Racist Robots!
It is safe to say that I will not go to see the new Transformers movie in theaters. By and large, I don’t go to see any movies in theaters. I think the last one was something like four years ago in Florida. Generally, I just wait for a movie I want to see to come out on DVD, and either rent it or borrow it from some fool who actually spent the twenty-plus dollars to buy it. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, being of a genre I can’t stand, and by a director who’s batting .000 in my book, would normally be the type that couldn’t even prompt me to put a dollar in the Redbox. But now, just maybe, I might have to. Because apparently, the film is racist.
Today, while perusing the web to kill some time, I come across this headline, from AP Entertainment writer Sandy Cohen, via the Souther Oregon Mail Tribune:
Jive-talking twin Transformers raise race issues
Oh my Lord. Call the funny-farm Reba, the world’s finally gone off the deep end. Before I even get into this ridiculous article, just think about the headline: this is proof that we as a society are way too hung up on both racial grievances (real or imaginary), and superfluous pop-culture, so much so that we can’t resist entangling the two. It also proves that editors at the AP and/or the SOMT have the writing skills of a slow second grader (note the lack of proper capitalization in the headline), and don’t seem to realize that the last person to use the term “jive-talking” was the little old lady who translated Kareem Abdul Jabar in Airplane.
Apparently, two of the Autobots (if you don’t know what those are, aks somebody) in the film are being whined about because they represent stereotypes which are offensive to black people. From the article:
Harmless comic characters or racist robots? The buzz over the summer blockbuster "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" only grew Wednesday as some said two jive-talking Chevy characters were racial caricatures. Skids and Mudflap, twin robots disguised as compact hatchbacks, constantly brawl and bicker in rap-inspired street slang. They're forced to acknowledge that they can't read. One has a gold tooth..
OK, so far, I’m getting a mild chuckle. The potential for good comedy here is obviously pretty high, as the bickering-buddies shtick is one of the most time tested and proven tools in the history of comedy. Abbott and Costello, The Bickersons, Beavis and Butthead, Pegg and Frost, Riggs and Murtaugh, Amos and Andy (yes, that was deliberate), the list goes on. These types of characters are almost always stereotypical in some way, and are necessarily highly eccentric. They will, almost by default, be to some extent caricatures of whatever segment of society from which their characters derive.
That would be my defense of Skids and Mudflap. Except I’m not defending them. They don’t need defending.
As we read further down the article, we find predictable examples of the kind of tripe that makes thinking people roll their eyes and/or laugh out loud.
"They're like the fools," said 18-year-old Nicholas Govede, also of New York City. "The comic relief in a degrading way."
More still from another NYC moviegoer, who called the characters “outrageous:”
"It's one thing when robot cars are racial stereotypes," he said, "but the movie also had a bucktoothed black guy who is briefly in one scene who's also a stereotype."
And of course there are the obligatory intellectuals, offering opinions which are conspicuously devoid of intelligence. From an assistant professor of cinema and media studies (wow, if there’s a bigger bullshit course out there, I haven’t heard of it) at UCLA:
"There's a persistent dehumanization of African-Americans throughout Hollywood that displaces issues of race onto non-human entities,... It's not about skin color or robot color. It's about how their actions and language are coded racially."
And this, from a professor of popular culture (nevermind, I found one) at USC:
"There's a history of people getting laughs at the expense of African-Americans and African-American culture,"
To all of which, I reply:
So what?
The truth is, there’s plenty about blacks and black culture that’s worth laughing at. The fashions; the bravado; the attitudes; the hair weaves; the slang which borders on being its own language; all are inherently parody-ready. The examples are too numerous to count, and so are the comedians and filmmakers, black and white alike, who have both names and fortunes for themselves making fun of it. Anyone who’s ever sat through a 1970s ‘blacksploitaion film’ or a 1990s ‘growing up in da ‘hood film’ can readily appreciate the comedic genius of Keenan Ivory Wayans’s uberspoofs I’m Gonna Git You, Sucka and Don’t be a Menace to South Central while Drinking yo’ Juice in da ‘Hood. On a somewhat deeper level, Tim Story and Mark Brown did a masterful job of dragging out some of the less openly discussed points of black culture (street crime, low IQed hustlers, widespread ignorance and poor education, even the civil rights movement), and making them both thought provoking and hugely laughable in 2002s Barbershop. These films also received some flack in the press for being racially insensitive, though it was widely ignored, since they were made by black people.
And that, methinks, is the crux of the matter. Somewhere along the line, the notion became accepted in mainstream (i.e., northeastern white) culture that white people laughing at black people, or any caricature thereof, for any reason, is somehow an act of unspeakable cruelty, on par with eating live puppies, and must never be allowed. It really is the great taboo of our age (criticizing, analyzing or frank discussion of them in any form are also big no-no’s, but that’s for another day). As you might have already guessed, I call bullshit. If people are going to be laughable, laugh at them. If there’s humor to be found, enjoy it.
”But Whiskey!”, perhaps you respond in the gasping manner which has become a cliched fixture of these columns, ”Making fun of other peoples’ cultures is wrong! How would you feel if blacks were making fun of and laughing at your culture?
Huh? You mean they’re not?
Caricatures of all segments of white people and culture are as numerous as the stars in the big ass Texas sky. Black comedians mimic whites incessantly, with varying degrees of accuracy and funniness (D.L. Hughley and Paul Mooney in particular have had me rolling on the floor more than once). And no one makes fun of white people like, well, white people. Ever heard of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour? The Office? The Onion? Want me to keep going? Truthfully, I don’t think any racial group takes to self-deprecating humor as much as white people do. For that matter, I seriously doubt more than a handful of black people are really that offended by simple caricatures like these two robots either. Am I wrong? Any black folks out there want to correct me on this (not you Rance, I already know better)?
As an aside, I mention the Onion specifically because one of their entertainment editors is quoted in the AP article, complaining that Skip and Mudflap were racial caricatures and also had no real other part in the movie. I find this particularly amusing, since the Onion is some of the most irreverent comedy on the web, and relies heavily on caricatures and stereotypes for much of its shtick.
Of course, if one were to want some real evidence of racism in the new Transformers movie, they could check out this quote from lead actress Megan Fox, in an interview with Total Film UK magazine:
”“I’d barter with him [TF villain Megatron, if the two had a sit-down]and say instead of the entire planet, can you just take out all of the porch monkeys, chickenheads and gangbangers infesting our cities?”
Oh no, wait, she didn’t say that. What she really said was exactly the same, except it was ”white trash, hillbilly, anti-gay, super bible-beating people in Middle America.” The interviewer’s response? ”Good answer.” Personally, I don’t pay much mind to the ramblings of Hollywood airheads, even really hot ones like Fox. I do however find it interesting that such unbridled contempt for the south and the midwest is no big deal in the entertainment biz, but a couple of CGI robots with homeboy accents is somehow newsworthy. It almost sounds like a mental disease. One which might easily be cured, I might add, by a regular dosage of The World According to Whiskey, but somehow I doubt Ms. Fox or any of her contemporaries will have the good sense to read it.
Oh well. Chump don’t wants da help, chump don’t gets da help. I’ll catch you on da flipside.
The Onion caricaturing:
posted by Big Whiskey Sam at 20:05
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