Aggies Coach Jimbo Fisher Tells a Gun Joke; Can 'The Culture' Endure It?

Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher has a sense of humor, and critics of his "gun joke'' need to relax - or at least to consider context.

Texas A&M Aggies head coach Jimbo Fisher likes to hunt. As such, he is logically a gun owner, which means he has, surely at one point in his life, discharged a firearm. 

And by nature of those factors, Fisher has also, at one point in his life, cracked a joke or two about a gun. And we are going to make the argument that even in this certainly highly-charged time and understandably-sensitive time as it regards gun safety, gun rights, and gun tragedy in this country ...

A joke ... in context ... is OK.

However, as has become common practice lately, Fisher is the subject of some media ire this week, after trying to offer up a bit of humor during his visit with the Dallas A&M Club. 

"I love to quail hunt. I like to hunt period," Fisher said. "I just like to shoot things I guess. I’m glad I don’t have a gun at practice sometimes.”

We are reminded of changing times, for better or for worse, as we look back at what legendary coach John McKay once said about his winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers and his thoughts on the 1976 expansion team's "execution.''

 “I’m in favor of it,'' McKay replied.

We are not arguing against sensitivity here; indeed, we're not arguing at all. Matters of literal life and death hit all of us hard. Fisher also spoke on that this week when he revealed that his son Ethan might be involved as a patient in medical work that could in theory someday cure cancer.

Was Fisher's gun joke appropriate? There was surely a way to make his point in a more middle-of-the-road manner. But he is not waving a weapon around on social media like Ja Morant. Nor is he some politician taking a controversial stance (quite possibly backed by a big-money corporation paying him to represent that belief.)

He is a West Virginia native. He likes the outdoors. He is a hunter. And he is a gun owner. He is allowed to have his own sense of humor without drawing ridicule for the sake of clicks or subscriptions. (The media recently played this same game with Fisher when he poked good-natured fun at two beat writers, including our AllAggies.com at SI representative, bending completely out of shape his meaning.)

So, maybe it's time we take a step back, and let Jimbo be... well, Jimbo.

Or let Jimbo be Groucho, for in fact, it was the legendary wit Groucho Marx who popularized one of the funniest punchlines in sports. It seems the punchline from a 1936 Marx Brothers performance became so popular that when Groucho Marx asked the audience what it thought of (performance) execution, the audience yelled in unison,  “We’re in favor of it!”

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You can follow Matt Galatzan on Twitter @MattGalatzan

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