We, and just about every other news outlet on the planet, reported yesterday on the "tragic," "shocking" and "devastating" death of Heath Ledger. But, frankly, we've become as fascinated by the proliferation of the media's over-wrought and bad-tasting mourning as we are the one-time gay cowboy's convoluted demise. Twenty-nine hours after the announcement, we present these five newsy low-lights of post-Ledger crepe-hanging.
1. The White House Cancels Anti-Drug Event in Heath's Honor Not
sure where this falls on the taste spectrum, and we're loathe to credit
the Bush Administration with anything that even rhymes with taste let
alone believe they were actually trying to be sensitive to the possibly
drug-related death of a young actor. Our guess: Dubya had diarrhea.
2. AP Gives It The Requisite Gay Angle This is sort of like saying "Men Join Britney's Mourners" Oh, but she isn't dead yet. Perhaps that was in poor taste.
3. Gawker Over-Covers Their Bases What are Gawker's bases anymore? New York? Pop culture? The morning news? In any event, they've posted no fewer than 16 items
related to Heath Ledger's death including a photo post titled "Deceased
Actor Heath Ledger at a Basketball Game" and, ironically, a "Bad Taste Roundup"
in which they mock a business-minded Best Buy store in San Diego for
laying out the deceased actor's DVDs on a special sale table. 4. The YouTube Generation Has Another Excuse to Throw Together a Fucking Photo Montage In addition to a lot of teenagers gratuitouslyexclaiming their grief in front of their cams, you have the first of many super-sincere photo montages set to the Brokeback Mountain theme.
5. And Fred Phelps Gets His Old, Poltergeist-Looking, Grimy Two Cents In The ancient bigot and his Westboro Baptist Church-who also picketed Matthew Shepard's funeral and, confusingly, have been picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers in the Iraq War-wasted no time in throwing up this statement on his website.
We'll discuss relevant and consequential after you're dead, sir.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled and mediated grief.
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