I had a rare Saturday off, and while on the way to the book store I heard part of "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me", a comedy quiz show about current events syndicated by NPR. This week they broadcast a correction of a correction aired by NPR's news division. In a previous program, one of the panelists had suggested that the ASPCA insisted that dogs be known as "canine-Americans". The ASPCA apparently didn't find any humor in this (no surprise there) and objected, prompting Morning Edition (!!) to broadcast a correction. "Wait, Wait" rebroadcast the correction with a correction of its own: Though Morning Edition identified them as a comedy show, not a news show, Morning Edition itself demonstrated that no comedy show is as funny as the real news.

Now, Jews of the world are in real danger, unlike canine-Americans, even including our own Bowser, so the ADL has legitimate concerns about "fighting words". Yet, just as Morning Edition added unnecessary gravitas to a deliberately ridiculous remark, the ADL is adding to Mr. Cohen's fame or notoriety, depending on your point of view. The squares of this world will always make that mistake. To fail to find the ridiculous ridiculous only gives a satirist more fuel, and adds the curious to his audience.

Sensitivity??? From a comic????? Anyone who has ever caught his breath and then laughed at Chris Rock's racial humor, anyone who has ever giggled at Jeff Foxworthy's lampoons of redneck (formerly "hillbilly") culture, anyone who remembers Lenny Bruce or can recite George Carlin's Seven Dirty Words will understand the plea for sensitivity from a comic is not only unrealistic but counterproductive. The comic's job is to make us laugh at our own prejudices.