Jamesy wrote: ↑Thu Mar 18, 2021 4:58 pm
It is interesting where you say might be perceived as racist? Yes it might be by the woke brigade and those easily offended.
Those of us who won’t be offended are not racist, we are realists. We know that that is how things were at the time these shows were made. Yes some of the scenes and dialogue could be viewed today as very wrong and I understand that, however don’t you think it is good to show these in their original unedited form to show how much attitudes have changed towards racism, bullying and sexism? Far better than simply erasing them as if nothing like this ever happened.
Fawlty Towers isn't being erased. It's not being proscribed. The BBC is making an editorial decision. I'm not offended by the sight of a cock pounding a hairy vagina to the sound of smooth jazz and funk music, but I understand that on the grounds of what is and is not appropriate for its public broadcast, the BBC's editorial decision not to show 70's porn is probably reasonable. And while hardcore f.ucking is less offensive than racial slurs, for what it's worth, you probably don't want either broadcast before the watershed if they are to be broadcast at all on the BBC. Appropriateness lays at the heart of the decision to remove these few scenes.
And by the way, you're championing the supposed educational value of an ancient comedy show not because you're concerned with educating people about racism or history, but because you hold a worldview in which laughing at caricatures of non-white or foreign people is acceptable and even desirable to you. This argument is totally bogus and everyone knows it. Believe me, we don't need Fawlty Towers to understand history. A lot of folks don't seem remotely interested in history, and anyone else sincere in their desire to understand this aspect of history will take an academic approach in observing its place in history, not necessarily watching it for its entertainment value. There's this observable psychological phenomenon where folks jumping on these kind of bandwagons appear to pine for a time where they falsely perceive themselves to have had more power (specifically over marginalised groups of people), even among those who did not live through said time, and they internalise the social justice movements which have highlighted racism and advocated against racism over the years as having diminished this imagined power. They want it to be acceptable to say p*ki in public because it makes them feel powerful at someone else's expense, and when a non-event such as this happens and they perceive it as a push-back against racism which basically says "nah-ah, not happening, mate...decency demands it", they feel powerless, and they feel insecure. This insecurity is at the heart of all racism, even in its subtlest forms, so when folks demand the BBC broadcast programmes containing racial slurs and ugly caricatures, what they're really asking for is a comfort blanket that makes them feel less insecure. Put plainly, this is just a certain brand of bog-standard reactionary politics. It's indescribably boring and un-cool.
I also love how Fawlty Towers is simultaneously — depending on who you ask — both not offensive, and also a practical demonstration on how modern society has overcome the prejudices that were rife in its past. That's funny. It's funny how people don't realise how silly they sound.
At this point this rant is just designed to see how far I can go to pi$$ people off, raise your blood pressure, make you think about yourself for a sec rather than the thing you were being blissfully distracted by, ruin your fun on this board for five seconds. ..you know, like how racial slurs interrupt the day of someone just going about their business and how they are made to feel pi$$ed off for five seconds about the fact someone sees them as a second class citizen who is fair game for denigration, all that sort of bantz.
First to quote me proves my point.
edit — the episode 'Hero or Hate Crime' from the brilliant show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which was mentioned above is probably the most offensive half hour of TV I've seen for its use of slurs, but unlike ancient comedies that make marginalised groups the butt of jokes, IASIP, in its own twisted genius, understands how to use slurs such as 'f*ggot' and 'n*gger' in a way which doesn't dehumanise the groups toward which those slurs are aimed, but turns those slurs inwards to make a mockery of the characters using them (and by extension, the people whom the show's characters serve as totems), like a sort of modern day Alf Garnett. The show's cast for the most part is very progressive and liberal, and have such a nuanced understanding of the use of offensive language that the characters they write can say some of the most horrible things imaginable without the show ever drawing criticism for being offensive. Basically, it's clever, whereas older comedy, reflecting older attitudes, isn't.
