Logo

The Insider: SpectacularLee Funny

Nov 2, 2008  •  Post A Comment

Debra L. Lee can take a joke. And the BET Networks CEO can deliver one, too.
You may or may not agree with The Insider that it’s just funny—and not in a ha-ha way—that of the 25 recipients of the Frank Stanton Award from the Center for Communication, she is only the second woman to have had a chance to prove that they’re up to the roasting that goes with the honor. The first woman was Katherine Graham, the steel magnolia who ran the Washington Post Co., and that was waaaaaaaay back in 1987.

Debra Lee and Philippe Dauman

GOOD SPORT Debra Lee was feted—and roasted—by Philippe Dauman, right, and others as this year’s recipient of the Frank Stanton Award.

Dudes!!! It’s 200-effing-8.
But that’s a rant for another time, perhaps one best written for posthumous publication.
The subject today is how uproariously, surgically, knowingly and, yes, elegantly, a two-fer gender barrier was breached last week.
The unspoken question of whether it could be done in the style that has come to be expected when the august Center members gather annually to let down what’s left of their hair—to make a roasty joke not written by well-compensated professional comedy scribes—was first broached by Abbe Raven. Ms. Raven told how she and Ms. Lee became friends because of a story Ms. Lee had told on herself about meeting her big boss with evidence of her new motherhood on the front of her blouse.
The president and CEO of A&E Television Networks kicked off the program by saying, “I have been asked to say this: It is a roast.”
In other words, no one was going to tiptoe around anything so delicately that the crowd who braved the nasty weather and bought pricy tables would not be entertained.
Enter Viacom President-CEO Philippe Dauman, who immediately made all delicate territory fair game by “confessing” that when he’d been asked to talk about a trailblazing woman of color, he thought: “Wow, I finally get to meet Oprah.”
Mr. Dauman’s comedy centerpiece was a mock annual review of Ms. Lee, also a Viacom executive, that included her alleged proposal for a guest spot on “Hell Date” for soon-to-be-single-again, but already-involved-if-we-are-to-believe-gossip-pages Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone as a guest; and a reality show about the capture of Osama bin-Laden (“Tick Frickin’ Tock”).
MTV Networks Chairman-CEO Judy McGrath deployed a snarky “Dora the Explorer” clip and got in a couple of jabs at GOP veep candidate Sarah Palin, including pointing out that spending $150,000 on clothes is “just a summer Friday” for Ms. Lee.
Time Warner Chairman Dick Parsons drew a Barack/Barry Obama parallel as he recalled when Phil-eep Doe-mann was known as Phil Dowman, and then declared Mr. Redstone so old “he thinks Morse code is new media.”
“This is called collateral damage, bro,” he said to the ranking Viacom representative in the ballroom of the Pierre.
Mr. Parsons also mused about the possible BET-ization of some stars of Time Warner’s sprawling library. Instead of Campbell Brown’s “No Bull, No Bias,” why not Foxy Brown’s “No Justice, No Peace”? Instead of Yosemite Sam, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, why not Yo’ Sam, Notorious B.U.G. and P-Daffy?
Ms. Lee, dressed in soft coral Dior from her top to her toes, mimicked Ms. McGrath not quite rockin’ out at a Chicago concert, suggested to Mr. Dauman that his annual review was “gonna be rougher,” and described Mr. Parsons as “the man who put the ‘brother’ in Warner Bros.”
She noted that she was being honored a week before the election, “I hope,” of the first black president and the end of white male presidents, “because you know what they say….” The audience roared as it filled in the blank: “Once you go black, you never go back.”
“I, for one, can’t wait to see Bill O’Reilly wearing platinum grills,” she said. “Mark my words, next season the characters on ‘Mad Men’ will be switching to menthol.”
The mockumentary, “DefiniteLee,” about her real and so-called life, created “the even Blacker Panthers,” “Womandingo” and an appropriately placed tattoo reading “George Wallace can kiss me here.”
The glass-ceilinged world as so many folk have known and perpetuated it didn’t end, but the ever more considerable cracks in it widened.
Ms. Lee took that opportunity to say, “We need new and different faces with different points of view.”
And there was one less elephant in the room.

65 Comments

  1. Hi, excellent article, I thouroughly enjoyed reading it. This blog gave me the push to try my own article, please see my article by clicking my name at the top of this comment, Many thanks

  2. Thanks for your visiting this http://www.glamour-watch.com/replica-pen online store.

  3. Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers,

  4. Great overall performance by Jennifer Gray upon “Dancing with the Stars”! Psychological second whenever talking about Patrick Swayze! We all miss him!

  5. Ice hockey is an interesting exercise, I like it.

  6. I agree with the OP comments.check out my blog http://weggcash.com

  7. Sorry for the huge review, but I’m really loving the new Zune, and hope this, as well as the excellent reviews some other people have written, will help you decide if it’s the right choice for you.

  8. Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care and see you soon

  9. This is the best blog I’ve ever seen in my life! I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to share your this with everyone.

  10. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  11. Wow!!- Mel cheating on his mistress. Who’d a suspected it? Just do not go reproducing any more Mel. You have eight children, sufficient. And look what is going to be bringing up your 9th infant – a dingbat.

