• BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone
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    1 day ago

    It was already said about Troy Mclure. I’m still annoyed that a 3rd rate Indian comedian said “Apu is making us all look bad” Ahh yes Apu who is literally the hardest working person (besides Smithers) Apu a man who had 5 women dating him at one time. A man who got the hottest girl ever (The Squishish girl)… They decided that was offensive and against their race.

    All I’ve got is “OI MISTER PRIME MINISTER” and “900 DOLLARYDOOS???”

    I guess I’m entitled because 900 dollarydoos is fucking hilarious and I love being insulted.

    I have some long lost Scottish heritage (ask the English and the Catholic Church why I can’t look up my history) and I Absolutely love everything about Groundskeeper Willie even his creepy phase of filming couples in their cars… "EVERY SCOTTISH PERSON DOS EET’

    • Etterra@discuss.online
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      1 day ago

      Don’t forget that Apu was an excellent hard-working, small business owning, immigrant father.

    • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Ahh yes Apu who is literally the hardest working person (besides Smithers)

      It’s reinforcing a stereotype. Apu was an interesting character when they expanded him, but he dealt with a lot of stereotypes and had a white guy voicing a fairly stereotypical guy.

      Hank Azaria (or whoever it is voicing him) is cool with it, maybe check out his perspective

      • BigBoyShuanzee@aussie.zone
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        10 hours ago

        Hank Azaria voices many characters and is a very talented guy. I don’t blame him for being uncomfortable voicing Apu

        Apu had so many silly and offensive things towards Indians… But Apu is (As I said in my original comment) a great and wonderful character and is one of the better off characters in the show.

        The only time Apu is a bad guy is when he’s selling expired meat or when he’s cheating on his wife.

        The rest of the time he’s busting his arse and being so damned hard working.

        Groundskeeper Willie is a drunk, hate filled, Scottish borderline serial killer… All okay it’s because he’s Scottish.

        I don’t care either way, I like Apu and I like Willie but I don’t like that a 3rd rate comedian attacked Apu just to get famous and No one cares about the harmful stereotypes of Ellie… I don’t even care… Actually I’m tired of this, I don’t care.

      • Katana314@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m sometimes a bit concerned that I do buy into the “white actors voice them better” trope.

        I think last major instance I recall is Widowmaker from Overwatch. The fake French accent is generally much easier to hear their lines through, and they can build their vocal focus on the “sexy spy” theme.

        It could be just that English actors are better at understanding cultural expectations to build on for their audience. I’ve had a hard time building investment in some characters with certain heavy native accents, which is tricky to think about.

        • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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          18 hours ago

          this whole thing sounds like desert camel music.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR511iAedYU

          Don’t worry, you don’t need to watch the whole thing. He repeats his point multiple times :

          Basically, by catering to generic ideas instead of authentic ones, you are being robbed of cultural exposure and reinforcing biases and simple perspectives you have instead of growing.

          Yeah, when someone does a stereotypical accent you associate with something, it conforms more to your ideas of how your language sounds when made by a foreigner. It doesn’t make you understand what the accent actually sounds like, and WHY it sounds that way. It’s nice for you, because it panders to you, instead of treating you like an adult.

          Also, it’s disingenuous to bring french accents into this, since the main problem is that the stereotypes being presented of ethnic minorities are often used to ridicule them, and deny them prosperity. That’s the difference, the french guy is ,moving from one well of place to the next and people aren’t going to deny him promotions or whatever. However, to Indian people, or children of Indians, patterns of bullying and marginalisation still exist and are exasperated by the stereotypes.

        • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          I think preventing people from playong around with accemts and voices from other cultures is fascist, kills play, and blocks some pathways to empathy.

          i guess we could do genetic testing before casting paid roles so all intended accemts will be allowed.

            • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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              12 hours ago

              By pretending to be someone else you must apply some model of the other in you.

              Did that make it thru your thick, dense, calcified brain basket?

              • Skullgrid@lemmy.world
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                10 hours ago

                Ok, but when you do that as a stereotype you aren’t empathizing with them, you are reinforcing the stereotype of them in your head.

                • postmateDumbass@lemmy.world
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                  4 hours ago

                  You are ignoring the process. If i were to just ape sterotypes i would not call that establishing empathy. The reflection and introspection upon taking a persona, estimating what living conditions were like, walking a mile in their shoes, etc. is what enables the growth.

