On Sat, May 14, 2011 at 9:44 AM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > A friend of mine also tried to sell me on the idea that Outsourced has > suffered from attempts to soften its edge to avoid offending people. I will > ask Melissa the same question my friend was unable to answer for me: At > whatever point you consider the zenith of the show to have been, what is an > example of a hard edged satirical social commentary or observation it made, > or even just something really funny that later had to be toned down to avoid > offense. I *wish* this show had been substantial and specific enough to be > offensive - but I found it to be consistently bland and vague, unsmart and > unfunny.
I thought the pilot/concept held promise, inasmuch as I felt there was humor to be had in a fish-out-of-water story of an American expat living and working abroad. Comedy used to be able to poke fun at differences in cultures, genders, ages, but observation-based humor is hard to do now without somebody being offended on behalf of the rest of humanity. From my own experiences overseas, I know it to be a goldmine of humor, but I can't just share my stories with everyone or I run the risk of being labeled a culturally insensitive bastard (or Borat). I think this concept could have been executed more successfully in the 1980s (imagine a young Eddie Murphy or even someone like Tony Randall being shipped to India -- imagine if the creators of "Taxi" had tackled this concept instead of focusing on a Boston bar). I missed a lot of the episodes because, ironically, I was working overseas, but I thought the cast was talented and found it more entertaining than Parks & Rec. P&R generally draws from the comedy of the ineptness of mostly white, small town, middle America. And nobody ever got into trouble poking fun at whitey. -- Kevin M. (RPCV) -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
