The Daffy "Duck Dynasty" Discord

Queens Our City Radio manager, Barbara Sobel, inquired about Duck Dynasty and I posited I thought it was a new series starring Joan Collins as a duck. I mean, imagine Joan, Linda Evans and the late John Forsythe as ducks quacking and preening their feathers in some swank pond if you will. (Not too much of a stretch from the reality of that classic series, actually. It could be fabulous in a weird way!)

Frankly, however, I know better ~ or is it worse? Duck Dynasty is actually a reality tv show I've never watched because it looks like it would make Anna Nicole and the Kardashians look erudite. Plus it's about guys killing ducks in the Louisiana bayou. Not exactly one of my particular interests.

"Is this man simply expressing his beliefs or spewing bigotry?" posed CNN. They explained, "Phil Robertson, the patriarch in A&E's 'Duck Dynasty,' won't be duck calling on air anytime soon. The network suspended him after he made controversial remarks about gays and blacks in a magazine interview."

I think the 67-year-old rustic from the swamps could not realistically be expected to say anything otherwise, frankly. And this came from an interview in GQ (Gentleman's Quarterly)! Honestly, wasn't this a set-up? What does a knowing fashion magazine think a clodhopper is going to say about black people and gays when they ask him?

"It seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man's anus." NO! I'm dumbfounded by that point of view. "That's just me. I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes! You know what I'm saying? But hey, sin: it's not logical, my man. It's just not logical," Robertson was quoted as saying.

"Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men," the interviewee blurted to the press. Sounds like my man has some wild fantasies.

Well, what would you expect a duck hunter to say? I mean, I don't think he's particularly evolved; in fact, Daffy Duck would have a field day with him, I imagine. And, by the way, A&E actually has a reality series about a duck hunter "dynasty"? This is Arts and Entertainment? Who's watching??! The Texas Chainsaw Massacre family? (However, this is a ratings success for A&E, I must say. Scary.)

Reuters wrote that the GQ interview "has sparked a politically charged debate about religion and tolerance while casting doubt on the series' future." The show is now on hiatus. Well, isn't that just ducky?

Sarah Palin tweeted, "Free speech is an endangered species: Those 'intolerants' hatin' & taking on Duck Dynasty patriarch for voicing personal opinion take on us all."

GLAAD took "on us all" by writing, "Phil and his family claim to be Christian, but Phil's lies about an entire community fly in the face of what true Christians believe. He clearly knows nothing about gay people or the majority of Louisianans –- and Americans -- who support legal recognition for loving and committed gay and lesbian couples. Phil's decision to push vile and extreme stereotypes is a stain on A&E and his sponsors who now need to reexamine their ties to someone with such public disdain for LGBT people and families."

Quack quack, I'm a disco duck, duckies!