I think Patton wouldn't have been so fired up if Salon had been consistent in how it approaches these outbreaks of outrage. He'd still have said something, it just wouldn't have been augmented by hypocrisy.
What I've had trouble with about this whole Colbert thing is that this seems to be a controversy because of the Tweet about it, rather than the segment or the character - which Colbert has used for years. At this point, Top Gear's humor strikes me as snooze-worthy, much like the overwrought incompetence played for laughs. Of course, YMMV. David ________________________________ From: Kevin M. <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2014 1:45 AM Subject: [TV orNotTV] A few footnotes to the #cancelcolbert controversy... It turns out the basic joke has been done before, by Patton Oswalt, and his reply to how Salon missed the point (and misidentified who in the joke was actually under attack. http://www.pattonoswalt.com/index.cfm?page=spew&id=168 If you don't follow Patton on the Twitter, he went another round with Salon staff today, just burying them, wiping the floor with them, or whatever analogy you care to use. Meanwhile in the UK, Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear face a lawsuit (again) over the same premise of joke they've been doing everywhere they film (including the UK). http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2591500/BBC-sued-1-MILLION-Jeremy-Clarkson-racism-allegations-presenter-makes-slope-remark-Top-Gear-Burma-special.html The lawsuit stems from the two-part series finale in Burma, wherein the guys did basically the same sort of comedy as Colbert. I don't think Burmese ethnic slurs have ever made their way to the US (our racists tend to lump all Asians together, since maps are beyond their mentality), but throughout the episodes, the guys would use terms that could be slurs in other contexts, but in the series were all used as non-insults. The only practical analogy I could use would be if they were in Mexico and saw somebody who had water sprayed on him from behind, they'd point at the man and say they just saw a wet back. The jokes are intentionally dumb, and Top Gear has done this in nearly every country they've gone to, especially in the UK itself where they constantly mock, directly and indirectly. They're illustrating the point that the intent of the words is where the insult is buried, the words themselves are innocuous. Last but not least, one of the most underrated standup specials of this century was Whoopi Goldberg on Bravo. She concluded with a poignant and well executed series of jokes to illustrate a lot of the points raised by Colbert's satire. http://youtu.be/3OXLDiKMe_A -- 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 --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
