Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Another issue I have with the drive for "diversity" in media is that largely they just try to force the white men that write their mediocre shows and movies to write diversity they don't care about and can't understand. People will campaign for years on twitter trying to add minority characters to (insert fandom here) rather than just, I don't know, buying a book from a minority author? Liberals' idea of "Diversity" is forcing already-famous white creators to write about experiences that are incomprehensible to them and then getting angry when they can't do it right.

 

When I say aggression I don't mean direct attack, like bullying someone who is powerless. That wouldn't be funny. Call it aggression in the name of balance. Laughter is a way to release our tension created by people, situations, or things, even the universe. Like the scene in Netflix's Witcher series where the sorceresses learn that magic is created not from nothing but by drawing and rebalancing energies from the world. The more powerful, serious, and oppressive something is, the riper it is for satire. That's what I mean by aggression.

 

Well it depends. Culturally, there are differences, but Hollywood specializes in stereotypes, so they will lump races into categories. They are bit better about black characters now, but it used to be pretty bad. Jive talking, head bobbing, loud, vulgar, sassy, confrontational, etc. Like almost every black character had to fit this preconceived notion of what white liberal Hollywood thought about blacks and it was frustrating... in reality, people are more similar than different. You should be able to swap any race in a script and have it be okay, as long you're not dealing with specific cultural things.

The thing about diversity is the majority of the world isn't diverse. Whites generally hang with whites, Asians with Asians, blacks with blacks, etc. We are tribal. Even in the big liberal cities, most races huddle together. The occasional black or asian friend is an exception, and vice versa. So this "everything must be diverse" thing rubs people the wrong way because they know it's pure fantasy. Movies and TV are supposed to suspend disbelief, but "woke" actively forces you to acknowledge the fantasy, breaking the suspension of disbelief. The reason is because it has become so politicized. Dragons, demons and sci-fi aliens aren't politicized, so nobody questions those things.

But some of this stuff is necessary. We wouldn't have a black president if Hollywood hadn't made every other movie president in the 90s and early 2000s a black guy. It was conditioning people to accept it and it worked. But it was every OTHER depiction. Not this constant thing. It was measured and precise and effective. This stuff is just overdoing it to the point where it angers people, not unites them. Another aspect is the lecturing part... it's not that everything must be diverse, it's that white people (especially any white male fanboy) must feel guilt and public shame for being white and enjoying stuff. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. It's not enough to elevate the underrepresented, the overrepresented must be destroyed in the process... sins of the father, blah blah blah. MLK would be disgusted. But BLM probably hates him and his "kumbaya/we are one people" thing.

I was never all that bothered by the white guy thing in Hollywood. When I was in film school in LA (Hollywood), out of a class of 40 people... 4 students were black. 2 were women. And that was representative of the school. The vast majority of people trying to make it were nerdy white guys. That was the demographic. And in my time running around Hollywood wannabe circles, the vast majority were white dudes. It is what it is, so it never bothered me. Actors were different, probably a bit more of a diverse crowd, but the behind the scenes part of it was lily white and male in terms of interest. So I never sought to demonize those people for being interested in film. Now it's taboo to even consider them for a job at the studio level... at least until the quota has been filled.

 

I feel like in general a minority group can get away with humor that makes fun of their own group. Blazing Saddles could be made today if say, Jordan Peele made it. Curb Your Enthusiasm has plenty of jabs at Jews and Judaism and it flies because Larry David is Jewish. Just recently there was that Netflix show from the guy who created Blackish that constantly poked fun at aspects of black culture (while also honoring other aspects) and I don't recall any pushback from it.

A really good example of non-forced diversity in a show is The Expanse, which I'm in the middle of watching. Almost all the main women in the show are women of color and it's not really ever mentioned, they just happen to be the main characters. They have their own allegiances and biases because of the politics of the universe in the show, but it's not about their skin color.

 

Impossibility vs. Improbability. Riding dragons and shooting fireballs from your hands OK but that dude in that group? pshhh

Edit: For anyone that didn't get this is an observation about people, I am joking.

 

I'm f'ing not convinced that Blazing Saddles can be made in today's climate. Some of the things the people will flip their shit about:

• A Jewish character playing Redface, that's racist (even if this was poking fun of the practice in older films).
• Stop using the N word.
• After people discovering what the Yiddish Indian Chief is really saying: Stop with this code word racist shit.
• Why it must have a Jewish Co-star? Replace him with another POC.

