# "You be rippin' and dippin'" -- Pizza Hut commercial **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 2, 2003, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055 "2003-09-02T02:26:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2003, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/21 "2003-09-04T22:26:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ray Walker \* > \*\*They should talk exactly like sterotypical white people. Then they wouldn’t be racist. \*\* How about if they didn’t talk like stereotypes at all? ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2003, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/22 "2003-09-04T23:12:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aaslatten \* > \*\*How about if they didn’t talk like stereotypes at all? \*\* Therein lies the problem… the people in the ads _have to_ talk like stereotypes, because the people making the ads are selling to stereotypes, otherwise known as target markets. Tell me you don’t think that tampon ads and even the ads for your local ambulance-chaser are selling to stereotypes rather than real people. ---
**Author:** ![Bandanaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3ab097/32.png) [@Bandanaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bandanaman)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/23 "2003-09-04T23:23:11Z")
Can someone explain, or provide a link for those of us who haven’t seen the commercial? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/24 "2003-09-05T01:11:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Slacker \* > \*\*When I saw this thread title I thought it was going to be a rant about another commercial that made the husband of the family the object of the traditional ridicule. Word. \*\* It’s a clash of two disparate traditions. In contemporary comedy, the safest object of ridicule is the person of highest social standing (Ridiculing servants and the underclass is considered boorish; it makes a lot of Thurber downright unreadable these days). The father in these commercials, being neither a minor nor an elderly woman, is by default the butt-monkey (He’s the only one there who can say “Hell with you; I’m gonna go drive to a steakhouse and have some _real_ food in peace!”). And in many Black families, particularly Baptist ones, there’s a Calvinist urge to knock you down a peg if you’re too big for your britches. Apparently, Dad qualified and Grandma didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/25 "2003-09-05T09:31:27Z")
The underlying assumption of the OP is that to show people talking like that in an effort to sell something is racist. It can only be racist if the thing shown is bad. The OP is apparently so disconnected with black people that he believes that no one, aside from characters in UPN sitcoms, really talks like that. I have three black roommates (I’m white), and many do talk like that. It’s just different, it’s not bad. The fact that the OP did not complain about white people being shown to gush over their new Gap cargos, or to swoon over their vanilla flavored coffees (while using proper grammar), to me says that he considers these things right and proper, subconciously. They did not raise his ire enough to include them in his post here. To sum up: I would greatly suspect that the OP has little connection with people who do in fact talk in this manner. He thinks that it is manufactured, and that to use it or admit it is to put down people slightly connected with the people depicted. If this is true, then every rap video is a virtual crime against humanity. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/26 "2003-09-05T10:09:53Z")
To head off an attack, when I said that the thing shown must be bad for its depiction to be racist, I mean that it must be perceived to be bad. Likings of watermelon, cargo pants, or tacos are not bad in themselves, but they become bad if another group wants to use them for ridicule. They are declared to be ridiculous and subject to scorn, which makes them a bad thing to have attached to you. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/27 "2003-09-05T16:51:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > \*\*The underlying assumption of the OP is that to show people talking like that in an effort to sell something is racist. It can only be racist if the thing shown is bad. > > The OP is apparently so disconnected with black people that he believes that no one, aside from characters in UPN sitcoms, really talks like that. I have three black roommates (I’m white), and many do talk like that. It’s just different, it’s not bad. > > The fact that the OP did not complain about white people being shown to gush over their new Gap cargos, or to swoon over their vanilla flavored coffees (while using proper grammar), to me says that he considers these things right and proper, subconciously. They did not raise his ire enough to include them in his post here. > > To sum up: I would greatly suspect that the OP has little connection with people who do in fact talk in this manner. He thinks that it is manufactured, and that to use it or admit it is to put down people slightly connected with the people depicted. If this is true, then every rap video is a virtual crime against humanity. \*\* You’re completely wrong, actually. I work at a black college, so I think I’m pretty well connected with black people. I just happen to think using black stereotypes in an annoying way to sell crappy pizza is demeaning. That’s my opinion. You don’t agree with it. Fine. Now get lost. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2003, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/28 "2003-09-05T16:52:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Avalonian \* > \*\*Therein lies the problem… the people in the ads _have to_ talk like stereotypes, because the people making the ads are selling to stereotypes, otherwise known as target markets. > > Tell me you don’t think that tampon ads and even the ads for your local ambulance-chaser are selling to stereotypes rather than real people. \*\* Yes, I see your point. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/29 "2003-09-06T00:31:35Z")
