“For One, You Need A Little Bit Of Levity In This Job”

Interesting discussion two threads down on whether this might push WKRP’s turkey drop episode to the side as the funniest turkey video ever. Gunny started it:
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/11/20/a-look-ahead-for-the-auto-bailout/#comment-22798
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My take:
http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2008/11/20/a-look-ahead-for-the-auto-bailout/#comment-22812

btw, in the interest of accuracy, wonkette thought the guy was “SLAUGHTERING A TURKEY IN A DEATH GRINDER.” That funnel is just the way they hold the turkey when they slit the throat. The blood is collected in the tub below.

if we needed any further proof, i think this proves that not only is Sarah Palin stupid–clinically, irretrievably unintelligent–but that she has the political instincts of a rock.

she’s so caught up in her “I’m a Mavricky-Maverick, and I do things differently!” self-deception that she doesn’t think this would be a bad idea.

if she tries to run in 2012, she will be eaten alive by the other Republican hopefuls.

Here is whats really great about this clip. You end up focusing so much on the smiling, attention hungry turkey executioner that you end up totally missing the full plate of word salad that Queen Doofus is giving us yet again. Scherer try to come up with a transcript of what she is saying. But don’t do it yourself because I don’t want your head to explode. I am not a proponent of toruture but I do believe that piping in her Katie Couric interview on a loop would get a lot more out of the detainees at GITMO than playing loud rock music ever would.

She’s in charge of the turkey. Birds of a feather.

When will this ignorant woman go away?

[...] This video of Sarah Palin being interviewed before she pardons a Thanksgiving turkey is almost too good to be true. (Via Swampland.) [...]

One thing I can promise you all, however, is that country folks will look at this video and see a fellow traveler. Certainly older people who are accustomed to seeing where food comes from. As opposed to city folk who think milk comes from the diary department. It really is an us versus them moment, but there are relatively few us’s.

For those who are susceptible to Reality TV series, Sarah Palin is gonna send them into seizures. They’ll have to open a new wing at Betty Ford to detox them.
Which makes me wonder whether JP over at Tuned In should be covering Northern Overexposure instead of Swampland, and save our dear political reporters’ precious intellects and sanity for more important tasks.

That’s the same machine Todd used to discuss marriage with Levi.

“Turkey shambles” seems like a fine metaphor for pretty much anything Palin would be involved with.

(for those who aren’t language nerds, ‘shambles’ originally/literally refers to a slaughterhouse).

wvng: Really good observation. I think you’re right. Only city folk are laughing at this video.

“building this team that is ah continually being built”
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Man she could own her own wing at the department of redundancy department!

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WVNG: ..country folks will look at this video and see a fellow traveler..
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While snarky Swampland commenters will make wisecracks about how a cuppa steaming hot turkey every day does wonders for Sara Palin’s complexion…

nibbly
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Don’t believe that. City folks might be the only ones grossed out by this video but EVERYBODY is laughing at this video. Country folks are some of the biggest watchers of shows like “Americas funniest home videos” I know because many in my family still live in the country down in Mississippi. Whether killing a turkey makes you queasy or not, having a politician using a guy killing a turkey who evidently wants his “Joe the Executioner” 15 minutes of fame as a backdrop is funny I don’t care who you are!

Better say nothing: this is just so bad…

Is Wayne Brady gonna have to choke a turkey?

That’s hawt.

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good God, do I want me some preview…shoulda read, “cuppa steaming hot turkey blood every day.
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bah.

sgw, not saying it’s not funny to country folk. It’s hysterical – but it’s country hysterical. I can imagine this on a continuous 10-minute loop on the country TV channel. They would be laughing with her and laughing at city folks at the same time. A twofer.

g_crush. She probably took a bath in it after the camera crew left.

Maybe she should hold a full press conference in a beef slaughter house.
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However, it does take a lot of guts to stand up in front of a turkey slaughter, and ramble on in a completely irrational manner.

Country people are bad. City people are good.

People are people.

I just remembered the Simpsons episode with Troy McClure taking a young boy on a tour of a slaughterhouse. Thanks Derek.

I’m being totally serious.

