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[Up] James Gunn fired for racism, jokes about rape and pedophilia

KevinKeene

Banned
I disagree with blaming it all on social media. It's on companies like Disney bowing to the outrage instead defending reason and logic. If Disney had any integrity at all, they publicly say 'Gunn apologized for it years ago and it was just some bad jokes. We won't fire our star director over this'.

1. He is a millionaire his life is not destroyed
2. Saying things like he said are unacceptable
3. He admitted he was in the wrong.

He didn't say anything unacceptable. If thats your claim, you're also for the ban of South Park, in which case I consider you an enemy.
 

TrainedRage

Banned
I disagree with blaming it all on social media. It's on companies like Disney bowing to the outrage instead defending reason and logic. If Disney had any integrity at all, they publicly say 'Gunn apologized for it years ago and it was just some bad jokes. We won't fire our star director over this'.



He didn't say anything unacceptable. If thats your claim, you're also for the ban of South Park, in which case I consider you an enemy.
Is it acceptable to make fun of rape, practicing pedophilia and people with AIDS? Because if he is using the "it was a joke" excuse he is a fucking terrible comedian.
 

NickFire

Member
Say stupid shit on twitter, prepare for consequences.

When it's someone on the left, the left howls injustice, and when it's someone on the right, the right howls injustice.

From my vantage point, when it's someone on either side the vast majority of conservatives howl injustice. When its someone on the right, the left howls justice after howling for them to be fired in mass first. And when its someone on the left, the left claims "what about", or "he was fired because the left has morals and the right doesn't", and now starting today "the right has weaponized our morals." Enough false equivalencies - the twitter outrage culture is owned by the left by and large. Shit, they even control twitter and every other social media platform that I can think of.

If the left had any actual morals, we would be hearing from the left that they realize things have gone too far and we need to stop before it gets worse. But no, it seems the new narrative is the right weaponized their morals to justify their hypocrisy in being upset that someone they actually like suffered from their crap.

As an aside, I do not believe he deserved to be fired for tasteless jokes from years prior. Completely ridiculous, but no surprise coming from Disney.
 
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Gander

Banned
I disagree with blaming it all on social media. It's on companies like Disney bowing to the outrage instead defending reason and logic. If Disney had any integrity at all, they publicly say 'Gunn apologized for it years ago and it was just some bad jokes. We won't fire our star director over this'.



He didn't say anything unacceptable. If thats your claim, you're also for the ban of South Park, in which case I consider you an enemy.

While I like edgy humor there are several times where I think Southpark has gone too far but Southpark is no private citizen making a statement it's clearly defined comedy show.
 

KevinKeene

Banned
Is it acceptable to make fun of rape, practicing pedophilia and people with AIDS? Because if he is using the "it was a joke" excuse he is a fucking terrible comedian.

Yes. An entire episode is dedicated to making fun about aids and it's one if the best episodes. A handicapped boy is raped by a shark and it's hilarious. And there's so much pedo-jokes in South Park, where even to begin.

Jokes don't know any taboo topics. A fun joke is fun.
 
Isn't that what that article is? Gunn is "team left."



The Man Show was awesome. I will fight people in the streets over it.

Finally something in OT we can finally agree on.

@ OP

Holy shit this is kinda aggravating.

In Snoke's voice, "The Left burns some concervatives for tweets soon the convervatives rise to meet them. Balance in the force."
 
Sick because he said something "funny" or stupid almost 10 years ago?

Yes.

Since some of us dont live in the twitter sphere (and apparently some really shouldnt) whats the context to all of this 'played by the alt right' comments?

I assume someone who had a grudge against the guy dug this up?


He was critical of #45 along with everyone else when he got no-Vaseline'd by Putin on international television,. So Jack Posobiec put out a "hit" on a "leftist" in retaliation. I quoted his tweet earlier in the thread.

Troops were rallied, and so here we are.

Such is the state of division in the United States.
 
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Airola

Member
Is it acceptable to make fun of rape, practicing pedophilia and people with AIDS? Because if he is using the "it was a joke" excuse he is a fucking terrible comedian.

