‘Correct’ View of ‘Politically Incorrect’

Was “critic” Don Shirley at the same opening night performance of Jackie Mason’s hit show “Politically Incorrect” that I and others attended (“Jackie Mason Gives Insults a Bad Name,” Calendar, July 20)? A show, I might add, which has been sold out since before the opening.

I was seated right behind O.J. Simpson attorney Robert Shapiro who, despite the humorous and pointed invective directed against him and the “Dream Team,” was nearly in the aisles, consumed with laughter. (What is interesting is that Mason apparently did not know that Shapiro was in the audience when he launched his Shapiro invective.) James Caan, two rows ahead, likewise appeared to join in the rumbling laughter of the audience that erupted spontaneously every few seconds of a two-hour-plus performance. Such luminaries as Gregory Peck, Robert Stack, Suzanne Pleshette, Louis Nye, Charles Durning, Jerry Seinfeld and numerous Hollywood dignitaries were part of the audience that gave Mason a five-minute standing ovation.

Apparently, Shirley was miffed at the comedic convention of Mason first asking if there were any Puerto Ricans in the audience. When no hands were raised, Mason then, as he does with every ethnic group, sparing none, launched a series of jokes about Puerto Ricans. This “sin” offended politically correct Shirley because “ ‘we’ can all feel free to laugh at ‘them’ behind their backs.” Shirley sanctimoniously states that “ethnic jokes become twice as cheap and unsavory when the comic purposefully calls attention to the apparent absence of anyone from the stereotyped ethnic group.” I wasn’t aware that there was a critic’s code of ethics that proscribed reference to absent attendees. Shame on Mason for not assuring that at least a token Puerto Rican was present.

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Shirley also was perturbed over Mason’s shots at President Clinton, a liberal icon, without the concomitant shots against his prospective presidential opponents. And God forbid, Mason did a physical imitation of Janet Reno! That was akin, said “moral ethicist” Shirley, to something you might “expect from Beavis and Butt-head.”

I can only sadly note how truly misinformed Shirley is. Whatever his personal agenda, he has committed the unpardonable sin of giving his readership a false impression of a marvelous comic who sustained an audience with warmth and laughter for over two hours. Mason’s irreverence extended to every group, except unhappy misguided critics. I suggest that the readers see the show and judge for themselves.