|
Just about a month ago people were debating that New Yorker Obama cover and whether it was in bad taste.
Debates like this are fascinating because satire by definition is almost always in bad taste. In fact, most people don't
understand the difference between satire and parody. It's more involved than this simple explanation but one way you
can tell the difference between a satire and a parody is that parody is genuinely good natured ribbing and satire is mean,
vicious and often cruel. In fact, satire doesn't have to be funny. There is nothing in the definition of satire
that includes humor. In our modern culture we associate the two but satire is a work that is specifically designed to
ridicule a subject. You can't ridicule something and be tasteful about it. It just isn't possible.
When we debate the Obama cover what we are really debating is something else entirely, which is if people are stupid enough
to think the cover is a satire of Obama rather than the misconceptions about Obama is the New Yorker responsible for that?
In short, if you create a work of art and somebody takes it the wrong way are you responsible that people take it the wrong
way? Do we have to weigh everything we say against the potential of how stupid people might be and if so how will we
ever say anything of substance?
Let me give you
another example. In the 1970's country singer David Allan Coe recorded a song called Nigger Fucker. The
song is sung in character as a racist redneck whose wife has just left him for a black man. To me the song is obviously
satire, and apparently the rap group NWA agreed because in the 90's they covered it, but it is incredibly subtle satire and
can be easily mistaken for being genuinely exactly what it is making fun of if looked at out of context. The album
it comes from, The Underground Album, includes other songs where the satire is more obvious. One of them, Fuck You,
Anita Bryant, includes the chorus, "Fuck you, Anita Bryant. You leave them faggots alone." To me nobody
could listen to these songs and take what they state with anything but irony.
But one day I was looking for this
album on Amazon which includes other items that people who purchased what you're looking at have ordered. Right next
to a list of other Coe CDs was one by Johnny Rebel a white supremacist recording artist. I was completely shocked by
the fact that anybody could listen to both of these and not see that one is mockery and the other is genuine. Coe has
had to defend himself against allegations of racism for thirty years for recording the song but while I don't believe Coe
is a racist that question now seems irrelevant to me. Now the question is if Coe's song is used to justify racism in
some who listen to it how much culpability does he deserve for that?
The thing that brought me to reanalyze this is the controversy over the new movie Tropic Thunder. I expected this
film to get some shit for Robert Downey Jr. being in basically "blackface" but that isn't what it's about. The controversy
is about the film's use of the word retard which advocate groups for the developmentally disabled find offensive. I
would have normally just dismissed this outright and I even read another satire of the protests which had actors boycotting
and protesting the movie. I'm also baffled by the fact that these groups don't get that a boycott is going to make the
filmmakers more money by raising awareness for the movie. It's also not much of a threat since the kind of people
who would be offended aren't going to see an R rated movie that has so much more potentially offensive material in it.
This seems outright, dare I say it, retarded.
But I got curious and googled the controversy and many blogs
about the whole thing written by the parents of a developmentally disabled child. Now to be truthful I have sympathy
for these people. I have a member of my family who had Down Syndrome but this isn't the same as having a child who is
disabled. In fact, I don't even have to see this family member if I don't feel like it. I do know that I don't
treat him any differently than I would a nondisabled person. If he pisses me off I let him know it. I don't
treat him "special". What I can't stand is how some people almost seem to have a fetish for disability of victimhood.
It is the most disgusting thing about American culture where, let's face it, we have a charmed existence so we have to actually
look for things to get pissed about.
I hate that word. It makes me mad when I hear it thrown around
like a joke. I hadn't heard about this movie, thanks for the heads up. I usually don't do "R" movies anyway and don't let
the kids see them either. Why do they have to make fun of people to get a laugh? I am also a little sensitive about people
joking about drowning each other. Like when they say they are going to drown someone or something. It's just not funny.
I've missed the stream of drowning jokes that have apparently permeated pop culture but I would point out to this person,
if we lived on the same planet, that this is an example of "gallows humor" which is totally different than satire but can
be defended on its own terms. Also asking why you have to make fun of people to get a laugh is like asking why you have
to have sex to get pregnant.
This is very sad, indeed.
I watched "Radio" last night. Amazing. Loved the movie
and it's (sic) message. Couldn't there be more films like it? Couldn't there be more people like Coach Jones out there?
This may go a long way to explaining why people are offended by Tropic Thunder. The film within a film Simple Jack is
a vicious satire of movies like Radio that romanticize the disabled and treat them as equal parts "cute" and freakish.
