On Wednesday night, drag queen Jackie Beat tweeted: “I’ll admit Madonna’s new song is catchy…But so is AIDS.”
Some who follow Beat’s feed or saw the tweet on her Facebook page, voiced their fury:
*“Sorry but comparing a Madonna song to AIDS is nothing short of disgusting! Shame on you Jackie Beat!”
*“Yeah when two of my best friends died a long painful death from AIDS. Hearing it in a joke doesn’t sit well…sounds like something Rush Limbaugh would say.”
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Others found the joke amusing. (Some 99 people “liked” it on Facebook):
*”Just when I’d forgotten why I love you so much, you go and post something like this.”
*”Don’t be so serious people! Life is meant to be enjoyed and laughed at.”
Beat replied to her detractors:
“Go tell it to a Jew who makes Holocaust jokes or Black comic who uses the word “nigger”…If a 48 year-old faggot drag queen cannot make an AIDS joke then who the fuck can? Let me guess… NO ONE? Go watch “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work” and get back to me.”
What do you think? Was Beat’s joke funny or foul? Let ‘er rip in the comments!
Check out Jackie Beat’s routine, Mascara Mondays, yourself Monday night in WeHo
Image by Austin Young via Jackie Beat Facebook
brian
I am involved in AIDS activism and am a fairly sensitive person, but I LOVE JACKIE BEAT. Why have homosexuals lost their sense of irreverence and humor? Oh yeah, we’re trying to be “tolerated.” FUCK THAT. LONG LIVE THE BEAT.
Anchor baby
I have lost a couple great friends to AIDS and even they would have found the joke funny. I always wear a condom and practice safe sex to protect myself from AIDS, now if someone would come up with a profilactic
remedy so I can protect myself from Madonnas garbage the world would be. Better place.
SteveC
Team Jackie Beat.
It was a joke. Get over it.
greg
YOU GO GIRL!!! i know Jackie and LOVE her and she is right. Lighten up people…it was a joke with no intention of harm……and it was funny too so there!!!!
BobP
He meant that the song is awful, like AIDS.
Badabum!
It’s not a funny joke (it’s drag queen humor), but it isn’t offensive either.
stevoj
qq, who is jackie beat…
QJ201
Jackie Beat has always made jokes about AIDS as her way nudging people to be safe.
And yes, go watch Joan Rivers: A piece of work. Brilliant.
Ernest
Being a “48 year-old faggot drag queen” does not ENTITLE you to use AIDS as a punch-line for a ‘joke.’
Ya, this is America and you can say what you want, but using a disease to try and get a laugh (and publicity) in a Tweet? Really??? Cheap, lazy, unconscionable.
Angel
Me = HIV+ 20+yrs
Jackie Beats comment = funny
If I can laugh at it, then…
‘nough said.
Miss Understood
What is there to be offended about? AIDS IS catchy! She stated a fact. Big deal.
Trip
Queens need to lighten up.
Mark
I’m not offended, but it really just wasn’t funny in my opinion.
Brandon
So funny, every animated tv show makes AIDS jokes. Who cares! I know tons of POZ people myself included who make POZ jokes. People should look to the lighter side of all situations. I can tell you from experience that hearing a joke about AIDS takes away some of the fear that life as you know it is over.
shannon
ARE YOU STUID QUEENS ONCE AGAIN COMPARING SOME SILLY ASS….ALCOHOLIC DRAG QUEEN TO THE CAPTURE…ENSLAVEMENT….TORTURE….RAPE…..AND MURDER OF PEOPLE?????? THIS WHY PEOPLE REFUSE TO EVEN SUPPORT THE CERTAIN “SEGMENTS” OF THE GAY WORLD! YOU HAVE TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME???? I AM FUCKING INSULTED….
Tom
@shannon: Shannon, sit down and explain your post in something besides all CAPS. It looks like a 12 yr old typed that.
Daniel
it’s called a joke , therefore take it for face value. find it funny or not, but it clearly isn’t meant to be offensive. jackie has been around for a long time and i am sure she has countless number of friends she loves who have AIDS
ajax
@Ernest: Ernest, as a 48-year old faggot drag queen, Jackie lived through the worst times of the AIDS epidemic – the time before there were ANY medical treatments – the time before physicians would treat PWAs – the time when familes abandoned thier sons with AIDS – the time when it was a filthy, de-humanizing, torturous death. I’m sure Jackie did her share of sitting in emergency rooms, only to be thrown into the street, bathing once-beautiful bodies that were ravaged by disease, coaxing someone at Death’s door to laugh just one more time before it all ended.
The fact that she survived, healed, and moved on to the point where she can make a joke of the halocaust she survived ENTITLES her to make a joke.
I envy your ignorance.
MikeE
no one’s laughing because it wasn’t funny.
not because it was about AIDS… although, honestly, she could have used pretty much any other disease instead.. oh right, like the thousands of other people before her who used that “joke”. THAT is why it isn’t funny. it’s just a tired old bitchy-ass whine.
Spike
Good gawd, now drags queens have to be politically correct? What is the gay community coming too? What next, they won’t be allowed to over accessorize?
Wesley Horace
i didn’t find it funny. but i wasn’t offended either.
Curtis
Oh give me a BREAK. Thats not THAT bad.
Probably still a slip up for him though.
How many of you would laugh at that if you heard it at a party from one of your gay friends?
You would prolly kiki over it.
IzzyLuna
I thought it was funny. She’s saying it as a general statement. As a joke. Stop thinking she’s saying it to you personally. Stupid Faggots.
Daniel Henry
Dear Jackie Beat,
Divine called and wants her act back. Congratulations on getting this bit of press.
