Mel Gibson’s 12 Steps to Serenity

So …

Has Mel’s career passed the ‘tipping point’?

Excellent work, Chris — but a typo crept into your third use of that particular feminine endearment (item 9).

I’m not a fan of Mel Gibson and haven’t seen anything he’s done since Mad Max but modulo his apparent antisemitism, which deserves appropriate derision, I think this is somewhat unfair. By and large, Mr Gibson has taken responsibility for his actions and has, at last report, entered treatment for his alcoholism. The medical community recognizes that alcoholism is a disease. You wouldn’t make fun of someone with cancer, for instance, would you?

Just like any other sick person, hope he gets well.

The apology was expected if his career is going to survive this.

Alcohol may loosen the tongue, but it doesn’t put thoughts in your head.

Mr. Regan,

FYI: You may want to put some leading zeros in steps 1 through 9, so that you end with 11 and 12, rather than repeating 1 and 2 (or did you mean to do that because they relate back to the original steps 1 and 2? - Satire can be subtle).

Steve, I’m with you. I hope that Mel is on the road to recovery from both alcoholism and bigotry, and is honestly horrified by his own actions and anti-semitism. Hopefully he will be able to extrapolate the lesson to other previously maligned groups (i.e. the gay community).

The loosely balanced benefit of the doubt is in place.

piglet sez: Alcohol may loosen the tongue, but it doesn’t put thoughts in your head.

No question there. I’d considered writing something of that nature myself by way of disclaimer.

However, maybe Mr Gibson will learn something as a result of this. He may be learning that those thoughts in his head are wrong. Even while drunk he said his life is “f—ed”.

Heck, even George Wallace, as slimy a segragationist as any that trod the floor of the Alabama statehouse, eventually reformed and became a champion of civil rights.

I call dibs on the “Sugartits” T-shirt franchise.

I would be a little more admiring of Mr. Gibson if he had checked into rehab before this incident rather than after. And yes, his drunk driving is a far more serious matter than his drunken ranting. Perhaps this monumental embarrassment will help avoid a tragedy in the future.

Speaking of drunken ranting, I trust there will be some of that at the Thing Which Is Not Felberpalooza after sufficient Yuengling Lager and Maker’s Mark has been imbibed.

If Mel Gibson were ugly, or fat or hairy, etc. - there’d be a whole different take on this. But he’s always a hero. He’s set himself up as an uber-male, an “our kind of guy” and it sort of hurts to attack him. Problem is, it doesn’t hurt him to attack anyone else.

My basic thought: a badly-behaved drunk is pretty much a loser no matter who he is, where he stands, or what he does for a living. I don’t read too much more into it than that. But then I’ve never really been a big action-adventure movie fan, either.

I’m not the kind of guy who sees antisemites behind every tree (for one thing, they hate trees). But I figured Mel Gibson for an antisemite when he financed a zillion-dollar passion play.

He can apologize all he wants; I’m not buying. But if he gets ripping drunk and starts talking to a cop about how much he loved Fiddler on the Roof…

Maximum Bob, do you mean the movie version? My favorite scene was in the tavern with the cosacks smarmily giving their best wishes to the proposed groom-to-be and Tevye.

Come to think of it, if the movie was remade with Mel Gibson, that scene could have the same connotation. Of course, in the Gibson version, everyone with a beard would get their asses kicked after the communal dancing.

Jim, I hadn’t given any thought to movie vs. play, having never staked out a position on the relative merits of Topol and Zero Mostel. But perhaps Mel will weigh in on this in a week or two.

Chris Regan responds "No, but I will make fun of someone afflicted with the disease of ‘over-earnestness.’ Please post your e-mail address so that I may do it privately."

Define “over-earnestness“.

I used my actual email address on the posting and have done so here, as well. I assume you can get it from the logs.

Please feel free to ridicule me in public, if you wish. I can take it. I’ve been worked over by experts.

To echo siobhan’s thoughts, I’ve probably expended more brain cells on this than it’s worth but just to reiterate, I’m no particular fan of Mel Gibson’s — the only film of his I’ve seen is Mad Max and that was only because I was with a group and couldn’t wriggle out of it without having to walk home.

Perhaps my cancer analogy was a bit strained and, yes, over-earnest — perhaps I should have referred to some congenital deformity instead — and I do separate Mr Gibson’s alcoholism, which is a treatable but incurable disease, from his apparent antisemitism and sexism, which, I fervently hope, are both treatable and curable.

Having worked with several people who have done research in the field of alcoholism, as well as having had a borderline alcoholic parent and knowing more than a few "functional" alcoholics, may have affected my thinking in this area but it pains me when we treat this disease as an appropriate subject for joking.

Hey, there’s an alcoholic, falling down drunk. Ha ha. Right. Whatever you say.

I also like to use italics far too much. So sue me.

Steve:

I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that drunkeness as comedy has abated somewhat (rightfully or not, depending on your pov).

Bear in mind that even Foster Brooks was a spokespersong for MADD and had quit drinking in the early 60s.

Peace,

Jim

Steve,
Was Chris really making fun of Mel Gibson’s alcoholism, or just his incredibly stupid behavior? My sense was that Chris was making light of the initial behavior and the subsequent attempts to make up for those actions. Disease or not, there is no excuse for Mel Gibson’s behavior.

Someone who’s been an alcoholic for a long time will start acting like an asshole after only a couple of drinks. It’s as if the brain circuits that keep one under control when sober have been so damaged, that there isn’t much of ‘em left. So, it doesn’t take much booze to inhibit them entirely.

So, I’ve got a question for y’all. Assuming that Mel Gibson doesn’t just retire or start working in Turkey or some place, what do you think he’ll do:

1) Convert to Judaism

or

2) Convert to Scientology

Hello! Anyone home? Anyone here? Helloooo!

And I’m off in search of the Wonderful Wizard of Odd, what with not being fully engaged in the Star Jones whatever it was, and wishing to hell we could all escape the Marvelous Machinations of the Powers that Be.

Old? Old? Oh, shit!

Elvis is not only not dead, but he isn’t old either. Come check him out at the 72 Hours of Elvis, Felberpalooza, Save America, 3 day festival. Bike, Laugh, and redeem America.

See you on Labor Day Weekend.

Mr. Gibson is a hugely prominent public figure who has taken strong moral stands, & has shown attitudes consistent w/both Homophobia & Anti-Semitism. He apologized, but his insistence that his ranting did not represent his feelings at all is wholly implausible. He deals w/many sensitive religious subjects-it would be wrong to NOT to site that his bias & example need be at least humbly acknowledged by him to obviate its sentiments. And make the apology fully meaningful.