107 posted...

Insensitive =/= Offensive

Sure technically but I think it's kinda a square is a rectangle situation.

Also, there's no need for nuance in the question.

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KCF0107 posted...

Insensitive =/= Offensive

This is some powerfuly pointless hair splitting.

The statement is obviously insensitive. It is also offensive, in that it could cause people (ie, the targets of the dumb joke) to take offense. These are both true despite me not being personally offended.

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Waluigi1 posted...

A strong opinion? Seriously? Saying that insulting people in wheelchairs is a shitty thing to do is a strong opinion?? Wtf is wrong with this board/site.

I would personally like to hear a defense at how this statement insults people in wheelchairs. Obviously "insult" is a nuance we don't have a definition for, but to me this joke is the exact same amount of tame as "nothing sadder than a hot guy who's 5'3''" which, while I haven't been on twitter in a while, seems to be an acceptable joke still even in 2020.

The reason I'm pressing it, is because from where I'm standing you think there's something inherently "fucking disgusting" about treating people in wheelchairs the same way we treat everyone else. This was an earnest attempt to kind of check the temp of a statement that you made that made some problematic hairs on my back stand up. Now that I've seen you backpedal, I'm p sure you've already started to realize the problematic nature of what you said

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SantaRPidgey posted...

"nothing sadder than a hot guy who's 5'3''

This is also offensive and insulting...

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SantaRPidgey posted...

The reason I'm pressing it, is because from where I'm standing

you have to be doing this on purpose

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Waluigi1 posted...

This is also offensive and insulting...

Ah ok, "equal opportunity outrage" is where we are going with this. No one can take a joke so we shouldn't make them at all.

MZero posted...

you have to be doing this on purpose

that one I did see before posting, but it was also completely unintentional.

trust me I spent like 20 minutes trying to think of funny wheelchair jokes to stick in but couldn't think of them. So happy these are coming up organically.


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If you really don't see how a short person would take offense to that, I don't really know what to say...

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Comedy is almost always potentially offensive

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SantaRPidgey posted...

Obviously "insult" is a nuance we don't have a definition for, but to me this joke is the exact same amount of tame as "nothing sadder than a hot guy who's 5'3''" which, while I haven't been on twitter in a while, seems to be an acceptable joke still even in 2020.

this is a good point

my first thought on seeing the tweet was "wow that's offensive"

but as a short guy, my reaction to the short people version is just "ok boomer" - it's not funny but it's not insulting/offensive/worth complaining about
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Drakeryn posted...

it's not funny but it's not insulting/offensive/worth complaining about

This is what I've been shouting from the rooftops for the past however many years. Lots of people conflate "offensive" and "not funny." On the other end of the spectrum, a good race/height/whatever based joke is based on truth, so it's not really seen as "offensive."

The problem is you gotta crawl before you walk, so in order to make good jokes you have to try out a few bad jokes. Going into twitter like it's the national archive of every joke anyone has ever made just to find the ones in poor taste is like googling someone's devienart and slamming them for their awful pictures of pregnant sonic.

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SantaRPidgey posted...

This is what I've been shouting from the rooftops for the past however many years. Lots of people conflate "offensive" and "not funny." On the other end of the spectrum, a good race/height/whatever based joke is based on truth, so it's not really seen as "offensive."

The problem is you gotta crawl before you walk, so in order to make good jokes you have to try out a few bad jokes. Going into twitter like it's the national archive of every joke anyone has ever made just to find the ones in poor taste is like googling someone's devienart and slamming them for their awful pictures of pregnant sonic.

I think one of the main issues is that so many people don't take intention into account anymore. They just automatically assume malintent.

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SantaRPidgey posted...

On the other end of the spectrum, a good race/height/whatever based joke is based on truth, so it's not really seen as "offensive."

Oh geez Santa's gonna use this to wheel back around to defending the watermelon stuff again, isn't he

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This is my watermelon argument, yes, but with an actual person who's worth defending!

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I'd argue there's a difference between something like this joke, which could be applied to anything, be it height, hair color, whatever, and jokes that specifically prey on racial stereotypes

Like, let's just not make/defend race jokes, because the chance of making a good, inoffensive one is extremely slim.

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Leonhart4 posted...

Comedy is almost always potentially offensive

this topic has some crazy takes but this must be the craziest one.

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Mr Lasastryke posted...

this topic has some crazy takes but this must be the craziest one.

Comedy is largely making fun of people so I'm not sure how that's a crazy take.

I'm not defending the tweet because it was stupid (and also not funny), but just about any joke you make could potentially offend someone.

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