The List: Top Five Mayoral Zingers, Dave Chappelle Edition


Yesterday, Mayor Pedro Segarra of Hartford, Conn., thought he’d show Dave Chapelle how it’s done when he tweeted some facetious advice to the comedian, who left the city in a huff last week after some hecklers disrupted his performance at the Funny or Die Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival.

“Dave Chappelle should quit whining, do his job and try some yoga,” Segarra tweeted. He ended the dig with the civic pride-oozing hashtag #HartfordHasIt. Amid all the chuckling, we’ve compiled a list of Philadelphia mayoral zingers, because, y’know, #PhillyHasIt, too.

1. “Ain’t no immaculate conception happening up in here. —Mayor Michael Nutter
The Mayor made this statement while expressing legitimate concern about the phenomenon of absentee parents during a speech at his church. What he meant was, unless your kid’s the messiah, you’ve got no excuse for not supervising your kids.

2. “You’re going to name your baby Hostile.” – Mayor Wilson Goode
And yes, that’s hostile as in aggressive and argumentative. The ever-serious former Mayor shot this quip at then-pregnant journalist Tia O’Brien, who was known for relentlessly questioning public officials. Guess she officially had his blessing.

3. “Nation of Wusses – Mayor Ed Rendell
Former (and future?) Mayor Rendell named his memoir based on a statement he made while expressing disdain about a cancelled Eagles game. The quote, he later explained, had a much larger social context. Not that it was necessary. Canceling a football game is all the proof we need for the “wussification of America.”

4. “A conservative is a liberal who got mugged the night before.– Mayor Frank Rizzo
Put that in your memoir, Ed. Mayor Rizzo was a lot of things, but a wuss wasn’t one of them.

5. “#dropthemic—Mayor Nutter

Word.

Bonus, sad-trombone zinger: “I’m having a great day.” —Mayor John Street
It’s funny because, well, he kind of wasn’t… ever.