Is it a crime or unacceptable to be a terrible comedian?
Is it a crime or unacceptable that Troma movies exist?
 

Gander

Banned
Yes. An entire episode is dedicated to making fun about aids and it's one if the best episodes. A handicapped boy is raped by a shark and it's hilarious. And there's so much pedo-jokes in South Park, where even to begin.

Jokes don't know any taboo topics. A fun joke is fun.

Until it strikes something you don't find funny. You maybe one of those people that find everything funny but if you lost a family member to AIDS you might not agree.
 

KevinKeene

Banned
Until it strikes something you don't find funny. You maybe one of those people that find everything funny but if you lost a family member to AIDS you might not agree.

People lost a family member to car accidents. Let's ban GTA?

Your posting makes no sense. You personally not liking something doesn't make it unacceptable.
 

Petrae

Member
Say stupid shit on twitter, prepare for consequences.

This is the moral of the story. Twitter is a public record. You’re saying things into a microphone cranked to the max for the whole world to hear, if it wants to. If you’re not savvy enough to understand that what you say in a public forum, no matter how long ago, can have massive consequences... you will learn, and you’ll learn the hard way.

Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. It’s all the same. You are responsible for what you post, and the consequences that come with it. Then, now, and always. It’s a big responsibility.
 

Makariel

Member
Until it strikes something you don't find funny.
There are a lot of jokes that I don't find funny. As an example, I don't think Southpark is particularly funny (it's more "meh" funny to me, not "haha" funny). But I would not stop them from making jokes I don't find funny. The same way I would definitely defend your right to say what you think, despite me not agreeing with much of what you write here.
 

Gander

Banned
People lost a family member to car accidents. Let's ban GTA?

Your posting makes no sense. You personally not liking something doesn't make it unacceptable.

Cmon man it's common sense and common decency you don't make fun of people with a terminal illness. It's in poor taste. If you employer gets wind that you did such a thing, ya you might get fired
 
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Airola

Member

Texas Pride

Banned
He also got a video from a guy who was convicted with child porn. That's what really bothers me.


Exactly. The guy was stupid enough to leave the comments up on social media too. This goes both ways. Freedom of speech isn't free from consequences. His comments taken with the fact he's linked to a convicted Pedophile lead me to believe he's full of shit. You're judged by your actions and the company you keep. To top it off he was too ignorant to remove the posts so how apologetic was he ever really?
 
This type of tweet comedy seems like a just one part of a conversation taken out of context. Like... was he just making a terrible joke to show the absurdity of something? That is really the question here for me.
 

888

Member
Here is why there should be no sympathy for him TWEETS ARE ABLE TO BE DELETED. If you have a job that is going to pay you millions and put you in the lime light you take the time to delete your teenage angst tweets.

In general I agree with you. But wasn’t he like 30 when he did those. I’m shocked that considering how much people are being targeted everywhere on social media that those were still up there.
 

Airola

Member
Until it strikes something you don't find funny. You maybe one of those people that find everything funny but if you lost a family member to AIDS you might not agree.

We don't get to decide what should be acceptable by basing it on what is funny to us.

Someone who has been through a divorce might not find it funny if South Park or anything else would have a joke about a divorce. That person might even find it offensive. Should they then stop making jokes about divorce? Our personal tragedies should not be something we use to define what others should think is funny. If someone on the other side of the world thinks a certain joke is funny and suddenly the subject of the joke becomes a personal tragedy to me, it shouldn't change how people see the joke. Sure, they can stop liking the joke if they want to but we shouldn't make the whole world to not like that joke ever again because it happened to become a tragedy to me.
 

NickFire

Member
This is the moral of the story. Twitter is a public record. You’re saying things into a microphone cranked to the max for the whole world to hear, if it wants to. If you’re not savvy enough to understand that what you say in a public forum, no matter how long ago, can have massive consequences... you will learn, and you’ll learn the hard way.

Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. It’s all the same. You are responsible for what you post, and the consequences that come with it. Then, now, and always. It’s a big responsibility.

