I’d like to see the pilot. I hope they use that song “Remind Me” that was in one of the ads.
No, that’s mud. And I don’t think there were any black neanderthals named Chong, anyway. Or Jewish.
I think the cavemen are just yuppies whose grooming hasn’t yet reached the “metro” level.
The whole idea is that humans think they are intellectually superior to cavemen. This offends them because it’s painfully apparent they are just as smart and civilized as we are. The humor and ideas aren’t somehow invalid just because the exact same premise became popular in an advertising campaign. Same producers, writers and directors. I found the commercials hilarious, never even thought about the race/minority parallels, and none of this seemed to hurt Geico or the campaign. In fact, it thrived because it’s clever, which made it popular, so Geico made more and now ABC has the rights.
We only have something to gain here… What are y’all, a bunch of Neandertals?!
I don’t condone breaking any laws, but FYI the tv show is available ‘out there.’ I’ll let you know what I think after I’ve seen it.
No, the point is that the commercials ARE funny. They’ve done some hilarious 30-second spots. But you can’t sustain an entire television series on a 30-second gag. It’s called writing yourself into a corner. When you use such a limited premise, you’re invariably going to reach a point where the gag isn’t funny anymore. This point will probably come somewhere between the beginning and end of the first episode.
I said this in another thread, but I think it’s possible for it to be a good show. Third Rock From the Sun would seem to have had an unsustainable premise, yet they did manage to sustain it for awhile. If they have good writers, they can make anything work. But the odds are against it.
[spoilers (like you care)**]
Ok, I know the article said that the pilot is being re-done, but the version I saw included jokes that seem like they are taking jokes that would be typically a certain ethnic group and substituting in cavemen. For example; the opening sequence is a news program showing a convenience store being robbed by a caveman, then we see one of the main characters say something like, “Of course it’s a caveman, they only put it on tv when it’s a caveman!” Another example is one of the characters says something about “Cro-maggers” and the other character says that it is a demeaning term, then the first guy says, “yeah, but it’s ok if WE say it.” Immediately following that comment the characters broke into singing Sir Mix-a-lot’s “Baby got Back” substituting in the word “mag” for butt.
So it seems to me, some of their jokes are definitely based on racial stereotypes, and my answer to the OP is, yes. Cavemen = Black peps [sic]
BTW, the show was not awful. It wasn’t wonderful, but I did laugh a couple of times.
yikes. That Baby Got Back gag sounds horrible.
Well, I never said it would definitly work. Just wanted to point out the commercials worked very well. If the characters are strong and the writing is clever, who cares if it’s an allegory about what minorities have to put up with? Wouldn’t it make the show more worthwhile to watch?
I think there might be a lot of ground to cover on that premise. Time will most certainly tell. I wasn’t giving the US version of The Office much hope either, but the show’s one of my favs now.
Haven’t seen the pilot but talked to someone working on the show – apparently they’re not ‘black people,’ they’re going to try to cover different stereotypes that plague all sorts of minorities (hispanics, gay people, etc.)
Pick up a copy of a 1980’s EBONY sometime.
Actually, a couple of those gags sound pretty funny. But with the exception of the Sir Mix-a-Lot bit (that does sound pretty lame), that stuff all sounds pretty generic. Could apply to any minority. Maybe you’re thinking the “it’s o.k. if we say it” is about black people, but it could just as easily apply to gay people using the word “queer”, for example.
Snap.
Ah, you’re back. Good. It turns out you started a pretty nice thread. Now explain your thread title.
I’m still confused by that as well.
Certainly he didn’t mean…
If so, I really don’t get the connection!
Thank you, it’s good to be back.
Explain my thread title? No problem. There is an insurance company called Geico that runs a series of commercials whose catch phrase is that using their website is “so easy, a caveman could do it.” They also throw in some offended cavemen for effect. Hence, Geico Cavemen. Here is an example. 
Right…I don’t think it was the Geico Cavemen part of the title people were confused on. It’s the word “peps”.
This is a highly common word for people? So common that you can reasonably suggest that someone has missed out on the last 10 years because they did not understand it?
He meant “peeps”. He just doesn’t want to admit that he spelled it wrong so he’s obfuscating.
So you are saying the cavemen are meant to be representing well-hung black cubans?
Well, obviously, cool ones…