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i wonder if China has copied SP and if so how they would portray the USA. Has anything been made like this? And is it just as funny?
by artur_makly 7y ago
i wonder if China has copied SP and if so how they would portray the USA. Has anything been made like this? And is it just as funny?
- yumraj 7y agoUnlike China, Americans make enough fun of themselves, and are not censored. SNL is exactly what you're proposing.
- artur_makly 7y agoI grew up watching SNL when Eddie Murphy was playing Buckwheat.. but that’s not the same as a real comedic attempt by a foreign power at satirizing us -;) there must be something online...
- giancarlostoro 7y agoMaybe Russia will do it. I heard they have a 1:1 rip off of the Big Bang Theory. You can YouTube it, it looks obscure.
- i_am_nomad 7y agoIn the name of all that is holy, why would anyone rip off that show? It is literally the worst thing I have ever seen on television, excluding reality TV. And I say that as someone who grew up during TV’s dismal 1980s.
- mrep 7y ago> In the name of all that is holy, why would anyone rip off that show? It is literally the worst thing I have ever seen on television While I have never seen the show, 10-20 million people apparently watch it [0] so apparently a lot of people do like it and your tone comes off as condescending. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory#U.S._standard_ratings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory#U.S._stand...
- MagnumPIG 7y agoFurthermore, apart from the fact that geek culture has always had a hate-on for TBBT, we don't import/export TV show concepts because they are perceived as good, but rather because they are seen as profitable. Good is subjective, money is its own metric.
- i_am_nomad 7y ago> While I have never seen the show You should have stopped there.
- creato 7y ago> SNL is exactly what you're proposing. Isn't South Park what is being proposed? Sure they made fun of China this time, but they make fun of the US and US culture more than any other nation.
- sjwright 7y agoI want to love SNL but a lot of the current political skits are just cast members mimicking news events mostly verbatim while pulling funny faces. (E.g. The Kavenaugh hearings: “I like beer! I like beer!”) Or taking a serious matter and turning it into mere farce. (E.g. current impeachment matters, with Giuliani portrayed with all the wit of a Sesame Street puppet.)
- jquery 7y agoThe recent primary debate skit was pretty good. But... the Christmas Mueller song was particularly egregious. They were better when Obama was in office, IMO. Trump has ruined a lot of “news comedy” across the board. It’s too predictable.
- ahartmetz 7y agoReality is so absurd, it's too hard to make up untrue but sufficiently believable stories...
- sjwright 7y agoPlease, the debate skit was as bad as anything they've done. Cheap caricatures of the media's caricatures of the candidates. The only redeeming aspect of the skit were the cameo performances, particularly the portrayal of Harris—and then only because Maya Rudolph is endlessly engaging to watch despite the weak writing. Look how they portrayed Andrew Yang. An unconventional candidate with near-zero media attention consistently polling above O'Rourke, Klobushar, Castro and Booker. Yet the joke is how poorly he's doing? It's noteworthy that the audience literally didn't laugh.
- jaimex2 7y agoIs satire a thing over there? I think it would be too risky as crossing a line could mean prison. All the Trump episodes on SP would definitely have ended with Trey and Matt locked up in China.
- kwoff 7y agoSatire is all the more sweet when it almost crosses a line, isn't it?
- runeblaze 7y agoYes it is a thing (albeit more subtle, which makes satire better or worse depending on your taste). I was able to read Chinese satire on U.S. gun shootings and PC issues quite frequently. I guess my issue with things like this SP episode and these kind of satire in general, is that they only seem to focus on one important but partial aspect of one nation. To joke on American PC issues seems fun to many in China, but there are more important things to know about the U.S. than these things. In a similar vein I wish people interested in China do not just stop at knowing the terrible human rights situation and its increasingly authoritarian regime, but actually learn more about the shift of its regime since 1949, the more subtle parts of the ideology of the party (the ostensible resemblance to 1984 style "doublethink"), etc., which imo would provide much better insight into China than what is on HN.
- pnako 7y ago>Yes it is a thing I think GP was talking about satire of your own country, not propaganda about other countries. Reminds me of the old joke: Q: Is it true that there is freedom of speech in the Soviet Union, just like in the USA? A: In principle, yes. In the USA, you can stand in front of the White House in Washington, DC, and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished. Equally, you can also stand in Red Square in Moscow and yell, "Down with Reagan!", and you will not be punished.
- runeblaze 7y agoWell satire about Xi (and winnie the pooh) is also quite a thing, obviously censored in the most prominent channels, but still quite visible. I mean, I only say that because I assume the context ("i wonder if China has copied SP and if so how they would portray the USA") was SP satirizing China, so I offered the Chinese parallel. And I just have to say it. The satire I am talking about comes from the actual citizens. They are not propaganda.
- gweinberg 7y agoI don't know think the PRC guys have much of a sense of humor. But the Taiwanese animators are hilarious. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G3lPPWm6qtoWtRk4vyGwg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4G3lPPWm6qtoWtRk4vyGwg
- philwelch 7y agoI like how they keep using Steph Curry (in uniform!) as a typical example of a random American.
- golemotron 7y agoHardliners can't be funny. That's why there's no 'woke' humor either.
- teh_infallible 7y agoAgreed. Humor can’t take itself too seriously, and its best targets are people or organizations that do. Humor with an agenda doesn’t work.