People only "learn the hard way" because sick and wicked people relish causing pain and suffering to other people who they don't like, and the people employing them are scared of having their heads placed on the chopping block if they don't offer a sacrifice to appease these lunatics. There is no law or moral obligation to harshly punish people for merely saying stupid shit on the internet that doesn't pose any threat to others. This is a stupid argument (unless you are advocating to control what people are allowed to say of course), and it's time that the world flushes this twitter lynch mob mentality right in the shitter where it belongs. There is no requirement that we burn witches for saying witchy things. Only happens because sick people get off on it, feeling all smug and morally superior.

And its beyond hypocritical coming from the same side demanding criminal justice reform. I mean really, by the logic of say stupid things online and learn a harsh lesson, why shouldn't every criminal transgression cause massive pain with long prison sentences or beatings from the police? Play stupid games win stupid prizes, right? It's not the fault of the people overreacting when sentencing offenders or arresting them, its merely the fault of the person who made a mistake, right? (Of course not)

People screw up. Every single person will make mistakes. Every single person will say things they regret. This is a guarantee in life. We cannot change that, and demanding perfection by condoning this nonsense is not right. It needs to stop. S T O P.
 

SatansReverence

Hipster Princess
The right did this, not the left. Turns out the degenerate is you!

"the left" does this to itself. All "the right" did was show some obvious jokes and let the leftist twitter outrage machine do it's job.

Any rational person, be they left, right or centrist, see's them as the dark edgy jokes that they are. Followed by collectively face desking over the outrage.
 

KevinKeene

Banned
Cmon man it's common sense and common decency you don't make fun of people with a terminal illness. It's in poor taste. If you employer gets wind that you did such a thing, ya you might get fired


In another episode, the kids pretend to have infected Cartman with aids. Cartman wants to take a flight for free due to his illness, but the ticket salesman says 'sorry, we only give free flights to cancer patients these days, aids is so ... 90s, ts!'
Great episode, too :)
 

Airola

Member
This is the moral of the story. Twitter is a public record. You’re saying things into a microphone cranked to the max for the whole world to hear, if it wants to. If you’re not savvy enough to understand that what you say in a public forum, no matter how long ago, can have massive consequences... you will learn, and you’ll learn the hard way.

Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. It’s all the same. You are responsible for what you post, and the consequences that come with it. Then, now, and always. It’s a big responsibility.

So responsibility is only for those who do a thing but not for those who react on that thing?
Shouldn't there be some responsibility in how you punish a person for their wrongdoings too?

In my eyes it's absolutely irresponsible to cave in to public pressure and fire a person for 10 year old texts he had already apologized for 6 years ago and apologized again and even started to delete them.
Hell, according to IMDb he tweeted those when he was doing his PG Porn comedy series. It's not as if he was just spouting stupid things around. He was trying to make some off-color jokes while he was doing other type of comedy.
 

TrainedRage

Banned
Well, he writes and directs comedy.
This is the first movie he wrote a screenplay to:


You can look at the list of genres of what he has been part of on imdb:
https://www.imdb.com/filmosearch?sort=moviemeter&explore=genres&role=nm0348181&ref_=nm_ql_flmg_5
Comedy is there on top.

Obviously you could say what he has done is bad comedy, but using "he is not a comedian" as an argument means nothing.

So he is a bad comedian who had 'comedy' movies that all failed by any metric. I mean justify his tweets how you want, they were in poor taste and he was a moron to tweet them out of all things. Like did he have any foresight?
 

PSlayer

Member
There is no way Disney didn't know about these tweets before he was vetted to helm GOTG.

It's not about what he said more than the fact that what he said blew out in twitter.

Disney is trying to damage control any possible outrage that can come out of this.

It's understandable but at the same time it show us how easy is to destroy somebody because of shit that was posted years ago.
 

Airola

Member
So he is a bad comedian who had 'comedy' movies that all failed by any metric. I mean justify his tweets how you want, they were in poor taste and he was a moron to tweet them out of all things. Like did he have any foresight?

Again, just because you find his comedy bad doesn't mean everyone else should see it the same as you do. Bad comedy is not an unacceptable offense. It has never been and I surely hope it will never be.

