LONG DUK DONG

Chico's ethnicity was always indeterminate, which was part of the joke. My larger point was that the stereotype of a strange European immigrant is really common in comedy, and acting like the character is not based on an essentially racist premise is just wrong. see also: Cozen Larry, Latka, etc. we went over this on the main Borat thread.

Borat is a lot more complex than a simple caricature like Long Duk Dong. Although Borat is constructed from elements of stereotype and caricature, there's an ambiguity about exactly who he represents. More importantly, he's not the butt of the jokes - the "normal" people he interacts with are. Also, the audience is always in on the joke that Borat is a constructed character - so there's an element of distance from the stereotypes. A lot of the humor is watching people react in a stereotypical way to something we know is a ruse.

'generic Asian'

I meant non-specified in terms of country.

There's plenty of anti-Italian humor in 30's films, btw. 'Top Hat' for example.

Although Borat is constructed from elements of stereotype and caricature, there's an ambiguity about exactly who he represents.

uh no he is depicted very specifically as being from an actual country where actual people of an actual ethnicity live - Kazakhstan

More importantly, he's not the butt of the jokes - the "normal" people he interacts with are.

really. all those jokes about horrible wife's "wizard sleeve" and his joyously anti-semitic community and his broken diction, he's not the butt of that material? gtfo

uh they make it pretty clear that he's from China xp

Also, the audience is always in on the joke that Borat is a constructed character

lol what movies do you watch where you're NOT sure the characters are constructs

Oh boy a Borat argument in 2012!

just because it's a construct doesn't mean the construct isn't fundamentally racist

xp

I far prefer Borat in short TV segements, btw. I'm partly convinced the movie came about because SBC figured everyone in Britain knew who he was and it didn't make sense to go the US unless they got a lot of footage.

Money

uh they make it pretty clear that he's from China xp

Fair enough. I haven't seen the movie since it came out.

What makes me uncomfortable about both characters isn't that kind of racist stereotype that says 'X ppl are like this' it's the condescending view that an attempt at versimilitude of any kind is pointless and the audience neither knows nor is curious about a credible Chinese or Kazak character as long as they're funny in a 'quirky' way.

Revenge of the Nerds is PACKED with this stuff, PLUS it ends with a comic rape scene!

Revenge also had the Asian stereotype character but doesn't go as far as Sixteen Candles does. but yeah re-watching it I do find it funny how the nerds are supposed to be the good guys even though they are as unethical as the jocks, and maybe even worse (videotaping naked girls without their knowledge, and of course that whole sex scene that's like the most implausible thing on film)

ROTN was explicitly created to be as offensive as possible - all the gratuitous nudity, racist stereotypes, homophobia etc were deliberate

(not defending it btw, just noting that the screenwriters would not dispute the film is racist, sexist, etc)

that people though Borat was THE GREATEST COMEDY EVER for some reason was just sad.

I found a lot of stuff very questionable about the movie and hate the way it was explained by the people who loved the it - like, when he's doing the "manners training" and he brings the hooker, a lot of the glowing reviews said "watch as Borat exposes a group of Southern people to a black woman and see how horrified they are, aren't they terrible racists" when it's like, you bring in a white woman dressed like that and you'll get the exact same reaction, shut the fuck up, it's clear that the movie wasn't about exposing anything. Bruno is the same way, I hate when people say things like "look how Sacha Baron Cohen is exposing America's homophobia!" when you could almost argue that it's worse to NOT be offended by his behavior.

the only point of those movies is to be funny, and to be honest I laughed a lot at both

ROTN was explicitly created to be as offensive as possible - all the gratuitous nudity, racist stereotypes, homophobia etc were deliberate

yeah, the 80's were a weird time of political incorrectness; I realize a lot of this stuff still exists, but the sex/rape scene probably wouldn't fly today, nor would half the stuff on Sledge Hammer

like I saw the awful movie "40 Days and 40 Nights" which also ends on a rape scene (woman on man though) and found it shocking that it was allowed to be in the movie

how would you have felt if it was a man on woman one?

horny

(j/k)

oh man, 40 Days and 40 Nights...

iirc he's basically hallucinating at the end due to going that long without sex

you mean, what if a woman tied herself to the bed and a man broke into the house and raped her? in that case I'd probably be watching a Gaspar Noe film which means I'd be pissed off already

iirc he's basically hallucinating at the end due to going that long without sex

that's true but when he wakes up, he's being raped
what makes it even worse is that his current girlfriend blames him for it too, as though he had a lapse in judgement and winds up apologizing for it

if the roles were reversed here the movie simply wouldn't exist

ROTN was explicitly created to be as offensive as possible - all the gratuitous nudity, racist stereotypes, homophobia etc were deliberate

― The Silent Extreme (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, January 10, 2012 12:16 PM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

ah, the vice magazine approach

yeah it was an incredibly dumb and offensive movie

heh glad I can cross it off my to-watch list - it's often big upped in nerd communities as being a movie 'about us'

it's not really about nerds.

the song they do at the "talent show" is funny tho

I mean just... waht. they dress the asian guy up as a native american for no apparent reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mRG2oAQhso

Revenge of the Nerds is a documentary

I mean just... waht. they dress the asian guy up as a native american for no apparent reason.

I dunno, the scene in Cannibal the Musical where all the native americans are played by Asians is pretty funny, especially since the movie was low budget and didn't involve any actual actors so they did have the excuse of "we didn't know any"

*strikes comedy gong*

I was going to say that the Asian stereotype in ROTN wasn't nearly as bad as Sixteen Candles and then I remembered "Hair pie?" so uh never mind

lol I thought Dayo was still talking about 40 Days 40 Nights. It was very confusing.

"Who are all these nerds strongly identifying with Josh Hartnett?!"

NERRRRDDD
http://www.peoplequiz.com/images/bios/Josh_Hartnett.jpg-7481.jpg

"uh they make it pretty clear that he's from China xp"

there's an interview with gedde where he explains the donger's accent is korean.

also, ferris bueller and breakfast club feel more racist than sixteen candles, in tone anyway.

gedde was almost 30 yrs old when sixteen candles was released~

it's true, asians do look 'young' *minces proudly*

what was so racist about the breakfast club

breakfast club was racist against goth chicks

and nerds

Breakfast Club is probably the least racist of Hughes' peak period work imho

evidently the name is based on nature?

Some ducks grow phalluses as long as their entire body. In the fall, the genitalia will disappear, only to reappear next spring.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/science/01duck.html?pagewanted=all

It's funny that the rape scene in ROTN has been brought up, but 16 Candles has one too -- Jake Ryan passes off his drunk girlfriend to Anthony Michael Hall to have his way with.

I am horrified by how much I liked this movie when I was younger, because there is so much wrong with it.

Hall does not actually rape her tho iirc

Yeah its strange to watch those and think "wow, you probably couldn't pass that off in a movie today" but there are some shows like Family Guy and 2 Broke Girls that are arguably even worse

I tried to watch 2 Broke Girls last night; I made it 5 minutes

I ended up changing the channel to a Family Guy marathon

x-posts - Well, they sleep together and she has no memory of it (whereas I'm p sure he was supposedly sober) so going by most definitions that would definitely count although I never really thought of it as such but I haven't seen this is a very long time either.