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'Ted 2' dogged by claims of racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia

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Well, thanks! This is the kind of criticism I wanna read, more than a general "it's offensive", which to me doesn't have any kind of impact if I don't know whether the actual jokes work or not.

It's stuff like
Mark Wahlberg's continued, unspoken disappointment in being unable to eat the tootsie rolls on the desks of the various lawyers he visits
and
Liam Neeson being deeply concerned about buying Trix because they're for "children" and he's worried he will be followed home or arrested
that make the movie funny. Not the shock value stuff. Although a scene involving Robin Williams and a Charlie Hebdo joke had my entire theater laughing when we maybe shouldn't have.
 

Kain

Member
American Dad picked a better "wacky" character gimmick. Stewies "evil child" gimmick died after the original run, but Roger can be riffed off forever with his disguise gimmick.

Roger is just perfect.

Stewie is great when they mix his gay and evil tendencies, but they usually just go with one or the other as of lately.
 
When you cross the line you;re no longer a comedian, just an asshole.
To you, yeah. Clearly you have a personal bias on that particular topic of transphobia, and that's fair. No one can tell you how to feel.

In comedy, you can't have some things be okay to joke about and others not. Everything can be joked about. Just because you are personally offended by a transgender joke does not make that the line imo.
 

Mesoian

Member
American Dad picked a better "wacky" character gimmick. Stewies "evil child" gimmick died after the original run, but Roger can be riffed off forever with his disguise gimmick.

I mean...both Rodger and Stewie are both Liberace riffs.
 

Kinsei

Banned
To you, yeah. Clearly you have a personal bias on that particular topic of transphobia, and that's fair. No one can tell you how to feel.

In comedy, you can't have some things be okay to joke about and others not. Everything can be joked about. Just because you are personally offended by a transgender joke does not make that the line imo.

No not everything can be joked about. Transphoic shit isn't the only thing either.
 

Carl2291

Member
Seth Macfarlane offends people? I for one am shocked.

It's his thing. A lot of people like it, the original did $550 Million and his TV shows have big followings. If you don't like his comedy, it's easy enough to ignore. The outrage against what he does is quite literally the perfect promotion for his work.
 

Acorn

Member
Roger is just perfect.

Stewie is great when they mix his gay and evil tendencies, but they usually just go with one or the other as of lately.
Yeah another thing that is better is Stan working at the CIA - more stuff to riff off again - whereas Peter's job just disappeared ala Homer cause there isn't many jokes in it.
 

jett

D-Member
I'm offended by how unfunny this fuck is.

Hur hur we spoke pot.

Get it?

Pot.

I said POT.

We smoke it.

LOL right.

But I can't hate on the guy because he's partly responsible for putting the new Cosmos out there.
 
I think this is most likely blown out of proportion, but on the other hand it's also very easy to criticize someone complaining when the subject matter at hand isn't making a mockery of something you hold personal as well.

Yeah, and if every joke that effected something-someone-somewhere found offensive, the joke book would be one page.

Everything is offensive now, and it's, IMO, becoming the "chic" thing to back it. Makes you look "good".

Life is damn hard. Everyone one of us from every walk of life has our own troubles that make it so. The less we laugh, the harder we are making it on ourselves. We are becoming absolutely humorless and have paper-thin skin anymore.

This is still one of my favorite articles on "offensive comedy" by Doug Stanhope.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/guest-commentary/doug-stanhope-on-offensive-comedy-1.1083012

A good video as well regarding Don Imus's racist comments from great, late comedian Patrice O'Neal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vW01Cn_qzj0
 

Mesoian

Member
No not everything can be joked about. Transphoic shit isn't the only thing either.

American Dad picked a better "wacky" character gimmick. Stewies "evil child" gimmick died after the original run, but Roger can be riffed off forever with his disguise gimmick.

This isn't a jab at either one of you, but there are days where I wonder how many people stand up and defend their favorite character from some form of entertainment, not knowing that they are based on racial or sexist stereotyping simply because the thing they are aping is so far removed from modern entertainment.

The Tom and Jerry Mammy thing was something that blew a lot of people away. Makes me wonder how often of an occurrence that is.

This thread would disagree http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=987065 Old but still something that someone will find offensive.

I think the trail of bans that came out of that thread helps her argument more than you think.
 
There's nothing inherently wrong with provocative humor.

It's just that provocative humor needs to be delivered with at least a modicum of intelligence and understanding of the subject it's dealing with. Through the tone and the context of the delivery, it needs to be obvious that it's not coming from a place of pure ridicule or condemnation.

