A Host On Vice's TV Network Got Mad At A Dick Joke During A Governor's Ball Live Telecast And Went On A Rant Complaining About How Sexist Vice Is
(skip to 9:10 in if the video doesn’t automatically do it)
Gawker – Amidst rain delays and soaked TV equipment, three Viceland employees were brought in front of the cameras to waste time until The Killers performed. The hosts—production assistant Jake Lawson, equipment manager Dan Meyer, and former intern Taji Ameen—were reporting on the giant puddles of water pooling at their feet when shit got real.
“Whose idea is this? It isn’t funny…there’s enough dicks on TV already…I hate this, I’m just gonna say full-on that this is stupid…I can say what I think, I know how to do this…You know, we’ve been struggling with the fact that we’re considered a sexist company because we only have men on TV and now we’re doing dick jokes? This is embarrassing. I don’t think we should even be doing this at all. And if our viewers are too stupid to…you want sincere, honest advice about safety? Why don’t you talk about the fact that we’re standing in water surrounded by electronics.”
Bad look for Vice’s new TV network Viceland (which admittedly I have heard positive things about from people whose opinions I respect, supposedly good “sitting around mindlessly staring at random TV shows” fodder). But this is what happens as we have all of these cable networks where no one is REALLY paying attention. With cord cutting and DVRs and whatever, people are hardly watching live TV any more; some of the shows you hear hyped up all the time are watched by like 40,000 people when they’re first one. So as a result, we now live in a world where Vice has some interns and a behind the scenes producer doing live TV while having no clue what it’s like to be a serious broadcaster or 1) that you probably shouldn’t go on tirades burying your employer on a hot mic and 2) putting a condom on a mic is dumb and not even a funny enough dick joke to be worth the effort. Both are probably lessons you learn on day 1 of Professional Broadcaster Training but with cable basically being Wayne’s World now you’ve got people on TV who just don’t know. I’m not sure if things like this make Viceland more watchable or less but it’s still interesting to see where TV’s gone.
But either way, railing on “dick jokes” seems like a weird hill to die on. If you want to say Vice is sexist for not having more women on their network, alright sure, weird to make that claim as a male host on a show not at all about that, but it’s an opinion. But is there something inherently sexist about guys doing dick jokes? Women get their “I’M SO BASIC” 2016 shtick and have had period jokes since they’ve been allowed to vote but guys can’t keep dick jokes? Are people randomly coming across the channel watching something vacuous like a Governor’s Ball preshow more likely to be entertained by dumb dick jokes or a whiny, doughy internet hipster type complaining about things? Not everything has to be a big dramatic Thing.
PS I live a couple blocks from Vice’s headquarters in Brooklyn and every day that I walk my dogs past it I throw their shit into the trash can they have out in front of the building. A mere fecal drop in the bucket compared to them being a multibillion dollar company more successful than I could ever dream of but I’d like to imagine it evens it out slightly over time. My dogs take decent sized shits.