I'm actually offended when people say patronizing things like they think disabled people are cute. To me Radio is offensive.
I can understand why somebody with a disabled child might like the movie. It portrays life the way they wish it was
and functions as escapism for them. The movie Juno recently offended me for treating teen pregnancy the same way.
I guess it's just a difference in our world views.
That word is a bad word in our house. Hate is also a bad word and I am going to say it. I HATE that word and it makes me sick
to hear it and even sicker when they make movies making fun.
They make fun because they think they are the normal ones
but to be honest we are the normal ones. We are the ones that are teaching our children to right way, we are teaching our
children to accept, love, and be compassionate toward anyone no matter how unique they are.
I don't have much to say about this one except that it reminds me of the Tom Cruise "we are the authorities" scientology speech.
Interestingly enough Tom Cruise is in Tropic Thunder. If a retarded person could willingly act in the movie how can
they be offended? (Yeah, that was probably wrong but I did go this long without a joke.)
Downey tells Stiller "never go full retard". I imagine what would happen if Stiller told Downey not to go full n*****!
Now I'm not sure what that word with all the asterisks
is supposed to be but I'm sure it must be offensive. This is a complete misunderstanding of the context of the joke
first of all and second it's actually attacking an attitude that parents of disabled children should REALLY be offended by.
Actors exploit the mentally handicapped in movies to win awards but they know they must be as cute and "special" as possible
to do it. They must create a fantasy and be as far away from actual disabled persons as possible. The reason is
actual mentally retarded people repulse the majority of people. So basically Tropic Thunder is bringing to light an
attitude that is commonly accepted in society but should be ridiculed. And to bring up the point the word nigger is
spoken in Tropic Thunder. I will concede that they didn't go as far as to have Downey say it or another white person
but that word was used in the same context retard is used in Tropic Thunder in Blazing Saddles.
I have seen movies that I think have portrayed the developmentally disabled positively in my opinion. I've even seen
comedies that have. The cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky often uses disabled people as characters in his films (both
mentally and physically) though I doubt most of the people who are boycotting Tropic Thunder will ever see one of his films.
I actually doubt most of the people seeing Tropic Thunder or reading this blog for that matter will. My point is most
of the movies that actually treat the disabled as people are way outside the mainstream. There is one point that one
angry parent makes that I think is somewhat chilling.
The use of the word retard is setting how society views those with intellectual disabilities back a generation. Recently the
announcement of a new early method of pre-natal testing for fetal Down syndrome was made. This announcement was made with
great fanfare and excitement. Because the earlier parents know their child may be born with an intellectual disability, the
earlier and easier it becomes to terminate that pregnancy. I believe the connotations that go along with the word retard play
no small part in this kind of thinking.
When I first
read this I thought it was totally out of left field and grasping at straws but when I started to think of it in context of
the Obama cover (which some think will hurt his campaign) and the Coe song (which is embraced by actual racists) maybe movies
like Tropic Thunder do have that effect. Maybe people seeing it will feel that their negative views are enforced
by the film.
Years ago comedian Sarah Silverman got in trouble
for saying the word "chink" in a joke on television. In her concert film Jesus is Magic she defends the joke intellectually
for several minutes before revealing to the audience that originally the joke was different. She says the joke used
to contain the word "nigger" before but she changed it because she was uncomfortable saying it in front of black members of
her audiences. She observes that people only make fun of groups they are not afraid of like, say, midgets. She
then invites the audience to rethink whether they think her joke was racist.
This is a telling comment about our society. Once the rapper Eminem was confronted in an interview about why he defended
his use of the word "faggot" satirically but was unwilling to use the word "nigger" in the same context. He was willing
to state that he saw the use of the two words as different but couldn't back up why. The difference is that one would
have ruined his career while the other did not. This means that whether we face it or not we give different groups different
rules and right now the rule is that we are free to say the word retard even though as opposed to gays or blacks the developmentally
disabled are unable to defend themselves. They are also a group that many parents would choose to abort if given the
opportunity. They truly are a helpless minority.
Silverman
points out that though she can intellectually defend her humor she still sees the danger in hiding behind satire. People
often confuse the right to free speech with a complete unaccountability or responsibility for what we say. This is something
that is rarely brought up in a society where anything goes and I fear, it is just as rarely ever thought about.
|
