Mr. Spinnington
Banned
oh lord this thread..
Michael Bay's thing with black people.
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Finally! Before I came here, I thought they were rednecks too. Not once did the though of the twins being "black" cross my mind.AVclub said:I saw Transformers 2 last night and it was offensive to the senses. Everything in that movie was a caricature. The twins didn't strike me as black stereotypes though. If anything, they were more like the "crazy redneck" stereotype of hillbilly brothers who always fight with each other. More like this:
What you call Ebonics sounded like a southern twang to me. As for the tooth...it was a yellow piece of metal because little Japanese cars don't have any gold parts on them to transform into "gangsta teeth." So it could certainly be a yellow hillbilly tooth.SapientWolf said:
Point is the movie does not say "Look at these robots. They are obviously representing how we think all black people behave." In fact there are black people in the movie who are computer nerds, brave soldiers, and high-ranking military spokesmen. The robots are not black. If you are offended by the way they act, perhaps you need to be more tolerant of white, Southern, inbred culture?
i didn't notice any racism in the movie. People are saying the robots were racist, and yet i didnt even think to assign a color to them, i just thought they were dumb as fuck. what does that say about black people if the first thing they think is these robots are making fun of them? I find it ironic.
I actually thought they sounded like dumb rednecks more than anything.
I actually thought they sounded like dumb rednecks more than anything.
I can understand someone being hesitant to believe that these characters were created with Racist intentions, I personally don't feel that is the case, but to say that they weren't created with Black culture in mind is fucking absurd. They're stereotypes which doesn't automatically mean something is inherently racist, don't worry folks, you can admit that these are stereotypical depictions of an aspect of Black culture without having to say it's racist.
I can´t really comment on their actual behaviour during the movie, because I´ll see it later today for the first time, but how can say that it´s "absurd" not to see them designed "with black culture in mind" when different people didn´t make the same connection as you did?
The only thing they vaguely reminded me of in the trailer were goofy cartoon characters turned into robots. Others thought they´re rednecks.
But if someone assumes they´re black this has to be the real deal, because there HAVE to be racial undertones in everything, right?
The only thing they vaguely reminded me of in the trailer were goofy cartoon characters turned into robots. Others thought they´re rednecks.
But if someone assumes they´re black this has to be the real deal, because there HAVE to be racial undertones in everything, right?
duckroll said:
Trying (and by implication failing) to spam ? Ow.
Anthony Lane's takedown of 'The Mummy' (New Yorker; not online, it seems, but republished in his glorious book 'Nobody's Perfect') for its cretinous representation of Arabs showed that film to be much worse than what Bay seems to have done.
It's also worth mentioning that the names "Mudflap" and "Skids" are terms widely associated with redneck culture. Truckers (where the term "Red Neck" originated) pride themselves on their selection of mud flaps with funny characters or expressions on them. While Nascar fans (which are also stereotyped as rednecks or hillbillies) see skids out on the track all the time.
I can see if the robots were named "Jerome" and "Taywon" or something, that black people could be offended, but if you're looking for intent, I believe the names point to the stereotypes Bay was actually going for.
I can see if the robots were named "Jerome" and "Taywon" or something, that black people could be offended, but if you're looking for intent, I believe the names point to the stereotypes Bay was actually going for.
gutter_trash
Banned
B.K. said:
Bay is horrible with lines... what he believes to be funny to himself is not funny to rest of all of us
just like when Sam's mom blurbs the word "masturbating" in the first movie.... terrible horrible choice of comedy for a movie with kids watching and mega-cringe worthy for mature viewers.
His jokes appeal to nobody
reggieandTFE
Member
gutter_trash said:
Agreed, the entire sequence with the Autobots in the back yard and the noises coming from the bedroom should not be amusing to anyone over the age of six.
gutter_trash
Banned
my co-worker brought his kids to watch the first Bayformers
and his 11 year old daughter asked him "what does masturbating mean?"
talk about an awkward moment for a parent bringing pre-teen grade school children to watch a movie based on a 80s cartoon that never had sexual reference in cartoons/comics for the past 20 years....
all the sudden... Masturbating
because it's Michael Bay
and his 11 year old daughter asked him "what does masturbating mean?"
talk about an awkward moment for a parent bringing pre-teen grade school children to watch a movie based on a 80s cartoon that never had sexual reference in cartoons/comics for the past 20 years....
all the sudden... Masturbating
because it's Michael Bay
I can see why some thought that the twins were "black", but the most part, especially the looks (teeth, big ears, and as AVclub pointed out above, the names - good eye there), I assume that the idea was supposed to be hillbilly hicks - they just were probably hillbilly hicks that were up to the times, I dunno?
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
I thought Michael Bay just was sick of people calling him a Racist after Jazz, and took it up as a personal challenge in Transformers 2 to really piss the PC people off.
Chiggs
Gold Member
Skilotonn said:
I immediately thought they were a black stereotype. I think that most people did, too; and now we have the film's writers passing the blame onto Bay over this? Yeah, I don't think taking the stance that these characters were supposed to be rednecks is the most tenable position.
