Quote: Rood Eye @ 5th October 2018, 12:42 AM
It's come to something when a comedian is put to death, both fictionally and real-life-career-wise, for making an absolutely excellent joke.
The joke was in no way racist as its impact relied in no way upon Valerie Jarrett's race. It relied simply upon her facial resemblance to the chimpanzees in Planet of the Apes and that resemblance is, in my lifetime's experience, unique to her as an individual.
Like most BCG members, I have seen thousands upon thousands of human faces during my lifetime but I have never seen anyone, other than Valerie Jarrett, who looked like one of the chimpanzees from Planet of the Apes.
Roseanne's joke was unkind but I can think of other comedians who have made equally harsh comments about the faces of innocent people without attracting anything like the backlash that has hit Roseanne.
As I said in the other thread, ABC overacted. But that is the Dotard Presidency at work AGAIN. And this is still "news". However, racism in America has gotten worse since Roseanne said this; Dotard and his 40% talk shit about any race they please derogatorily every DAY. Dotard does this at HIS RALLIES. Watch some of them. His "supporters" are chanting derogatory names like __________ go home, kill all ____________ . Don't get me started on his latest mockings of sexual assault victims at his rallies, and his overwhelming need to "put women and blacks in their place" when he talks to them. See CNN news journalist April Ryan for more info.
Again, historically calling/referencing any black person as any type of primate (like a porch monkey, etc) is asking for a backlash because of the historically offensive context associated with it. Granted, Val Jarett does look like that character in Planet of the Apes, so does Michael Jackson in his last years - but that doesn't excuse the fact that Roseanne knows white people cannot publicly come out and do that without repercussion when race is involved.
I'm an advocate for comedians bringing politically biting commentary good or bad to the forefront, as comedy is the last bastion of freedom of speech America really has left. Having said that, Roseanne has a right to say what she feels personally on her political feelings as the 1st Amendment freedom of speech/expression gives her the right to do so. Okay, a porch monkey joke was in INCREDIBLY bigoted taste, but as I've said countless times on threads before, thanks to Dotard, the Archie Bunkers of the world are out and about, and ain't about to go back into the shame closet. Any time you limit freedom of speech just a little bit, its fascism. Censorship is fundamentally out of control in America right now. I don't like what the KKK or Briebart or Alex Jones says, I don't like white nationalists websites, but they shouldn't be censored. The information should be out there. You can say as you please - until you start doing (and ergo committing a crime). Yes, its a slippery slope, but the minute people say Roseanne should be censored but the Black Panthers get a pass; when David Duke is supposed to be censored but Malcolm X commentary turns a blind eye - see where I'm going with this? We do not have hate speech laws, and are within our own constitution allowed to express ALL opinions, good, bad and ugly. The minute you cherry pick based on PCness is the minute fascism comes into play. And trust and believe, America got enough of that as is.
Britain has a different post slavery history with their blacks than America has with theirs. Blackface and monkey jokes aren't associated with such a dark past to the point of national offense to one segment of the population, since Britain allowed many races to integrate within one generation without a government policy of slavery by another name. The toleration difference is simply because America has, nor will ever get over the racial issues of its dark past, and Dotard''s presidency is fanning the flames into something that really is starting to look like the Jim Crow era that came out of the Reconstruction period (1866-1966) where such laws like "Separate but Equal" were national federal policy and supported by an all white society.
A show like this is going on for all the wrong reasons - the reboot wasn't that great to begin with. Now they are killing off the star, and to show she felt "bad" about her comments she signed away the rights to the show so they could go on without her. I give it 2 episodes and its cancelled.