From my viewpoint Hollywood had elevated Jews to near white people status (oh dear lord why my people are on the same level as the WASPs?), which means Jews are just as bad as White people now. I even have some of my GF friends saying that Hollywood is too White/Jewish, it needs more diversity to show the world this is America. Last time I checked, Curb Your Enthusiasm started in the early 2000s before the woke had taken over. Some shit were grandfathered in and good luck making similar material nowadays.

If I may ask, do you look for diversity in your entertainment?

 

I meant it not as my opinion but as how people are more sensitive to social contexts than breaking the laws of physics.

But to answer your question I honestly like unique stories from cultures and situations I am completely unfamiliar with. I also never watch dubbed, I want to hear the actor's original performance in their native language. But I have never made a decision to watch or not watch something based on if I thought casting was "woke" enough. As has been pointed out, this is generally meant to serve the producers, not the story.

 

I think even Peele would be skewered for making Blazing Saddles today. Woke liberals are starting to eat their own now.

 

It's also worth pointing out you can get away with endless racist stereotypes provided no actual people are cast. Re: Family Guy. Yes, the Simpsons and Apu didn't age so well, but it took awhile before they had to apologize.

 

The question is, if you lightly tweaked Blazing Saddles to reduce the aspects now considered racist, would it be any less funny? Is it funny because of those aspects, or in spite of them?

 

It's a moot point because no one is really trying to make a modern day Blazing Saddles but I think the bulk of that film could be successfully pulled off by a black director with enough clout.

David Baddiel wrote a great, short book on the status of Jews among western progressives called Jews Don't Count. This is a good short summary of his argument:

“A sacred circle is drawn around those whom the progressive modern left are prepared to go into battle for, and it seems as if the Jews aren’t in it,” he writes. “Why? Well, there are lots of answers. But the basic one, underpinning all others, is that Jews are the only objects of racism who are imagined — by the racists — as both low and high status. Jews are stereotyped, by the racists, in all the same ways that other minorities are — as lying, thieving, dirty, vile, stinking — but also as moneyed, privileged, powerful and secretly in control of the world. Jews are somehow both sub-human and humanity’s secret masters.”

When it's convenient, Jews are lumped in with whites, and when it's convenient we're a totally distinct ethnic minority.

 

Around here stop Asian hate was about Asian women being disproportionately represented in traffic. I didn't hear Asian men getting mentioned at all.

 

You say this jokingly but literally last Tuesday night I was sitting watching Avengers End Game with my GF and her 70-something year old dad. In the scene where Capt. America passes his shield to the Falcon, her dad says, "and poof! he turns white!" (obviously, referring to Sam Wilson).

This isn't coming from some horribad person, per Thad's postulations. He's a genuinely nice guy. Votes mostly straight ticket Dem. This shit is kinda baked in. And how am I going to find the strength or compassion to tell a multiple foreign war veteran that his little bad joke is (to me) just the tip of an iceberg of what's systemic about "systemic racism".

I dunno. maybe I'm wrong for keeping my mouth shut. and maybe I'm wrong for not keeping my mouth shut.

 

Normally I only find things that are woke when I watch something. I want to be taken away in a different world in entertainment, and I don't like things that are forced/faked.

On dubbing, on live action films I agree. Anime is a different story.

The only ones who were bitching about Apu were those who were the Progressive Left. A lot of Indian friends of mine (including relatives from my mom side who are from India) thought Apu was funny as shit. They gotten the joke, and they weren't butt hurt about it. It taken about 20 years (which is ten years since the golden age of the Simpsons) before people started to bitch about it.

It wouldn't be Blazing Saddles if it is even tweaked once.

Still have to disagree here, the Jewishness parts of Blazing Saddles really taken it to the next level including the jobs. I believe if it was done by a black director, I'm more worried that it would lose the satire.

David Baddiel wrote a great, short book on the status of Jews among western progressives called Jews Don't Count. This is a good short summary of his argument:

Don't trust the WASPs, this is old news.

 

Sure. But maybe whatever it becomes is even better.

 

Nope, no one can top Mel Brooks on what he did.

 

Amen. No one was safe in 'Brooksville'. All were fair game.

 

I mean...yes. There's a reason it says the n word so often. Because white audience's reaction to the n word is "Wow, what a horrible word! I can't wait to go back to never hearing it again!" which is a luxury that black people don't have. The reason they made sure it was said so many times was explicitly to make white audiences unable to escape the word. That's the whole point. Blazing Saddles isn't just pointlessly offensive. Every single major decision in the movie was made with a great amount of thought to get a specific reaction out of the audience and not only to subvert their expectations, but to critique the expectations of the audience themselves. You can't change any element of the movie without completely throwing the movie out of balance and ruining the point.