MacFarlane's humor is just so aggressively stupid and careless that he simply fails to complement his crass taste with any clear sign that he understands what he's doing.
 

sensui-tomo

Member
I think the trail of bans that came out of that thread helps her argument more than you think.
Bans happened waaaay afterwards. Not even relating to said thread. Which is why to this day i'm still in utter disbelief that the thread happened the way it did.
except for one comment (which i still never understood )
 

zychi

Banned
Can you imagine the outrage if Blazing Saddles came out today?

It's comedy, everyone and everything gets made fun of in vulgar ways. The great thing is you aren't being forced to watch any of this.
 
I don't want to live in a world where comics can't talk about just about anything, whether on stage, in a movie, a tv show, a book, etc.

Actual comics and not radio hacks.
 

Dongs Macabre

aka Daedalos42
Time to quote my post from this same page.



Also I love dark humor so I'm probably biased... hell I laugh at stupid sounds and almost for no particular reason. Doesn't mean I cant laugh at offensive behavior... Its why the phrase "I'm going to hell for laughing at this" came about, I feel bad about what i'm laughing at, I dont know why i'm laughing at it, but I am. Doesn't mean i agree with the joke either.

There's a big difference between what comedians like George Carlin do, and what Seth MacFarlane does. Crossing the line doesn't mean relying on dumb stereotypes and edgy jokes.
 
Nope. Ted 2 isn't being shouted down, either. Shouted *at* and shouted *down* are two completely different things.

But there's a lot of stuff currently airing, a lot of stuff that's come out on stage and in theaters, that does what Blazing Saddles did to varying degrees, that doesn't catch the shit MacFarlane's caught, and there are reasons for that, and most of them come down to MacFarlane's inability to deliver a punchline that doesn't aim for your shins instead of your chest or your chin.

It's basically a matter of how well satire can be applied and understood, and often, MacFarlane's idea of satire doesn't go any deeper than "see that weird thing that doesn't look or act like me? Isn't that weird? Let's poke at that for a second and then move on."

He's a 90s/early 2000s-era shock jock. That's all there really is to him, comedically. Every 15 minutes you could throw to a Nickelback song and a Disturbed cut followed by a credit commercial, before cutting back to the story with no harm done at all.

I agree with this a hundred percent. I'm sure one of the largest issues with this is that the jokes simply aren't going over well with the audience. And when an offensive joke isn't funny, it becomes just offensive.
 

Carnby

Member
Fake outrage America? Please, go on and reveal your true thoughts, I want to hear about what else you think people are overreacting to since racism/sexism/transphobia isn't a big deal. Jokes are supposed to be funny and Seth hasn't been for a decade, now he relies more and more on shock 'humor' that mainly appeals to preteens.

The fake outrage over a specific episode of Game of Thrones is another good example.
 

Acorn

Member
This isn't a jab at either one of you, but there are days where I wonder how many people stand up and defend their favorite character from some form of entertainment, not knowing that they are based on racial or sexist stereotyping simply because the thing they are aping is so far removed from modern entertainment.

The Tom and Jerry Mammy thing was something that blew a lot of people away. Makes me wonder how often of an occurrence that is.



I think the trail of bans that came out of that thread helps her argument more than you think.
Why because Roger is flamboyant? Is every Nathan Lane character ever homophobic?
 

Kain

Member
This is still one of my favorite articles on "offensive comedy" by Doug Stanhope.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/guest-commentary/doug-stanhope-on-offensive-comedy-1.1083012

Well, he actually hits the nail in the head with the example he uses: let's say the guy makes a joke about someone with down syndrome: a mother with a down syndrome kid in the audience complains because she feels offended. Then he makes a joke about drug abuse: a woman whose sister died of drug abuse feels offended. Would the woman of the down syndrome kid be offended by the drug abuse joke? That's everything that is to it.

People getting offended means nothing, it's their problem, not the problem of the comedian. One needs to learn to laugh of and at himself, if not you become a humorless twat. Hell, I've been fat all my life (now I'm better, thanks) and I have always loved fat guys jokes. Let people have some humor and laugh at what they want, goddamnit.
 
America can no longer take a fucking joke.
Should have been the first post.
Fake outrage America? Please, go on and reveal your true thoughts, I want to hear about what else you think people are overreacting to since racism/sexism/transphobia isn't a big deal. Jokes are supposed to be funny and Seth hasn't been for a decade, now he relies more and more on shock 'humor' that mainly appeals to preteens.
Well, I'm sure this movie is about to make plenty of money... soooo I'm pretty sure he's funny.
 
