>> ^Lodurr:

There's no social commentary in their racist jokes. Cartman calling people "jew" is social commentary because it reflects more on Cartman than on actual jews. Gabriel Iglesias' racist gift basket (see link in comment above) is social commentary. Even Michael Richards' "he's a nigger" episode had more social commentary than calling one race lazy and worthless. There isn't even a hint of truth in it. Latinos, as a group, are the hardest working people I've ever known, and most of them hardly sleep because they have multiple jobs.
A big part of the problem is that they're picking on a country with serious economic problems. It's easy for the French not to take offense at French jokes because they've been doing pretty well for the past thousand years. It was only a few hundred years ago that most Mexicans lived and worked as a systematically oppressed lower class, and they still have far to go to have a modern standard of living for the majority of their population.
Poking fun at a disadvantaged group when you're part of an advantaged one is always tasteless. Fuck these lazy talentless hacks and fuck the BBC for funding them.


South Park as social commentary... Right up there with Twain, Orwell and Oscar Wilde, isn't it?

Top Gear's characters routinely make fun of everyone and everything, it's the entire set-up of their characters and is meant to be as much of a 'commentary' as is Southpark. To suggest that of every group in the world they've already made fun of, the Mexicans should be off limits because they can't take it strikes me as more racist than Top Gear's even handed assaults on everything. And I shouldn't need to point out that SoutPark's assaults on everything go at least 5 steps further past 'good taste' than Top Gear ever does.

There's no social commentary in their racist jokes. Cartman calling people "jew" is social commentary because it reflects more on Cartman than on actual jews. Gabriel Iglesias' racist gift basket (see link in comment above) is social commentary. Even Michael Richards' "he's a nigger" episode had more social commentary than calling one race lazy and worthless. There isn't even a hint of truth in it. Latinos, as a group, are the hardest working people I've ever known, and most of them hardly sleep because they have multiple jobs.

A big part of the problem is that they're picking on a country with serious economic problems. It's easy for the French not to take offense at French jokes because they've been doing pretty well for the past thousand years. It was only a few hundred years ago that most Mexicans lived and worked as a systematically oppressed lower class, and they still have far to go to have a modern standard of living for the majority of their population.

Poking fun at a disadvantaged group when you're part of an advantaged one is always tasteless. Fuck these lazy talentless hacks and fuck the BBC for funding them.

>> ^chilaxe:

@gwiz665
Right, it was his choice, but we're also free to analyze that choice.
His job was to write social commentary, to give society advice on what we as a society should do, but he himself wasn't able to follow basic medical guidelines to avoid an early death.
He never thought we should treat people's ideas with kids' gloves, so I'm sure he'd understand if we follow in his tradition in our thoughts on life choices.


He'd probably curse you for a fool if you didn't in point of fact.

@gwiz665

Right, it was his choice, but we're also free to analyze that choice.

His job was to write social commentary, to give society advice on what we as a society should do, but he himself wasn't able to follow basic medical guidelines to avoid an early death.

He never thought we should treat people's ideas with kids' gloves, so I'm sure he'd understand if we follow in his tradition in our thoughts on life choices.

Wait, how is this a story? Were people under the impression that commercial radio stations choose songs based on artistic merit or social commentary?

No, they're businesses trying to maximize their profits, nothing more or less. They reached the conclusion that the intentionally racist and homophobic lyrics of the song turn off too many listeners. It's unfortunate those listeners don't know that the character singing those lyrics is the one being mocked. But that doesn't matter. The stations are making a business decision, not an ethical decision. Ethical decisions are not their territory.

Ya, the cat has a box fetish. I do love the little looks he gives like he's saying "Fine, its to damn small so I'll make the most of it till you get me a bigger box."

Or its his social commentary on the Asian housing market.

I think y'all take yer movies way too seriously. They're movies, lighten up a little. And Lady in the Water was a bedtime story he made up for his kids. It wasn't some big 'social commentary' film, it was a fantasy movie. Most of the comments above seem like they came from these people.

I still thought this video was funny, btw...

It wasn't anywhere near as polished and consistent a final product, but his next movie (Mike Judge, the director), Idiocracy, had its moments, too. I really didn't think the casting was great in that one, and some gags didn't work, but it had a ton of satire and social commentary that was spot-on and so bold that it never made it to theaters.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Fox News, comedians, social commentary' to 'The Daily Show, Fox News, comedians, social commentary, the lupus of news' - edited by calvados

That's not entirely true, though. Children are not simply robots getting programmed to behave and think a certain way by observing others, nor are they spunges who soak up everything they're subjected to. Most kids have an extremely strong will, even at very young ages. And while you can certainly teach them to behave in general terms, they do form opinions of their own. Much like older people, they don't easily change those opinions either. That's probably why we can have such radically different personalities within communities, groups and families, and not all be arbitrarily homogenus because of our surroundings.
And even if it were true, it doesn't mean that a weekly/daily cartoon has the same effect that your community's faith, morals, ethics and prejudices does. You don't live the cartoon, and I dare say that any veiled perception of social commentary made in said cartoon has an insignificant effect on the development of the child's ego.

Again, there's more than likely value in having a philosophical discussion amongst adults on this subject, but making the claim that a cartoon (or set of cartoons) would have any tangible impact on children is stretching it in my opinion. The creator of this article could have made a much better case if he'd built it around propagating stereotypes or gender roles in the cartoon, which isn't as abstract as indoctrinating collectivism, but even then it'd be very far fetched to make the claim that watching the cartoon would have lasting effects.

Our own Choggie Kendall, leading the charge with a little social commentary.

You can tell he's not totally batshit insane, if he was the following would be single-spaced...

"T.V., it
satellite links
our United States of Unconsciousness
Apathetic therapeutic and extremely addictive
The methadone metronome pumping out
150 channels 24 hours a day
you can flip through all of them
and still there's nothing worth watching"

-Television: The Drug of The Nation

To all the local and national twits who call themselves purveyors of information, journalists, and any other such felicitous and inappropriate moniker used to describe their bile. Get a REAL job, assholes!!!"

He manages to inject some sharp social commentary about halfway through as well: "Was that the foreigners laughing?" Dave is, above all else, a professional.

The Wire is the only logical choice to watch next. It's entertaining, addictive and offers incisive social commentary. Just buy all the DVDs. SFU is enjoyable. I have only seen the first two eps of Deadwood but it was good. Funnily enough my problem with Deadwood is the swearing. And I like swearing. It just seems a bit too much.

24 is a show that was moderately silly and entertaining nonsense but I felt there were better things to watch many years ago.

ER is a long running soap and your enjoyment depends on how far you like the characters but repetition does set in. I can't even be arsed to find the final series.

>> ^KnivesOut:
They're attempting, in a heavy-handed way, to illustrate the possible outcome of what they see as the current state of "blacksploitation" that corporate America is undertaking. Is it racist? Apparently not if it's social commentary. Are you black? If not, then I don't think you can say, one way or the other.
This should be an interesting comment thread.


Thank you Captain Obvious for that in-depth and insightful analyzation of the video's message. I don't think we could have figured out what this was about without your help! The description, nor the introduction to the video simply did not have ANY relevant information to what was going on here...

We are all in your debt

They're attempting, in a heavy-handed way, to illustrate the possible outcome of what they see as the current state of "blacksploitation" that corporate America is undertaking. Is it racist? Apparently not if it's social commentary. Are you black? If not, then I don't think you can say, one way or the other.

This should be an interesting comment thread.