Really? They’ve basically never had war.
(or at least that’s what the canon says now. Probably in their first, S&M themed, appearance in TNG they were implied to be warlike, but that was a different Ferengi).
Yeah, I really can’t see anyone looking at the Ferengi and saying “yup, that’s what our stereotypes of Irish people are like.” I literally can’t see a single correlation to any Irish stereotype at all, and find it hugely unlikely that anyone said to him that the Ferengi are like Irish people to people in England. If it’s an “outsiders” thing, that really really doesn’t work.
Ferengi do seem like a parody, exaggeration or something like that of stereotypes about Jewish people in some ways. They are also very unlike those stereotypes in other ways, but it’s not an unfair comparison to draw, and I thought it was actually fairly well-known, despite what the creators claim.
They’re also really likeable as main characters, with interesting storylines and rounded characters that go way beyond any species or human culture stereotypes.
That’s the problem with stereotypes though… if you write/create anything that is stereotypical, people are going to accuse you of applying the stereotype.
While I agree that the portrayal of the Ferengi does run afoul of some of the typical Jewish stereotypes, I don’t think they were intended as “Space Jews” or anything like that. I think it’s more that the historical Jewish stereotypes are so bad and so ingrained that anything that skates even remotely close to those stereotypes is going to be looked at askance regardless of the writer’s intent.
I mean, look at it this way. If you write a Jewish character who’s frugal, are you perpetuating a stereotype, or are you just writing a character who’s frugal and whose religion happens to be Judaism? It’s damn hard to tell.
Ferengis are supposed to be American capitalists. If you look at the face of a Ferengi, you’ll notice that the ears and head form the shape of a cowboy hat, the symbol of American capitalism worldwide.
Canonically, Ferengi are supposed to be “Yankee traders”. Gene Roddenberry said so, or, if he didn’t, David Gerrold did—before the first episode ran.
“Yankee Traders” is a euphemism for Wall Street brokers. You know…capitalists.
Their first appearance they were just savages with whips though. They didn’t give the appearance of being entrepreneurs.
The ‘metaphor for the Jews’ thing never occurred to me (though I also read through the whole of C.S Lewis’s The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe without catching on to the Christian allegory)
I think “Yankee Trader” was meant to invoke merchant sailors in the South Seas, gleefully trading in pearls and teak and other valuables, with no thought to the havoc they were wreaking on native island cultures.
But I think the make-up artist who designed their appearance may, consciously or subconsciously, have been thinking about Jewish stereotypes.
Picard described them as equivalent to Yankee Traders in the first episode where they were featured. They don’t do anything unless it’s for profit, so yes, they do reflect the money culture of the '80s.
When Bob Justman saw the dailies for that episode, he realized how stupid they looked hopping around like retarded apes. It was inevitable they’d be reimagined to present a more credible but farcical threat to the Federation.
The way the Ferengi were described early on, it was obvious that they were intended to be the new scary enemy race, replacing what the Klingons had been for the original series. Once they actually appeared, and everyone realized how ridiculous they looked, they were quickly re-imagined as more comedic villains.
I heard that they were based on the vendors at Trek conventions.
I heard that, too. The last time you posted it in this thread.
That’s what I get for not re-reading the whole (old) thread.