I just finished the books yesterday and, god damn it, I don't think I can watch this show any more. Thanks George RR Martin, way to be a good writer you piece of shit.

Basically, it's not an issue here because while anime characters are culturally Japanese (they speak Japanese, bow, eat with chopsticks, etc.), many times they also live in countries that are clearly NOT Japan. The ambiguous cultural status of the characters lets the writers put them in a variety of both familiar and exotic situations (i.e. going to a public bath vs. going to a high school prom,) which creates interesting tensions.

You see this a lot in anime like the Gundam series in which battles take place over several different countries on earth, as well as across space colonies, and yet everyone involved in the war, whether they have Japanese names or not, acts pretty damned Japanese all the time. Yet, the series incorporates non-Japanese elements as well. The building architecture of the Zeon space colonies, for example, is clearly European-inspired.

So Japanese people are used to the ambiguity of the "nationality" of their anime characters. I don't think Japanese people will have any problem with Scarlett Johansson unless the movie doesn't stay true to the character itself.

Now if a non-Japanese person had been cast to play Ryouma Sakamoto or some other real-life Japanese historical figure, I think there would be a pretty big reaction.

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So the problem is shitty writers? Fair enough, but I think shitty writers of Superman outweigh good writers by a significant ratio.

In fact, the only writer I've ever seen do a truly good job with Superman was Alan freaking' Moore. The problem with Superman isn't that he isn't relatable, it's that it's hard to give him an interesting challenge.

Batman is at his best (story wise) when he's vulnerable and has to solve a problem. It's hard to write Superman without him just being more powerful.

I quoted the specific examples I was referring to in my original post.

"Every time a parent takes the kids side over the teachers,
or asks a child where THEY want to go to dinner,
or doesn't say 'be quiet' when adults are talking,
you are creating the Donald Trumps of tomorrow"

Again, those aren't creating Trumps, those are treating a child like human being, and possibly even one you like.

As you said yourself, it was poorly said. And given that Mahers entire fucking job is saying funny shit that his writers came up with, "poorly said" is pretty inexcusable.

Anyone else get the feeling Seth watches the Daily Show, then Last Week Tonight, then shows up the next day at the writer's meeting and says, "Hey everyone! I HAVE AN AWESOME IDEA for a Closer Look segment!!"

Just saying he's a bit derivative.

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He is starting to make it his own.
I don't know if he finally gelled with his writer team but this is better quality stuff.

You know, I read a recent interview with John Oliver where he is very emphatic that his show is "comedy" and that, despite what people want to read into it, he is not making political statements. I think if I had watched this video before reading that interview I would have scoffed (as others here already have). But it's pretty clear to me now that he and his writers know exactly what they are doing.

Basically, this video is the result of John Oliver saying, "You know, when you think about this history of racism in American cinema you can find some pretty fucked up stuff. How can we make a joke out of that?"

It's not designed to be an actual literary critique, it's meant to use the facts to play up a punch line. I'm pretty sure John and his writing crew know that "The Last Samurai" does not refer to Tom Cruise's character (i.e. just because the character is trained how to use the sword and armor does not automatically make him a samurai), but it's easy to see how they can make a joke out of the ambiguity of the title and Americans' tendency for self-centeredness (I'm sure there are people in the U.S. who think the title does indeed refer to Cruise's character).

I actually don't have a problem with actors "playing outside their ethnicity" (whatever the hell that is supposed to mean). I'm reminded of the recent controversy about the video game Uncharted 4 which has a white actress voice-acting the role of a black South African character. The Creative Director responded to the controversy by pointing out that a white character is voiced by a black actor in the same game, and that the decisions were made based on the choosing the best actor for the role--not on what the actor looked like in real life (read more about the story here).

As CG progresses and digital characters become a norm, I think this is an issue that's only going to get greater in the film industry. In our demand for political correctness will we demand that the actors physically resemble the characters they are portraying onscreen? That seems a bit absurd to me. But so too is the idea of excluding people for consideration from roles based solely on the color of their skin.