Being a moron isn't an unacceptable offense either.

He is not a clairvoyant. Sure, he probably knew there are intolerable self-righteous assholes on the internet. He might've been one himself. But he wasn't that much of a clairvoyant that he could see that not only there would be even more intolerable self-righteous assholes on the internet but that they would mix it with politics and use it as a modern day pillory and to have people lose their jobs.

I mean, all we were afraid of was that some of our old things would someday embarrass us when discovered by someone. The way it ended up to be escalated into something completely absurd and there was no way any of us was able to have this much foresight into it. A situation like this should be in some dystopian sci-fi movie and not in our reality.

EDIT:
Besides, Tromeo and Juliet is a cult classic.
And it was well received too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tromeo_and_Juliet#Reception
 
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Iced Arcade

Member
I dunno, those are tweets from an era where dark twisted humor was common.

Look at the thing eminem, dmx, robert Downey jr, the man show, marilyn Manson, lamp bizkit etc were saying back then... and are all icons now (besides dmx... he got fucked up).

We are in generation egg shells
 

Airola

Member
I dunno, those are tweets from an era where dark twisted humor was common.

Look at the thing eminem, dmx, robert Downey jr, the man show, marilyn Manson, lamp bizkit etc were saying back then... and are all icons now (besides dmx... he got fucked up).

We are in generation egg shells

Yeah, this guy got very successful too around 2005-2010:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugleikur_Dagsson

Do a Google image search on "Should You Be Laughing at This?"
People are now losing their jobs because of jokes like that, and not because of the jokes themselves but because out of fear for those who don't like the jokes. It's insane!
 
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Airola

Member
By the way, I wonder how many people are double and triple and quadruple downing on supporting Gunn being fired just because the wrong type of people are against it.
 

Kadayi

Banned
I expect a lot of people are going to be furiously scanning and deleting their old tweets as a result of this.

Hopefully, GoTG3 won't suck and they'll put a decent director in place, but one has to wonder whether they'll still run with Gunn's script or jettison it.
 

It's Jeff

Banned
This is the moral of the story. Twitter is a public record. You’re saying things into a microphone cranked to the max for the whole world to hear, if it wants to. If you’re not savvy enough to understand that what you say in a public forum, no matter how long ago, can have massive consequences... you will learn, and you’ll learn the hard way.

Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. It’s all the same. You are responsible for what you post, and the consequences that come with it. Then, now, and always. It’s a big responsibility.

You're right on all counts. My question is to what end? Social media has given the opportunity for everyone to speak their minds. Do we want people to do that or not? Should the expectation be that people speak a series of canned, safe comments? What's the point of the platform, then?

I've been through the list of questionable tweets. These aren't the kind of things I laugh at, and usually a sign that you're creatively bankrupt. But people change and develop over time. Gunn admitted this - what's the purpose of firing somebody for something he said years ago that helped him develop to what he is now?

I've got a stack of dead baby jokes that I used to tell my friends when I was a teenager. People experiment with different styles of humor as they develop. Why not applaud the man for where he is now instead of casting him out for who he was ten years ago?
 

haxan7

Banned
The Roseanne Firing: Part Two

No matter how far back in your internet history, we'll find it!
 
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Teletraan1

Banned
Why the hell would you use your public twitter to espouse anything even remotely controversial? It didn't make sense 10 years ago if you had any sort of foresight or care for your career. I remember a former employer digging through message boards outing people and firing them for speaking shit about the company online. Then we moved on to years of corporations using twitter comments and mob reactions to fire employees. People are just serving up the means to put their careers in jeopardy. If I had job with Disney of all companies and an easily accessible full display of pedo, racist and rape jokes I doubt I would say Fuck Anyone online.
 

Barsinister

Banned
I don't care about the left or right politics of this situation. I just feel helpless that there is nothing that can be done to keep this from progressing. More and more I think that the powers that be have provided to us "Brave New World" and "1984" at the same time. It's like with everything, one's perception will alter reality itself. Will there be much more time until we have to give up our usernames and be forced to use our real identities on forums like this?

