MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell has
accused President Ronald Reagan of telling a gay sex joke 32 years
before Lena Dunham's “first time” ad.
Responding to backlash from
conservatives to Dunham's suggestive ad for the Obama campaign,
O'Donnell called Dunham's spot “the hippest ad in presidential
campaigning.”
“The can't-take-a-joke crowd is, of
course, outraged,” O'Donnell said, a reference to ad's sexual
subtext.
(Related: Lena
Dunham's first time was with a candidate who supports gay marriage.)
That crowd, O'Donnell added, thinks
Reagan – a Democrat turned Republican – is a candidate for
sainthood.
“[W]hen he was running for president,
Ronald Reagan told a double-entendre joke that ingeniously included,
within its overall double-entendre structure, an internal
double-entendre that allows for both straight and gay entendres,”
O'Donnell said before playing a clip of Reagan telling his
gay-straight joke.
“Listen, I know what it's like to
pull the Republican lever for the first time, because I used to be a
Democrat myself. And I can tell you, it only hurts for a minute, and
then you'll feel just great.”
Oh, my,” O'Donnell quipped. “Now,
I don't think we have to decide whether Ronald Reagan intended that
to be a straight or gay entendre. The guy was a Hollywood actor. He
had seen it all. And he knew, there is never, never a joke that has
too many entendres.”
(Watch
the entire segment at Mediaite.com.)