'WTF': So, that harpy who said Amy Schumer 'inspired' Dylann Roof? Well, guess what ...

Sarah D. | 5:57 PM on July 10, 2015

The answer, it seems, is no.

Earlier this week, the Washington Post published an op-ed suggesting that Amy Schumer’s comedy “‘inspires’ monsters like Dylann Roof.” The WaPo was rightly called out for publishing such crap, but as it turns out, there was a whole other layer to this scorching stupidity.

https://twitter.com/sonnybunch/status/619591996815097856

The op-ed’s co-author, Dr. Stacey Patton, in addition to being a thoroughly nasty person, has also admitted that she basically had no idea what she was talking about when she wrote the piece:

Dr. Patton said a few things that surprised me. For starters, she said she’s not a specialist on comedy or humor. While she does enjoy comedy (she likes George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, the Queens of Comedy, and Bill Maher among others), she told me that watching comedy isn’t something she gets to do often. In fact, before the ‘Schumer issue’ came up, she had never seen Amy Schumer perform stand up, and she had never seen Schumer’s Comedy Central television show. Even more surprising, she said she didn’t watch any of Amy’s performances or shows while writing the article, not even as background for the piece. Her judgement was based on what she read, presumably in The Guardian, which had just published an article accusing Schumer of “having a blind spot for race.”

The Interrobang; Have you ever watched Amy’s television show… in preparation for the article?
Stacey Patton: Nope. Not at all.
The Interrobang: Her stand up set[s]? have you ever watched any of them?
Stacey Patton: Nope. None of them.

Despite seeing the quotes out of context, and without the benefit of knowing anything about Amy’s comedy, she was comfortable making judgements about whether Schumer’s comedy was or wasn’t racist. She also was comfortable deciding whether Schumer’s audience was or wasn’t racially diverse (she characterizes Amy’s following as predominately white), and she was comfortable to conclude that Schumer’s comedy breeds racism in others.