                  These are things you seem to lack the ability to percieve in others.

                  Which explains this chat.

                  Edits: typos

    • rbos@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I’m pretty sure ‘dollarydoos’ is honourary Aussie now. It was in Bluey.

    • HuePony@lemmy.ml
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      Aside from public remove reason, that character was become boring. I would expected them to remove him anyway

  • Davel23@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    Te be fair, Troy McClure stopped appearing after his voice actor was killed.

      • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        Chef was written out for being a hypocritical scientologist who was fine with trashing everyone up until they put cruise in the closet. They killed him off in a you ain’t ever coming back way. He died two years after they killed him off in the show.

        • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          I think you’re forgetting two key factors here: one is that he suffered a stroke in 2006 and didn’t really do much of ANY work after that. According to one of his 11 sons 3 sons (out of 11 kids, holy shit my dude), Isaac Hayes III:

          Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park; someone quit South Park for him. What happened was that in January 2006 my dad had a stroke and lost the ability to speak. He really didn’t have that much comprehension, and he had to relearn to play the piano and a lot of different things. He was in no position to resign under his own knowledge. At the time, everybody around my father was involved in Scientology — his assistants, the core group of people. So someone quit South Park on Isaac Hayes’ behalf. We don’t know who. … My father was not that big of a hypocrite to be part of a show that would constantly poke fun at African-American people, Jewish people, gay people — and only quit when it comes to Scientology. He wouldn’t be that hypocritical.

          Now whether you choose to believe all that or not is up to you, but the other key factor you forgot to consider is that Scientology IS a cult. From the limited amount of data we’ve been able to gleam from their internal workings, they have a habit of forcing their members to constantly push themselves beyond their limits, regardless of what any medical doctor would advise; because in their warped worldview, all faults or shortcomings, mental and physical, are all just the result of Thetans and can be overcome, regardless of the health of the individual. We have some anecdotes of people who have left with claims that the ‘Chirch’ would use typical cult behaviors that all amounted to increased control over their victims: borderline starvation, massive amounts of physical exercise to promote exhaustion, recontextualizing their worldview to make all this horseshit more acceptable, etc.

          Anyway, my point is, Hayes died at the age of 65 after a recurrence of the previously mentioned stroke and was found lying on the floor next to a still-running treadmill. In my (unprofessional) opinion, Scientology killed him, simple as that. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was deliberate, nor that Hayes was ENTIRELY guilt-free (he did still join them initially), but the fact is that the last several years of his life were almost completely controlled for him and the people behind those decisions clearly put the CoS first and Hayes at a very distant second

          Edit: I originally misspoke and said Hayes had 11 sons. He had 11 children, but only 3 were sons

          • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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            17 hours ago

            None of it was mentioned at the time. It seems more likely it is revisionist history. Which is understandable since its originating from the family. I know what scientology is. As I know what a cult is. A cult is a small unpopular religion. A religion is a large popular cult. Which one hubbards brainfart low grade fantasy fiction falls under is debatable and redundant. He gave up his control and that is on him and only him. Blaming a MLM scheme hiding as a religion for a death is pointless since there was nothing that prevented him from breaking away as others have done.

            • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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              14 hours ago

              If you call that revisionist history, then what do you call the fact that immediately after his first stroke, his PR team (heavily associated with Scientology) tried to claim that he merely suffered from an episode of “high blood pressure and exhaustion” only for the truth to be revealed 6 months later that it was indeed a stroke?

              He gave up his control and that is on him and only him.

              Like I said in my initial comment, he did choose to join them on his own free will, so we’re in agreement there. But I also said that his last few years (i.e. everything post-'06 stroke) was controlled by the Scientologists when he was not in a position to tell them to fuck off, even if he wanted to (which admittedly, would be debatable). They saw an opening and ran with it, that was my point; you’re claiming that he willingly gave up all his autonomy and I simply don’t agree with that. Or at least he was not mentally sound enough to be able to do so, just like how putting rohypnol in someone’s drink doesn’t equal “yes means yes”

              Blaming a MLM scheme hiding as a religion for a death is pointless since there was nothing that prevented him from breaking away as others have done.

