Pitch Patrick’s Plea
The Pitch makes a plea to KC’s creative advertisers to spare us the usual March bombardment of Oirishness:
In the run-up to St. Patrick’s Day, spare our airwaves from the nauseating leprechaun adverts and all those phony Irish accents. We’re not subjected to seeing stereotypical Al Johnsons [sic] dancing on our screens during Black History Month. So why do we have to endure this shamrockery shite that you shovel out every March?
And then there’s the other eleven months.
See the full list of events for St Patrick’s Day in Kansas City
See Also:
• Hoffenpurpenburger Day
• Don’t Say You’re Not American
• Guns, the English, and Americans
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Who the hell is Al Johnson? Howard’s brother?
Maybe, just maybe, the illiterati at The Bitch Weakly meant Al Jolson who, while most certainly a Caucasian (and a Jew, to boot), certainly made his most memorable mark as a singer in blackface in America’s first motion picture with a soundtrack, “The Jazz Singer.”
So let’s just leave Al Johnson out of this, alright?
> So why do we have to endure this shamrockery
> shite that you shovel out every March?
Oh… I don’t know… ignorance of a culture, its
people, and their (actual) customs, maybe?
By the way… it’s Al Jolson, not Johnson.
Have added the sic lads.
Of course the Pitch could’ve been referring to Al ‘Carnival Time’ Johnson - you know, getting caught up in the whole Mardi Gras thing? Ahem.
I agree, ’tis cause for dismay the hokey portrayal of Na Gaeil (the Irish) at this time of year (you do not want to hear my ND rant). Ach i laetheanta m’óige (in my youth), this time of year was one of the few times traditional Irish music was to be readily had. Buíochas le Dia this situation has changed and we/I have much more access to it year round!
(To be relevant to the thread: “ole Al Johnson was a friend o’ mine…”)