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Examples of film/TV/comedy from the past that wouldn't be acceptable today?

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MrOogieBoogie

BioShock Infinite is like playing some homeless guy's vivid imagination
I've been watching a lot of footage of Don Rickles lately and I find some of his bits incredibly difficult to imagine occurring on TV today without a big hoopla.

Here's an example.

I find stuff like this pretty fascinating, so any other specific examples you can think of?
 

Moonkid

Member
Yellowface.

Oh wait.

DPghi.jpg
 
Some of those old Tom & Jerry or Looney Tunes cartoons were filled blackface and every racial stereotype known to man. The violent gags probably would be cut today as well.

And Soul Man

soul-man-978x400.png
 
Before someone comes in and tries to say "Blazing Saddles"

No.

Basically, the only sort of comedy that probably wouldn't get out of the writers room anymore is comedy that relies on a cultural acceptance of fairly oppressive/prejudiced notions as fact. And even then, that shit still slips through.

Otherwise, so long as you're challenging some sort of ingrained status quo with your satirical observances, pretty much everything is acceptable today. Whether or not you land your joke is a different question entirely. But unless you're shown to be a thoughtless, privileged, downward-punching dipshit, you're typically given some leeway to go where you're trying to go.

The notion that shit is somehow more off limits now than it was then is fascinating to see get regurgitated over and over again, especially by people whose knowledge of the past is entirely academic and not contextual or even drawn from personal experience.

Comedians get away with so much shit now. Comedies push envelopes way farther than they used to. Comedic storytelling fucking goes places it didn't used to on the regular when I was growing up, and the risks being taken in comedy are, from what I can see, bigger and bolder than they were back then, on average.
 
A lot of John Landis' early shit has this ugly base-level racism built into it. It's not commentary/satire, either. It's just mean-spirited and dumb.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Married With Children. All of it.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
Bullshit.

The blatant fat shaming wouldn't fly today on network TV. There isn't a swerve to it, Al hates on fat women.

No Ma'am might get a pass cause all the dudes are bumbling idiots.

Plus all the cheap titillation. Maybe on Spike TV, but on modern day Fox? Never.
 
Some things seem to be immune indefinitely from criticism

Legion depicts a medicated person in a psych ward drooling on them self as comedy and calling the patients "these people", and name dropping real illnesses and medication etc as a joke. Its rough for people like me who have actually been in that kind of rehab to be constantly reminded how much of a joke it still is to family, friends, and the tv shows and movies they watch to top it off.
Some first world countries just kick people out of their families who have these conditions, while the suicide attempt rate for real schizophrenia is close to half. Clinical depression also has up to 15% of people actually take their own lives. The statistics are undeniable and distressing.

I was told to just "not watch movies" because I commented on how its depicted in the latest M Night movie. So it seems like its not even up for debate.
 

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
Pepe LePew

More like Rapey LeRape.

I love the Dave Chappelle skit on it too
 

Zenner

Member
Revenge of the Nerds - sex on the moon scene. The "no means no" mantra wasn't a thing yet, let alone today's affirmative consent. I don't think this would pass muster, these days.
 

Moonkid

Member
Not really sure if Cloud Atlas is a good example. It had black people playing whites, Asian people playing Mexicans, men playing women etc.

It did look ridiculous though.
It's a fine example considering they drew the line at blackface. This line should have been extended to yellowface, or they could have gone all out and have Tom Hanks play a black guy lol.
 

norm9

Member
Revenge of the Nerds - sex on the moon scene. The "no means no" mantra wasn't a thing yet, let alone today's affirmative consent. I don't think this would pass muster, these days.

And the whole installing cameras in the sorority showers.

Also, shoving kids in lockers would probably not be allowed to be shown either nowadays.

Having a kid smoke cigarettes like a badass like in Bad News Bears.
 
Also, shoving kids in lockers would probably not be allowed to be shown either nowadays.

Am I reading this wrong, or are you claiming that the one thing that happens in every single movie or TV show that features a high school, wouldn't be shown today?

I haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds so I don't know if this particular shoving is extra violent or something.
 

Chuckie

Member
It's a fine example considering they drew the line at blackface. This line should have been extended to yellowface, or they could have gone all out and have Tom Hanks play a black guy lol.

Lol.

tumblr_mefymo8P1b1qihh9to1_500.jpg


I think I agree with you though. They should've gone all the way, or not do it at all.
 

AlteredBeast

Fork 'em, Sparky!
Yellowface.

Oh wait.

Funny enough "Yellowface" has been done in an alright fashion before, when the story permits. As has Blackface, whiteface, etc. When it isn't done to lampoon a person or culture, then there are ways, thematically, for a character of one race to play another.

A Twilight Zone episode I remember in particular deals with a hard-ass captain forcing his men to go after Japanese soldiers who were wounded and holed up in a cave. He was full of hate and demanding that they slaughter every single one of them. Later, the ol' patented Twilight Zone switcheroo happens and he wakes up as a Japanese soldier with the tables turned. His captain is forcing them to slaughter Americans holed up in a cave. The make up was done in a respectable fashion (probably the best epicanthic fold makeup I have seen, and it was 50+ years ago), not like Mickey Rooney in stereotypical Asian buckteeth and thick glasses. Dean Stockwell plays the captain, and Leonard Nimoy makes an appearance, too, funny enough.
 

norm9

Member
Am I reading this wrong, or are you claiming that the one thing that happens in every single movie or TV show that features a high school, wouldn't be shown today?

I haven't seen Revenge of the Nerds so I don't know if this particular shoving is extra violent or something.

It was separate from Nerds. I meant it as action played for laughs, particularly Saved By the Bell.
 

Skux

Member
Any of Eddie Murphy's early 90s sets about gay people. Funny how the stuff that made him a renowned comedian in one decade would ruin him in this decade.
 

Moonkid

Member
Lol.

I think I agree with you though. They should've gone all the way, or not do it at all.
Haha I had that poster in mind too. I'd look on the movie much more favourably if it had the courage to do that, but as it is they have a double standard which undermines the whole message of the human soul transcending race/gender or whatever.
Funny enough "Yellowface" has been done in an alright fashion before, when the story permits. As has Blackface, whiteface, etc. When it isn't done to lampoon a person or culture, then there are ways, thematically, for a character of one race to play another.

A Twilight Zone episode I remember in particular deals with a hard-ass captain forcing his men to go after Japanese soldiers who were wounded and holed up in a cave. He was full of hate and demanding that they slaughter every single one of them. Later, the ol' patented Twilight Zone switcheroo happens and he wakes up as a Japanese soldier with the tables turned. His captain is forcing them to slaughter Americans holed up in a cave. The make up was done in a respectable fashion (probably the best epicanthic fold makeup I have seen, and it was 50+ years ago), not like Mickey Rooney in stereotypical Asian buckteeth and thick glasses. Dean Stockwell plays the captain, and Leonard Nimoy makes an appearance, too, funny enough.
While I do think there is room in art for this to happen, I think blackface & co. can be problematic in real life even if it isn't done maliciously.
 
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