Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/29/garrison-keillor-fired-over-al.html
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I thought this was a joke - I didn’t know he even had a job any more. How disappointing.
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OK, now he’s clearly just trying to pitch his story for the next season of Serial.
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I guess we truly are living in a Dennis Lehane novel.
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Oh dear. This quote didn’t age well.
He is also one of the few prominent figures who stood up for Al Franken after the grope photo/kissing allegations came to light.
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From the Matt Lauer thread:
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I found the smoking gun.
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I pretty much never listened.
To me he always seemed condescending of the characters that he portrayed in his bits.
My cousin said years ago that he was quite salacious, particularly in song.
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Oh dear, I hope Stuart McLean at least is clean (I much prefer the Vinyl Cafe to PHC).
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frauenfelder, Do you know anything about Garrison Keillor except what you have read in the last few minutes? Some is an asshole and IMO it is not Garrison Keillor.
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Please, enlighten us.
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A couple interesting quotes from Keillor. What a jackass:
“If I had a dollar for every woman who asked to take a selfie with me and who slipped an arm around me and let it drift down below the beltline, I’d have at least a hundred dollars."
“Getting fired is a real distinction in broadcasting and I’ve waited fifty years for the honor. All of my heroes got fired. I only wish it could’ve been for something more heroic."
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Jesus, that’s upsetting.
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I can’t help but read this as hinting that the allegations are coming from Lindsay Lohan. I swear he was creeping on her in the Prairie Home movie:
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Along those lines, Harry Shearer did a(nother) Keillor send-up on Le Show a couple of weeks ago.
Presumably Shearer is going to have a field day with this one.
That’s weird, because it was several years after I’d heard of PHC before I knew he was also a singer, and (until today) the only context in which I knew of him singing was in a gospel group, with Chet Atkins accompanying on guitar. (This was for Austin City Limits… I had a spot in the audience, but came down with the flu and missed it; I did end up with Atkins’ autograph which I still have somewhere).
At the same time, I’ve long imagined what Keillor would sound like intoning filthy, obscene poetry and so, in that sense, this revelation does not surprise me. (But then, the POTUS is an insecure game show host, so now nothing, or very little, surprises me.)
Welcome the BB comment site. Enjoy your stay.
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Garrison Keillor touched a woman on her back years ago and apogized for it. You guys set the bar pretty high.
I listened to his show for 25 years, seen him live several times, and read his columns. Calling him an asshole or a jackass shows you know nothing about him. There is not much I can to to defend him against people that rush to judgement.
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I’m sorry to hear this. That’s disappointing. I’ve been a long, long, long-time fan of his show. A Prairie Home Companion was a good show when he was its host. (I haven’t really listened to it since Chris Thile took over.)
P.S. to Mark: If I had to choose between BoingBoing and weekly A Prairie Home Companion shows when Garrison was its host, the choice would definitely be APHC. A chacun son goût.
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I’d link to audio, but with a firing comes a hollowing of the website. :cry
(GK: Garrison Keillor, TR: Tim Russell, SS: Sue Scott, TK: Tom Keith)
…brought to you by the English Majors of America.
(ORGAN STING)
GK: It’s the question that a married man has come to dread.
SS: Notice anything different about me?
GK: There are so many possible answers and you want to get the right one.
SS: Notice anything? (MUSIC UNDER, SUSPENSE)
GK: You don’t want to say, “You got a haircut,” if the correct answer is----
SS: I’ve been gone for the past three weeks. I was in the hospital. My left leg has been amputated. I lost my hair.
GK: On the other hand, you don’t want to stall for time and hem and haw if the answer is something pretty obvious.
SS: I lost a hundred pounds and I’m buck naked and I’m covered with corn oil.
GK: So most men, when their wives ask----
SS: Notice anything different about me?
GK: We say, Excuse me, Be right back, I think I hear that raccoon in the backyard (FAST FOOTSTEPS, DOOR OPEN, CLOSE) and we go around back and look in through the kitchen window at her----- and study her----- Looks about the same. Hair. Blouse. Sweater. I’ve seen those before. Hasn’t lost weight. Well, I guess I’ll just try the old English major ploy. (FAST FOOTSTEPS ON GRAVEL. DOOR OPEN, CLOSE. FAST FOOTSTEPS.) Okay. No signs of the raccoon. What were you asking me a minute ago, honey?
SS: You notice anything different about me?
GK: Yes. Your face. It’s absolutely luminous. One could even say, refulgent.
SS: Refulgent?
GK: Shining. With a luminosity from within.
SS: Well, how sweet. You really think so?
GK: I know so. Those filigrees of brunette hair curving onto your alabaster brow, your radiant eyes, your sable lashes like pendant finials, your swanlike neck and your voluptuous yet lissome figure under that diaphanous blouse, and most of all, your luminous refulgence. That’s what’s different about you.
SS: Wow.
GK: What did you think was different about you?
SS: I was only wondering if you noticed that I had my lower lip pierced and a large wooden disc inserted in it.
GK: Compared to your luminous refulgence, I don’t think that the disc in your lip is that important somehow.
SS: Wow. What a guy.
GK: Only an English major knows the words she wants to hear. Words like luminous. And refulgent.
SS: You’re pretty refulgent yourself, big boy.
GK: A message from the English Majors of America.
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I haven’t called him any names.
In his own words, that’s not the story.
And as I noted, if this was a non-issue – Keillor touching a woman’s back – his employer wouldn’t be utterly destroying their cash cow to distance themselves from him. The real story, I feel, hasn’t come out yet. I’ve enjoyed his work for many years and grew up with Prairie Home Companion; that doesn’t mean he hasn’t done things worse than have been reported thus far.
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