“It just wasn’t meant to be that mean,” is the excuse that a bartender at the Blind Tiger bar in Las Vegas used when describing why the sign outside featured a pretty tasteless Super Bowl XLVIII joke at the expense of more than just the Denver Broncos. After the Broncos were spanked by the Seattle Seahawks, the Blind Tiger’s sign read, “Broncos could nt [sic] beat the kids at St. Judes,” which is a hospital that treats terminally ill children. The joke is as generic as they come, but even as “harmless” as it was meant to be, that’s not going to stop a pissed off dad from asking why it’s funny.
Jesse Moore saw the picture of the sign on Facebook, so he drove to the Blind Tiger to find out why it was necessary to single out the kids like his daughter, who has Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer and is fighting for her life. After all, it’s all fun and games until someone stirs up a giant PR poopstorm for your business establishment.
I know a lot of people are probably going to be like, “Whatever bro, it’s a joke and it’s funny” or maybe some people would even shamelessly try to argue that it’s supportive of the sick kids. Whether or not certain people think it’s funny isn’t the point. It’s that people in 2014 should know that there’s always going to be someone who doesn’t get the joke. Putting it outside on a large sign that will be viewed by everyone driving by is going to make people say, “Well, that’s tacky.” Hanging a sign over the urinal with the same message would have probably been wiser.
Or maybe the bar could have just had the sign read: “Broncos could not beat the kids at Paradise Elementary.” It’s the same message and would probably only offend parents of kids from O’Roarke Elementary. Know your audience, people.
