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Sarah Silverman: comic genius or Ann Coulter clone?

In the spirit of full disclosure: I love Sarah Silverman.

She’s hot, she’s brilliant and she makes me laugh — even when I feel a tinge of guilt about it.

Take this season’s first episode of The Sarah Silverman Program. In the first few minutes, she meets two women she mistakes for “angry lesbians.” When the women explain they have husbands, Sarah responds, “Oh. Were you styled by angry lesbians?”

That was my first of many giggles during the show.

But not everyone appreciates scenes like this one near the end of the episode, in which Sarah wistfully recalls her three abortions.

Is Silverman saying that abortion is funny, or is she making fun of women who have abortions? Of course not. As a recent article in The Nation points out, “she’s making fun of the ridiculous image Operation Rescue has of the prochoice movement.” Via the absurd reminiscence of a woman who loves abortion, the scene brilliantly cuts through the rhetoric of anti-abortion groups who insist on focusing on abortion instead of choice. Satire, people.

What happens if you just don’t get it? Like this post from Snarkmarket, you end up comparing Silverman to Ann Coulter. Seriously.

“Sarah Silverman and Ann Coulter share an obvious similarity: they each make a rather nice living saying things that would be unspeakable if they were not attractive Caucasian women, veiling their statements beneath a gossamer cloak of irony. I’m kind of tying my brain in knots trying to figure out whether they don’t actually share the exact same appeal for our culture.”

Huh? Satire and bigotry are the same? The internets are nothing if not educational. (And, as fellow blogger Jamie Lynn noted, Silverman will be glad to learn she’s an “attractive Caucasian woman.”)

But even some Silverman fans think she’s gone too far recently. The aformentioned Nation piece goes on to say that the abortion scene is “so flip … it actually feels dangerous, not provocative.” Many commenters say that with the abortion episode, as well as her jokes about Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, Silverman has crossed the line.

I’ve already revealed my bias. And in last week’s interview with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air, Silverman won my heart forever. Gross — a huge fan — asked her about having the word “vagina” in every episode. Silverman replied, “It’s like the mouse in Goodnight Moon — it’s on every page.” Goodnight, vagina.

Does Sarah Silverman have your heart? Or has she crossed the line from ironic to just plain mean?

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