Doug Kereczman
AIDS is caused by a virus. Viruses don’t have political stance. AIDS is not a queer issue, its a human issue. No one would give a shit is she made a TB joke.
Dale
@Doug Kereczman: *DING* And therein lies what makes it offensive. It wouldn’t have been funney if it’d been TB or Malaria. Bitch singled out AIDS precisely BECAUSE of its unique shock value to her audience. This is an audience which continues to live with and die from AIDS, and she chose to literally pave a road to attention with the bones of her “friends”. When we point out that this is a despicable thing, her supporters say she’s somehow entitled, because she presumably bathed AIDS victims or something. NOW, we’re supposed to act like any rightly deserved criticism is nothing short of hypersensitivity. To add to this ridiculousness, some dyke flipped out because the whole scene was compared to a jew making a holocaust joke, as apparently poz people are the only one’s who DON’T have a right to be angered by their fallen comrades.
Oversensitive? More like meanspirited and cowardly.
BubbasBack
Who? Burp.
Jackie Beat
@shannon: Alcoholic drag queen? Actually, I do not drink.
Paprika Jones
I heard that ho Jackie Beat got a 10 inch dick.
StevoF
@shannon: over 100,000 homosexuals were killed during the holocaust. many man homosexuals have been killed over the years, especially in the south, just for being gay. so yes, we can accept that comparison.
Aaron
Wow what a waste of time reading that, let’s face it, I hear worse coming out of a drag queens mouth while she is slapping some two bit comedy act out over the chatter of the audience, what Jackie beat wrote, was a pun, a one liner, don’t get to precious people, we have all lost someone, your not the only ones, it was funny …..
William
at least she used all caps when speaking about AIDS.
GEAH
Jackie Beat = Funny!
John
The thing I tire most of is that if you ever happen to even slightly disagree with Jackie Beat, she launches into an unnecessarily defensive tirade that smacks of unresolved adolescent issues. Because she writes comedy, she always insists she “knows” comedy and by the time you’re almost 50, if you can’t tolerate a decent discussion or even ‘sit in the room’ to understand why that might be a lazy joke (I’ve heard people use that ‘catchy’ line for 20 years now) then people eventually can’t take you seriously. Her tweets and facebook page are a curious mixture of pictures of her non-drag self that beg for compliments, media criticism issued as infallible pronouncements, and genuinely observant, compassionate insights. It’s the latter that I actually treasure her for, and I guess I’m in the minority, because more people want to reward her for diarrhea jokes onstage. The thing about Jackie Beat is she once seemed capable, and still seems capable of so much more…why she settles for lazy jokes and “queen on high” throne banishments from her kingdom are her three-inch high achilles heels.
Christine Radtke
Hi–
First of all…I find Jackie Beat to be funny and relevant. There are going to be people that liked the joke and those that are maybe more sensitive or have to many bad memories of the wonderful people we have lost along the way to find the joke funny.
Everyone here is right! All of you that laughed and all of you that found it in poor taste. You are all correct in how you feel. I would remind you that we all have things in common. We hate the disease and we are tired. We all react differently to tragedy and stress. It can really only be classified as malice if there was intent. I don’t believe that. We have all lived with this loss and terrible disease for so long that we are really tired of losing good people.
It was a joke. Was it the best one? Maybe not. But there are people who are living with HIV and AIDS that laughed and found humor. We all respond so differently. But instead of being cruel or saying hurtful things. We need to remember that none of us is perfect and we have all made mistakes. Was this one? I don’t know. It’s all about perspective. I have lost friends that would have loved a good AIDS joke.
In the end we have to hold onto the things that have kept us strong through all of this tragedy and adversity. Love, Hope and especially Forgiveness.
Sean Kay
People need to lighten up. I’ve lost family and friends to AIDS. I have family and friends who are Living with HIV currently. I still think Jackie is amazing.
What I’m most shocked about is that she’s 48
BetterThanYou
First of all, let’s get one thing straight. Jackie Beat is a wonderfully accomplished entertainer; writer, actor, comic, singer… the list goes on. Jackie Beat doesn’t need to steal her act from anyone because Jackie Beat’s show is fresh and new and a delight. If you notice something similar in La Beat’s act to another act you’ve enjoyed sometime in the past, chalk it up to a case of “great minds think alike.” Unless of course you’re suggesting that any time any drag queen references AIDS, it’s a blatant rip-off of Divine. You can chalk THAT up to a case of “you’re a total moron.”
Jackie Beat is one of the warmest, most personable people it has ever been my pleasure to meet. That anyone here can suggest that Jackie doesn’t care about the gay community andis insensitive to our struggles neither knows or properly understands Jackie Beat, or indeed the gay community in general.
BetterThanYou
First of all, let’s get one thing straight. Jackie Beat is a wonderfully accomplished entertainer; writer, actor, comic, singer… the list goes on. Jackie Beat doesn’t need to steal her act from anyone because Jackie Beat’s show is fresh and new and a delight. If you notice something similar in La Beat’s act to another act you’ve enjoyed sometime in the past, chalk it up to a case of “great minds think alike.” Unless of course you’re suggesting that any time any drag queen references AIDS, it’s a blatant rip-off of Divine. You can chalk THAT up to a case of “you’re a total moron.”
Jackie Beat is one of the warmest, most personable people it has ever been my pleasure to meet. That anyone here can suggest that Jackie doesn’t care about the gay community and is insensitive to our struggles neither knows or properly understands Jackie Beat, or indeed the gay community in general.
Fredster
Jackie has always had a dark sense of humor. But never have I heard hear say or perform a song that wasn’t damn funny and made you think all in the same moment. She really doesn’t have a mean bone in her body and she puts it out there, If you’re uncomfortable, you may want to ask yourself why.