              Simply because some have broken ties with the cult doesn’t mean that all members have the same options to break away as the fortunate few. ESPECIALLY if the majority of the people around him, those controlling his perception of the outside world, were actively trying to keep him in. A core fundamental philosophy from Hubbard himself was to draw in as many celebrities as possible for the express purpose of using them to prostelytize his works. Plus, and let’s be frank here, Hayes was not in the prime of his life anymore; he wasn’t so far gone as to be labeled “decrepit” or “on death’s door” at the time of his death, but even if he was living completely alone and didn’t have Church members constantly surrounding/influencing him, it’s hard to say whether or not he would’ve had the opportunity to leave.

              I mean, come on man, the Church literally encourages members to “disconnect” with all aspects and people of their former lives who are not themselves members. It’s also pretty common knowledge that anyone who leaves is not only shunned by the organization (which, if the disconnection was effective) had been the basis for their entire lives for a long time by that point; they’re also contantly harassed, stalked, and occasionally threatened directly from still-current members. Even if those actions aren’t technically ordered to be done by the leaders, they still happen regularly without any condemnation or comment from the top brass. And this isn’t even getting into the multiple deaths they are DIRECTLY responsible for, or the fact that Shelly Miscavige (the wife of the current head of rhe Church) has not publicly been seen ANYWHERE by ANYONE since 2007. Or Operation Snow White in the 1970s where up to 5,000 individual members worked to get jobs in various branches of the US (and Canadian) government for the explicit and stated purpose of covering up Hubbard’s and the Church’s more controversial practices. If they can manage to pull all that shit off and still somehow get away without the most minor of consequences, I’m sure they can manage to draft the equivalent of a Termination of Emploment, convince a perpetually confused Isaac into signing it, and then sending it off to the South Park offices.

              tl;dr You’re forgetting the most important single line from that episode of South Park:

              We shouldn’t be mad at Chef. We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains

              • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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                11 hours ago

                Like I said in the other comment since one comment just wouldn’t do. I see it differently. I know how a cult works. I know how a religion works. Its all pretty much the same.

                I know how the world works and I know how things get retold to flatter someone especially posthumously.

                I see nothing in that Wikipedia article to suggest anything other than revisionist history. Nothing.

                • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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                  7 hours ago

                  Oh my bad, I wasn’t aware you knew everything about the entire world. You do know that revising history is a legitimate, academic practice and should be done when new information becomes available, right? If we only ever took the first accounting of an event and never went back to scrutinize it, then we would still all believe the US Civil War was fought by the South just wanting to defend themselves from the greedy North, or that that the USSR were the sole instigators/escalators of the Cold War, or that Napoleon was abnormally short. None of these statements are true, and it was only by going back and correcting our previous assumptions that we came to those conclusions.

                  Oh also, yeah there are a lot of similarities between cults and religions (and militaries for that matter, but let’s not make this even more messy) and I’m not really trying to defend either of them, but at least when I was being dragged to church as a kid, I wasn’t also forced to never speak to a non-believer again, or only eat bread and water for a week because I couldn’t list the 10 Commandments upon request, or something like that. Every Sunday morning sucked but you know what happened Sunday afternoon? I got to go home and live a normal life again without someone constantly checking on me to make sure I wasn’t breaking the rules in need of correction. You don’t get that freedom in most cults, especially not Scientology; I got to leave my situation without having to live in fear for the rest of my life, most of them don’t get that luxury

      • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Chef was written out because Isaac Hayes lost his shit when South Park went hard on Scientology. They killed off the character well before Hayes died.

        • Rooskie91@discuss.online
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          2 days ago

          IDK What suit your talking about. Isaac Hayes suffered a stroke after the episode aired, and the Church of Scientology released a statement on his behalf. Hayes’ son set the record straight over a decade after his dad died. Here’s the tweet.

          For over 14 years, people have speculated about why my father @isaachayes left South Park. I’m here to set the record straight. My dad did not quit South Park. Scientology did.

          After the episode Trapped in the Closet aired in 2005, my father suffered a stroke just a few months later that left him unable to speak or make decisions on his own. He was not in any condition to resign from anything. The truth is, someone else within his Scientology circle made that decision and quit the show for him.

          He loved being the voice of Chef. He loved the character. He loved connecting with fans. He would joke with people who recognized his voice, and he truly enjoyed being part of the show.

