I'm sure seeing or hearing the tone of the Flint comment would help. If he made the comment and then followed it up with "am I right? What a sad situation!" or something like that, something to give the comment context, then that would help.
But the thing is, if he's lamenting the unfortunate situation, it's a rather listless, useless way of doing it; expressing outrage about a situation by mentioning how the charity he *is* raising money for is going to get the money instead.
If he was using it as a segue to raise awareness or money or something for Flint, perhaps there wouldn't be any room to think he's just making a ham-fisted joke. But just off handedly making the comment, while perhaps not intended as a tasteless joke, comes across as a "why bother making the quick sardonic comment if you're not trying to do anything about it?" sort of moment. I'm not even saying Mike should have to do anything about it. But then just leave it alone.
Mike has *never* been good with making these sorts of comments/references. He almost always comes across a smug a-hole, whether he intends to or not or whether it's deserved or not.
That he apparently has *rehearsed* this bit and uses it over and over seems even more puzzling.
It's not a huge deal; we don't need to be fake outraged by it or anything. I'm not outraged. But it's not 100% innocuous either. It's just a sensibility with subject matter that I think is off, and Mike does this from time to time. I felt a similar way when he was doing a George Harrison tribute back-to-back with a Carl tribute as if it was a "Lung Cancer" mini-set, as he specifically (at least at some shows) mentioned they both died of lung cancer. There's nothing inaccurate about it, and I'm sure Mike is nothing but saddened at their demise, but it's a weird and in my opinion tasteless context to put tributes into. As with most things Mike does, if you see or hear or read it and think "what's wrong with that?", then it's unlikely anybody else will sway your opinion.![]()
But the thing is, if he's lamenting the unfortunate situation, it's a rather listless, useless way of doing it; expressing outrage about a situation by mentioning how the charity he *is* raising money for is going to get the money instead.
If he was using it as a segue to raise awareness or money or something for Flint, perhaps there wouldn't be any room to think he's just making a ham-fisted joke. But just off handedly making the comment, while perhaps not intended as a tasteless joke, comes across as a "why bother making the quick sardonic comment if you're not trying to do anything about it?" sort of moment. I'm not even saying Mike should have to do anything about it. But then just leave it alone.
Mike has *never* been good with making these sorts of comments/references. He almost always comes across a smug a-hole, whether he intends to or not or whether it's deserved or not.
That he apparently has *rehearsed* this bit and uses it over and over seems even more puzzling.
It's not a huge deal; we don't need to be fake outraged by it or anything. I'm not outraged. But it's not 100% innocuous either. It's just a sensibility with subject matter that I think is off, and Mike does this from time to time. I felt a similar way when he was doing a George Harrison tribute back-to-back with a Carl tribute as if it was a "Lung Cancer" mini-set, as he specifically (at least at some shows) mentioned they both died of lung cancer. There's nothing inaccurate about it, and I'm sure Mike is nothing but saddened at their demise, but it's a weird and in my opinion tasteless context to put tributes into. As with most things Mike does, if you see or hear or read it and think "what's wrong with that?", then it's unlikely anybody else will sway your opinion.