innocent fun went too far when the topic turned to: grammar/semantics.
A follower asked: “Is this how you spell lasonia?”
Martin tweeted back: “It depends. Are you in an African-American neighborhood or at an Italian restaurant?”
Martin immediately deleted the remark after realizing the reply might offend-he then apologized for having remarked [what he typed] by explaining: “I was riffing on Twitter, inviting people to ask me grammar questions. I replied with what I hoped were funny answers. For example, a person might write ‘What’s the difference between then and than?’ I would say, ‘then is a conjunctive preposition, and than is a misspelling of thank’. I have done similar things to this on other occasions, and there is a great spirit of fun between me and the Twitters followers.
Martin continued:
“It was going along fine when someone wrote, ‘How do you spell lasonia?’
I wrote: ‘It depends if you are in an African American neighborhood or an Italian restaurant.‘ I knew of the name: “Lasonia.” I did not make it up, nor do I find it funny.
So to me the answer was either Lasonia (with a capital), or Lasagna, depending on what you meant–that they sounded alike in this rare and particular context struck me as funny. That was the joke. When the tweet went out, I saw some negative comments and immediately deleted the tweet and apologized. I gathered the perception was that I was making fun of African American names.
He went on to explain:
“Later, thinking it over, I realized the tweet was irresponsible, and made a fuller apology on Twitter.”
This isn’t the first time Martin had been misquoted in the webosphere and reminded his fans: “Comedy is treacherous. I used to try out jokes in clubs and the audience’s feedback would tell me when I had crossed a line, or how to shape a joke so it is clear. Today, the process is faster. It’s your brain, a button, then millions of reactions. But it’s my job to know.”
Well, we here at Other Side of the Fame are VERY big fans of Steve Martin and if you follow my (the Write Head)’s Tweets; you’ve probably read me talk about my love for Steve Martin’s humor, the movie “The Jerk” [and “Bringing Down the House” where his character in the movie got dealt loads of cultural diversity upon meeting Queen Latifah’s character, who by end movie; had him in hood night clubs and speaking slang that even his prim and proper kids picked up + grew to love her for].
So in defense of Martin, who played ‘Navin’ in the movie “The Jerk,” allow me to shake a little humor over it all:
In the movie (one of the funniest parts of it) was the fact that you’ll see throughout it, he was adopted by one of those good old fashion black families from back in the day-(it’s a classic/old movie). Well, the hilarious part of the movie came when ‘Navin’ first discovered he had rhythm (you know, ‘cause they say white people don’t have rhythm).
Navin lay in bed one day and started banging his big two toes together and developed a rhythm while doing it, and spazzed the hell out. He started yelling and calling the family into his room. They all burst in to join him in his excitement [over banging his two big toes together in the consistent rhythm]…it was a bigggggggg deal. It was soooo funny because it was funny for no reason but still funny!
I haven’t seen the movie in years, but that part is stomach clutching funny at the mere thought of it-I promise you it was hilarious!
But in closing, I happen to believe his explanation (as quoted in the bold print paragraph) because I fully understand that-not to mention, I grew up with a girl named “LaSonia,” (with the ‘La’ and then a capital ‘S’ to finish off the spelling of Sonia—we called her “Sonia”) for short.
But how ‘bout we just chomp this all down, Kumbaya, and be big like Lil’ Wayne sings in “6 Foot 7: “Real G’s move in silence like lasagna” (where the “G” is silent).
h/t The Wrap/Tim Malloy