          The narrative that he quit because he was offended by the satire is not true. That was a cover story created by others. My father never got to speak for himself because his health robbed him of that chance.

          So now I am speaking for him. He did not leave South Park willingly. He was forced out by illness and by people who did not have his best interest at heart.

          This is for anyone who loved Chef. This is for anyone who admired my father’s work. This is the truth about what really happened.

          Here is the original tweet. Hayes son has also said this in an interview.

          Hayes previously stated that although he didn’t like those jokes, he got them and still liked being a part of the show. I’m pretty sure South Park made jokes about Scientology before this episode. So why wouldn’t he have left earlier if that was what he had a problem with?

          Here is even more info about it.

          So we can all stop down voting OP for being correct.

          • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            Lol I love how you and I basically made the same arguments against two different people trying to shift blame away from Scientology. It’s almost like nobody listened to Kyle when he said the most important line from that episode aka Matt and Trey talking directly to the audience:

            We shouldn’t be mad at Chef. We should be mad at that fruity little club for scrambling his brains

            • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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              13 hours ago

              Did you read the same page as I did? Because if you actually read the entire section about his departure, it not only mentions the fact that he had his first stroke right before the episode aired (after which he didn’t really do too much of ANY work at all until his death 2 years later from a second stroke) but also that the decision largely stemmed from his entourage, all ardent Scientologists; a group famous for coercing members into disconnecting from everyone outside of the Church upon joining as well as harassing the shit out of them if they ever get find the strength to leave. One of Hayes’ sons even came forth and said that in all the confusion, nobody really knows who made the decision for him to leave, but it was almost definitely someone from that group.

              I mean this is a cult with a long and varied history of doing whatever it takes for good PR, even going so far as to have up to 5,000 individual members get jobs in various branches of the US (and Canadian) government throughout the whole of the 70s for the explicit purpose of covering up/erasing controversial material against Hubbard himself and the Church as a whole (just google Operation Snow White). If they can pull that off and somehow walk away with minimal consequences, I’m sure they could find someone to draft up a “Termination of Emploment” or something and convince/trick/coerce Hayes into signing it.

              • MehBlah@lemmy.world
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                11 hours ago

                Looks like you are triggered and have some vested interest in me seeing it like you do. Trouble is I was around during the whole thing and it was clear hayes stayed out of the episode and his family could have came forward then but didn’t. You see truth in what I see ambiguity. Welcome to the world.

                • TargaryenTKE@lemmy.world
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                  7 hours ago

                  Oh my goodness, it’s my best friend in the whole wide thread! I have to apologize to you, I was just commenting on what I thought was someone else being ignorant but no, turns out you’re the source of both! How funny is that? Well, to save us both some time I’ll try to avoid bringing up the same points twice and then maybe throw in a link to the comment I just posted.

                  1-I’m only triggered in this case because you seem to be one of those people who believe in their own infalliblity above all else. Probably think your own shit smells like roses, etc etc. That attitude disgusts me and that’s all I really care to say about it

                  2-I see, so not only do you claim to know how the entire world works in your other comment, but also in this one you say you were “around during the whole thing” as if you were physically in the various rooms where this whole story took place. Huh, that’s a neat little detail and all… but how do you know I wasn’t there too? That I was also “around during the whole thing” to the exact same extent as you were?

                  3-Just because the family didn’t IMMEDIATELY come forward and present their view doesn’t automatically disqualify it. Revising history is actually a healthy part of the process, etc. See link below for a better argument as to why “they could have come forward then but didn’t” is not the strong closing argument you presumably think it is

                  4-https://lemmy.world/comment/24831324

      • Davel23@fedia.io
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        2 days ago

        No, Chef was removed at the request of one of his family members because of his association with Scientology. Isaac Hayes died two years after the removal of Chef.

      • osanna@lemmy.vg
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        2 days ago

        didn’t isaac hayes have an argument with matt and trey, because hayes was a massive figure in the scientology space, and south park making an episode criticising scientology? that’s what i heard.

        edit: just saw the replies below. Yes, i thought so.

        • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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          2 days ago

          I recall Matt and Trey said he wasn’t all that upset, he just wouldn’t take part in that specific episode. But then after the episode aired there was a falling out. But maybe he had a stroke?

