I’ve heard comedians say that, as long as you poke fun at everyone, you can poke fun at almost anyone. In all honesty, hurting the feelings of terrorists ranks pretty low on my “do not do” list.
Of course you’ve never heard Jeff Dunham say that:
He’s willing to stereotype and insult pretty much any group, but tries not to insult his most fervent supporters, the “country crowd,” which I’m assuming means conservative Christians.
“That’s why I don’t pick on basic Christian-values stuff. Well, I also don’t like to, because that’s the way I was brought up.”
Well, he isn’t poking fun at Islam, he’s poking fun at terrorists. I think there’s a significant difference.
That’s the great thing about racists stereotypes, as long as one can find someone to match it, one can justify laughing at the racist puppet show.
Considering most of the terrorists in the US are white Christians, he’s not helping things any.
I remember purchasing Dr. Demento’s first album in the early 1980s. It was called Dr. Demento’s Delights and was released in 1975. On the album was a song called The Ballad Of Ben Gay by Ben Gay and the Silly Savages. (I won’t link to it, but it’s on YT.) Being an ignorant teen, I thought it was kind of funny at the time. Apparently Dr. Demento thought so, too.
A search on http://dmdb.org/ shows the song was played on his show 50 times between 1973 and 1980. Many years went by where he didn’t play it, for obvious (and good) reasons. And then he played it on his show in 2006, 2010, 2011, and 2019. I am shocked he played it on his show just 10 months ago.
Trouble from “The Music Man” also strikes me as, well, troublesome.
Not a wholesome trotting race, no, but a race where they sit down right on the horse! Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy sitting on Dan Patch?
Bearing in mind that most jockeys in horse racing at the time were African-American, that seems problematic (except that most people probably don’t bear that in mind).
And here’s what the production team at The Sonny and Cher Show came up with when they decided to feature Bad, Bad Leroy Brown.
Had to google that.
“The Music Man” was set in Iowa, probably sometime after 1901, so “some jockey” would probably be white, and it was written in 1957, so “some jockey” would almost certainly be white.
What is supposed to be so “problematic” about that verse? It’s about gambling on a horse race.
Sorry, I should have included some more of the patter.
Not a wholesome trotting race, no, but a race where they sit down right on the horse! Like to see some stuck-up jockey boy sitting on Dan Patch?
Make your blood boil? Well I should say!
It’s problematic because Prof. Hill is implying that decent white folks should be outraged by the idea of a black man (jockey BOY) actually sitting on the back of the foremost pacing race horse in the land.
Meredith Willson was writing this in the 1950s, at which point the ban on Black jockeys was not general knowledge. Jockeys then were white and he probably was unaware it was any different. It’s a real stretch to think there was any racist intent especially since audiences in 1957 would not know anything about the racism that kicked Black jockeys out of the sport.
Jockeys were often referred to as “boys” in the 50s, probably due to their small stature. It had nothing to do with race.
So neither factor has any relevance to what Willson was writing. The lyrics to “Ya Got Trouble” were based upon nostalgia, not fact (e.g., “Captain Billy’s Whizz Bang” and “Bevo” are anachronisms). The line was written for people who knew nothing of the era other than a vague knowledge that Dan Patch was a harness horse (which is clear from the lyrics).
The song Madeira, M’Dear by the 1950s-era British comedy songwriters Flanders and Swann is blatantly and unapologetically making light of an older man getting a young woman drunk so he can rape her. It’s incredibly cringeworthy from a modern viewpoint. Which is a shame, because its lyrics are incredibly clever. It’s also worth noting that F&S seem quite progressive for their era (at least from my fairly naive perspective). One of their songs is subtly but powerfully anti-war. Another one has a strong “love who you want” message. Maybe it wasn’t pro-gay back then, just catholics-and-protestants-should-be-able-to-marry, but it certainly wasn’t stodgy and conservative.
Here’s Tony Randall performing it on The Carol Burnett Show in the 1970s (which is where I recall seeing it)
Here’s Flanders and Swann doing it
I last performed this in a concert about 18 months ago. I prefaced it with a sort of disclaimer that obviously the plot of the song is unacceptable in this day and age, and I was including it precisely because of the wordplay, not because I agreed with the premise. It went down well, as I knew it would (and it helped that this was a small audience with an average age of 70+, some of whom I knew personally). I now wonder if even that shouldn’t be done - but by that standard, we shouldn’t watch most pre-90s James Bond films (for example - no doubt there are millions of others). I guess I’m saying that I think we can still be entertained by the exploits of fictional characters from past eras (as in these two cases) without perpetuating their outdated attitudes. But maybe I’m wrong. As a white male who doesn’t really take offence to anything, myself, I’m not the best person to judge.
Although I see from the video that the song is clearly about an older guy trying to make a girl reckless by making her drunk, I wanted to mention that I’d never seen it before – only heard it on the radio, where, like a lot of people with a lot of songs, I didn’t listen carefully to the words, or know what the song was really about.
I always heard it as an older alcoholic more interested in the wine than the women, rapidly getting drunk as his target rapidly looses interest.
Have Some Madeira M’Dear
Some Madeira
Madeira
This is the best version of the song:
In the original version – a recording of their live stage show* – Flanders explains it is a parody of Edwardian temperance songs that warn against strong drink and the dire consequences of drinking.
*Produced by George Martin. Martin’s background in comedy music had to play into why he signed the Beatles.
Hogan’s Heroes because now Nazis are depicted as evil not some bumblers.
Nobody could possibly make this scene from Bugsy Malone (1976) today.
In case you don’t know it, it’s a prohibition-era gangster movie made entirely with child actors.