I'm not too worried about myself, I don't use twitter or facebook or any of that stuff. I worry about all of you who do. Nuance has gone out of our lives and subtlety is abandoned. Am I a Nazi? Have I always been a Nazi? When I am no longer a Nazi, will I ever have been one?

I will need to leave for a while. I am not asking for a ban or anything. I just need time away to think.
 

Gander

Banned
I don't care about the left or right politics of this situation. I just feel helpless that there is nothing that can be done to keep this from progressing. More and more I think that the powers that be have provided to us "Brave New World" and "1984" at the same time. It's like with everything, one's perception will alter reality itself. Will there be much more time until we have to give up our usernames and be forced to use our real identities on forums like this?

I'm not too worried about myself, I don't use twitter or facebook or any of that stuff. I worry about all of you who do. Nuance has gone out of our lives and subtlety is abandoned. Am I a Nazi? Have I always been a Nazi? When I am no longer a Nazi, will I ever have been one?

I will need to leave for a while. I am not asking for a ban or anything. I just need time away to think.

People maybe sensitive but think of it like this it's because so many horrible things got missed. The coach raping boys at Penn State, The gymnastics coach fondling little girls. These things carried on for years and people heard the rumors but did nothing. So now we are in a place where people take these kinds of things serious because you don't know who is suffering in silence too embarrassed to come forward.
 
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haxan7

Banned
People maybe sensitive but think of it like this it's because so many horrible things got missed. The coach raping boys at Penn State, The gymnastics coach fondling little girls. These things carried on for years and people heard the rumors but did nothing. So now we are in a place where people take these kinds of things serious because you don't know who is suffering in silence too embarrassed to come forward.

Because the Penn State raper and the gymnastics coach were probably making jokes about it online? Come on...
 

Gander

Banned
Because the Penn State raper and the gymnastics coach were probably making jokes about it online? Come on...

You're missing the point if people feel like rape or abuse is not taken seriously, they may hesitate to come forward. We want an environment where we don't laugh at others misfortune or where people can turn to the rest of us for help.
 

CatCouch

Member
Well, this kind of stuff is pretty scary to me since I work in NSFW art and I post it on sites like Twitter. I have a lot of sexual conversations and jokes because I draw sexual situations. There seems to be no set rules for where any lines are, what was fine one day is not the next and there is no limit to how far back people will go to ruin you.

The line between abhorrent real life views and jokes/entertainment/art seems to be dissolving. Weaponizing social media is going to be the big fight for the next decade isn't it?
 

haxan7

Banned
You're missing the point if people feel like rape or abuse is not taken seriously, they may hesitate to come forward. We want an environment where we don't laugh at others misfortune or where people can turn to the rest of us for help.

No, I think you're missing the point. If you look at all the tweets the guy is being crucified for, they were bad attempts at shock humor that are all over the place.

The only point is that the corporate machine of Disney won't risk its bottom line for any artist, including ones who were integral to its most successful recent projects, and public opinion is on the side of the corporate machine. Society is upside down.

THIS is what we should be outraged about.
 
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dionysus

Yaldog
I wonder if Gunn has a new perspective on his call for the firing and boycott of Ingraham? I think he called for other boycotts too but I could be wrong.

For the record I wish he had kept his job and I think most anything should go in comedy. If it offends you put him on ignore, don't form a twitter hate mob and try to ruin his life.
 
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oagboghi2

Member
Yes. An entire episode is dedicated to making fun about aids and it's one if the best episodes. A handicapped boy is raped by a shark and it's hilarious. And there's so much pedo-jokes in South Park, where even to begin.

Jokes don't know any taboo topics. A fun joke is fun.
Yeah but none of these jokes are even slightly funny.
I wonder if Gunn has a new perspective on his call for the firing and boycott of Ingraham? I think he called for other boycotts too but I could be wrong.

For the record I wish he had kept his job and I think most anything should go in comedy. If it offends you put him on ignore, don't form a twitter hate mob and try to ruin his life.
That would require self reflection, which I doubt he is able to do.

He views himself as a good person while Ms Ingrhahm is a "traitor and racist" (those are his words).More likely he is blaming people like her.
 
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