I’m pretty lame. I like watching “reaction videos” on YouTube. I’m guess I’m curious to see how other people respond to TV and movies that I found particularly interesting or shocking. It’s not about watching what I enjoyed, really.
I thought it’d be interesting to watch people react to certain episodes of South Park that I remembered to be funny or shocking. Pretty soon, I started watching their whole South Park Playlist, (they aren’t up-to-date with the show yet, and I’ve stopped watching South Park for a while now). So, I remember South Park having brain dead or over simplified lessons or messages, but I forgot how smug and confident they were with their beliefs. The show is often hilarious though. I still like it over Family Guy.
I know they “apologized” for denying Climate Change, does anyone else know if they’ve atoned for any other bad takes?
I accidentally posted this before I was finished. I was going to mention The X-Files, it’s rebute, and how some people can’t decearn reality from fiction anymore, if they ever could. Do we really need another X-Files right now?
But, what stuff did/do you find harmful or problematic?
The Venture Bros. was an animated series that sporadically aired on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block of programs from 2003-2018. There’s a character named Dr. Girlfriend, later Dr. Mrs. The Monarch, who is voiced by Doc Hammer (a man). Dr. Girlfriend is drawn as a beatiful young woman who strongly resembles former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, but she has a very, very deep voice and a running gag throughout much of the series is that people think she’s a man. For example, there’s a scene where she makes herself sexually available to Brock Sampson but he doesn’t go for it because he has his doubts about whether she was born a woman or not.
This wasn’t something that was very controversial in 2005. But I was listening to some people talk about the series back in 2020 (I think), and they talked about cringy those jokes were. And they’re right. It’s not cool to make fun of transgender people in that manner.
That’s fair and I’m sure there were others who felt the same as you. At the time, it didn’t bother me any more than Ray Finckle did in Ace Ventura. These days I’m not so keen on characters whose status as a transgender individual is the butt of the joke. But back then I simply didn’t give it a lot of thought.
Countless action films and western films have romanticized the idea of killing “bad guys.” Many of the films staring Charles Bronson would fit the bill, as would some Clint Eastwood and John Wayne films. Unfortunately these films have had a bad influence on some gun owners.
I thought it was finally revealed Dr girlfriend was a cis woman but ruined her throat through a heavy smoking habit.
RE South Park
I still haven’t seen (I lack cable and most streaming services) Mr Garrison’s Vagina. I understand that Kyle (or is it Stan) comes to believe he is a black guy in a white guy’s body and his dad undergoes surgery after becoming convinced he’s a dolphin.
RE “Born a woman”
The preferred term is “a cis woman”. I’d say more but the recording I’m playing for a caller is ending now.
A lot of viewers are watching cop shows with a new perspective these last few years. (To be fair, others have had that perspective for years, but were generally dismissed.)
I very much liked this show’s subversive humor, throwback limited animation style, Jack Kirby-inspired look and awesome rockabilly closing theme when it first aired. I was re-watching episodes with equal-to-or-greater enjoyment on the Adult Swim website shortly before it was “removed” in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the protests it spawned. I can well understand how some executives might imagine a show making fun of racial and ethnic stereotypes was problematic or potentially harmful at that point.
It’s likely to be a long wait for a live-action version.
It matters if they are misrepresenting or strawmaning the other side.
The black creators I’m watching watch South Park just agreed with the show’s premise about how, I guess, Hate Crimes shouldn’t be a thing. In the show, Cartman throws a rock at Token for calling him fat, and had to go to prison because it was supposedly a Hate Crime. I didn’t think that was what a Hate Crime was. To my knowledge, Hate Crimes are committed by people who are discriminating of a person
because of their protected class.
Framing matters, and most people can’t decern fact from fiction, or don’t bother looking it up.
When they remade Death Wish back in 2018 with Bruce Willis I did wonder who the hell thought that was a good idea. But aren’t movies where killing the bad guys is romanticized are still being made? The Equalizer, John Wick, The Beekeeper, etc., etc. continue to be made and enjoyed.
I haven’t seen every episode and it’s been years since I’ve watched the show, so you might very well be correct. My impression was that Dr. Girlfriend was just a woman with a very, very deep voice.
Preferred by who? I understand what a cis man or woman is, I’m not one of those kooky folks who sees it as a slur nor am I offended when someone uses those words to refer to me, but it’s not my preferred term.
I’ve watched the series a few times, and I don’t remember a scene like that at all. There’s one scene, early in the second season, where Brock is talking with Phantom Limb, who used to date Dr. Girlfriend, and Brock is surprised to learn that she’s cis. But there’s never a situation where he’s in a position to sleep with her, much less reject her for being trans.
There’s another character who gets SRS specifically because they know Brock has been ordered to kill them, but also knows that Brock’s moral code prevents him from killing women. The plan completely works - as soon as Brock finds out about the surgery, he drops the mission.
FWIW, my wife is trans, and loves the show.
She smokes, but that’s not why her voice is so deep - it’s just how her voice happens to sound naturally.
You can find it here starting at 4:31. (YouTube link.) It’s a very brief scene and I don’t remember what episode it’s from. He doesn’t explicitly reject her for being trans though. But if you put that scene together with Sampson’s doubts as expressed in other episodes it makes sense.
I admit enjoy some of the films. I am also a gun owner and carry a CCW, but am very cognizant that what’s portrayed in those movies should not be emulated in real life. (If I can run away from the bad guy, I will.) Sadly, I think some gun owners - and a disproportionate percentage of cops - fantasize about going all “Clint Eastwood” on punks they don’t like, and will justify their actions using the flimsiest of excuses under the auspice of “self-defense.” And I think much of it is due to watching these films.
Can’t recall the details at all. Some cop show episode of TV movie showed some idiots setting a homeless man on fire soon after followed by a real event presumed inspired by the show. Way back, 70s or 80s. I think such things have happened several times since then.