          • osanna@lemmy.vg
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            2 days ago

            I’m not 100% on the deets, but i know there was something about scientology. He did have a stroke though, but that was after the south park/scientology stuff though.

            • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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              2 days ago

              Yeah details are sketchy on this. But from what Matt and Trey have said it was only after the episode aired there was a problem, and it was probably CoS that told him he couldn’t be on the show anymore.

              The episode where Chef is turned into Darth Vader kinda indicates it’s something like this if you read between the lines. Weirdly sad episode because you can tell Matt and Trey missed him and really wanted him to come back.

    • Zozano@aussie.zone
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      Watching this video made me realise that benching Apu was a mistake. Because as a character, he is not punched down on, he is reliably one of the more considerate and nuanced characters in the show. He’s not a Cletus-like character, and the jokes about his Indian heritage are not mean spirited.

      • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        Did you watch the documentary itself, or did you just watch that 45 minute takedown of it presented by a white guy wearing USA flag shorts telling us why he thinks Hari Kondabolu doesn’t understand racism?

        • dillekant@slrpnk.net
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          I did watch the docco, and unfortunately it doesn’t really make it’s case coherently or entertainingly. That’s pretty bad because the creator is meant to be a comedian, and he really should have been able to ruin Shearer’s career but he’s just not all that great.

          As for Apu, the reason he sucks is that he started as a caricature but somehow ended up a main character, and the creators have kind of painted themselves in a corner. Is he meant to be a wacky stereotype like the Italian chef, or are we meant to have pathos, like Skinner? Add that to the fact that there just aren’t many Indians on screen, and you have Apu as mostly the only Indian representation on TV.

          It’s anachronistic, orientalist, and just a bit lame to do jokes like that. Heck, it was lame when they created the character, that’s why the specific note was not to make him Indian, but Shearer did it anyway.

        • Zozano@aussie.zone
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          23 hours ago

          Evidently you dont know Max, he is very self aware, and is a leftist.

          That character you see there on the screen isn’t an animated version of himself, it’s a character - he’s far more pityful than the real Max, and references in this video how his own appearance is going to trigger judgement, as he looks like a skinhead.

          In any case, I don’t need to watch the documentary fully, if its ideas are represented fairly, right?

          So, then, does it present the ideas of the documentary fairly?

          Because you are inferring it doesn’t, even though you likely haven’t watched the video I posted.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        As much as I think Apu is a fine character, hotdiggedydemon went alt-right culture wars a long time ago.

        • Zozano@aussie.zone
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          19 hours ago

          I must’ve missed this? What has he said which made you think about him like this?

          • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            His “eat the rich” video was enough. Honestly, I never liked his old pony.mov videos either. He always seemed like an ironic mlp fan.

              • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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                10 hours ago

                I was there when those pony videos were made. They always seemed more meanspirited than I cared for, but I didn’t think too much of it at the time. Definitely Ren and Stimpy coded.

                His Eat The Rich video is a tired strawmen of leftists. Unless that’s a specific person, which it does a piss poor job of convoying, it’s a broad generalization of everyone on the left calling for political change.

                • Zozano@aussie.zone
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                  10 hours ago

                  Even if I was going to take everything you say as gospel, that doesn’t make him alt-right. You shouldn’t go around accusing people of being fascists when they aren’t.

                  Also, yes, they are Ren and Stimpy coded? Max has a deep appreciation for the artistry of cartoons, much like Egoraptor. Do you understand what the internet was like 14 years ago? It was far edgier than it is now. It says nothing about a persons political affiliation unless they make it aparent.

                  And I don’t consider the Eat the Rich video a strawman of leftists. I believe it’s a commentary on people like Hassan Piker, who talk a big game about communist ideology while living in a mansion.

                  Conversely, it’s an allegory about how money corrupts.

    • Barbecue Cowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      The voice actor maybe felt bad about being a white guy reinforcing indian stereotypes, or maybe felt pressured, but either way decided that he wasn’t going to voice him anymore, and they decided not to replace him and instead just never give Apu a line again.

      • Dookieman12@piefed.social
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        Yeah, all those stereotypes of Indian people being successful business owners, loving husbands, dedicated fathers, and all around decent folks really give the wrong idea about Indian people.

