The stupidest censorship I’ve seen like this is Community’s first DnD episode. Chang dresses up as a drow and that is considered “blackface” even though they address it in the episode that he isn’t black but a drow. So goodbye episode on streaming.
Do you think this isn’t an obvious reference to blackface? The joke doesn’t make sense if blackface had never been a thing, so it’s a joke about blackface. And that’s bad.
Community is my favorite show and this episode is fantastic. But pretending it’s not blackface just because “he’s actually a drow!!!” is so stupid.
It is a setup to a joke about how anything vaguely similar to a terrible thing is assumed to be the terrible thing, and that Change is too clueless to catch on.
The drow makeup is not blackface any more than black face camo is blackface.
You’re right but it seems like most people still missed that as the majority of comments think the joke is that it isn’t blackface (rather than very clearly too close to blackface and Chang, somehow, not registering that).
The joke wouldn’t work as well if they did that. They joke about blackface, so you need black. This doesn’t look like a black person does anyway, so I don’t see how gray would make it better.
Yeah, making a racist, bad take joke was so worth it. It surely wouldn’t have made Shirley look out of touch that way, making a different joke that wasn’t as SUPER EDGY.
Cast member Yvette Nicole Brown mentioned that it did not seem the joke was understood by those criticizing it, as there was context that in her view made it different from blackface.
The joke was that it was a passing resemblance, Shirley makes an assumption, and everyone else moves on because it isn’t actually blackface. This is very different from the other shows like 30 rock and always sunny where the characters were in actual blackface while mocking blackface. I still think those shouldn’t have been removed since they were mocking blackface, but this is completely different.
The joke is that Chang’s character is in Drow makeup, and because Shirley is out of touch with games, she thinks that the Drow make up is blackface.
The depiction of the Drow makeup has chosen an “ambigious” shade of black/grey that made it seem to some viewers or people who want to see it that way , as blackface, in real life, not as a character in the show. This caused problems.
The suggestion, is that if they chose grey or some other ashy shade , and or gone more elaborate with the make up, like red contacts, or pointy ears, they could have done EXACT joke, but made it not “ambigious” and avoided the heat that the episode has actually gotten.
I would even say that having a LESS blackface looking make up would further accentuate Shirley’s out of touchness, making it funnier, as it would be more ridiculous that A) She would think that make up is blackface and B) Shirley thinks that’s what Chang thinks making himself look like a black person would entail, red eyes and pointy ears and a non human shade of darkness.
Furthermore, expanding on my other point which was not adressed in your post :
I guess I’m out of touch with the race politics jokes of 1890s, so the parody seems out of time for me.
Maybe if they threw in a tin pan alley, player piano or travelling curio joke, I’d have gotten it a bit better.
What the fuck are it’s always sunny et al doing making fun of this outdated shit in the first place? Did they get that mad at Spike Lee making Bamboozled and using blackface as an analogy of people acting up to stereotypes to get ahead in life , that they had to address it as a commentary on blackface, an “artform” from the 1890s as a target?
The suggestion, is that if they chose grey or some other ashy shade , and or gone more elaborate with the make up, like red contacts, or pointy ears, they could have done EXACT joke, but made it not “ambigious” and avoided the heat that the episode has actually gotten.
That is the kind of mindset that leads to banning any mockery of a thing because it contains anything close to the thing, because you don’t understand nuance.
What the fuck are it’s always sunny et al doing making fun of this outdated shit in the first place?
Reminds me of how that musician Michael Jackson did whiteface 😮💨 I was beyond offended, we need to address behaviour like this more often, absolutely deplorable.
Michael Jackson had a skin condition called vitiligo, which causes patches of skin to lose their pigmentation, resulting in a lighter skin tone. He used makeup and skin-lightening creams to manage the appearance of his skin, which led to public speculation about his changing appearance.
He never did “whiteface”, his face was literally white.
The stupidest censorship I’ve seen like this is Community’s first DnD episode. Chang dresses up as a drow and that is considered “blackface” even though they address it in the episode that he isn’t black but a drow. So goodbye episode on streaming.
I mean, I guess if you’re a drow and see this, you might be offended.
Not because it’s drowface, but because it’s a human, therefore not drow, and thus is beneath the drow.
They kind of have an extreme isolationist, and borderline racial superiority thing going on.
But they are also praying to a giant spider and kill their own children, so not exactly nice people.
