The New "Am I the Only One" Thread

No, but I'm sick of it for two different reasons...

1. There really is no such thing as political correctness, because just look at what's on TV today, there's so much garbage that you can actually get away with on TV today that would have made people die of heart attacks back in the 50s and 60s.
2. When people incorrectly, yet unwittingly intentionally say the opposite is "Un-politically correct"... what happened to grammar? Does it not occur to these people that they sound un-educated saying "Un-politically correct"? Does it not cross their minds that perhaps the proper way to say it is "Politically INcorrect"?

That's not political correctness by any stretch of the term. That said, What we can get away with on television is so incredibly arbitrary. You still can't kill anyone on kid's television (bullcrap), you can show commercials for Cialis and KY, but you dare ask for a PSA about condoms and it's considered high treason, and the most violent sexual acts are mentioned in crime drama shows as a way someone can get killed. Yet, when any show adds a gay character, for the longest time, everyone was up in arms. Thankfully only "family" associations whine about that now... and since we're seeing less and less Jar Jar Binks flouncy stereotypes, they look like complete Neanderthals when they try and make up some lame excuse about how detrimental to society they are.

Still, I don't mind the fact they can get away with that much more on television. Like I've said, all the kids I knew growing up were closer to their portrayals in South Park than in Arthur, saying dirty, filthy, nasty things. If you don't want your kid exposed to that stuff, home school them. They made AIDS jokes when they were 8.

As for true P.C., it's basically NOT calling an African American the N word in their face and making bucktooth stereotypes of Pan-Asians ("we can't tell the cultural differences between Japan and China, so they're all the same in our mind... DUUUHHH"). I'm glad we have that sort of thing around.

That kind of stuff is politically correct. Or at least it's not incorrect. Political correctness is not about being rational, heh.

I have to say again, WHAT was Lucas thinking???

And I wish I could agree with you DrTooth but as long as Jersey Shore remains popular I think we sadly have a long way to go as a culture.

Reality TV is only watched by those who think they're watching it ironically. No one enjoys the show, they just wanna watch a trainwreck. And it's the WRONG way to go about that. MST3K taught a generation that the TRUE train wrecks are over the top movies that are so insanely stupid, you have to watch them to make fun of them.
But those who watch Reality Tv ironically are like people who buy books to burn them. They've already paid for them, the company doesn't care what they do with them, they have the money. Just replace everything applicable with ratings.

Still, I'm in the middle with scripted television... I think some things go too far, others just don't go far enough. I'm ready to hear an F bomb on prime time television. I WANT to hear an F-bomb on primetime television. Why? The internet has desensitized everyone of the F-Word. Angry Video Game Nerd? Dude says the F word every 2 seconds. Every nerd based blog has the F-Word a million times in it. People use the F word as a casual adjective now. How come we have crime shows where someone gets violated in a way only the deepest darkest pornos have, but we can't even say the F word, or it's Irish cousin, the F word that replaces the U with E? I actually like that one better.

As for what they couldn't do in the old days... I LOVE classic TV. I respect the heck out of classic television. I Love Lucy never fails to get me to laugh. But when I look at what they couldn't get away with, I'm actually mortified. I don't get it. Separate beds? I know that the 1950's were all about safeness and conformity, but did we really want the Russians to think that married monogamy was a sin and we love to perpetuate the lie of babies coming from Cabbage patches? Who was that for? Little Sidney knew that his parents shared a bed.

Remember that over-circulated clip on the internet of the Flintstones?


Yeah... they didn't pull the ads because the PC monsters made cigarettes illegal to advertise on television (they were well after that), Wilson Cigarettes pulled sponsorship because Wilma was pregnant... that was considered high treason to show such wonton acts of FREAKING reality. I'm SOOOO glad that era is over. Something that was that provocative is now safe enough for Sesame Street and Arthur. Now kids can actually relate to their mother having another child... you know, like a society that doesn't live in the stone age. Sigh... if only we were that open to death. We need more depressing dramatic cartoons like the Japanese.

On the subject... I'm SO glad superheroes can go back to fisticuffs. Superfriends is, while funny to watch ironically, completely embarrassing to someone who grew up watching the Bruce Timm Batman TAS. Especially those freakin' Wonder Twins.

Yes but at the same time, there is a double standard. Some offensive stereotypes are forbidden, others are tolerated.

Well it was the remnants of the movie industry's Hays Code, which was responsible for movies of the 1940s being so censored (implying love making by smoking cigarettes etc.). Movies before then were actually pretty risque and the industry started getting nervous.

Interesting trivia, according to the documentary The Celluloid Closet. Prior to the Hays Code, you could see characters in films that were clearly intended to be homosexual and surprisingly very similar to what you see on TV today (Queer Eye, etc.). But after the Hays Code was implemented, gay characters could only be portrayed as sinister, foreign bad guys (i.e. Joel Cairo from Maltese Falcon).

There's a brilliant comic strip, I think the name was "Secret Asian Man," that basically said that you can make fun of Europeans and no one will be offended, but Asians and African Americans are off limits. All I'm sayin'.

Still... I don't want you all to go down the rabbithole, but...

If you really want to take the red pill, go to the actual page for this clip...



Read the comments.

It's obviously a racist caricature that was okay for the time because no one complained.

The comments are so far more offensive than that caricature could ever be, mostly written by stereotypes of cro-magnon far right crazies who claim that everyone who thinks it's racist is gay, apparently... you know, because everyone who's to the left of crazy militia that lives in the woods out of fear that the guv'ment is taking away their guns is gay and infringing on the right for them to love old stereotypes because they're SO devolved, that they think the laziest humor of the 1900's is still funny. And not in the ironic Family Guy offensive to be offensive cutscene way.