DrForester said:
Quite possible.
DubloSeven
Member
I'm laughing so fucking hard.Oldschoolgamer said:
Cooning ass robot.
Oh man. I'm dying here.
First off:
:lol You guys are really talking this too far.
Second of all, for the record, as a person who's lived in both Wichita Kansas and Baltimore Maryland, if you confuse those twins with Hillbillys, you are absolutely out of touch with modern culture. Heh heh, seriously, if you can't figure out the differences between
AND
You're pretty hopeless.
I'm personally more upset that other Autobots didn't accompany Sam instead (like Ironhide, Arcee, Prowl??) instead of two bots I've never heard of of being used as comic relief. Furthermore, the idea that Bay uses gimmick characters to deliver comedy instead of *gasp* good writing, pisses me off more than him using Megan's striptease at the beginning to keep me in my seat during a boring, action-less scene... though both insult the viewers intelligence.
Hell, and after all of that... I'm more pissed that they still never call Sam "Spike" and his father "Spark Plug".
I'm not worried about the twins anymore...
At first I was slightly disgusted. Then I shook my head at the overuse of "gangsta speak" or "hood talk" used by the twins, until I realized: If black youth have no problem with the parody of themselves, and are just not bright enough to see an obvious jab and caricature, than well... who cares. I, for one don't. The Huey Freemans of the world would be upset, but not the Rileys (who make up most of the youth this movie is targeting as it's viewers).
So really, why complain? There's far worse going on in this movie than those two robots, like the fact that this movie is one hour way too long.
:lol You guys are really talking this too far.
Second of all, for the record, as a person who's lived in both Wichita Kansas and Baltimore Maryland, if you confuse those twins with Hillbillys, you are absolutely out of touch with modern culture. Heh heh, seriously, if you can't figure out the differences between
You're pretty hopeless.
I'm personally more upset that other Autobots didn't accompany Sam instead (like Ironhide, Arcee, Prowl??) instead of two bots I've never heard of of being used as comic relief. Furthermore, the idea that Bay uses gimmick characters to deliver comedy instead of *gasp* good writing, pisses me off more than him using Megan's striptease at the beginning to keep me in my seat during a boring, action-less scene... though both insult the viewers intelligence.
Hell, and after all of that... I'm more pissed that they still never call Sam "Spike" and his father "Spark Plug".
I'm not worried about the twins anymore...
At first I was slightly disgusted. Then I shook my head at the overuse of "gangsta speak" or "hood talk" used by the twins, until I realized: If black youth have no problem with the parody of themselves, and are just not bright enough to see an obvious jab and caricature, than well... who cares. I, for one don't. The Huey Freemans of the world would be upset, but not the Rileys (who make up most of the youth this movie is targeting as it's viewers).
So really, why complain? There's far worse going on in this movie than those two robots, like the fact that this movie is one hour way too long.
Zoramon089
Banned
Epcott said:
Seriously. I personally didn't find it racist or offensive but if you couldn't clearly see they were supposed to be ghetto black stereotypes then I suggest you get outside and talk to people, because that's the stereotype to the t
Night_Trekker
Member
FabCam said:
It's because we've actually moved to a point in our hopeless culture wherein "you have offended me" equals "you are a malicious racist and the intensity of my indignation proves you to be so," not to mention "as a victim, anything that offends me should be changed or destroyed".
typhonsentra
Banned
I wanna apologize to everyone for thinking they were looking too hard for racism in this movie (I thought they were talking about the ghetto robot from the first movie). :lol :lol :lol
Jesus Christ, that was WAY worse than even the Dumbo crows! At the very least, the actual black people in the movie (The few we saw) were normal (Soldiers) or even intelligent (The one nerd), but I still can't believe I saw what I saw.... did no one raise questions over this during production? Goddamn, that was some Bamboozled shit right thar.
And to those defending this crap saying they're not black stereotypes but white hillbillies, what do you say about the gold teeth?
Jesus Christ, that was WAY worse than even the Dumbo crows! At the very least, the actual black people in the movie (The few we saw) were normal (Soldiers) or even intelligent (The one nerd), but I still can't believe I saw what I saw.... did no one raise questions over this during production? Goddamn, that was some Bamboozled shit right thar.
And to those defending this crap saying they're not black stereotypes but white hillbillies, what do you say about the gold teeth?
cartoon_soldier
Member
Watching the movie its obvious the purpose of these robots was to be "Black".
Sho_Nuff82
Member
Rednecks? I refuse to believe that even GAF is this naive.
Characters with lines such as "Bussin' a cap", "youse a pussy yo", "yo bitch ass", it couldn't be more obvious. I saw this yesterday and it was pretty cringeworthy, even if it did get a laugh out of most of the (white) crowd.
Characters with lines such as "Bussin' a cap", "youse a pussy yo", "yo bitch ass", it couldn't be more obvious. I saw this yesterday and it was pretty cringeworthy, even if it did get a laugh out of most of the (white) crowd.
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