4 ms·

I agree. I'm still annoyed that they started censoring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. For example, they (Hulu) removed one episode where one of the characte

by shafyy 4y ago

I agree. I'm still annoyed that they started censoring It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. For example, they (Hulu) removed one episode where one of the characters does a black face. But the whole point of the show is to surface these social and political issues in a comedic way. They're not endorsing black facing, they're saying it's wrong. That's why it's funny. This also reminds of something the comedian Ricky Gervais often says (I'm paraphrasing): You can joke about everything. The problem is people mistaking the target of the joke with the subject.

inconceivable 4y ago
[flagged]
- felixg3 4y ago
  > if you're going to enjoy racism at least have the balls to be honest about it. otherwise you're just embarrassing yourself. Statements like this make me afraid of the future of culture.
- srslack 4y ago
  The people in Always Sunny are awful people to be around: comically stupid, ignorant, selfish, sociopathic, repressed, narcissistic, scheming and oblivious. That is the joke. Take a group of morons with the above qualities, and worse, who own a bar in Philly. Hilarity ensues with how awful they are. Like a train wreck. That's the premise. And a further meta joke is on anyone who would "identify" with them.
- lynx23 4y ago
  Please don't speak for people whoes motivation you probably dont fully understand. "Everyone" is always and per definition wrong, absolute statements like this only show that you are going to far and shouldn't be taken seriously. I am a member of a minority, and I do enjoy jokes about my minority if they're well done and/or hit a nail on the head. Your statement effectively says you dont believe I am a member of "everyone", which is quite condescending.
- w23j 4y ago
  The people on the receiving end of this joke, are people who would think it's ok to do black face. Why is that racist?
- oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
  This is the kind of humourless reaction that will literally make satire — and, potentially, absolutely all rhetoric — unviable. If we are no longer allowed to portray 'bad' people in fiction, what does that say about the quality of our storytelling and where it's going?
- pastacacioepepe 4y ago
  [flagged]
- causi 4y ago
  Depiction is not endorsement. Do you think Leonardo DiCaprio is a racist for playing a slave owner in Django Unchained? Is Christoph Waltz a Nazi for playing Hans Landa?
glandium 4y ago
Did they remove Tropic Thunder too?
- bryanrasmussen 4y ago
  they have been trying for years, but Tropic Thunder remains.
- shafyy 4y ago
  Epic movie hahaha
toyg 4y ago
Same for "elf blackface" in the Community episode about D&D. An excellent episode airbrushed out of history because of ELF blackface. Unbelievable.
- emaginniss 4y ago
  Chang was being a Drow or Dark Elf. I think it would be offensive to High or Wood Elves for them to be grouped in with Drow. Check your human privilege.
qntmfred 4y ago
30 Rock had a blackface episode too
gs17 4y ago
Exactly, I never got how whole episodes get removed over bits where the joke is only funny if you agree blackface is very offensive. I've never seen a (modern) show that's doing it as a minstrel act.
- yamtaddle 4y ago
  Penny Arcade got in hot water over a strip for being a "rape joke" that only worked if you agreed that rape is pretty much the worst thing a person can experience multiple times without necessarily dying. Like, the joke works better the worse you think rape is, it's not making light of it at all, both for the overall point of the strip and for the incongruity-based humor of the specific way the situation is phrased to land, but they got in trouble anyway (then reacted defiantly in a classical-Internet manner, like "well that's obviously fucking ridiculous, so we're going to double down to mock how plainly absurd you're being" which just made things worse, because they didn't yet understand how modern Internet mobs work, which were juuuust starting to really become A Thing right around then)
  - prepend 4y ago
    It’s funny because everyone who has watched Law and Order has feared the Dick Wolves.
hn_throwaway_99 4y ago
This is what I despise so much about modern sensibilities when it comes to being offended. Somehow we skipped right pass the intended meaning of a piece of art or language, and went right to "does this contain any imagery or words on our 'disallow' list". It's like the dumbest spam filter of all time. The complete sociological ban on the utterance of any words that even sound like "the actual N word" is so bizarre to me. As a kid in the early 80s it was very clear and unambiguous to me that actually calling someone the N-word was extremely taboo and racist. But it wasn't like using the phrase in a sentence such as "Calling someone the <N word> is extremely taboo and racist" was considered offensive. When I first heard about a story where a college professor was suspended for giving a lesson in Chinese where the Chinese word just happened to sound like the N word [1], I was convinced it was either an Onion article, or an example of the right trying to make a caricature of anything that smelled of "wokeness". But alas, it was actually real, and just as absurd as I originally thought. 1. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs/616404/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-agai...
fundad 4y ago
It's easier and cheaper to cut an episode of TV than to pay the back wages owed. Joke about our past? We can even reckon with it.
digging 4y ago
This really bothered me about censoring the Scrubs episode with blackface. Not that I think the joke was funny or good or needed to be preserved, but they censored it for the wrong reason. The joke: Turk and JD go to a college party dressed as each other, in whiteface and blackface respectively. Turk gets distracted and leaves just as JD opens the door to an all-black frat. The frat beats the shit out of JD for his blackface. It wasn't the blackface that made the joke racist, in my opinion. It was the tired stereotype of violent black men without deeper emotions. It was the assumption that racism is transactional in this way; you do a racism and you get your ass beat if you get caught.

