Whew. There's a lot to take in here.
I'm angry about those people being too sensitive! Cool, you do you. They are criticizing Seth McFarlane's film, which is incidentally their job. You can also criticize them. That's speech. Comedians should be at the frontlines of allowing more speech and you trying to shout down others to "help" them is hypocritical at best.
FAKE OUTRAGE, PC CULTURE! It's not fake outrage. Hell, most of the time it's not even
outrage. Pick any of those reviews and you have commentary that someone wrote and then moved onto the next film. People throw around those phrases for feedback and criticism they disagree with. You don't think the joke is racist? Cool. Doesn't mean someone else can't say it is and it doesn't mean they're doing it just to put on a song or dance. Many times, and this may shock you, people believe the commentary they put their name to.
"Movie X is stupid humor" isn't outrage. Changing that statement to "Movie X is stupid racist humor"? Still not outrage. Criticism of those statements as "outrage" at best completely misrepresenting the scope to make your argument easier.
Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today! It couldn't? Adam Sandler's The Ridiculous 6,
which had Native America extras walk off the set, is coming out in 2016. And that probably will be as equal quality as the rest of Sandler's recent output, certainly not up to the standards of Blazing Saddles. MacFarlane himself released A Million Ways to Die in the West
last year, a that was a dire film.
It makes money, so it's obviously good comedy! I was surprised to see this argument here, but I guess we all have our crutches. Financial success does not indicate quality. Repeat, financial success does not indicate quality.
Tammy has a Rotten Tomatoes of 23%. Still successful.
The Other Woman also a Rotten Tomatoes of 23%. Successful.
A Million Ways to Die in the West, 33%. Doubled its budget.
Dumber and Dumber To, 29%. Successful.
Now, perhaps you want to make the argument that you think these were all great comedy films. I doubt it. And once you realize that there can be poor comedy film, these perhaps you'll also acknowledge that comedy can fail.
Comedy is beyond criticism! A joke can fail. And many times, when a joke fails, it reinforces whatever subject it's about. If you fail in a joke about race... your failure will probably come across as racist. That's why we laud great comedians. Great comedians like George Carlin and Louis C.K.
What this quote lacks:
is the acknowledgment of that potential failure. And it happens to comedians. And they'll take their lumps.
George Carlin took his lumps and kept moving. Richard Pryor fought hard for his comedy. Jim Norton has been provocative for over a decade, and his last stand-up special was frontpage on Netflix. C.K. did a great opening monologue on controversial topic on
Saturday Night Live. Archer exists. So why do you think you need to protect comedians from people who dislike their work for whatever reason?
Great comedy is the height of free speech. It crosses lines and boundaries. It gets at the truth. But not all comedy is great comedy.
Not all comedy is good comedy. And your experience with a specific joke or work is subjective and personal. If you don't like a joke, you're allowed to say that. That's not faux outrage, that's you saying you think the joke is poor, the delivery was slipshod, or it even failed to make a salient point. I find most of MacFarlane's work falls into this category. Should I not say that because you might disagree? Of course not. I have as much right to speech as the comedian. Get out of here with that nonsense.
If I don't like a joke in a movie,
I can say that. Why shouldn't I?
No, as pointed out by other, you simply missed the full context of the quote. The quote was in relation to Fry having a debate about a
proposed blasphemy law in the UK and Fry is of course, a staunch atheist. But Stephen Fry is a person who gets offended by things like homophobia and anti-antisemitism, because they directly affect him. Here's him
talking about being offended because some guy said his people had "connections" because they're Jewish. He even mentions that he hates seeing anti-antisemitism in idle commentary....
but he does. The quote lacks the acknowledgement of human experience. That's why it's an empty quote.