Err… no. “The Onion” is known as a satirical publication, and “Dame Edna” has been known MUCH LONGER as a satirical character.
Redboss, I don’t think anyone here has tried to say that chaco or anyone else isn’t offended. We’re just saying that it’s dumb to be offended. If me walking down the street offends you, nobody can tell you that you aren’t offended by it, but that doesn’t make it legitimate.
Sorry, Redboss and Chaco, but, as someone pointed out above, there is no entitlement to be offended. If after the truth of the situation is carefully explained someone insists on saying “but I am offended”, then all I can say is “well, tough for you. Your feelings are real, but they are wrong.” And if they insist “some people won’t get it and they will get offended” , we can insist, “well, those people are having the wrong feelings themselves.”
Yes, there is such a thing as wrong feelings. Happens all the time to good people.
I feel that this is the kind of crap that perpetuates stereotypes. But then again I also believe that rap is bad and, as I have learned many times, I am in the minority with these feelings too.
I believe in free speech and the first amendment. Hell, I personally benefit from it all the time. I still believe that it is not OK to perpetuate stereotypes and then say it’s OK because it’s art or music or comedy. Just as I believe that even though I have a right to own a gun, I will not take it out and shoot it as I please because I have a right to. I guess we agree to disagree. No skin off my back. I learned a lot from this thread and I appreciate it, honestly. I will pass the word on to my friends and family and I will explain to them the context and let them make their own decisions without passing judgement on them.
Allow me to add the context in which I recieved Dame Edna’s piece. Racial slurs and stereotypes are like water torture. Eventually your skin gets thin from all the bullshit. I have experienced this type of crap throughout my life and I am sick of the just kidding cop out. I live in a state where speaking Spanish (bi-lingual education) was banned in schools and immigrants have lost many rights (but that’s another thread). My friends, family, and neighbors are the “leaf blowers” and the “help”. Maybe I am hyper-sensitive because I have to hear these peoples stories on a daily basis. I don’t get angry because of ignorance, I get angry because of experience.
I don’t care if the Lord himself would have come down and said those things, they still would have bothered me and many people I know. But I guess that makes us ignorant because if we don’t get the joke then we are stupid, so fuck us and long live idiots who perpetuate this shit in whatever context.
Whatever. To each their own. I do not take it personally because I know where I am (the pit) and I lurked long enough to know what to expect.
Peace Out 
P.S. (On preview) Thanks for the save Redboss this gangbang was starting to hurt.
I wanna lick Dame Edna’s huevos.
Wait.
No, I don’t.
Chaco. You still seem to have an incomplete grasp of the concept of satire. Have no fear, though, you’ve come to the right place if you need ignorance fought. I will attempt to explain.
Satire means making exaggerated statements in support of some viewpoint with the actual intent of making that viewpoint appear ridiculous. (This is a vastly oversimplified definition, but it will suffice for our current purposes.) For instance, when you said "I mean come on nobody calls Latinos help or leaf blowers 
", that could be considered a primitive form of satire. Your actual meaning was “Many people refer to Latinos as though they were all engaged in unskilled labor,” but you chose to express this through a statement with the exact opposite literal meaning. Most satire, however, is not marked with winky emoticons. This is where some confusion can set in.
Minstrel shows were actually aiming at humor based on “black people sure are ridiculous,” not “racists sure are ridiculous.” The essay that yojimboguy linked to, in contrast, is a classic example of satire. (Here it is again.) Please read it carefully and try to see the ways in which this form of humor is different from that of minstrel shows.
This thread is another example of satire. I’ll analyze this one for you to give you an idea how it’s done. You see, Diogenes the Cynic is not only not Bob the guy from the Jack Chick comics, he’s not even a fan of Jack Chick comics. He’s not even a Christian fundamentalist. He feels that the views expressed in Chick comics are ridiculous. Therefore, he is posting in an exaggerated imitation of “Bob” in order to highlight those aspects of Chick comics that he feels are ridiculous. Have you ever been in a class where the teacher left, and a clever student got up and started impersonating the teacher? And the impression consisted of mimicking the teacher, but with certain characteristic mannerisms exaggerated for humorous effect? It’s sort of like that.
