• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, February 22, 2017

Let’s start with a classic joke. A guy walks into a bar, sits down, and orders a drink. The man on the stool next to him has clearly had a few and is wallowing in self-pity. The man turns to him mournfully, jabs his finger toward the floor, and says: “You see this floor? I laid it! I quarried the stone, poured the concrete, and fitted the tiles! But do they call me ‘Jack the floor-layer?’ No!”

Puzzled, the guy sips his beer and nods. Indignant, the man pounds his fist on the bar: “You see this bar? I built this bar! I cut down the tree, hewed the wood, sanded and varnished it! But do they call me ‘Jack the bar-builder?’ No!” Despairing, he cradles his head in his hands and mutters: “But you fuck one goat…”

Poor Milo Yiannopoulos. He’s accomplished a lot: he single-handedly moved the Overton Window to the right and down a couple feet, he normalized the idea of the gay reactionary, and he may have helped Donald Trump – whom he venerates as “Daddy” – win the presidential election.

But now, all anyone wants to talk about is that he said it’s OK to diddle kids.

The Conservative Political Action Conference, apparently unimpressed by his 100% NAMBLA policy rating, rescinded his invitation to speak, Simon & Schuster canceled his book, and then he resigned from his position as technology editor for Breitbart News, likely under duress.

Coming just as we finally learned to spell his name, all this is doubtless a setback for Yiannopoulos. But he is evidently unconcerned – and with good reason.

For one thing, he is a celebrity in his own right, and claims to be independently wealthy. For another, he claims there are plenty of people who will dismiss his statements as a bad joke. And his book, tentatively titled “Dangerous”, will probably get published in the end.

That’s according to Entertainment Weekly, which reports that the publishing industry (admittedly, not EW’s usual bailiwick) is abuzz about who will pick up the book contract for “Dangerous,” which was going to give Yiannopoulos’ take on Trump’s upset victory, including the role played by the “alt right,” the largely online political movement created by disaffected conservatives.

Supposedly the book was going to steer clear of hate speech, meaning the contents themselves shouldn’t be too toxic to publish – it’s just a matter of those pesky comments about underage sex.

Moreover, the book has generated enormous interest and is already a bestseller.

Earlier this month, it ranked in fifth place on Amazon’s list of top sellers, a remarkable achievement for a book that hasn’t even been written yet. Finally, Yiannopoulos is undeniably an entertaining personality and talented writer, so the book is pretty likely to meet expectations for people who already share his worldview.

It’s also worth noting there are plenty of famous people (yep, they’re mostly men) who have had sex with underage partners, but whose works still get an airing because their audience chooses to consider the works separately from their creators.

The list includes Thomas Jefferson, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Roman Polanski, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and Woody Allen. True, one might say at least these figures weren’t publicly advocating having sex with underage partners, but that’s not really true. Remember Woody Allen’s “Manhattan”? Mariel Hemingway’s character was 17 in that movie. Gross.