Oh, man. A Drow in a long-sleeved Guayabera. That’s an insult to my Cuban heritage. Keep it banned. /s
He’s one of those weird seldarine drow that hangs out with the humans.
That’s subversive and funny for all of the right reasons.
They managed to take corporate money for product placement in a pretty funny way, too.
Community is great at that.
And they even clown on those who think it is blackface
Literally one of the first reactions.
Whoever thinks black people look like that is racist
Not offensive, but fucking terrifying!
Do you think this isn’t an obvious reference to blackface? The joke doesn’t make sense if blackface had never been a thing, so it’s a joke about blackface. And that’s bad.
Community is my favorite show and this episode is fantastic. But pretending it’s not blackface just because “he’s actually a drow!!!” is so stupid.
It is a setup to a joke about how anything vaguely similar to a terrible thing is assumed to be the terrible thing, and that Change is too clueless to catch on.
The drow makeup is not blackface any more than black face camo is blackface.
Haven’t seen the episode, but it seems clear they’re making fun of blackface.
You’re right but it seems like most people still missed that as the majority of comments think the joke is that it isn’t blackface (rather than very clearly too close to blackface and Chang, somehow, not registering that).
they could have avoided this crap by just choosing grey. drows and variants come in various shades. it’s so fucking stupid
The joke wouldn’t work as well if they did that. They joke about blackface, so you need black. This doesn’t look like a black person does anyway, so I don’t see how gray would make it better.
Yeah, making a racist, bad take joke was so worth it. It surely wouldn’t have made Shirley look out of touch that way, making a different joke that wasn’t as SUPER EDGY.
I’ll bet you don’t understand Tropic Thunder’s humor either.
I guess I’m out of touch with the race politics jokes of 1890s, so the parody seems out of time for me.
EDIT : Maybe if they threw in a tin pan alley, player piano or travelling curio joke, I’d have gotten it a bit better.
Well, the first problem is that you think the Drow makeup is blackface or that Shirley being out of touch is a bad thing. Shirley’s character was out of touch initially and she developed over time as part of her character arc. Yvette Nicole Brown knew it wasn’t blackface and that the joke went over some people’s heads.
The joke was that it was a passing resemblance, Shirley makes an assumption, and everyone else moves on because it isn’t actually blackface. This is very different from the other shows like 30 rock and always sunny where the characters were in actual blackface while mocking blackface. I still think those shouldn’t have been removed since they were mocking blackface, but this is completely different.
OK. Let’s break it all the way down explicitly.
The joke is that Chang’s character is in Drow makeup, and because Shirley is out of touch with games, she thinks that the Drow make up is blackface.
The depiction of the Drow makeup has chosen an “ambigious” shade of black/grey that made it seem to some viewers or people who want to see it that way , as blackface, in real life, not as a character in the show. This caused problems.
The suggestion, is that if they chose grey or some other ashy shade , and or gone more elaborate with the make up, like red contacts, or pointy ears, they could have done EXACT joke, but made it not “ambigious” and avoided the heat that the episode has actually gotten.
I would even say that having a LESS blackface looking make up would further accentuate Shirley’s out of touchness, making it funnier, as it would be more ridiculous that A) She would think that make up is blackface and B) Shirley thinks that’s what Chang thinks making himself look like a black person would entail, red eyes and pointy ears and a non human shade of darkness.
Furthermore, expanding on my other point which was not adressed in your post :
What the fuck are it’s always sunny et al doing making fun of this outdated shit in the first place? Did they get that mad at Spike Lee making Bamboozled and using blackface as an analogy of people acting up to stereotypes to get ahead in life , that they had to address it as a commentary on blackface, an “artform” from the 1890s as a target?
That is the kind of mindset that leads to banning any mockery of a thing because it contains anything close to the thing, because you don’t understand nuance.
Mocking terrible people by mocking things that terrible people do and it isn’t like it is in the distant past.
Reminds me of how that musician Michael Jackson did whiteface 😮💨 I was beyond offended, we need to address behaviour like this more often, absolutely deplorable.
Michael Jackson had a skin condition called vitiligo, which causes patches of skin to lose their pigmentation, resulting in a lighter skin tone. He used makeup and skin-lightening creams to manage the appearance of his skin, which led to public speculation about his changing appearance. He never did “whiteface”, his face was literally white.
Born black, turned white?
Sounds like cultural appropriation.
How tf did u lot acc think I was being serious 💀 ik, I’m satirising
Poe’s Law