People who comment on Youtube are the scariest members of society. They'd say Coal Black and De Sebbin Dwarfs is perfectly correct, rationalize it saying they kinda know one guy who's black, and then say something really offensive to people who find it offensive.

GAW! Really... REALLY?!?!

Actually I don't even think Asians are off limits. In college a friend of mine did a report on how it's still pretty common to see stereotypes on TV and movies. Either that or you barely see them at all.

I love it when you take over a thread.

*Sits back and munches on popcorn*

That's the other side of the coin. Hollywood does have a bit of racism in it still, even unintentional ones that tend to cast certain races as the same roles.\

HOWEVER... like I've said, when not white people want to get representations in media, they basically want obsequious characters stripped of character flaws, personality, and anything deemed offensive to basically have a character of a certain race played as a boring white guy.

I remember some Asian guy on some forum I refuse to go back to literally whining about we shouldn't even do Kung Fu based programs and movies anymore, EVEN when there's NO Asian stars in the project. Even whined about Hong Kong Phooey when the main character was voiced by African American Scatman Crothers, and there was never an Asian character in the series at all. Heck, half the animation team was Asian American (including the great Iwao Takomo... I hope In got that name right). He then went on to whine about Chop Socky Chooks and Kung Fu Panda, and Hiro from Heros (who is apparently a stereotype for just existing).

While the Youtube commentators are clearly insensitive cro-magnons that think Big Liberals are going to come and force their women out of the kitchen, depriving them of their sammiches, that other guy is so incredibly sensitive to think a specific genre of action is a minstrel show and that it's tantamount to blackface when someone not Asian is doing it that he couldn't sleep on a pile of mattresses with a pea under one of them.

That's the two extremes that annoy me. Those who don't care, and those who freak out at the sight of ethnicity in an ethnic character.

That's the other extreme. Though just as often it's white people making these decisions, in an attempt to ease guilt.

Yeah. They're afraid to get letters because when you get like 5 letters, and according to Family Guy's shockingly realistic estimation, 1 letter equals a billion letters, so they got 5 billion letters. Everyone's so incredibly afraid of offending some doofus group, that they have to make these lame, flat 1 dimensional anti-stereotypes that o out of their way to not be offensive, but turn out to be bland and forgettable. It's like when Scott Adams got so many complaint letters about how women were portrayed in Dilbert, he created the exact opposite of a female stereotype... then he was accused of making fun of lesbians.

That's the difference between left wing and right wing racism. The left is so afraid of offending someone, that they become ridiculously nervous and or (my personal favorite) find racism in everything unintentional (not old cartoon clips, though... stuff that's trivial and makes no sense), while the right just doesn't care. It's like one is painfully holding in its gas and making those weird silent burp hiccup things, and one just farts around and smiles about it. They BOTH have gas, they're both racist.

*Continues to munch on popcorn*

Well we're both such fascinating people, hehe.

Lol, that there is the precise definition of "You Can't Win." Lol

EXACTLY!

Still... those who relish in loving the old school stereotypes, and not even in an ironic way are truly frightening people.

I say this as an animation student/fan/obsessive person... Looney Tunes Golden collection is for the collectors, and therefore they should be uncut for historical/collectors reasons. But any kiddy version of Looney Tunes (and I say this as a wiser adult) has to be edited. I mean, sure... I grew up watching local syndicated packages that kept the racist stuff in tact and I turned out fine... ish... but it's a dark portion of humanity that's best left to when kids are older and know historical backgrounds of these. But at the risk of sounding hypocritical... I did kinda like the racist Japanese character in that horrible Dick Tracy show. You know, the one that didn't really have Dick Tracy anywhere in the episode, except at the beginning and end. I've learned to understand that it's wrong on so many levels the most being that the original Dick Tracy comics are a Jumpin' Jillion times better than that piece of crap....

Still, I'm glad kids aren't exposed to that sort of thing.

Though I also have to say, Disney has its head up its mouse tail for pretending that Song of the South doesn't exist (except for that ride in Disney world... and the fact they use Zipadee Doo Dah on sing along videos... and basically acknowledge the fact the characters besides Uncle Remus exist). But I wouldn't want to see it on sale at Target next to the Wow Wow Wubzy videos. If they had a serious animation collector website, they should sell the DVD as an exclusive.

Am I the only one who dislikes overcast weather? I'd rather it be a completely sunny day, or a completely cloudy day... Mother Nature, please make up your mind, choose one or the other.

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Yep. It's just you.

Dude, send it HERE. I'll take it.

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Like I propagandized... Freaking weathermen were talking about our "rain defect" and now it's going to rain for a freaking week.

Am I the only one who can't sleep on my back at all? I know we're supposed to (at least that's what some doctors say), but I just absolutely cannot sleep on my back, it doesn't even feel like a sleeping position to me for some reason... I can sleep on my sides with no problem, my stomach isn't much different from my back, but somehow it's easier to fall asleep on my stomach than it is my back.

Totally. I can only sleep on my right side or stomach. I think it partially has something to do with my sinuses because I feel like I can't breath when I lay on my back.

I have one of those foam beds (mainly because the last time I had a spring mattress, it freaking tried to scratch me to death), and they're supposed to be wonderful if you sleep on your back. I CAN'T. Every so often I'll sleep on it wrong, and get HORRIBLE back pains for it. One time, it was so bad, I had to try to sleep on my back for several nights, and couldn't sleep at all.