Hi! My name is Regina...

October 15, 2003 2:50 PM

The Notorious C.H.O. has taken to blogging.... Best read out loud to yourself in a sarcastic, take-no-prisoners tone (if you can, do yourself a favor and see her before she winds up this tour...)
posted by JollyWanker (43 comments total)

As much as I love Cho--and I do love her, and this is cool and stuff--I also really want her mother to blog. And the actress who played her grandmother on All-American Girl. And a ponypike.
posted by WolfDaddy at 3:03 PM on October 15, 2003

As a Catholic, I would just like to say right on! to this:

Fuck you John Paul whatever the fuck your fucking name is you fucking gold vestment tall ass hat wearing shit head. Why don't you just fucking die already? Doesn't God need a personal assistant? Fuck Fuck Fuck you. No seriously. Fuck you.
posted by subgenius at 3:03 PM on October 15, 2003

I guess there's no such thing as a carriage return to a stand up comedian.
posted by machaus at 3:28 PM on October 15, 2003

Clever and playful but too conversationally written. Shit, almost exhausting. Writing is great because you can take all the junk you'd say and cut it down into something more interesting and focused. Unfortunate that her writing is really just a transcript from her mouth to the page. Funny tho. The Ann Coulter bit was very good.
posted by Peter H at 3:29 PM on October 15, 2003

Excuse the snark. That said, I think she's funny as shit.
But. Please. Maggie. EDIT yr shii!
posted by Peter H at 3:30 PM on October 15, 2003

I'll be on the other side of the aisle: I don't find her funny in the least, but I think the blog is decent.
posted by Hildago at 3:39 PM on October 15, 2003

She used to be funny. This shit is like being trapped in an elevator with a schizophrenic political fanatic. Shut up, already. lady.
posted by jonmc at 3:41 PM on October 15, 2003

Funny tho. The Ann Coulter bit was very good.
yup..hysterical even...Margaret's pretty good overall i think.
posted by amberglow at 3:46 PM on October 15, 2003

I think she must just rant into a dictaphone and have it transcribed for the blog.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:47 PM on October 15, 2003

Not For The Faint of Heart

ugh.
posted by milnak at 3:50 PM on October 15, 2003

really, one blogger shouldn't tell another to shut up. it's hypocritical plus it forces me to look at the insulters blog to see if it's any better than the insultees (it never is) and that's outright cruelty seeing as i'd rather kill a kitten than read a personal blog.

she's the one who does the bit about her mother and the gay porn, yes...? funny that.
posted by t r a c y at 3:56 PM on October 15, 2003

She used to be funny. This shit is like being trapped in an elevator with a schizophrenic political fanatic. Shut up, already. lady.

Yeah, really (well, except she was never funny). It's even more incoherent than her so-called comedy.
posted by Ayn Marx at 4:00 PM on October 15, 2003

really, one blogger shouldn't tell another to shut up.

Not "Shut up" as in "ban her" but "shut up" as in "this broad tends to babble dosen't she." Plus I don't find her tired shtick, half-baked "insights" and cliche fag-hag persona all that entertaining. The blog is a bore.
posted by jonmc at 4:08 PM on October 15, 2003

I think she must just rant into a dictaphone and have it transcribed for the blog.

Anybody see a job posting on the site for an editor? My blog may be better or worse, but at least I come up for air at reasonable interviews. As the Great JN says, the web is all about scannability.
posted by billsaysthis at 4:21 PM on October 15, 2003

Wow, jonmc called someone else a cliche?

I kid, because I love...;)
posted by inpHilltr8r at 4:31 PM on October 15, 2003

Love has not a gender signifying its validity, nor does love have any discretion on whom it might choose to bestow its gifts upon.

Yeah, she's D.H. Friggin' Lawrence. Her purple prose is made even sweeter by the repeated use of the word "fuck."

She should just stick to fabricating quotes from her mother in dialect. Otherwise, there's a real danger that a child will point out that the emperor is naked and everyone will go home embarassed.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:38 PM on October 15, 2003

Not "Shut up" as in "ban her" but "shut up" as in "this broad tends to babble dosen't she."

that makes it all the more hypocritical.

The blog is a bore.

it's uncanny how one personal blog is so much like another, innit...?
posted by t r a c y at 4:40 PM on October 15, 2003

wow, tracy dosen't like my blog. *sniff* I dunno if I can go on...

Hey this thread was an invitation to offer our opinions. Mine is that Ms. Cho's mouth runneth over.
posted by jonmc at 4:46 PM on October 15, 2003

I love her. But I think daily doses of her might change that.
posted by scarabic at 5:10 PM on October 15, 2003

Isn't it "Hi! My name is Gwen..."?

Though I can see how one might think of Regina.
posted by lisa g at 5:13 PM on October 15, 2003

I love her. But I think daily doses of her might change that.

