Over the weekend, Jonah Hill made the regrettable decision to throw a homophobic slur at a paparazzo after getting fed up with the leech following him around all day. According to Hill, the guy had been needling him literally all day, and after letting his temper get the better of him, he urged the guy to “suck my dick, f****t.”
The worst part about this is that in doing so, he fell right into the paparazzo’s trap and probably made the guy a lot of money. All of a sudden, his “Jonah Hill Walking Around” video becomes a “Jonah Hill Caught Using Homophobic Slur” video. If celebrities really want to punish the paparazzi, they should just try to be as boring as possible.
Jonah went on Howard Stern this morning (I recommend a full listen, it was great) and profusely apologized for his lack of judgment, saying that his use of the slur certainly doesn’t reflect his beliefs on homosexuality. It’s important to note that Hill seems to be a pretty avid supporter of gay rights, having spoken out against Russia’s treatment of gays during the Winter Olympics. Given that, what’s with the gay slur?
I think it comes down to the fact the we need some new offensive words. It seems that a lot of people who clearly support gay rights, keep getting sucked into the trap of using a gay slur, and it’s because there aren’t that many other options out there. In some cases, homophobic slurs no longer translate into a hatred of gay people, it’s just become a way to express anger with someone. This clearly needs to change. I think Webster’s Dictionary needs to get together and come up with a bunch of new offensive words for all of us to use in the heat of the moment, so that people stop having to fall back on homophobia. It’s called PROGRESS!
If you have any new offensive word suggestions, throw ’em in the comments.