It gets more colorful at 3:54.

First heard by me today on The Week According to Frangela on KTLK AM 1150, during Frangela's beloved segment, "Professional Idiot of the Week":

"Slavery was evil, there's no question about that. But you know what? If it hadn't happened, where would you be right now? If your ancestors hadn't come over here for whatever reason, where would you be right now? You'd be floating down a river in Rwanda in pieces. Or maybe you'd be chased down by machete-wielding Janjaweed militia in the Sudan. Or starving under Robert Mugabe.

"Hey, ingrates. Get on your knees. Kiss the American dirt beneath you. And, please, shut up."


- Jim Quinn, from the June 24 edition of Clear Channel's The War Room with Quinn and Rose

There is so much nonsense to unpack in Jim Quinn's statement, including 1) most slaves in the Americas came from Western Africa, which does not include Rwanda, the Sudan, or Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe; and 2) most black people born in the United States have non-African ancestry as well, often due to the owners raping their ancestors. So, despite Jim Quinn's penchant for the one-drop rule, in a parallel universe without centuries of slavery throughout the Western hemisphere, we ungrateful black people could have been living in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, the South Pacific, pretty much anywhere. Correspondingly, many allegedly white people in that same parallel universe could find themselves living in Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria or picking diamonds in Sierra Leone, all homes of their hidden ancestors.

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Look, a quote!

"It's rare that we find anyone that we want to be a part of Frangela - but reading Steve the Penguin was like talking to our other girlfriend. Mahlena-Rae is that voice inside all of our heads - wishing for more, wanting more - sometimes scaredand sometimes crazy. Mahlena-Rae Johnson has done what few authors have been able to do; she has created an experience, a journey that feels familiar and real and yet, takes you places you don't ever expect. We loved it!"

- Frances Callier and Angela V Shelton aka Frangela

How exciting. Thank you, Frangela!

My favorite "unacceptable racists":

(unrelated Frangela clip)

It started with this appearance on NPR: How to Revamp the Oscars: A Genius Plan.

Then came this: Listeners Fed Up with Frangela and Kvetching. Scroll to 37:20 on the clip to hear the complaints.

For those of you who can't access the audio for whatever reason--i.e., you're at work or you have computer issues--Frangela said that while watching the Oscar telecast, they were blinded by how many white people were on the screen. The next day, listeners wrote in comparing Frangela to Don Imus and calling for the two women to be fired. I don't think Frangela actually works for NPR, but no matter. Another listener wrote, "imagine if the comments were reversed, and someone said the MTV Awards were too black."

One: Which MTV Awards? The Movie Awards or the VMAs?

Two: I'm so sure the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is thrilled to be compared with the network that brought us My Super Sweet 16 and A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila.

Frangela also said that the "98-year-old man" who received this year's Lifetime Achievement Award should have done so at an earlier ceremony, because his acceptance speech went on "for a lifetime." Ha ha! I didn't even see the show, but that's funny.

Finally, one woman got upset because to her, the Oscars are "American royalty" and the thought of revamping the show "depressed [her] as much as anything [she] had heard on NPR today."

Really? As much as "anything" you heard on NPR that day? Because on this very clip, right before the kvetching about Frangela, there is a story about a doctor trying to deal with seeing his patients die. This doctor has been diagnosed with cancer of the appendix himself. At one point, he holds his daughter while she weeps for him, then goes outside and cries by himself. Now me myself personally, I think that slightly more depressing than two comedians pointing out the undeniable fact that this year's (and pretty much every year's) Academy Awards ceremony is painfully slow and chock full of white people.

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Spotlight on: Frangela

If you don't know who Frangela is, you obviously don't watch Best Week Ever. That's understandable if you don't have cable. However, if you do have cable, there is no excuse. It's a funny show! Even better than I Love New York. And Celebrity Fit Club. Who else thinks Dustin Diamond may have "gained weight solely for the purpose of appearing on the show"?

Back to Frangela. They are one of my MySpace friends, and I wrote them a message a couple weeks ago. They were super-duper nice and they wrote me back pretty quickly. Their message totally made my day. Among other things, they said I had "the cutest photo thingy ever!"(Exclamation point theirs.) They also said my email was "mature and respectful." I do try. I was so excited that I told my mother about what they wrote. Mummy was less excited than I was because she doesn't watch the teevee. But she was happy for me anyway.

Frangela was supposed to have a show on Fox last year, but for whatever reason, the pilot didn't make it on the air. I guess Fox had to make room for comedy gold like The Ringer, 'Til Death, American Dad and The War at Home. I would have watched the show. Not just because Frangela makes me laugh, but because I too have trouble finding black friends. I definitely don't have enough of them to invite to a party.

A story that Frangela shared in their email also got me thinking that they should write a book. I've read many articles and seen many television specials concerning the history of American comedy. I saw Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which was a less-than-humorous film about the fact that Indians don't think Albert Brooks is funny. I also watched SNL in the 90s yesterday, which was a 2-hour long circle jerk that would have made the Bush administration blush. The problem with most of these self-congratulatory compilations is that they feature white American males talking about why other white American males are so funny. Sometimes a few black guys (Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby or Chris Rock) or a couple of white women (Lucille Ball, if we're lucky) slip in there. And at one point, I saw about a minute total on Freddie Prinze. But that's it.

There are no mainstream compilations of women's contributions to comedy. Or to entertainment in general. I know that women who work in comedy have some amazing stories to tell. I've heard a few tales from Janeane Garofalo, Margaret Cho, Judy Gold, Kathleen Madigan and pamie.com. But I'd like to hear more, and read more. I'm sure other women, and men, would like to hear them, too.

I bought I'm the One That I Want. I bought Yeah, I Said It. I'd buy Frangela's book, too.