Most male children in animation are voiced by adult women. Aside from not having to deal with all the hassles of hiring child actors, you can keep Bart Simpson as an eight year old for thirty years without having to recast.
My sister-in-law wasn’t allowed to watch Hogan’s Heroes when she was a child. Her mother’s reason was, “There’s nothing funny about Nazis.”
She was right.
Colonel Klink was played by a Jew and the son of Holocaust survivors. He took the role on the condition that the Nazis never be portrayed in a positive light.
It’s been a long time since I saw that episode, but I thought that was the point. The crime had nothing to do with race, but the victim was Black therefore it was a hate crime.
It may be racist, but the joke is meta. There is one Black character, and that character’s name is Token (sic). They’re making fun of themselves for being racist, even if they’re still being racist by only including one Black character (and later his family).
It’s true that the Nazis were never portrayed in a positive light, but they were always portrayed as inept and often as gullible. Not in the least scary.
We ought to be scared of Nazis.
If only they’d made a spinoff like Mad Magazine suggested:
Werner Klemperer wasn’t the son of Holocaust survivors, although he almost certainly lost family to it. His parents moved to the US in '33, when Klemperer was ~13. However, Robert Clary, who played LaBeau, was in Buchenwald. Also, John Banner, who played Sgt. Schultz, was an Austrian Jew who was fortunate enough to be touring when Hitler annexed Austria, and was able to escape to America.
Is that what a hate crime is?
If it’s not, and that’s “the joke”, then their argument against hate crimes is based on a strawman of what a hate crime is.
I do appreciate that!
And like scabpicker said, that’s why I chose her as my avatar. She’s smart and she’s hot.
She’s a great character. And for anyone who hasn’t seen the show, while I refer to it as a running gag it’s infrequent and not a particularly important part of the character.
Leon Askin who played General Burkhalter was also an Austrian Jew who fled Europe. His escape was pretty harrowing. Howard Caine who played Major Hochstetter was also Jewish but he was a banjo playing Tennessean. Banner, Askin and Caine were all WWII U.S. veterans.
My dad didn’t want us watching HH either, for the same reasons.
I think I didn’t explain well.[1] The way I remember it, and I could be wrong, the authorities in the show, police, school, etc, think it was a hate crime because the victim was Black, even though his race was unrelated to the motive for the crime. Therefore Cartman is punished for committing a hate crime.
The writers may be creating a strawman and knocking it down, but the writer’s point is that hate crime laws are stupid. It is a similar theme to the one where the kids don’t understand why the flag is racist. It’s some sort of “not seeing color” brand of white “I’m not racist” sentiment.
Not saying I agree with the themes, and I’m certainly not going to defend it, just that is my understanding of what Parker and Stone are trying to say.
what is it they say about explaining jokes? ↩︎
Aww crap. I remembered incorrectly. Slink away, Doc. Slink away.
In comments on reactions to the film Falling Down there is sometimes an uncomfortable amount of hero worship for Michael Douglas’ character who is clearly not mentally stable. But there are plenty of folks out there who think that you should be able to pull out a gun when you miss your fast food breakfast by one minute.
For similar, real-life toxicity, see any comments section on anything to do with the Killdozer story. So many people think that guy was one hundred percent correct to go on a rampage. They completely miss the idea that perhaps this was not the best solution to his problems.
ETA: see also Joker. I have not seen that movie but oh boy have I seen a lot of angry incel shit inspired by it. I have nothing against people with mental illness but I feel like hero worship of people who lash out violently because they’re mad as hell and they’re not going to take it anymore is not a good thing.
Falling Down is one of those movies that immediately comes to mind when I think about trailers that are a bait & switch. i.e. The movie I went to see seems very different from what I expected based on the trailer. From watching the trailer, I expected Douglas’ character to be just a normal guy who finally reached his breaking point. But as I was watching the movie this didn’t appear to be a good characterization of Douglas at all. Dude was unhinged before the movie started, there was a reason his wife left him after all, and while Douglas thought he was the good guy he finds out at the end he was a bad guy. It boggles my mind that anyone could watch that movie and think Douglas was the good guy. But then some people watch The Boys and think Homelander is the good guy.
Ok. I don’t understand what you’re objecting to with my original point.
Leonid Kinsky (most famous as Sasha the bartender in Casablanca) played a Russian prisoner in the pilot, but declined to become a regular when it went to series. He had a similar reaction: “Nazis were rarely stupid and never funny.”
Just curious if you and others feel the same way about other media dealing with Nazi’s like JoJo Rabbit, or The Producers?
I haven’t seen JoJo Rabbit (Though I’d like to). I’ve seen the original producers and the musical version. Both are hillarious.