Being offensive... A humorous challenge...

My online support for the recent Hosemaster post has engendered a lot of chatter. Here’s my take on the fallout.

1. A lot of people (to judge by the retweets, traffic to the Hosemaster and my sites, and comments) loved it. (Those same people will almost certainly also enjoy his current offering on Timatkin.com in which he refers to penis enlargement, Riedel bongs and Jancis Robinson, but not in the same paragraph)
2. A vociferous minority absolutely hated it, finding its tone vulgar, angry and aggressive (all of which I’m sure will delight Ron Washam AKA Hosemaster). One person in particular found it "cruel" which left me wondering about the scale he was using and where toughly teasing bloggers stands in comparison to, say, waterboarding. (I'd recommend these same people not to look at the post referred to in 1.)
3. A number of people (principally bloggers) seem to think that bloggers are somehow above criticism or attack (a strange likening of bloggers to badgers to which I will, unsurprisingly, return).
   
4. Some people challenged me to be humorous (I already write a whimsical and hopefully smile-raising column on the third Monday of every month for Timatkin.com. I’ll try to do more and better.)
   
5. And this is the one that interests me. No one really addressed Steve Heimoff’s and my point about the earnestness of most online wine writing and videoing. Not one of the people who complained about Hosemaster offered examples of humour they had enjoyed in the vinous blogosphere. (Though some, I admit, did see the absurdity in bloggers criticising other bloggers for criticising other bloggers)

So here's a bit of amusing writing I came across and I'd like to challenge anyone reading this post to suggest some of their own.

In the meantime, in response to all the easily-offended Hosemaster-haters, here's a few classic moments of a 1962 gig by the late great Lenny Bruce. I hope it gives some of them pause for thought.

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