What does all this have to do with Dame Edna? I am glad you asked, Chaco. Humphries is using his “Dame Edna” persona to mock people who look down on Latinos, in exactly the same way that Diogenes is using his “Bob” persona to mock people who follow Jack Chick’s belief system. In other words, Chaco, Humphries is on your side as far as the basic issue at hand goes. He is not simply engaging in humor that deals with racial issues; he is using humor as a tool to fight racism by intentionally making it look stupid. You do not have to be familiar with Dame Edna to discern this; I’m not, and I did. However, most of us here at the Straight Dope Message Board have the benefit of years of familiarity with the satirical arts. If you are a relative newcomer to the concept, some degree of confusion may be understandable.
I hope this discussion has been helpful to you. We at the SDMB are always happy for the chance to eradicate ignorance. Godspeed, Chaco!
For extra credit, underline the words and phrases in this post intended by the author to convey a sarcastic, condescending and/or mock-educational tone. It’s fun!
Well since he was Spanish I didn’t understand why he was referred to as ibero-american. Why consider him as such if he never set foot in America?
Chaco, I agree with the majority that this was a satiric piece. Like you, I did notice that the Hispanic media is misleading many relatives and others; the element of what Madame Edna is was removed from the context, no wonder it sounded offensive on the news bit. It took awhile to convince my parents about what was really going on.
What everybody should remember in the end is this:
This has been a manufactured scandal by the media for the media and by the media.
If there is someone to whom everybody should be offended it is with the Hispanic media editors that did a lousy job of getting this non-issue to the forefront.
Either that or…
[Cynical mode]
I picture editors or owners thinking that if they got good ratings out of all this, who cares if the end result is to make the community look foolish?
If that is the case, there are other choice Hispanic words for these so-called purveyors of information.
[/Cynical mode]
Chaco, and whatever you do, don’t EVER read Swift’s A Modest Proposal.
D’oh, someone beat me to it. Oh well.
I’d like to point out that black face was NEVER intended as a satire in it’s day. It was out and out racism.
Dame Edna IS a satire, you dumbass.
<hijack>
You’ll find debates about the social construct of race and ethnicity in other threads on this board. You will also find opinions and facts that genetically it’s all irrelevant. Just keep in mind that under the law, being Hispanic is not a racial construct but an ethnic one.
Whatever you are is fine by me. Just don’t claim that if you’re Hispanic that it means not being white all in the same thought process. It’s not accurate in all cases. I work with one lady who is a blue-eyed, genuine blonde Hispanic. She’s white. Her statement, not mine. Under the skin it’s irrelevant. Under the law, it’s incorrect.
</hijack>
RedBoss, how do you feel about the fact that Chaco admittedly knew nothing about Dame Edna, never read the article, and was only going off third-hand reports?
There’s being offended, and then there’s just being ignorant.
Oh, and Chaco, Redboss and I know from whence we speak. I’d say we know just a wee thing or two about discrimination and offensiveness.
Esprix
Hi 'sprix dear; I read the extract that Chaco quoted in the OP. I found it slightly offensive, but then I’m not Latino. On thinking it over, and listening to Chaco’s words, I can see the humour somewhat more, but I also find it more offensive.
Please folks, Dame Edna/Barry Humphries is not a White Knight of Satire fearlessly combatting the evils of racism. He’s in showbusiness. He’s funny and daring, much like a drag Joan Rivers. But he doesn’t really care if he hurts people’s feelings. He wants to get a laugh.
Hunmphries has frequently made known his antagonism to “political correctness”, a boogy-man that never had much substance, and that has served more to empower people to offend than anything else. Nothing against him, of course. But he ain’t Jonathon Swift.
Chaco makes the best point, when he talks about the water torture of continual race prejudice, and the way it does make one’s skin thinner. Perhaps he is a little more sensitive about the racial characteristics than most of us. That’s because most of us don’t live with it EVERY SINGLE FUCKING DAY !