I agree with this a hundred percent. I'm sure one of the largest issues with this is that the jokes simply aren't going over well with the audience. And when an offensive joke isn't funny, it becomes just offensive.

So offensive jokes are only passable when well crafted?

Its all or nothing. If we are playing be these rules, and asked everyone "Is this offensive joke high-brow enough for you to chuckle at?", and went down rows of people and ditched the joke at the first no that was received, because heavens forbid, we don't want to "offend" ANYONE.... we would have no jokes.

No one, including you or I, has the right to NOT be offended. Lots of people enjoy Seth MacFarlane's comedy... and those people should go and enjoy his movie. If you don't like it, dont go.
 

Kinsei

Banned
Well, he actually hits the nail in the head with the example he uses: let's say the guy makes a joke about someone with down syndrome: a mother with a down syndrome kid in the audience complains because she feels offended. Then he makes a joke about drug abuse: a woman whose sister died of drug abuse feels offended. Would the woman of the down syndrome kid be offended by the drug abuse joke? That's everything that is to it.

People getting offended means nothing, it's their problem, not the problem of the comedian. One needs to learn to laugh of and at himself, if not you become a humorless twat. Hell, I've been fat all my life (now I'm better, thanks) and I have always loved fat guys jokes. Let people have some humor and laugh at what they want, goddamnit.

A joke about a drug addict is nowhere near the same level as telling a group of people with a 41% attempted suicide rate that they're wrong and reaffirming the views of the society that drove them to attempt it in the first place.

No I won't let people laugh at whatever they want without calling them on their shit if it's offensive.
 

andthebeatgoeson

Junior Member
Can you imagine the outrage if Blazing Saddles came out today?

It's comedy, everyone and everything gets made fun of in vulgar ways. The great thing is you aren't being forced to watch any of this.
Let's not compare the two. Seth is real lazy. Nothing about blazing saddles was lazy. Seth could use a better writer.
 

Kain

Member
A joke about a drug addict is nowhere near the same level as telling a group of people with a 41% attempted suicide rate that they're wrong and reaffirming the views of the society that drove them to attempt it in the first place.

No I won;t let people laugh at whatever they want without calling them on their shit if it's offensive.

No? Where is this so called limit? You impose the limit based on your life experience or beliefs? Is there a code or something?

Again: thin-skin and lack of sense of humor. Try laughing at yourself and your problems, no matter how bad they seem to you, it feels good.
 

Kinsei

Banned
No? Where is this so called limit? You impose the limit based on your life experience or beliefs? Is there a code or something?

Again: thick-skin and lack of sense of humor. Try laughing at yourself and your problems, no matter how bad they seem to you, it feels good.

How the hell would laughing at someone calling me a man make myself feel good? That kind of shit is the reason I tried to kill myself when I was 10.
 
Offensive jokes need to be well crafted in order to work as jokes. Otherwise it comes across not as humor, but as pure ridicule.

Jokes, period, tend to live or die on their delivery. Anyone suggesting you don't have to know how to load and fire the gun in order to hit the target isn't making sense.

Not to say people can't fumble with a joke and boot it in the general area, or that people can't just repeat something funny that someone else said and get a facsimile of the original response. But usually, anyone trying to be funny can only succeed at it if they have a working understanding of how to deliver a punchline.
 
Offensive jokes need to be well crafted in order to work as jokes. Otherwise it comes across not as humor, but as pure ridicule.

So who is the judge on what jokes are "well-crafted"? You may love the fuck out of a joke a comedian is delivering on stage, but the guy next to you might think it's "pure ridicule". And same going the other way. Do you trash these jokes every time someone feels the an offensive joke just wasn't put together well enough?

EDIT: Removing as it's derailing the topic at hand. I
 
I like Seth to some degree. I'd say he's hit or miss with me. When his jokes fall flat, I don't see them as offensive, I just don't laugh and then I move on. I grew up on great comedies such as Blazing Saddles, Animal House, and love shows like Beavis and Butt-head and South Park. I'm able to separate the fiction from what's reality. That is what it is really all about. If we cannot poke fun at the absurdities of life such as race/religion and sex, then there will not much to joke about and we'll essentially be North Korea.

I didn't find anything I saw in the trailer for Ted 2 particularly funny.
 
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