Did routine cross bad-taste border?

Geno's Steaks owner Joey Vento might make a delicious Philly cheesesteak, but he's not exactly the poster boy for good taste.

So it's not surprising that a few people who watched this year's Mummers Parade took offense to Vento's starring role in a performance by Comics brigade B. Love Strutters titled "Aliens of an Illegal Kind."

The skit featured Vento popping out of the top of a float labeled "Gewizno's Steaks" with a "When ordering, speak English" sign. Vento waved a poster reading, "What?" and tossed fake cheesesteaks into the crowd.

Then an announcer for B. Love Strutters cried out, "Uh-oh, here comes the Border Patrol!" Club members wearing Texas-sized cowboy hats and brandishing wooden rifles pretended to hold back a rioting crowd of "immigrants" from storming the border "fences." As the immigrants burst forth, they traded in their country's flag for an American flag, and a Mummer dressed as President-elect Barack Obama handed out Green Cards.

"It could be construed as bad taste," said Leo Dignam, parade director and deputy commissioner of the city's Department of Recreation.

But Comics being Comics . . .

"Sometimes they do things that are a little bit controversial," Dignam said. "It was intended to be funny."

Whether the skit was intended as a spoof on Vento's controversial "please speak English" sign or a tribute to what some view as Vento's anti-immigration sentiment depends upon whom you ask.

"I couldn't believe what I was watching. Could the Mummers really allow that kind of blatant racism?" said Erica Vanstone, 33, who watched the parade on television at her New Kensington home. "Or, if you don't consider it racism, clearly it's a right-wing, conservative political statement. Is that really needed in the Mummers Parade?"

Another parade watcher posted this comment on Philly.com: "The Joey Vento thing one club did was a real disgrace . . . The announcers seemed flustered when they saw that and tried to tone it down."

As the performance unfolded, Channel 17 anchor/parade host Steve Highsmith said, "Oh look, it's Joey Vento standing behind that very controversial sign."

Highsmith added, "By the way, [Geno's staff] never turned anyone away who didn't [speak English]."

A female commentator on air with Highsmith remarked, "This looks like a celebration of diversity."

When asked about that characterization yesterday, the 69-year-old Vento said, "Diversity? It's a celebration to get a message across that we love immigrants here, we just want you here legally and we want you to speak English."

Last week, Vento donated $40,000 toward the Mummers Parade to help prevent city budget cuts from ending the 108-year-old tradition.

Vanstone said she believed Vento's contribution "not only bought him a spot in the parade, but it also purchased a platform from which to wax poetic about his anti-immigrant ideas."

But Vento and Bud Emig, captain of B. Love Strutters, said the idea for the act germinated long before Vento's donation.

"He did not buy his way into the parade," Emig said.

Emig's brigade, which operates out of Ray's Happy Birthday Bar next to Geno's, had toyed with the idea of doing a take on the "Please speak English" sign for the 2008 Mummers Parade. Ultimately, B. Love Strutters went with a Casino theme. This year the group wanted to do a space-alien theme. They switched gears after learning that another brigade had already taken the idea.

Emig said the B. Love Strutters, which is a brigade within the Murray Comic Club, tried to be sensitive to cultural diversity in crafting the performance.

"We had Canadians, Germans, Russians," Emig said yesterday. "We are all immigrants. This country is nothing but immigrants. It was about people from all over the world."

The majority of the crowd seemed to love the act; most cheered wildly when Vento popped out.

"Maybe the [B. Love Strutters] were saying that Joey Vento is wrong and now Obama is going to come and save everybody," Dignam mused. "Some people, unfortunately, are just looking for a way to be offended." *