Esprix makes reference to this in that we both share the irrtiation of having to hear antigay slurs over and over. And frankly I am getting less patient with the people around me. Which is why I see Chaco’s point of view.
But what I am really suspicious of is this strong need for so many people to blow him out of the water over this trifling issue. It’s more than a need to correct someone’s misapprehensions, it’s bullying. Why this glee over the attempted stifling of someone with a complaint of racism?
In the workplace it is now accepted that sexual harrassment is inappropriate, and that a perception of harrassment is to be taken seriously, and investigated, not dismissed without question, even if that perception is not shared by others. That is, we no longer say “you’ve got it wrong, he never meant it, get over it”. Instead we take people’s concerns at face value, and with respect, even if ultimately we disagree.
I am disappointed that members of this Board could not muster the courtesy to treat Chaco the same way. Popping in merely to say “dumbass!” is pretty poor behaviour, especially when so many others have already delivered the insults for you.
Chaco mate, these people are usually better behaved. In the mean time, pass me that rocket launcher, and those grenades, and I’ve got your back. We won’t go down without a fight. Come on you bastards! Just you and me, pal…
Redboss
How do you feel about the fact that I addressed this several times.
I did read the article and I did read the fact that it was a satire. What I admitted to was that I was not a reader of Vanity Fair. I linked in the OP the entire article.
If you are not going to read what I wrote and attack little bits and pieces of what you decided to read then this is becoming an excercise in futility. I have stated my views, where they come from, and why I feel the way I feel. If you guys don’t agree, fine. I am not trying to win a contest here. I am trying to help in fighting ignorance and in this case most of the ignorance has been fought within me. That’s fine because as I stated before I have learned a lot from this thread and I actually appreciate it.
Love,
The Insidious, Ignorant Dumbass Who is Legally not White
Why is it that only one person actually gets what I am trying to say?
Thanks Redboss
Funny, I was going to respond to Redboss with that exact same reason - it’s not about correct or incorrect feelings, it’s about fighting ignorance. He has every right to be offended, but at least now he’s educated as to what precisely he’s being offended by. Now, if he’s still offended we may think him a boob, but that’s an entirely different animal altogether.
Esprix
I formally withdraw my “stupid jerk” statement.
Spaniard chiming in. Like Chaco, I had no fucking idea who this Dame Edna was – and finding out who he was didn’t change my opinion of the quote one iota.
Because, quite frankly, I didn’t find his satire funny in the least. In fact, I found it fucking offensive as well. And unless there’s a law that makes all satire poignant and witty by default, the only ‘dumbass’ here is the person comparing this asshole, Humphries, to Jonathan Swift. Yeah, that’s you, Guin! :rolleyes:
So fuck of all you that are trying to tell Chaco or myself how to feel about a piss-poor piece that under the guise of satire comes off as racist as anything I’ve read in quite sometime. And spare me the chorus line of: “but that’s precisely the way it’s supposed to come off!”
BTW, had this jerkoff written something similar about Orientals, blacks, gays, etc., I could certainly understand anyone from those groups calling him out on it as well.
Red <—white guy who can’t tell a gardening tool from a kitchen utensil, but sure as fuck knows about Spanish literature and good satire.
Okay, RedFury, you’ve reached your own informed conclusion about this. I think your conclusion is silly, but WTF, you’re entitled to your opinion, I’m entitled to mine.
But that’s a whole different ballgame from the OP, which was a complaint made without understanding the background, based on a spam e-mail.
I just wanted to step in and offer my agreement to what Redboss has said - even though I get annoyed with the old kneejerk PC response to things, I think it’s important to realise that, while we may have some stereotypical view of the political stance of a ‘cross dressing satirist’, Humphries doesn’t really fit this (as Redboss pointed out).
I’ve been in the ‘can’t stand him’ camp since I was about ten years old and I figured out how meanspirited his humour actually is. Maybe you need to be Australian to really understand where his satire is coming from, and (like Dame Edna herself), it’s not pretty.