You don't have to worry about that, assuming that your captors abide by the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
posted by Mayor Curley at 5:16 PM on October 15, 2003

i haven't visited your blog jon (won't you think of the innocent kittens?) but i'm sure i'd hate it if i did :-D i admittedly get seriously hinkty when bloggers bash other bloggers tho'. i suppose in my mind public bashing and so called critiques (and all that ridiculous award giving too) goes against the original community aspect and concept of blogs as equalizers. one blogger passing judgement on another blogger's content will always illicit a snark from me.
posted by t r a c y at 5:35 PM on October 15, 2003

i haven't visited your blog jon (won't you think of the innocent kittens?) but i'm sure i'd hate it if i did :-D

OK, I take back my smartassery as well.

i suppose in my mind public bashing and so called critiques (and all that ridiculous award giving too) goes against the original community aspect and concept of blogs as equalizers.

That's where I gotta beg to differ. The equalizing thing about blogs is that anyone with access to the net and willingness to learn a bit, can put one up. Thus, equal (more or less) opporunity. This does not mean that everyone should be equally praised or that all blogs are of equal quality. Just we all have an equal chance to be huzzah'd or torn to shreds by an angry mob.

So, Cho get's no special favors from me, nor should she. Her comedy was sometimes funny. the blog isn't. that's my opinion.
posted by jonmc at 5:41 PM on October 15, 2003

How can you not laugh at this?
posted by Tlogmer at 5:47 PM on October 15, 2003

How can you not laugh at this?

Quite easily. It wasn't funny, it was like being lectured and guilt-tripped. If I wanted that I'd call a college professor and my mom.
posted by jonmc at 5:51 PM on October 15, 2003

I dunno, it's not bad writing, and I may agree with a lot of it, but doesn't anyone remember when blogs had links and shit? It's a public notepad and she'll probably take the posts that got the most "right-on!" e-mails and links to it and turn those into comedy bits. Kind of like a Cho-Filter. Not to say there's anything wrong with that, but when she talks about the Nazi Wine (since that's been tossed out there), why not give us some facts, not a summary of what you heard in the cafe' or on NPR?

And I really could do without the flashing magazine covers at the top. We know you're famous Margo. We saw you on the television.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:50 PM on October 15, 2003

I'm not very fond of Ms Cho, even though I have tried, with the Korean connection and all. She grates, I find.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 7:39 PM on October 15, 2003

"If you go carrying pictures of Margaret Cho,
You ain't gonna make it with anyone anywho"
-John Lennon, slightly rephrased.

Still, this looks like a promising trend. I'd rather see the blogging "trend" dominated by comics like Cho and Bill Maher (and, at a slightly lower level of fame, Adam Felber, and only-semi-related-but-just-for-those-of-you-who-demand-links-in-your-blogs, Dave Barry) than by "pundits", or even Presidential Candidates.
Let's start a chant: Punsters Not Pundits! Punsters Not Pundits! Punsters Not Pundits!

As for her specific content: she's had a distinctive voice (shrillness definitely is part of it), as long as I've heard of her (which was pre-sitcom). Also, the Bad Sitcom Experience Syndrome (BSES) affects different people in different ways; Ms. Cho has had a more difficult recovery than most.

From personal experience, writing a humor-based blog is NOT easy, and I respect anybody who can; and having seen so many "professional" comics build a career on ten minutes of material (and thus unable to sustain a blog any longer than the teenage girls in the recent survey), I am very impressed when a "pro" is giving away so much writing on the web AND keeping his/her comic voice intact.

But, just to throw more debris on the tracks in front of this train: What Comic/Comedian/Humorist Would YOU Like to See Get a Blog?
posted by wendell at 7:51 PM on October 15, 2003

Given her incredibly slow pace of delivery (joke, pause, repeat, pause, explain, pause, repeat joke again, pause) that's a years material in the space of a week. I think I actually prefer her writing to her act (which admittedly I've only caught on tape).

Oh, and Steven Wright should definately have a blog.
posted by inpHilltr8r at 8:11 PM on October 15, 2003

I dunno, it's not bad writing ...


Actually, it is bad writing.
posted by Ayn Marx at 10:34 PM on October 15, 2003

I love Margaret Cho, but I hate her weblog.

Not even the writing, mind you... but the weblog itself. It's a handcoded monstrosity that looks like a weblog, but doesn't function like one. No permalinks. No commenting. No RSS feed. Gah.

If you want people to read what you have to say, make it easy for them to do so. Make it easy for them to link to what you have to say. Interact with your fans, even...

It's all about the flow, Cho.
posted by insomnia_lj at 2:29 AM on October 16, 2003

I think I pretty much agree with t r a c y, whom, I think, is defending every blogger's right to blog as they wish, despite the fact that most of it bores her.

As a "Margaret Cho production", this would interest me if there were a great deal more self-editing going on. As just another blog, it's like many others - of particular interest to some, but unpolished and self-indulgent, which can be seen either as the charm or the curse of self-publishing. For myself, it takes something rather spectacular (or some sort of very specific personal interest) to induce me to read long stretches of text rendered in tiny, unscalable type.
posted by taz at 3:16 AM on October 16, 2003

when she talks about the Nazi Wine (since that's been tossed out there), why not give us some facts, not a summary of what you heard in the cafe' or on NPR?

