I keep promising myself to ignore Sarah Palin’s pathetic attempts to remain relevant but she keeps doing things that suck me into her strange world. The latest is that she and her family seemed to have got into a brawl at a drunken party in Alaska over the weekend that resulted in daughter Bristol repeatedly punching someone, son Track ending up shirtless and threatening someone else, and husband Todd ending up with a bloody nose. In other words, just another fun-filled weekend in the Palin household.
That by itself would not merit a post. What hooked me was that during the melee, Palin apparently tried to establish her authority by shouting “Do you know who I am?”
You would think that by now people would realize that this is never a good thing to say. If you are not important enough to be recognized immediately, then saying this only makes you seem pathetic and smaller and invites ridicule. People sometimes say this when they are stopped by police for some minor offense and try to get out of any penalty. As far as I am aware it usually just annoys the hell out of the police at you trying to browbeat them and makes them less likely to let you off lightly.
George Zimmerman, the would-be vigilante who achieved some fame as a result of killing Trayvon Martin, seems to have also been infected with this disease of minor celebrity ego, threatening to kill another driver in a road rage incident, pulling up next to the driver of a car and saying, ” “Do you know who I am? I’ll (f***ing) kill you.”
I have seen this happen even in much more limited contexts. I once witnessed a colleague become enraged when a member of the technical staff said that something that he had asked for could not be done. The faculty member said angrily to the effect of “Do you know who I am? Who are you to deny me this?”
The old adage, that when considering purchasing a luxury item if you have to ask how much it is that usually means that you cannot afford it, has a parallel here. If you have to ask people if they know who you are, that usually means that you are not as important as you think.
On a more serious note: there are reports that the party was at the home of a good friend of the Palins, and that the man who discussed this incident on Good Morning America worked for the homeowner.
“Worked” is the key word, since (if reports are true) he was fired, apparently for leaking details of the incident.
I think Zimmerman was making a threat. ‘I’m the man they couldn’t hang!’, effectively. ‘I’ll kill you just like i did that thug, and i’ll get away with it again too.’
So far I’ve not had the opportunity of replying to that question in person, but I hope that should it happen I will have the courtesy to recommend they inquire at the Amnesia Hotline or the Missing Persons Bureau.
It’s an even bigger mistake to ask a psychiatrist or a philosopher this question. They may offer to help you find out.
“Do you know who I am?”
I have a good friend who once told me that saying that’s basically inviting the entire planet to smack you down.
“Caribou Barbie”, the 1/2-Governor of Alaska…. That woman is a parody of a parody.
” Do you know who I am? ” -- always reminds me of Eddie Izzard’s “Death Star Canteen”
LOL 2 infinity
Didn’t Palin’s almost-son-in-law’s mother get busted for making and/or selling meth? Wonderful values these people are showcasing. And tens of millions of Americans thought she was qualified to be President.
resident_alien,
That was funny. I am a huge Eddie Izzard fan and somehow missed that. Thanks.
You’re welcome! Eddie Izzard is an international treasure.
Another take on the “do you know who I am?”
The concept of President Palin sends a shiver up my spine.
The joke was that Bush Senior hired Quayle to be vice-president to make himself immune to assassination. Killing Bush would mean you end up with Quayle, and not even the worse foaming-at-the-mouth maniac could want that. It speaks to a time when certain things remained unthinkable.
Rumor was that there was a secret service man with an Uzi charged with staging an ‘accidental discharge’ into the back of Quayle’s head if it looked like Bush might die. We used to try to spot the assigned executioner whenever we saw Quayle on TV. Lending credence was that on TV there was often a secret service guy with his hand in his trench coat behind Quayle.
It was like George Carlin talked about playing “Spy” at the airport , you knew there had to be a spy at the airport. Your job … find him.
Well, it did work one time:
Reginald,
I guess it will work if you are really, really powerful!
I experienced a weird variation of this back in my taxi driving days. One evening I responded to a call for help from another driver who was having a trouble with a passenger. When I arrived at the scene, the passenger was in the middle of the road swinging a crutch at anyone who got near and was shouting “Do you know who owns me? Do you know who owns me?”
Someone supposedly responded “”This isn’t some damned hillbilly reality show!” A reference to the likes of Duck Dynasty?