On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 11:09 AM, PGage <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Jul 24, 2015 at 12:27 AM, 'David Bruggeman' via TVorNotTV < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> A few more details in the EW account, including Cenac saying Stewart >> eventually apologized for the yelling, but still didn't see where Cenac was >> coming from. The WTF episode is on my list for the weekend driving. >> >> >> http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/23/wyatt-cenac-jon-stewart-wtf-marc-maron >> Since I didn't know, I looked into Kingfish, who was a character on Amos >> 'n' Andy. >> > > To be clear, I love Stewart, will miss him tremendously when he is gone, > and am on record as saying that I don't think the TDS will ever come close > to being as important a program without him. I am just saying that more > than a few who have worked with him have said that he can be an asshole > about the show, mostly because he is so closely involved in everything that > goes on the air, and has high standards. The fact that he apologized > supports the view that he had been an asshole to Cenac in this instance. > > As I say, I do not agree with Cenac's underlying point (that Stewart's > Cain impression was racist-ish and inapproriate) - but that does not mean > that there is no issue there. As the Vulture article notes, this was an > issue in public at the time; while pushed by the FN crowd, it was also > discussed in the African American community. It is similar to the backlash > that Colbert received from the Asian-American community over his > stereotypical Asian impression. I did not agree with that criticism either > (or the "cancelColbert" movement), but I also do not dismiss it as a > non-issue. Both Stewart and Colbert: A) make fun of a full range of people > and B) clearly use their satiric voices to unmask and defang racism and > discrimination. I understand why Cenac, as the only Black (at the time) > writer on TDS might feel the need to voice his discomfort; I can also see > why Stewart, squarely in the public bullseye, might get frustrated when he > gets the same shit inside the writer's room. Clearly he did not handle his > frustration very well on that occasion. > > There is no doubt that Stewart's "impression" of Cain invoked The Kingfish > from A&A, though Cain's natural style is in a similar vein (and there is a > theory that much of Cain's appeal for white Republicans when he played the > Donald Trump role 4 years ago was his own feint echo of The Kingfish). For > the younger list members, there has been a long and heated controversy > about "Amos and Andy" going back to its radio days in the 40s and 30s, then > intensifying when it was brought to television. I remember as a kid > identifying A&A as the epitome of racist television, and then as a late > adolescent running into old black people who argued that A&A had been one > of their favorite shows on radio and TV, and that it was one of the few TV > shows that provided a platform for Black actors and comics. >
I just listened to the WTF Cenac interview and the TDS story was long and nuanced. They spent about 30 minutes discussing Cenac's tenure there and it's an injustice to encapsulate it in two sentences or two paragraphs. The blowup was not directly about Stewart's Cain impersonation, it was about how TDS was going to respond to the criticism of FNC and others. Stewart wanted to do a comedy piece about he is a racist about everybody and Cenac felt that was being defensive, which acknowledged wrongdoing but made no effort towards resolution. When Cenac brought that objection up in the writers' room that's when Stewart blew up. After their argument, which went from the writers' room to Stewart's office, ended, Cenac stayed on TDS for another year as a correspondent as he did not want to return to the writers' room. The end of the discussion was about an invitation Stewart extended to Cenac to appear on the August 6 show. Cenac talked about his ambivalence and Maron told him to put his hurt feelings behind him and go. About Amos & Andy: it started as a radio show voiced by white actors doing dialect. When it went to TV, while it did provide acting opportunities to African American actors, it did not give them an opportunity for an honest portrayal, they could only play stereotyped caricatures of African Americans and that is what the mostly white audience saw. -- -- 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.