        • skisnow@lemmy.ca
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          not so much; the topic had kind of become a whole thing within the comedy/entertainment circuit on account of Hari Kondabolu making a documentary about it.

          It was a detailed and nuanced discussion about the wider nature of invisible racism, and therefore attracted a ton of kneejerk reactions from people who hadn’t watched it but sure as hell had opinions. In the end it was just easier to let it lie than get tied up in an intractable discussion on whether an Indian person playing up an Indian stereotype for the entertainment of a mainstream audience is still harmful or not

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            2 days ago

            Yep. And Hank Azaria has a fuckton of other characters to voice, and there’s a huge universe, so no Apu isn’t really a show killing problem.

            • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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              1 day ago

              Writing the show while various groups without any sense of humor move goalposts around is what killed the show. Make no mistake, it may still airing, but it’s been garbage for a long time.

              • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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                14 hours ago

                while various groups without any sense of humor move goalposts

                aw did someone ick your yum? did someone say “hey that’s racist as fuck” and were right, so society moved on and it left you back in the 70s rofls?

                various groups without any sense of humor… jfc…

                oops looks like we found the people left behind.

              • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                FORREAL

                I just… sometimes reel when thinking about how long it’s been really bad… like, phoned in, then joked about phoning it in, then cozyed into how lazy it could all be… imho makes a great argument nothing should last 10+ seasons

                • the_xboxkiller@lemmy.zip
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                  14 hours ago

                  I agree. The worst part is how good it was at its peak too. Hard to watch how much of a hollow and soulless production it is now.

  • frog@feddit.uk
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    2 days ago

    What are you talking about. Apu’s right there. Ice got him.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Not sure if serious or not, it’s Pepé le Pew. He’s a rapey skunk and French stereotype (but I repeat myself).

        • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          For anybody not familiar, he was a Loony Tune. His gimmick was he would fall helplessly in love with any black cat who happened to get white paint on her (or possibly his, not here to judge) back.

          Pepé was very…self-imposing. To put it mildly. He would not last long in a “No means no” world.

          But I’d never thought it’d be 1am, and I’d be a 41 year old man proactively explaining horny skunks to kids on the internet who have never experienced it first hand.

          • FatVegan@leminal.space
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            1 day ago

            I just thought about the whole pepe thing last week and i don’t really get it to be honest. I loved looney tunes as a kid, don’t really care for it now, and have no reason to defend pepe at all. But ifeel like removing him was just a weak ass attempt to pretend to be the good guys. He was certainty problematic and all, but that was the whole point. He was never the good guy, or the funny guy. Even as a child i realised that he was scummy and odd. I’m oly going off memory here from a show i watched over 30 years ago, but he was never really endorsed or bugs bunny never told him that he’s cool and he ahould just continue to force himaelf on that cat. He was a caricature of a slimebag that probably every girl and woman at least once in their lifetime encounters. Removing him is just like saying these people don’t exist, don’t worry. I know it’s not that deep, but to me it feels like when they removed the D&D episode from community where señor chan painted his face black because he was a dark elf and then felt good about themselves because they solved racism.

              • BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world
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                9 hours ago

                There is this whole whitewashing propaganda thing, like in a two wrongs and a rights, or visa versa.

                Like, how do you even begin?

                • Jarix@lemmy.world
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                  6 hours ago

                  Sorry to answer a rhetorical question but I think it begins with education and empathy.

                  We don’t care about a cartoon, but if Pepe was a real person, then it’s a lot harder to just say erase them. And we are essentially seeing that with fascists and immigrants.

                  If problems actually exist it would be easier to discard the people causing those problems, than to challenge ourselves by confirming that the perceived problem is actually happening, to them rehabilitate the person causing the problems, and then forgive them for their trespasses. Because this requires risk, effort, and a developed sense of community, not tribalism.

                  It’s not easy to allow people who did “bad things” to walk around your friends, neighbours, family etc, once someone does something that is felt to be across a line. But we can if we learn enough. we can if we care enough.

                  That’s a tall order when the world is in a state of everything sucks, and is getting suckier all the time, we are all having our ability to spend resources, be it time, material, or money, to help those that need it, and also just doing anything that isn’t just trying to take care of ourselves.

