LGBT News!
Female comedian Lisa Lampanelli vs. Westboro Baptist Church?
[May 23]
Lisa Lampanelli is a high-profile insult comic often referred to as the Queen of Mean. As the female version of an Andrew Dice Clay, Lampanelli is known for her acerbic wit and comedic insults. She’s even been accused of hate speech — but only claims to really attack people in jest. Challenging Lisa Lampanelli to a battle of wit and words would leave any human being battered and torn by the sticks and stones fight. Regularly lampooning herself and famous Hollywood A – List to D – List star celebs alike, she elicits laughs more in spite of her comedic wit (based on the Oh No She Didn’t Just Say That factor than for any other reason). She is often the meanest person at the Comedy Central Roasts, with perhaps her most memorable remarks made about green celebrity Pamela Anderson (an animal rights advocate). Because she is so crass, Lisa Lampanelli is not a celebrity for the faint of heart to follow as a fan. She is also not a woman known for taking #@%* from anybody — especially when she’s verbally criticized by stupid people who laugh last because they truly are not bright enough to catch 99% of the wicked humor in her jokes. For example, when Lampanelli was to play a live comedy show in Topeka, Kansas on Friday, May 20, 2011 and heard that she would be protested by the infamous Westboro Baptist Church (religious zealot homophobics based in the same city), she decided to play a little joke on them as well as the crowd by really electing to donate cash to a LGBT charity every time they hurled an insult.
So why would the West Baptist Church attack or protest against Lisa Lampinelli doing live stand up comedy?
Lampanelli heard that Westboro planned to protest her work as a comedian [as the bigot backed church is well-known for doing], because Lampanelli has been an outspoken advocate for gay rights. Yep — love the gays, and the Baptists will threaten to smite.
But the LGBT friendly Queen of Mean often pokes fun at her own sexuality as well. And, as a good sport at comedy roasts she took the West Baptist Church protest threats in stride. Her way to turn that forwn upside down? By vowing to appear and perfrom live on stage that night no matter what. To multiply the impact of her vow to make sure the show must go on, she turned the debacle into a publicity coup for the LGBT crowd by playing green celebrity and announcing that for every protester she counted at her show, she would personally donate $1,000 to Gay Men’s Health Crisis. As the world’s largest center for AIDS treatment and prevention (according to TMZ), her donation is both much-needed and a nasty slap in the fact to any protestor who appeared — as actually protesting the show would help do the gay community some very real good.
Not one to miss an opportunity for a good insult, Lisa Lampanelli told TMZ:
“It’s gonna be hilarious to write out the checks to the GMHC and have them send thank you notes to the WBC for their ‘generous contributions.'”
“I’d love to see their inbred faces when they open those thank you notes! Hopefully their jaws will drop so fast that their three remaining teeth and cro-magnon foreheads will plummet to the floor.”
To date, she already has raised $50,000 for the organization, the Inquistr reports:
So, how did it go? Well, 48 “inbred” protesters showed their faces at Lampanelli’s gig, and the comedienne decided to make the donation an even $50K. She’s going to present the check Monday directly to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, confirmed on her Twitter account. Lampanelli and attendees counter-chanted at the fire-and-brimstone protesters, shouting, “we’re here! We’re queer! We take it in the rear!”
Westboro Baptist protesters, spreading their message of hate — literally, with signs like “GOD HATES FAGS” and “GOD HATES LISA” — plan to threaten and intimidate backfired this time. Instead of merely sparking counter protests, they managed to encourage a green celebrity to do something charitable in their name. It may be the one time hate speech by any person or organized mob with the moral equivalent of pitchforks and burning torches hoping to terrify then lynch a victim turned out to cause something good.