Ronni, if you'll give your permission, I will repost this as my Friday blog, with the title "Speak Up for Yourself!" And if you'll permit, anyone with a blog should do the same, just to multiply the backlash. We could get something going here. So let us know.

I'm in. I will certainly voice my feelings with the proper sources. The LGBT movement has the logo "Gay Pride". Let's make ours "Elder Pride."

Gotcha covered, Ronni - on twitter @_theantiblog_ and at http://theantiblog.net/theconversation/too-old-to-matter

I'm not a regular watcher of HBO but I've seen John Oliver's show both live and in rebroadcast. I agree that he's usually spot-on, but not this time. Elder bashing is NOT O.K. He's making some interesting (and inaccurate) assumptions about how ALL elders would react to "Straight Out of Compton". My husband is 80+ and I'm in my late 70s; we're progressives who are dumbfounded every time "the leading Repub candidate" opens his mouth--which is constantly! There's a very wide spectrum of ages, backgrounds, life experiences, belief systems and thought processes among elders, but I think most of us agree that we're tired of being ignored, belittled, demeaned and discounted.

I'm with PiedType on this. In addition to communicating via Facebook and Twitter as Ronni suggests, I think it's way past time that more POSITIVE (but not airbrushed) segments were done about "regular" elders. Some positive advertising featuring older people could help, too. Just today a friend in her early 50s called me "feisty". Because I know she didn't intend to belittle me, her heart is in the right place and we were in her workplace, I didn't call her on it. But wouldn't it be great if such appellations as "cute" and "feisty" were simply no longer acceptable when applied to older people?

Done!

You know... I think I might be willing to give him a pass on this one. This time.

I really like the issues he takes on, and the moral force with which he makes the case for a fairer, better, society. But I have noticed that his style of comedy always involves being cruelly offensive to certain people. Some of them arguably do deserve some sort of public shaming (like that unfortunate baker who is never, ever going to live this down!), but many others are innocent bystanders being skewered just to draw a brief, shocked laugh. His "grandparents" joke falls in the latter category -- we notice it more because this time it's us he's jabbed.

He uses stereotypes all the time, sometimes ironically, but often not. He takes the easy shots because he has time to fill and he needs to break up the serious message with laughs. Like it or not, old-people jokes still work. I predict we're not going to get him to stop tossing them out for a quick laugh until they stop sounding funny to audiences.

I just happened to read this, not having heard about John Oliver's comments. What's funny is the first I heard about Straight Out of Compton is from a 75 yr old woman, a neighbor in the large 55+ senior apartment and condo community where I live! We'd just introduced ourselves and she said she was looking for someone who wanted to see that movie with her. I laughed delightedly and said I'd love to! As a kid, I remember living near Compton, known in the 1950s for lots of car dealerships, advertising on tv all the time. I also enjoy Key and Peele, Kamau Bell. I enjoy a wide variety of music, cuisines, literature, encompassing many cultures. My life is richer thanks to my open inquisitive mind and warm heart. If my joints were as nimble as they were when I was 60, I'd be twerking with the best of them!

I think I'm with Sylvia on this. I wasn't offended because this is John Oliver's comic shtick. I like her term "drive-by" victims except that I can't work up a feeling of victimization about this. For one thing, I predict that when Oliver is 75, he'll still be making grandpa jokes if he thinks he'll get a laugh. As for me, I find the idea of "Straight Out of Comptom" offensive because I understand it omits all the truly offensive attitudes and actions (against women, mostly) of the "gangsta" rappers it enshrines. Full disclosure, I personally hate all kinds of rap and hip-hop, and it has nothing whatever to do with racial bias or being old---at least, I don't think it does.

I just wrote to HBO asking them to be aware of the agism and suggesting that an exposure of how it plays out in every day life and in the media would be a great subject for Oliver to tackle.

I never miss your Saturday column because I want to see Oliver and being a TV-less rebel, I depend on his video on your blog. I admit the opening ageist slur missed me. Most don't. I tend to irk friends with when I point out remaining sexism in their conversations and I'm tired, tired, tired of all the jokes, including those by older comedians about the deficits of aging (physical, mental).

I don't want to give the impression that I don't agree with Ronni's point about the public accepting the ageist reference when there would have been an outcry had the reference been to black views or women's views. I completely get it. But this particular JO joke was about 5 seconds of a 30 minute show and, in fact, it was a very bad lead-in that didn't make much sense in context or even seem to have much to do with the rest of the show, which was about LGBT issues. I'll defend against ageism along with my peers, But as Bruce says, the majority of elders aren't doing a whole lot to defend themselves. And they"re not much on standing up for others either.

It would be great if our defense could be grounded in a more "progressive" attitude among elders about issues like LGBT rights, but the fact is that only 32% of us support gay rights compared to 68% of millenials. And the silent generation isn't so good on abortion rights either, with 42% supportive compared to 59% of millenials. Elders are getting better on immigrant rights but still more than 30% feel that immigrants have no right to be here and only 41% support a path to citizenship. On gun control, we can feel a little better about our cohort, however, with 51% of elders supporting gun control over the right to own guns compared to 49% of millenials. Elders are strong on pocketbook issues like Social Security and Medicare, of course, where the rate of support grows in direct proportion to the respondent's age. But it's a sad fact that when we talk about "progress," we can't be that proud of our record. Maybe more elder progress = more elder respect.

(All statistics are from The Pew Research Center study titled "Millenials in Adulthood" which has many more comparisons of Silents, Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millenials)

This is a follow up to my looking up "Straight Out of Compton". There are so many contemporary films which, let's face it, which would make our parent's teeth fall out. May be our own, also, I took my mother to see "Bull Durham" back whenever it came out. "70;s or 80's? She thought it was "most disgusting movie" she'd ever seen. Go figure..