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It's all storytelling. And when a good story is being told, the audience understands that it's a caricature with a lot of truth and a bit of simplification. US

It's all storytelling. And when a good story is being told, the audience understands that it's a caricature with a lot of truth and a bit of simplification. US TV is endlessly about reducing a certain subset of the US to a bit of a caricature to entertain. Real housewives of (insert town), Jersey Shore, Sopranos, Duck Dynasty. I don't think anyone here believes all Italians in Jersey are mafia. Real maturity comes from being able to laugh at yourself without getting offended at every second line.

paulryanrogers 1y ago
> Real maturity comes from being able to laugh at yourself without getting offended at every second line. To a point. When the entertainment market is flooded with wildly inaccurate stereotypes (produced by a majority/mono culture) then it can become a punching down situation. That's not OK.
Newlaptop 1y ago
> the audience understands that it's a caricature with a lot of truth and a bit of simplification I suspect a whole lot of TV fails both parts of this test. The audience doesn't understand and there is only a little bit of truth and a lot of simplification.
- like_any_other 1y ago
  There's merit to your suspicions. For example, the 1996 movie A Time to Kill depicts a black father avenging the rape and attempted murder of his ten-year-old daughter by two white men, using it to depict the evils of white racism, and justifying vigilantism. The rape (but not the vigilantism) is based on a true event, when the author witnessed the "harrowing" court testimony of a 12 year old rape and assault victim, with two simplifications: there were two victims and one assailant, instead of two assailants and one victim, and the races were reversed: the perpetrator was black, and the victims were white: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_to_Kill_(Grisham_novel)#Inspiration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_to_Kill_(Grisham_novel)... Similarly, the film Bad Ass features an older Latino that beats up white skinheads that were harassing and threatening him. Based on a real event, where an older white man was being harassed and threatened by a black man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Ass_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Ass_(film) The film River's Edge is about a boyfriend that kills his girlfriend, both white teens. Based on a real murder, but the perpetrator there was black: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River%27s_Edge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River%27s_Edge The Netflix series Painkiller features a capable black woman lawyer that takes on the Purdue pharma in the opioid epidemic. The real lawyer was white: https://www.thepublica.com/netflix-accused-of-race-swapping-after-replacing-investigators-who-took-down-purdue-pharma-during-opioid-crisis-with-a-fictional-black-woman/ https://www.thepublica.com/netflix-accused-of-race-swapping-... In Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Nazis have free reign in Egypt, and the locals support and cheer for the British and Allies, to the point of breaking into song lauding British sailors. In reality, Egypt at that time was effectively under British occupation, which the Egyptians fiercely disliked, and hated the British (they would have a revolution against them in 1952).
542354234235 1y ago
I wouldn’t put The Sopranos in that list. It was telling a story about a small subset of New Jersey people (Jerseites?) but it specifically deals with the complexities of cultural identity, stereotyping, and how the majority of Italian Americans view mafia. Tony attempts to deflect accusations by claiming stereotyping. Dr. Melfi’s ex husband is derisive of the mafia destroying Italian American’s image and is hypersensitive about perceptions. Many normal Italian Americans are collateral damage to the mafia’s parasitic activities. I wouldn’t put that in the same category as reality tv shows selling hyper dramatized personalities to conform to, and make fun of, stereotypes. Its like saying The Wire and the Real Housewives of Atlanta are both caricatures of black people.

paulryanrogers 1y ago

> Real maturity comes from being able to laugh at yourself without getting offended at every second line. To a point. When the entertainment market is flooded with wildly inaccurate stereotypes (produced by a majority/mono culture) then it can become a punching down situation. That's not OK.

Newlaptop 1y ago

> the audience understands that it's a caricature with a lot of truth and a bit of simplification I suspect a whole lot of TV fails both parts of this test. The audience doesn't understand and there is only a little bit of truth and a lot of simplification.

like_any_other 1y ago
There's merit to your suspicions. For example, the 1996 movie A Time to Kill depicts a black father avenging the rape and attempted murder of his ten-year-old daughter by two white men, using it to depict the evils of white racism, and justifying vigilantism. The rape (but not the vigilantism) is based on a true event, when the author witnessed the "harrowing" court testimony of a 12 year old rape and assault victim, with two simplifications: there were two victims and one assailant, instead of two assailants and one victim, and the races were reversed: the perpetrator was black, and the victims were white: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_to_Kill_(Grisham_novel)#Inspiration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Time_to_Kill_(Grisham_novel)... Similarly, the film Bad Ass features an older Latino that beats up white skinheads that were harassing and threatening him. Based on a real event, where an older white man was being harassed and threatened by a black man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Ass_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Ass_(film) The film River's Edge is about a boyfriend that kills his girlfriend, both white teens. Based on a real murder, but the perpetrator there was black: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River%27s_Edge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River%27s_Edge The Netflix series Painkiller features a capable black woman lawyer that takes on the Purdue pharma in the opioid epidemic. The real lawyer was white: https://www.thepublica.com/netflix-accused-of-race-swapping-after-replacing-investigators-who-took-down-purdue-pharma-during-opioid-crisis-with-a-fictional-black-woman/ https://www.thepublica.com/netflix-accused-of-race-swapping-... In Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Nazis have free reign in Egypt, and the locals support and cheer for the British and Allies, to the point of breaking into song lauding British sailors. In reality, Egypt at that time was effectively under British occupation, which the Egyptians fiercely disliked, and hated the British (they would have a revolution against them in 1952).

542354234235 1y ago

I wouldn’t put The Sopranos in that list. It was telling a story about a small subset of New Jersey people (Jerseites?) but it specifically deals with the complexities of cultural identity, stereotyping, and how the majority of Italian Americans view mafia. Tony attempts to deflect accusations by claiming stereotyping. Dr. Melfi’s ex husband is derisive of the mafia destroying Italian American’s image and is hypersensitive about perceptions. Many normal Italian Americans are collateral damage to the mafia’s parasitic activities. I wouldn’t put that in the same category as reality tv shows selling hyper dramatized personalities to conform to, and make fun of, stereotypes. Its like saying The Wire and the Real Housewives of Atlanta are both caricatures of black people.