When Stephen Colbert made his Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation joke the trending hashtag was #cancelcolbert, not #iwronglyfindthisjokeoffensivebutwouldneverseektosilenceitsauthor. Control is the agenda of the StinkyJeWs, page by page, paragraph by paragraph.

Let's say you're a writer for a videogame being developed by CompanyA, which in turn is owned by MegaCorpX. Some leaked bit of dialogue or a screenshot of an immodestly dressed character rubs the stinkies the wrong way and off they go, shrieking and howling: #megacorpxisracist, #firechaosengine; articles pop up on Kotaku and Polygon lamenting the state of misogynistic gaming culture, in which perverts and serial harassers like ChaosEngine are still allowed to dominate the industry and keep POC and female voices out in the cold. #boycottcompanya, #chaosengineisapaedophile, #megacorpxfundsrapeculture

Sure enough MegaCorpX doesn't like the negative, if ludicrously inaccurate, publicity and the word comes down the totem pole: the game's cancelled, or the plot has to be rewritten, or you're fired, tough luck. You really mean to tell me that no censorship has occurred at any stage of that process?

I shouldn't have to remind you that corporations aren't people. They're steered not by principle but by market forces. If I shove a boulder off a hill and it rolls into your house, I don't get to say "Well it's nothing to do with me, the rock could have swerved aside, it could have stopped halfway down or it could have turned around and climbed back up the hill. It was entirely its own decision to flatten your home."

What Louis CK and George Carlin and all the greats do is TELL THE TRUTH.

If you tell the truth, you can say ANYTHING.

This isn't true: 'Wouldn't it be funny if somebody raped you?'

And that joke of Louis that began this vid is true. Absolutely true.

What makes these comedians great is that they tell the absolute truth -- and they are funny while they do it.

I tell the truth all the time, but I can't craft a joke or a bit. (I'm funny, but I'm not a writer.)

Louis is moral.

The "Friendship is Magic" series is really well done. It's the brainchild of Lauren Faust, who was a writer and co-developer (with her husband) of the popular "Powerpuff Girls" series. The show manages to provide lots of moral lessons (like how to constructively deal with major disappointments, self-esteem issues, conflict with friends, etc.) that are directly relevant to young girls without ever becoming preachy. It's one of those shows that occasionally contains pop-culture references that may fly over the head of your child but will make you as a parent chuckle. My 4-year old daughter loves it--she specifically requested a Rainbow Dash plush for Christmas and we were happy to give it to her because we really appreciate the care that goes into the cartoon to help young girls develop positive self-images.

Frankly, there's lots of good quality animations for kids these days that are enjoyable for adults to watch as well. We love to watch Peppa Pig, Octonauts, Paw Patrol, Doc McStuffins--even Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse (which contains a surprising number of Star Wars references).

You really do. Iain M. Banks was an amazing writer.

Excession is probably my favourite, along with Look To Windward and Use Of Weapons.

His non-sci-fi work is fantastic too, especially The Crow Road (any book that opens with the sentence "It was the day my grandmother exploded" is instantly brilliant IMO).

He was also a wonderful speaker. Listen to this (skip to 29:32 if you haven't read Use Of Weapons, it spoils the whole plot) http://www.theguardian.com/books/audio/2012/oct/12/iain-banks-book-club-podcast?fb_ref=Default. I love his analogy of writing fiction is like playing a piano and writing SF is like a massive pipe organ.

If you're referring to my comment. The prequel comics which are supposedly part of the canon is that the Narada is a borg-ified romulan vessel.

They use that as part of the reason why JJverse Enterprise is different from TOS Enterprise. The explanation goes that the Kelvin scanned the Narada and magically gleamed all the borg tech from those scans which led to a massive explosion of new technology. so JJverse tech is supposedly roughly on par with TNG-era tech if not better because of the borg tech boost from the Narada....all that from just scans of the ship.

Don't blame me, that's just what I read

EDIT: just looked it up. Yep, that's what the writers wrote about it.