The whole point is that it’s NOT a stereotype. It’s a fact. Some people talk differently than you. That’s OK. They have every right to do so. They have every right to be on tv, and to get work in commercials. There are a good number of people who do the same thing. They will be reached best by someone acting similarly to themeselves, just the same as you put the cargo shorts and t-shirts on the kids in the Mountain Dew commercials. You don’t sell over-caffeinated soda to kids by putting Victor Borge in the ads. I stand by my point entirely. You haven’t complained about the “stereotypes” in ads like the Gap ads, in which all those white people are grinning like idiots because they got new khakis. Why is it only a stereotype if it’s black people using non-standard English? Note the use of the word “demeaning”. So, it’s demeaning to show these people talking like this? What else is demeaning? I repeat, other ads using archetypes, like all the white bankers, or the Budweiser ads that use the “white guys are such dorks” motif have not bothered you enough to complain about them. I can’t see as how your post says anything but that it’s bad that these people talk like this. And I don’t appreciate your tone. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/30 "2003-09-06T00:49:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > \*\*And I don’t appreciate your tone. \*\* And **I** don’t appreciate your assuming things about my background and experiences based on scant information. The original question called for opinions about this commercial, nothing else. Others posted that they didn’t agree the commercial is racist, but they didn’t have the incredible nerve to patronize me and present an ill-conceived analysis of my life. You don’t know anything about me or my life experiences. So whatever your point was, you got way off it. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/31 "2003-09-06T01:12:47Z")
My point is that you still won’t answer why THIS commercial is “racist”, while other ads trafficing in all sorts of stereotypes are just passed over. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/32 "2003-09-06T01:32:57Z")
If I’ve misdescribed you, I apologize, but it’s a very good question, why this depiction is bad in the first place, and why other stereotypical depictions aren’t bad. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/33 "2003-09-06T01:41:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cardinal \* > \*\*If I’ve misdescribed you, I apologize, but it’s a very good question, why this depiction is bad in the first place, and why other stereotypical depictions aren’t bad. \*\* I’m sure there are other offensive and annoying ads based on stereotypes of other races; I just didn’t choose to pick on those particular ads in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/34 "2003-09-07T20:22:26Z")
I’m sorry, I still have a problem with this. For this ad to be racist, it has to be a bad thing to show these people talking like this. Why is that bad? ---
**Author:** ![dalovindj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/65b543/32.png) [@dalovindj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalovindj)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/35 "2003-09-07T20:28:14Z")
I wouldn’t say it is racist either. But I would say it is stupid as fuck. So is that “Gellin’ like a felon” bit. And don’t even get me started on the Partnership for a Drug-Free America ad campaigns. They take stupidity in advertising to a new fucking level. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/36 "2003-09-07T20:46:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dalovindj \* > \*\*I wouldn’t say it is racist either. But I would say it is stupid as fuck. \*\* Well, yeah, exactly. Look, not to back-peddle, but I actually said it was “borderline” racist, meaning this was more of a vague response to using African-American speech patterns in such an inspid context. The commercial may not be racist in the white hood-wearing sense, but let’s not call it a celebration of African-American culture and language. Anyway, my original intent was just to trash a commercial that has been getting way too much airtime. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/37 "2003-09-07T20:56:19Z")
backpedal – ack ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/38 "2003-09-09T02:37:06Z")
I myself have never seen the commercial; only heard others mention it. ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/39 "2003-09-09T07:48:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aaslatten \* > \*\*Well, yeah, exactly. Look, not to back-peddle, but I actually said it was “borderline” racist, meaning this was more of a vague response to using African-American speech patterns in such an inspid context. > > The commercial may not be racist in the white hood-wearing sense, but let’s not call it a celebration of African-American culture and language. > > Anyway, my original intent was just to trash a commercial that has been getting way too much airtime. \*\* Don’t backpedal - you were right the first time. A.) It’s the most annoying ad of all time, and B.) it _is_ borderline racist. To say it’s _not_ racist because “black people really talk that way” is ridiculous. I’m sure there were black people who really talked like Amos & Andy, too - what the fuck does that prove? I suppose in these people’s minds, it would be o.k. to have a KFC ad with black people saying, “Ah sure does loves dis fried chicken!”:rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![zuma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9c0ed/32.png) [@zuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuma)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055/40 "2003-09-09T11:58:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by aaslatten \* > \*\*Does anybody else find this commercial extremely annoying and borderline racist? \*\* Extremely annoying, most definitely. I’m glad you started this thread. Borderline racist? Yes. What disturbs me most about this commercial is that it appears to celebrate and approve of stupidity and ignorance. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-be-rippin-and-dippin-pizza-hut-commercial/199055.md?page=3)