(4) Appears to need work. You go from (3) Christmas movies aren’t about Christmas to (4) movies don’t have anything substantial to say about real life.
Putting “Christmas” in (4) tends to support Mr. McAlpin’s contention that the complaint about lack of substantial content is in regard to Christmas movies. Leaving it out tends to undermine that, and open him to a charge that he’s saying that movies by Jews (generally) don’t have anything substantial to say about real life.
And when you consider that the statements in (3) and (4) are both in the same sentence, there is even less reason to seperate them out and call one part funny, and the other part offensive.
Part of the reason that this strip bothers me is that there are lots of people in America who **do ** believe in a Jewish conspiracy to control Hollywood. Here’s a link to an article on David Duke’s website about it. Just google “Jewish Hollywood” and you’ll find plenty more.
So maybe if you’re not aware of this meme the strip could seem like a total joke: “… any intelligent, sane person would recognize that the idea that Jews had any sort of influence on the pathetic state of Christmas movies is ludicrous in the extreme.”
But if you are aware of the sort of things that antisemites regularly say then this strip comes uncomfortably close to echoing them. Here’s an anecdote from another website:
You may not be intending to keep this sort of company. But it is the company you’re keeping.
I’m not sure what you are saying, apart from that. I don’t think the wonderings from (3) and (4) are from the same sentence. I think the wondering in (3) is introduced in panel 2, while the wondering in (4) is introduced in panel 3. Also I don’t see how it matters if they were in the same sentence.
The strip is funny because the actors are played by absurd characters? If that is the case, why do you have the dialogue with the two people watching the movie?
the antecedent in panel 2 indicating that they are talking about Christmas movies. The fact that “holiday” and “real life” appear in the same sentence is not important enough for me to wish to pursue.
Really, to me, it’s the fact that the statements are clearly about Christmas movies (rather than one of them being about Jews) that makes me feel it’s unfair to issue the challenge in (5):
See, as written, (5) is consistent with (4), as written. Correcting (4) to clarify that it’s about Christmas movies; not about “movies made by Jews” invalidates (5), unless you want to qualify (5) so heavily as to make it unintelligible (much like this sentence ).
They’re there to let the reader know that the movie was meaningless drivel. Without that, it’s just a webcomic analog of the eternal question: Why do Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond make Christmas albums?
It’s kinda that, anyway, of course. But it’s done with a bit more subtlety and intelligence. IMO.
It was a mistake. I meant to say “christmas” in that sentence.
Now, keeping in mind that I meant to say “christmas” in that sentence, can you try to explain to me again why you disagree with (5)?
I’ll try to write it in a different way:
The wondering in (4) is “why does this type of movie have nothing substantial to say about real life?”. According to (4), which I take it you agree with, this should be explained by the display in front of the characters (which tells us that the producers are Jews).
Thus, the fact that this type of movie has nothing substantial to say about real life, should be explained by the fact that it is made by Jews.
But I don’t agree with this, in fact I find it weird.
You’re missing a few steps. The setup is the dialogue. The punchline is the credits. The punchline has the potential to be bigoted, but because it’s so absurd it’s clear that it’s not. The absurdity also happens to be funny.
Whatever yourself. I’m not saying that you’re antisemitic. What I’m saying is that you’ve accidentally or unconsciously mirrored one of the standard lines of attack that real antisemites use, namely that you don’t see more good, Christian entertainment because the Jews who control Hollywood won’t let it be made.
It’s as though you drew a cartoon about a black guy getting harrassed on Halloween by some people in ghost costumes and were then surprised that people drew parallels with the Klan … .
The strip is not saying that Jews won’t let them be made. It’s saying that many christmas movies are made by Jews, and for that reason Christianity is not in the center. I don’t see how this is antisemitic. Why should the Jews want to make movies about christianity?
Because (5) says that ALL movies by Jews have nothing to do with real life, not just Christmas movies. (5) just strikes me as a strawman constructed by someone looking for something to be offended about.
No, the wondering in (4) is “why does this type of movie have nothing substantial to say about [this holiday or] real life?” And for the record, the reason is actually because movies with those characteristics make the most money for the people who produce them (WHATEVER their religious backgrounds), because they play to the least common denominator. That Jason and Kurt don’t already know that shows them to be somewhat unobservant; in fact just unobservant enough to not notice that the movie they just sat through was made by people who aren’t likely to have any obvious motivation to make their Christmas movies deep and meaningful and chock-full of edifying (that is to say, box-office-killing) goodness.
I’m a Jew and I thought the strip was funny. We don’t care about Christmas? No shit!
That being said, your strip was offensive. If you honestly didn’t know that, you were either asleep when you wrote it or you’re deeply out of touch with modern trends in anti-semitism. Now, there’s nothing wrong with being offensive, some of the funniest humor is offensive. It doesn’t mean you’re racist or an anti-semite, and shows South Park get away with a lot worse.
The part that sets people on edge is the connection you drew, either intentionally or not, between being money grubbing and Jewish. That’s a very real stereotype, as well as the whole Jewish Hollywood thing someone mentioned earlier. It doesn’t bother this Jew, as offensive stereotypes can be funny in the right hands (see South Park, Family Guy, etc).
At this point, you can either embrace being offensive and tell everyone to fuck off, or you can write a follow up comic with an explanation. With edgy humor someone is always going to take it too seriously and write you hate mail. If you want your comic to succeed, get used to it. Coming here and claiming that you’re not an anti-semite and we’re all fools for seeing it as offensive isn’t helping, though.
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