Cho's a comedian, and her blog isn't intended to be a news source; it follows the mold of personal blogs (she probably found out about weblogging from the kids she works with) more than self consciously journalistic ones.

tiny, unscalable type

Get Mozilla/Firebird (there's a new version out today).
posted by Tlogmer at 4:31 AM on October 16, 2003

hey! That's cool, Tlogmer - I didn't know about that.
posted by taz at 5:59 AM on October 16, 2003

It's a handcoded monstrosity that looks like a weblog, but doesn't function like one. No permalinks. No commenting. No RSS feed. Gah.

Blogging has rules?

Those that make petty criticisms about her blog (the font, the editing) are seriously missing the point of what she's saying in her blog.

I just saw her in NYC the other day. It's the stuff she says in between the jokes that resonates with me for weeks.
posted by archimago at 6:00 AM on October 16, 2003

What Comic/Comedian/Humorist Would YOU Like to See Get a Blog?

Now that my g/f no longer has cable, Jon Stewart and Lewis Black. Eddie Izzard might do a cool history blog. Learn us USians a thing or two.
posted by Ufez Jones at 6:03 AM on October 16, 2003

After reading through this thread, I'm reminded of a conclusion I came to some years ago. I used to want celebrities join those of us who were "journalling" aka "personal narrative" or being "diarists" or *insert your favorite pre-blogging meme here* because I stupidly thought that a few big names in the mix would legitimize the practice of online diaries and bring us into the mainstream, but then I realized how harsh people who weren't famous were being to one another. Except for a selective, cliquish few, the majority of participants in pre-blogging chronicling chose to put one another down. I guess the theory was by saying how terrible everyone else was, it'd make your webspace look better by proxy, when in the fact the opposite was true.

It's good to see some things never change. *smirk*

Margaret Cho is a bit late to the party, but it's wrong to insult her efforts like this. At least she has the courage to put her ass out there to get spanked. Most others in her line of work prefer to have levels of marketing and publicists and agents and editors and hangers on.. yeah it's rough and crass, but Cho's unloading herself into her blog without any pretense or filtering.

Y'all want her to edit herself? Perhaps we'd all be better off with a PR department and a handful of lawyers scrubbing our posts here in MeFi prior to hitting the Post button. Personally I think that's the coward's way. Raw and undiluted and naturally appealing in spite of itself. That's a good blog. You either like Cho or ya don't, but either way you gotta admire her spunk.

"What Comic/Comedian/Humorist Would YOU Like to See Get a Blog?"

Janeane Garofalo. As political and crass and in-your-face and Garofaloly as she dares be. The sooner the better.
posted by ZachsMind at 7:25 AM on October 16, 2003

I second the calls for a Stephen Wright blog. And Bob Newhart. Ah, that would be great.

This blog, though, is not for me. Bitter much, Margaret? Not my cup of tea.
posted by widdershins at 8:17 AM on October 16, 2003

Eddie Izzard has no blog, but he does make regular appearances on his site's Blather forum.
posted by grabbingsand at 8:48 AM on October 16, 2003

Janeane Garofalo. As political and crass and in-your-face and Garofaloly as she dares be. The sooner the better.

With lots and lots of nudity.
posted by jonmc at 9:05 AM on October 16, 2003

Stephen Wright and Janeane definitely should...and Steve Martin, and Emo Phillips (if he's still alive)

margaret's been busy--High Class Cho--her clothing line
posted by amberglow at 9:23 AM on October 16, 2003

And here I was thinking I was the only person on the planet who couldn't understand her getting so famous being so not funny.

Also, I gotta second jonmc's idea for a Garofalo blog...but I'd look forward to it even without the nudity ;-)
posted by ctp at 9:46 PM on October 16, 2003

ctp: Garofalo was Zach's idea. The nudity, natch, was jonmc's. I'd throw Jack Handey out there, as I think he's a funnier writer than Steven Wright, but I don't know if he'd really have that much to say.

I never cared for Cho's presentation - it seemed like she was trying to out-Roseanne Roseanne in the look-how-crass-and-annoying-I-can-be department. The blog, which I've been following off and on since Atrios started flogging her, is an improvement.

HOWEVER: I second the calls for editing. Not because any given sentence needs editing - the writing is fine, no matter what Ayn thinks (Ayn - now there's a standard of fine writing!) but because every entry is about twice as long as it needs to be! Pubic hair is a fine topic to rant about, but how about ONE entry on removing public hair, and ANOTHER one on adding it? That sort of thing. I usually really enjoy the first paragraph or two of each entry, then I get exhausted and start scrolling, saying, how damn long is this gonna go on? While there are no hard-and-fast rules in blogging, that aspect seems to go directly counter to the whole premise of a blog.
posted by soyjoy at 7:10 AM on October 17, 2003