by shafyy 4y ago

inconceivable 4y ago

[flagged]

felixg3 4y ago
> if you're going to enjoy racism at least have the balls to be honest about it. otherwise you're just embarrassing yourself. Statements like this make me afraid of the future of culture.
srslack 4y ago
The people in Always Sunny are awful people to be around: comically stupid, ignorant, selfish, sociopathic, repressed, narcissistic, scheming and oblivious. That is the joke. Take a group of morons with the above qualities, and worse, who own a bar in Philly. Hilarity ensues with how awful they are. Like a train wreck. That's the premise. And a further meta joke is on anyone who would "identify" with them.
lynx23 4y ago
Please don't speak for people whoes motivation you probably dont fully understand. "Everyone" is always and per definition wrong, absolute statements like this only show that you are going to far and shouldn't be taken seriously. I am a member of a minority, and I do enjoy jokes about my minority if they're well done and/or hit a nail on the head. Your statement effectively says you dont believe I am a member of "everyone", which is quite condescending.
w23j 4y ago
The people on the receiving end of this joke, are people who would think it's ok to do black face. Why is that racist?
oneeyedpigeon 4y ago
This is the kind of humourless reaction that will literally make satire — and, potentially, absolutely all rhetoric — unviable. If we are no longer allowed to portray 'bad' people in fiction, what does that say about the quality of our storytelling and where it's going?
pastacacioepepe 4y ago
[flagged]
causi 4y ago
Depiction is not endorsement. Do you think Leonardo DiCaprio is a racist for playing a slave owner in Django Unchained? Is Christoph Waltz a Nazi for playing Hans Landa?

glandium 4y ago

Did they remove Tropic Thunder too?

bryanrasmussen 4y ago
they have been trying for years, but Tropic Thunder remains.
shafyy 4y ago
Epic movie hahaha

toyg 4y ago

Same for "elf blackface" in the Community episode about D&D. An excellent episode airbrushed out of history because of ELF blackface. Unbelievable.

emaginniss 4y ago
Chang was being a Drow or Dark Elf. I think it would be offensive to High or Wood Elves for them to be grouped in with Drow. Check your human privilege.

qntmfred 4y ago

30 Rock had a blackface episode too

gs17 4y ago

Exactly, I never got how whole episodes get removed over bits where the joke is only funny if you agree blackface is very offensive. I've never seen a (modern) show that's doing it as a minstrel act.

yamtaddle 4y ago
Penny Arcade got in hot water over a strip for being a "rape joke" that only worked if you agreed that rape is pretty much the worst thing a person can experience multiple times without necessarily dying. Like, the joke works better the worse you think rape is, it's not making light of it at all, both for the overall point of the strip and for the incongruity-based humor of the specific way the situation is phrased to land, but they got in trouble anyway (then reacted defiantly in a classical-Internet manner, like "well that's obviously fucking ridiculous, so we're going to double down to mock how plainly absurd you're being" which just made things worse, because they didn't yet understand how modern Internet mobs work, which were juuuust starting to really become A Thing right around then)
- prepend 4y ago
  It’s funny because everyone who has watched Law and Order has feared the Dick Wolves.

hn_throwaway_99 4y ago

This is what I despise so much about modern sensibilities when it comes to being offended. Somehow we skipped right pass the intended meaning of a piece of art or language, and went right to "does this contain any imagery or words on our 'disallow' list". It's like the dumbest spam filter of all time. The complete sociological ban on the utterance of any words that even sound like "the actual N word" is so bizarre to me. As a kid in the early 80s it was very clear and unambiguous to me that actually calling someone the N-word was extremely taboo and racist. But it wasn't like using the phrase in a sentence such as "Calling someone the <N word> is extremely taboo and racist" was considered offensive. When I first heard about a story where a college professor was suspended for giving a lesson in Chinese where the Chinese word just happened to sound like the N word [1], I was convinced it was either an Onion article, or an example of the right trying to make a caricature of anything that smelled of "wokeness". But alas, it was actually real, and just as absurd as I originally thought. 1. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-against-words-sound-like-are-not-slurs/616404/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/09/fight-agai...

fundad 4y ago

It's easier and cheaper to cut an episode of TV than to pay the back wages owed. Joke about our past? We can even reckon with it.

digging 4y ago

This really bothered me about censoring the Scrubs episode with blackface. Not that I think the joke was funny or good or needed to be preserved, but they censored it for the wrong reason. The joke: Turk and JD go to a college party dressed as each other, in whiteface and blackface respectively. Turk gets distracted and leaves just as JD opens the door to an all-black frat. The frat beats the shit out of JD for his blackface. It wasn't the blackface that made the joke racist, in my opinion. It was the tired stereotype of violent black men without deeper emotions. It was the assumption that racism is transactional in this way; you do a racism and you get your ass beat if you get caught.