[...] Sarah and Joe the Tukey Executioner share some screen timeTags: video funny 2008_election republicans thanksgiving alaska Now, instead of speaking front of thousands of people at political rallies, Sarah Palin is giving interviews in front of some guy slaughtering turkeys. I don't know what's more funny – the guy staring at the camera or when later he goes about his business silently in the background. [...]

If you think turkeys being slaughtered is funny, it would still be funny without Sarah Stalin in the foreground. But she could have babbled her nonsense with the Aristocrats doing their family act in the background and it wouldn’t have been funny. I think Campaign 2008 completely destroyed my ability to see the humor in appalling, vicious stupidity.

Derek, I’ve been around both large industrial scale and small scale poultry processing operations. Even had a board committee meeting once at Polyface Farms as they were processing chickens. Joel Salatin, the owner, carried on a wide ranging, complex discussion over an hour while gutting chickens (unlike Palin he spoke in complete sentences). My board chair noted that he never took longer than 40 seconds per bird.
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On another point, you might want to click on the link. Polyface is one of the most innovative, and most profitable, animal agriculture operations in the nation.

This video should be used to illustrate “oblivious” in all future dictionaries. (see also “clueless”)

wvng:
I read about Polyface Farms in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Joel Salatin seems like a real visionary, as well as a decent, intelligent guy. Assuming you left with a processed bird, how did it taste?

Has the guy cutting the turkey throats signed a book deal yet?

@coffee#9: *SNAP!*
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@SGW: You’re correct. Queen D’s word salad is priceless, especially given the questions: “…so Governor, what budget items are on the CHOPPING BLOCK?…” Ha!
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Simply hilarious. Also.

And everyone knows that only real Americans who believe in America and want to get those ideas and businesses going bring their Starbucks to the slaughterhouse.

“I just remembered the Simpsons episode with Troy McClure taking a young boy on a tour of a slaughterhouse”
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I never saw that but I do remember him from such educational films as “Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun” and “Fuzzy Bunny’s Guide To You-Know-What”

heck: “Assuming you left with a processed bird, how did it taste?” They are excellent. As are the eggs from the chicken mobile. Never tried his beef or pork.
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Joel really is a visionary, and really is a very decent guy. He wants to see farms survive and be profitable. For those who are interested, he is not a “green” farmer per se. He is a “maxmizing net profit” farmer. His genius is in placing the most animal units per acre of land that anyone does, and in not harming the land in the process. I vividly remember a farm tour there a decade ago. Middle of a hot dry summer. Most every farm was parched, grass drying up. And his farm was lush and grass growing because of all the organic matter in his soil to hold moisture.
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But back to ridiculing Palin. And anticipating some SNL genius.

But back to ridiculing Palin. And anticipating some SNL genius.

Absolutely. This is as good as Bass-O-Matic. Or Dan Akroyd’s faux ad for the streak restaurant where “you pick ‘em, you stun ‘em, you cut ‘em up.”

Part of the funny is she’s standing there with her Burberry scarf, Kawasaki rimless glasses and a cup of $4 Starbucks coffee. The Sarah of 6 months ago could stand there with some authenticity, but our gal has seen the big city and looted the Neiman Marcuses, and the turkey killing fields of Alaska ain’t gonna hold her back. (cue inspirational music)

It’s ok, nobody liked Bob anyway.

More evidence to support that she is oblivious to what most rational people see as obvious.
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SNL couldn’t have written a script as good as this reality TV.

wvng: A “maximize net profit” farmer? At the expense of the animals and the consumer I presume. At least it sounds like he’s getting the environment angle right – except that he’s not “green”. Ever read Mad Cowboy by Howard Lyman? Good read on the subject.

Thanks SP and MS for reminding me why I’m vegetarian.

Quick, try to imagine Palin having in-depth policy discussions with Obama’s Foreign Policy team (see Joe’s post) or his Economic advisors. Now try with McCain.
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I get the feeling that they’d be the turkey in the background.

Is this a clip from Christopher Guest’s next mockumentary?

dunedweller – no no no, not at the expense of the animals. Certainly no more so than any agricultural operation, and much much less than most. The poultry are pastured in the open air, the cattle are pastured using a rotational grazing system that gives them the best of the grass and keeps the land healthy. Not remotely at the expense of the consumer. These are healthy animals raised in the best of conditions. Until they get eaten.
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The reason I say not “green” is that he doesn’t use a lot of the conservation practices, like riparian buffers, to protect local waterways.

