You Ever Notice...and What's the Deal...

[mr3urious]

Happens all the time with Japanese speakers. They don't have a V sound, so they resort to using B sounds. Same goes for the L sound.

 

[D'Snowth]

I remember one time I was at a Chinese restaurant, and on the buffet, they had breaded crab claws, but the little sign actually said "crab craws", I kid you not.

 

[beatnikchick300]

how come the light skinned african american women you see on tv are seen as classy and well manned and dark skinned african american women you see on tv are seen as un classy loud and have no manners ? and how come in some eddie murphy movies the dark skinned african american woman is the evil one where the light skinned african woman is the good one ?

Unfortunately, this mindset is one that's been around for a good while (that light-skinned black people are more "acceptable" than those with darker skin; even some black people have internalized it-hence the existence of things like skin-lighteners). It's sad.

 

[Drtooth]

YES. I always see some yogurt commercial (Yoplait? Dannon?) with that annoying tag, seems like whatever channel I watch it's on there.

And it's not just one commercial. If it was one, I wouldn't notice or care. But there's just so many of them. The only one that kinda makes sense is a Progresso ad where "OH" is an actual tagline they keep repeating "OH!" As in OH, look at how little calories this thing has per serving and Oh, I fit in a dress.

 

[Drtooth]

UGH! I just saw a freaking Progressive Ad that used the same "Oh oh oh oh" music. At least they staggered it and shook it up with a few "na na na nas."

 

[minor muppetz]

Could the light-skinned/dark-skinned thing be "truth in television"? I don't know the races of anybody here, but when it comes to black women I know, the light-skinned ones seem to be more pleasant while the darker ones seem like they have attitude problems. Or maybe it's just a coincidence.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was just watching The Brady Bunch Movie, and noticed near the end credits, it actually listed who originally played the kids. Why was this needed? Are there any other movies based on TV shows to acknowledge who originally played the main characters? In fact four cast members (though it's not just the kids) had roles in the movie (and I've heard that two others appear in deleted scenes).

And speaking of The Brady Bunch Movie, I've always been confused as to why the Brady's didn't realize they owed so much tax money, especially since they say they always pay their taxes. People (and by people I mean websites) say that it's because their mail and the neighbors mail gets mixed-up, but we see the neighbors give back their mail when the Brady's do at the beginning, so wouldn't they normally bring back each others mail (even if Mr. Dittmeier hates them?). It seems they should have gotten tax notices much earlier, I'm assuming long before Mr. Dittmeier decided he wanted them to move so a mall could be built on the property. The mail mistakenly gets delivered there, but it looks like the only time he does anything illegal involving mail is when he opens their final notice letter, after noticing the envelope says "final notice".

And on TV Tropes, it says that Cindy finds out early on that he had been stealing their mail and tries to tell her parents, who stop her because they think she's tattling, but no such thing happens in the movie, unless I missed something. As far as I know, Cindy goes to the neighbors house, after coming home tells her parents some things she overheard that aren't exactly tattling but not really things needed to share, Carol points out that that's their neighbors business... If there is a scene where Cindy finds out and tries to tell her parents, I'd like to know when it occurs.

And what's the deal with the neighbors thinking they'd be screwed over if the Brady's didn't move, and after deciding to stay remark that they'll sue Dittmeier? The neighbors were paid, right, or expecting payment? If they hadn't already been paid to move and want to stay then they should just not pay their money. And if they're happy to stay they shouldn't want to sue (though it seems implied that one reason they were staying was just so they can sue). I don't know if having to give them their money back for deciding not to move would be a legal option or not.

Have you ever noticed it seems like if there's two letters in the English alphabet that are easily to mix up, phonetically, it's 'B' and 'V'? Both Ed and I have had experiences with this, such as until it was spelled out for him, he thought Abelardo's name was Avelardo; similarly, I remember thinking Valerie Bertinelli's last name was Vertinelli, until I actually saw her name on the screen for the first time. It's interesting too, because you'd think with two different sounds ("Buh" and "Vuh") that they wouldn't be so hard to mix up, and they're really not alone, but you put them in words or names, and I guess the way people say them, it's easier to get them mixed up.

Besides thinking B and V sounded similar, I used to think H and S sounded similar.

Of course, in that scene from A Muppet Family Christmas where Ernie and Bert talk to Doc, I kept hearing different letters they were saying, and was confused. I thought Bert said "Did you know that Doc starts with the letter B?", and Ernie said "and true starts with the letter D!" (I can't remember if I heard right on Ernie saying that bunk beds was a "B word" or if I heard that as "D word").

 

[beatnikchick300]

Could the light-skinned/dark-skinned thing be "truth in television"? I don't know the races of anybody here, but when it comes to black women I know, the light-skinned ones seem to be more pleasant while the darker ones seem like they have attitude problems. Or maybe it's just a coincidence.

Hmmm...not sure how to respond to this (being a light-skinned black woman). A lot of women (of every ethnicity) who seem to have "attitude problems" actually don't; they just seem to, because they feel they have to be tough, or put up a tough front, to protect themselves (for some of them, this mindset might not be without justification, such as from past experiences).

 

[Drtooth]

Cultural things that those outside the culture don't understand is another thing.

Though I will agree there's something up when lighter skinned characters are used as the more attractive ones in these kinds of films. That's pretty unfortunate implications right there.

 

[D'Snowth]

I guess all those people who claimed that Cheerios commercial with that little girl who had a white mother and a black father was evil and Satanic are probably shitting their pants now that we have this Swiffer commercial with a one-armed white guy and his black girlfriend/wife/significant other.

Admittedly, where I live, it is certainly not uncommon at all to see a black guy-white girl couple, however, very rarely do I ever see the reverse where the guy is white and the girl is black... I remember an episode of TRADING SPOUSES where a relatively lax white guy was married to a very religious black woman.