Meryl Levitz: Good At Gays, Bad At Snappy Retorts
As many of you are (I’m sure) aware, Wednesday night on The Daily Show, Jon Stewart, harbinger of all things hysterical until they happen to you, quipped about Philadelphia being a shithole when he was talking about Obama’s whistlestop train adventure that kicked off at 30th Street Station. Philadelphians banded together in response by turning off their televisions, quivering in shame, and drowning their self-loathing in, you know, cheesesteaks or something. But have no fear, fellow citymen! Come out of your caves, return to the light, put your LOVE t-shirts back on! Meryl Levitz, president of the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corp., is here to squelch the lingering ignominy!
“Gee, Jon, so sorry we beat your Giants. Get over it.”
Wait, no. She must have had something better than that.
“All I know is when Stephen Colbert came to Philadelphia, he not only had a great time, he had his four highest-rated shows ever.”
Dammit, Levitz! He had a great time?! Did my nana write these for you? Is Philadelphia also really pretty and smart and someday everyone will realize it and be sorry they threw apple cores at her during lunch?
“Well, Jon, we’re used to this kind of thing and we know how to respond: Philadelphia, the city that bleeps you back.”
I guess we are used to this kind of thing. I’ll give her that.
But this wasn’t, of course, the first tête à tête Levitz has had with the Daily Show. In 2004, she appeared in an LOL-inducing segment about Philly’s GLBT-geared tourism campaign. And hey, guess what, guys — the gay thing is totally working. Community Marketing Inc.’s 13th “LGBT Tourism Study” put Philadelphia one up on Provincetown, well-known gay mecca, on its Top 20 list of U.S. Destinations.
How about THEM APPLES, Stewart? Levitz, keep wrangling the gays. Next time you need to say something awful or mean about a famous person, leave it to us. (See post below.)
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:04 pm
The Daily Show segment on our GLBT tourism campaign was, indeed, LOL inducing. I know it sounds cliche, but I literally fell off my chair laughing.
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:23 pm
How could Meryl forget to bring up the week Jon himself spent in Philadelphia, broadcasting from the Annenberg Center during the Republican convention in 2000?
January 22nd, 2009 at 4:38 pm
Meryl didn’t write that. She’s got ZERO sense of humor, and wouldn’t know giggles if they bit her on her stoney brow. I am sure that bad bon mott was penned by one of her gay-gay-gay underlings, probably the dude who craps out that awful http://www.nightlifegay.com blog. He seems to have no funnybone or originality either.
January 22nd, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Well said. FOMCL.
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
C’mon jojo. I know you’ve toured a lot with TTWS over the years and have seen how much of a dump this city is. Sure it has it’s nice side and I can understand why people would like it here but to say philly isent a shithole is kind of kidding yourself. Go to toronto, philly but clean. And they let you smoke pot out in the open :-)