That Shit Cray

By now I'm sure you have all heard the story of Hank Williams Jr's slightly disoriented comments on Fox and Friends on Monday morning and the resulting backlash. If you didn't hear, when asked by the hosts of the show about politics, Hank brought up a golf game between President Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner and stated that the two of them together "would be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu. Not hardly. In the shape this country is in?"

As a result of Bocephus's comments, ESPN pulled his infamous Monday Night Football theme song from Monday's broadcast, essentially saying that his comparison of Obama to Hitler reflected poorly on them.

Um, whoa whoa whoa. Yes, years of substance abuse has made Hank's comments very confusing, but I never once heard him say "Obama is like Hitler!" or "Hitler is Obama's role model!". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that what he was saying was essentially that the Republican and Democratic parties are on such polar opposite ends of the political spectrum right now that it might as well have been a Jew hater and a Jewish leader playing golf together. I totally get what he was saying. It wasn't eloquent, but he's a damn musician on a show to talk about the re-release of some of his fathers music. You ask him about politics, you shouldn't be surprised when you get a crazy answer! When unlikely people like the women of The View [even Joy Behar!] are coming to your defense, that's when you know ESPN has overreacted.

So now, Hanks iconic "Are You Ready For Some Football" has been officially pulled as the theme song for Monday night football. ESPN claims it was their decision, Hank claims it was his [his official quote on his website says "After reading hundres of e-mails, I have made MY decision. By pulling my opening Oct 3rd, You (ESPN) stepped on the Toes of The First Amendment Freedom of Speech, so therefore Me, My Song, and All My Rowdy friends are OUT OF HERE. It's been a great run"]. Now, again, not the most eloquent of statements, but he's not wrong. ESPN totally took a shit on his right to Free Speech. When did we all get so damn sensitive in this country? Everyone is (or used to be and should be!) allowed to have their own opinion! I completely understand that in certain situations you have to disassociate yourself from people [say, for instance, if he had used a racial slur against Obama. Now THAT would be something to be upset about], but I'm sorry ESPN, this situation was not it.

Why don't we all just take everything that any celebrity has to say about politics with a grain of salt and stop getting so butt hurt over every politically or religiously charged statement. Everyone just get over it already.

I will now step off of my soap box and pay a small tribute to Hanks contribution to Monday Night Football.