Glee and Sarah Palin

I don't watch the new television series Glee, but after what happened this week I might just have to start.

Conservatives have got their panties in a bunch over what was essentially a throw-away line on last Tuesday's episode.

A woman who is apparently the cheer squad coach is talking to a couple of her cheerleaders and says, "You may be two of the stupidest teens I've ever encountered. And that's saying something. I once taught a cheerleading seminar to a young Sarah Palin."

And that was it. So naturally what does the wingnuttery do? It goes batshit crazy over it.

Crooks and Liars has the show clip along with some comments on it from LA Times columnist Patrick Goldstein:

Glee" was already in hot water with the right wing, since the show's creator, Ryan Murphy, had in previous episodes made fun of abstinence education and, as Newsbusters puts it, "tried to normalize teen homosexuality." Apparently on the right, treating gay kids as regular folks, instead of as scary deviants, is cause for alarm.
Not to be outdone, over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood website, John Nolte has also weighed in with his usual light touch, claiming that the Palin gag was part of a concerted liberal effort to mesmerize your children with lefty propaganda. Here's his not-quite-so-entirely levelheaded take:
    "Glee" is millions of dollars of sound and fury aimed squarely at your children. And as we can now see, the creators are all about getting between you and your kids with their political and social agendas. They know Palin is a growing political force and nothing's off the table when it comes to marginalizing her -- even at the expense of their own show's entertainment value -- even at the expense of audience share.

Sarah Palin, the rightwing's gift that keeps on giving.