I can’t listen to Sarah Palin talk anymore.

Wow. Where do I start? Hvell! Where can I start?
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I’ve had to kill a chicken or two (ducks, too) but I always kinda felt it was the least pleasant chore.
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There’s a thin line between necessity and pleasure, and usually, this is the side of food processing most never see. Palin’s ramblings combined with the background “activities” could be interpreted as a work of art; a study in incongruity; a diplay of contrast.
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This is unadulteratedly bizarre.
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Happy Turkey Day…

Somehting to get sgw agitated again.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/21/12102/896/904/664224

One of the odd things about this episode is that someone suggested to her that this was not a good backround (the camera man, I think), and she brushed him off, and went ahead with the interview in front of the turkeys being slaughtered. Is this a weird but successful attempt at gaining national coverage? Is being laughed at better than being ignored?

53_3, I think you hit on it. This is performance art.

I like that. “…(Weasel (CT)…”
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However, wvng, mustellids everywhere will be lusting for a vengeful nip on your person for perpetrating that slur…

fiddlesticks!
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…perpetuating…
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You’re a rock, they’re a rock, I’m a warm rock too…

wvng
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I had already posted on that thread before you posted it lol

53_3, speaking of mustellids and poultry – they don’t mix very well. We lost our entire flock of 40 chickens to either a mink or weasel early this year. Lost bloodlines going back 20 years. So never talk about mustellids in a poultry thread.
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As for a slur on performance art – remember the guy who filled a room with hay bales, had a video camera running continuously, placed himself behind some bales and periodically moved from hidden place to hidden place. I think it was a 24 hour piece (it was at least several hours)?
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That is what I think of when I think of performance art. Can’t help it. I was also very peripherally involved in Cristo’s Surrounded Islands.

Acid J:
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“I can’t listen to Sarah Palin talk anymore.”
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This video still works with the sound off. Possibly even funnier…

wvng: thanks for clarifying. I feel better knowing there’s no suffering before the getting eaten part. Now if I can just erase the turkey-throat-slitting-cone out of my consciousness before bedtime I may sleep tonight.

wvng:
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Objections sustained.
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Seriously, though, sorry about the losses.
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The slur was associating the little furry unspeakables with Liebermann, who might well qualify as a lower form of life, I’m thinking maybe nemertea or possibly a stem bilaterian.
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It has to be performance art. I mean, if she isn’t trying to indulge in the arts, what else is left to azzume about Sarah’s thought processes…

dunedweller – thanks for responding. Salatin is one of the very best and most progressive farmers in the nation.
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53_3 – ah Lieberman. Well, there’s a weasel for ya. I worry that one of these days we’ll wake up to find 40 still warm dead bodies piled up somewhere and Lieberman sitting in the corner smacking his lips. (Speaking from experience, it is an awful thing to walk in to.) But I actually like weasels and minks except when they are killing my chickens. Unlike Lieberman, they actually serve a positive purpose in the world.
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Finally, azzume. I wonder how many years it will be before the residual zz’s disappear from Swampland? The Moderatoratron 1998 must be smiling, wherever it is.

“Has the guy cutting the turkey throats signed a book deal yet?”

You mean Joe-the-throat-slitter? Wait till you hear the country song.

I wonder if she was asked who she would pick to head the Ministry of Funny Walks what her response would be…
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“Well, we all walk or want to walk toward a bright new future in America. Walking should be available to all people so it’s important to pick someone who shares that value of walking that America values so much. I walk as much as I can and I’d hate to see walking decline. I think it’s important for children to walk so yes, it would be someone I know can walk… Why is everyone laughing?”

This just supports my theory that Palin is actually an NYU art grad student doing an extended thesis on media, language and dadaism.

Well, a bloodthirsty, ghoulish, entrail spattered, gore filled Thanksgiving greetings to you too, Sarah!
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BBBBRRRRRAAAAAAAMMMMBZZZZZING!
BLUBLUBLUBLUZZZZZBBBRRRRRAAAAAMMMMMMBLUBLUBLUBLU…
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Did you put chainsaws under the tree for the kiddies, BTW?
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Don’t forget…