  12. I cant believe the NHL is going to risk losing one of the best players in his prime to the nHL

  13. Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care and see you soon

  14. Great blog!! You should start many more. I love all the info provided. I will stay tuned 🙂

  15. Great wordpress blog here.. It’s hard to find quality writing like yours these days. I really appreciate people like you! take care and see you soon

  16. I agree with your blog as well as I will be back to examine this more in the future so please keep up your projects. I really like your content & the way that you are writing.

  17. Dreamin. I love blogging. You all express your feelings the right way, because they are your feeling, focus on your blog it is great.

  18. This is the best blog I’ve ever seen in my life! I really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to share your this with everyone.

  19. I love the expression. Everyone needs to express there own opinion and feel free to hear others. Keep it up 🙂

  20. Interesting layout on your blog. I really enjoyed reading it and also I will be back to read more in the future.

  21. I saw something regarding this on TV last night. Thanks for the more in-depth explanation

  22. Nice!! Great Ifo. Great People. Great Blog. Thank you for all the great sharing that is being done here.

  23. Great blog!! You should start many more. I love all the info provided. I will stay tuned 🙂

  24. Hehe, u cant be serious??

  25. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  26. High quality info here! Keep up the great work. I love the feelings being expressed.

  27. Way to focus and straight to your point, i love it. Keep up the work people. Dont let anyone stop us bloggers.

  28. great!

  29. great!

  30. Dreamin. I love blogging. You all express your feelings the right way, because they are your feeling, focus on your blog it is great.

  31. nice information its usefulness and significance is overwhelming the way you covered all the basic necessary information is really impressive good work

  32. I love your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you create this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply back as I’m looking to create my own blog and would like to know wheere u got this from. thanks

  33. I really like the colors here on your blog. did you design this yourself or did you outsource it to a professional?

  34. Interesting thoughts here. I appreciate you taking the time to share them with us all. It’s people like you that make my day 🙂

  35. Love the blog here. Nice colors. I am definitely staying tuned to this one. Hope to see more.

  36. Way to focus and straight to your point, i love it. Keep up the work people. Dont let anyone stop us bloggers.

  37. Hi I really thought about the update, good info, Is RSS still not working. . .? It’s not showing up in the browser . Well, thanks again.
    http://www.cheatwatch.info – Catch the Cheating Scum!

  38. Way to focus and straight to your point, i love it. Keep up the work people. Dont let anyone stop us bloggers.

  39. I would like to start my own blog one day. This was a really nice blog that you made here. Keep up the success 😛

  40. I’ve signed up for your RSS feed after reading this piece! Could you put up more on this topic in future articles?

  41. You make blogging look like a walk in the park! I’ve been trying to blog daily but I just cant find writing material.. you’re an inspiration to me and i’m sure many others!

  42. Interesting layout on your blog. I really enjoyed reading it and also I will be back to read more in the future.

  43. I like your blog.

  44. I love the expression. Everyone needs to express there own opinion and feel free to hear others. Keep it up 🙂

  45. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  46. I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.

  47. Hi, I just wanted to let you all know that there is a project being conducted at Harvard trying to compile the most effective arguments for and against Wikileaks. I think it’s a brilliant idea and would be an interesting read for many of you. http://www.voteonwikileaks.com

  48. I like your blog.

  49. Kudos to you! This is a really good blog here and I love your style of writing. How did you get so good at blogging?

  50. You make blogging look like a walk in the park! I’ve been trying to blog daily but I just cant find writing material.. you’re an inspiration to me and i’m sure many others!

  51. Keep focusing on your blog. I love how we can all express our feelings. This is an extremely nice blog here 🙂

  52. Love all the opinions expressed here! How is everyone? Love how everyone expresses whatr they feel 🙂

  53. I love the way you write and also the theme on your blog. Did you code this yourself or was it done by a professional? I’m very very impressed.

  54. This is good info! Where else can if ind out more?? Who runs this joint too? Keep up the good work 🙂

  55. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.. 🙂

  56. I am glad to find so many valuable information at this time within the article, we require enlarge additional techniques in this regard, thanks for sharing

  57. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  58. I agree with your thoughts here and I really love your blog! I’ve bookmarked it so that I can come back & read more in the future.

  59. Amazing freakin blog here. I almost cried while reading it!

  60. Neat blog layout! Very easy on the eyes.. i like the colors you picked out

  61. you ought to publish far more often?-

  62. Thought I would comment and say cool theme, did you build it on your individual? It truly is really really beneficial!

  63. Nice blog here! Also your website loads up fast! What host are you using? I wish my website loaded up as fast as yours lol

  64. I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also with the layout on your blog. Is this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Either way keep up the nice quality writing, it’s rare to see a nice blog like this one these days.. 🙂

  65. Does anyone know where My wife and i might get an grown-up size Dora the Explorer outfit? Our little girl will be having a birthday party and my spouse and Myself want to provide her a surprise.

Leave a Reply to Get Backlinks Cancel Reply

Email (will not be published)