re: #198 Flyovercountry

2. The concept of magic tricks is a tough one for really young children. After your well thought out explanation, they would only be more frightened of the man who can now magically kill frogs.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

Fine, let me amend my recommendation: After being clued in to the fact that it was just a fake frog because Beck made this point twice immediately after the “skit,” a parent could explain to a child that it was “special effects” or “a magic trick,” or that it was “only a toy frog,” as age-appropriate for the child in question.

Would this thread even exist if the frog stunt had been done by someone who wasn’t a well-established asshole, like Beck? I think that a lot of people are letting their (quite understandable) distaste for Beck color their reactions to what they would otherwise see as an essentially innocuous bit of tasteless humor on TV. And the outrage over the “frog killing” has distracted some people from criticizing Beck’s implied and over-the-top accusation that Obama is boiling us all alive — which I believe was the entire point of the skit, and that’s the thing that Beck ought to be attacked for.