                  It shouldn’t be a surprise that when you have the time and means to help a complete stranger, and choose to do so, it makes the world a better place. It makes it harder to build that hate towards strangers or just people that we don’t agree with.

                  But religion and the reigns of power have been in it a lot longer than anyone reading this comment have been alive, and is why building momentum is so necessary to change anything because it has to start pushing against those long held and abused powers, very hard to be a 1 person movement with enough juice to get things done. Possible but incredibly unlikely

            • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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              1 day ago

              Imagine being a little girl growing up watching that. The message is that someone sexually harassing you and refusing to take a “no” is common and normal. Just an annoyance.

              • zarathustrad@lemmy.world
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                1 day ago

                Back then it was common, and if not normal in all places, certainly something everyone just had to “deal with”. However, even some people pushed back against it.

                Unfortunately a major political movement is normalizing it again now. Probably better to remember the trope and discuss it rather than bury it. But, it’s a kids show, so it doesn’t need to be in the rotation in every kid’s constantly running digital baby sitter I suppose.

                • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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                  24 hours ago

                  Probably better to remember the trope and discuss it rather than bury it.

                  I think the way to do that is have it called out on the show. Model that kind of good bystander behavior.

                  Like, right now we have a president that has raped multiple women and children. His appointees and cronies have also raped women and children. It’s critical to be talking to kids about consent.

              • nagaram@piefed.social
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                1 day ago

                I want to believe a kid isn’t so dumb, but its also possible a boy see it and goes

                “Oh wouldn’t it be funny to act like this to my crush?”

                Which just reinforces the whole cycle.

                • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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                  1 day ago

                  Yes, kids are constant emulators, if anything. Except terrible speed and accuracy. Lots of glitches.

                  Sometimes surprising results though. My kid somehow memorized the lyrics to the SSBU song. I thought they were in Japanese until he sung it…but my ears suck especially at her pitch and with her style.

            • Dookieman12@piefed.social
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              1 day ago

              The truth is, he just wasn’t that popular of a character. He had literally one gimmick and it got old, fast. I don’t think I ever heard anyone say he was their favorite. People skipped his episodes so they needed a reason to get rid of him and the whole “me too” thing was a good way to score political points with the public while also getting rid of a one-dimensional character most people didn’t care about.

            • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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              1 day ago

              Pepe wasn’t meant to be a kids’ cartoon. When he was created cartoons ran in theaters before the main movie came on. The jokes were written on an adult level. The Tiny Toons were supposed to be for children. Kind of hard to put a nymphomaniac into a G-rated show.

          • DagwoodIII@piefed.social
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            1 day ago

            I wish I could remember the name of the novel. It’s pretty recent.

            Author and hero are both gay men. The hero is fighting a vampire/zombie/cannibal cult. Book is full of massacres, torture, and about a dozen human sacrifices.

            There’s a trigger warning about bad language at the start of the book.

            • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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              1 day ago

              One of the moms in my wife’s mom-clique…the one everyone talks about behind her back…is super religious (Catholic). Their kids all go to private school.

              They went to go see a movie, I think it was Lightyear, and her daughter (who at 8 is already giving me “this girl will grow up to be a butch lesbian” vibes) asks about the part where a girl married another girl.

              Which, if you ever saw the movie, was a huge deal to the religious right, even though it was literally the tiniest part of the whole movie (and ultimately unnecessary to the plot, which is probably why they made such an uproar over DEI).

              Anyways the mom immediately shot it down saying that girls can’t fall in love with other girls and they absolutely cannot marry each other.

              I feel really bad for that girl. And their older son, who is very likely mildly autistic, an absolutely brilliant kid, but getting a true Catholic school education and will talk my ear off about the great flood. He’s getting pretty suspicious of creationism so maybe there’s hope for him yet.

              But alas, I also don’t want to overstep as a parent.

          • Skunk@jlai.lu
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            2 days ago

            Oh I knew that, I’ve seen it before getting to the age of 43 kiddo :)

            I just never saw the French attitude because I was French (still is), hence the “merde”.

            My name isn’t from that cartoon (Pépé le putois) but from a certain plant… I was a teenager when I choose it. Now that I’m an irresponsible adult I tell people that it’s Skunk the animal and I use cute skunks as profile pictures.

            But that’s a lie, let it be our little secret 🤫