Hot 97 Miss-Fires With Tsunami Joke
http://www.villagevoice.com/


Hot 97 is eating crow over a song that aired last week mocking victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.

The song, which infuriated at least one immigrant organization, was sung by some members of the cast of Miss Jones in the Morning. Set to the tune of "We Are the World," the song went like this:

There was a time when the sun was shining bright
So I went down to the beach to catch me a tan
Then the next thing I knew, a wave twenty feet high
Came and washed your country away
And all at once you could hear the screaming chinks
And no one was safe from the wave
There were Africans drowning, little Chinamen swept away
You could hear God laughing, "Swim, you bitches, swim!"
So now you're screwed, it's the tsunami
You better run or kiss your ass away, go find your mommy
I just saw her float by, a tree went through her head
and now your children will be sold to child slavery

After receiving complaints about the bit, Hot 97 posted a statement on its website that read:

Hot 97 and Miss Jones in the Morning regret the airing of material that made light of a serious and tragic event. We apologize to our listeners and anyone who was offended.
Hot 97 takes pride in its community involvement and in the last few weeks has joined with broadcasters nationwide to raise money for victims of the tsunami. Our relief effort will result in a substantial cash donation.
As an additional sign of HOT 97's commitment to the cause, Miss Jones in the Morning, along with her entire staff, have agreed to contribute one week's pay to Tsunami Relief efforts.

A second statement emailed to reporters Monday said that Miss Jones and Hot 97's program manager, John Dimick, had made on-air apologies earlier in the day.

As incendiary as the song itself was the exchange that preceded it on one of the days it played. As Miss Jones was introducing the song, the morning show's celebrity and gossip reporter, Miss Info, made clear she had not participated in creating the song. This infuriated Miss Jones.

"If you feel that way, why are you even on the show?" she asked, upset that Miss Info has on occasion made a point of being "separate" from the other hosts "Because you're a journalist."

Miss Info said she respected the others' rights to say what they want, but "for me personally, I can't deal with it that way. I can't make fun of it."

That didn't do for Miss Jones, who told Miss Info, "I know you probably feel that you are superior because you're an Asian."

Miss Info insisted Miss Jones had misunderstood her. Miss Jones did not dispute this.

"Misunderstanding? Of course I am," Miss Jones said. Or did she mean "Miss Understanding"?

Click here to hear the exchange and the song
http://students.washington.edu/jeesuk/l ... sunami.mp3

Ok, so not only was that horribly offensive, it wasnt even close to being funny. Atleast when other radio shows do things that can be somewhat offensive, they are atleast FUNNY. I guess that was never explained to them.

Morning DJs are some of the most annoying and unfunny people who have ever lived.

wow, whatever happened to sticking up for free speech?

this morning on stern, guvahna ahnold had some things to say about the tsunami that i couldnt believe anyone would even think, much less say

Add "worthless" to your description, and I'll agree!

All he said was "yes a lot of people died but you didn't know them, so it's ok"

Not that big of a deal.

i dont know if you heard it all, he said something like, there were probably too many people over there and its probably a good thing that it happened. hopefully sterns site is updated tomorrow morning and it will have the transcript on there.

i came in at the ass end of the conversation though, and i thought like they have evil dave, that had evil ahnold

Nobody is against free speech. They are just for criticism.




He is a moron. That's my official critique.

No, I only heard a few minutes of it flipping through stations. Either way, I'm not up in arms.

its not so much im up in arms, i could give two shits what is said most of the time, im just surprised by the sheer stupidity, he should post on this board to fit in

That is so awful! I can't believe what I just read. I'm also shocked to know that many of you think this isn't a big deal.

-Sunny

Thats a joke right?

Kill violence!

Fuck homosexuals!

I'm sure we are all taking this completely out of context and that it was in fact in horribly, ridiculously, bad taste anyway.

--PunkDavid

ok...so close to 200000 persons died during these events. A countless number of people are now homeless and have all the trouble in the world to get the basic needs like food and water....let's make fun of it. There's such a potential for comedy that you can tap in in something like this, anyway. Fucktards, they are....i hope they catch a lot of heat for this.

It is horribly offensive, but people can't really condone someone like Stern or Opie and Anthony and attack these morons. Most of their best material is making fun of midgits, retards, and crack whores. I don't see a huge difference between making fun of peoples state of living, and making fun the way in which people died. It is all in bad taste.

I think most credible estimates are at over 250,000 dead at this point, that's from the wave and earthquake themselves.

--PunkDavid

Right...so there's no difference between making fun of a midget because he's short and making fun of an innocent lives lost in developing countries because of a natural disaster. You're saying there aren't different levels of bad taste, and there is no line to be crossed? Way to go cowboy.

-Sunny

Maybe you should lighten up a little. No one said they found any of these jokes funny, they just said they weren't outraged by them based on the source.

And for the record, how is making fun of someone with a physical problem alright but making fun of death is not?

You have free speech, but you also have to be aware of possible response to your free speech.

The DJ's and programming director should be fired immediately for even considering airing it. There's absolutely nothing funny about this.