1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Rewriting, Washing, Scrubbing American Culture

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Songbird, Jul 23, 2023.

  1. JRoyal

    JRoyal Well-Known Member

    "Tuesdays at Walmart" was the unpublished sequel to "Tuesdays with Morrie."
     
    SFIND, garrow and swingline like this.
  2. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    There is a fish at the aquarium in Baltimore that bears striking resemblance to John Kerry and I mention it every damned time and don't care that no one laughs.
     
    JRoyal likes this.
  3. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    Post a pic next time if you remember. I wanna see that fish.
     
  4. justgladtobehere

    justgladtobehere Well-Known Member

    I don't think a lot of those jokes were written by WASPS. Blazing Saddles was written by a Jewish guy and a Black guy. Nobody in Reno 911 screamed out WASP. Rob McElhenney isn't a WASP. Comedians swapping jokes aren't WASPs.
     
  5. Spartan Squad

    Spartan Squad Well-Known Member

    I’m poking fun at Alma
     
  6. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    Obviously there are differences when it involves a high school, and/or a re-interpretation of an existing work.

    I’m more talking about original productions being sanitized pre-release, by someone(s) who decide what’s gratuitous and what’s meaningful, as well as what’s objectionable in the first place.

    If that’s the case, and it IS the case now with some movie studios, it lessens the art itself and kind of negates the point of making it in the first place.

    Some films should offend people. And things done solely for shock value have a place, too.
     
  7. JRoyal

    JRoyal Well-Known Member

    That has ALWAYS been the case with film studios. This isn't something new. Do you think studios in the 1940s and 1950s didn't sanitize things? You think studios didn't edit scripts mentioning drugs and sex in the 1960s and 70s? It's been happening for decades. Things are more lax arguably now than they practically ever were in a lot of ways outside of maybe the 1990s, when it was practically no holds barred on the independent movie scene and everyone was throwing money out trying to find the next "Clerks." And with advancements in technology, anyone can make and distribute a film with whatever the hell they want in it much easier than they could even 10 years ago. The idea that studios just recently started editing scripts is ridiculous.

    I absolutely agree with your last sentence, though.
     
  8. MisterCreosote

    MisterCreosote Well-Known Member

    No one said studios just recently started editing scripts.

    The point remains that the further the work gets from the artist’s original vision, the less purpose it serves.

    Look at DC’s Justice League debacle. Snyder leaves and they turn it into a second-rate MCU movie, complete with seemingly a hard quota on mediocre zingers. The Snyder Cut, while long and ponderous at points, was much more the original intent, and in turn much more cohesive and poignant.
     
  9. Mr._Graybeard

    Mr._Graybeard Well-Known Member

    When I was working the lobster shift, I listened to old-time radio programming on the drive home. It was quite entertaining, which is no surprise given that some of the country's greatest screenwriters contributed.

    Eventually, one of my regular radio outlets stopped running the old programs because so many of the shows had content that could be construed as racially/ethnically offensive. Mel Blanc doing a slow-talking Mexican, Fibber McGee's Yiddish neighbor ... the schtick wasn't overtly offensive to me (not that it was all that amusing), but the theme was, "They talk funny." They're different. They're not like us.
     
  10. JRoyal

    JRoyal Well-Known Member

    I mean, you’re right in a way, but what is the ultimate purpose of a big-budget studio movie? It’s not the artist’s vision. It’s to make the studio money, for good or bad. If abandoning one shitty vision for another maybe less shitty vision that might bring in more money is the goal, it accomplishes that. And I have no doubt Snyder’s version would’ve bombed. It wouldn't have had the Snyder bros fired up for years waiting for it. It would’ve come out, had a decent opening weekend, gotten torn apart for being too long and too indulgent, and tanked like the Titanic.

    Did it fulfill the artist’s vision? No. But whether we like it or not, studio films are almost never made to fulfill an artist’s vision. Like maybe five directors get that luxury along with a big budget. Zack Snyder ain’t one of them.

    I guess in that way studio movies are like the crappy, mass-produced paintings you see in a lot of hotels. They serve a purpose, but it’s not a very grand purpose.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2023
  11. DanOregon

    DanOregon Well-Known Member

    Always felt history should be analyzed by the contemporary standards of the time it occured. I don't have a problem with the 1619 project, looking at US history through the lens of slavery and how it shaped our country for better and worse. For all the books written about the Civil War, examining the long ripples of slavery and how it has impacted society was valuable.
    You will hear about why black people have a lower standard of living in the US and conservatives blame the destruction of the family, drugs etc. Well, look at imprisonment rates for young black men, how fatherless homes led to lower educational achievement, lower earnings etc. It's not like government was ever "color-blind" when it came to passing and enforcing laws that impacted black people. Red zoning, environmental impacts, freeways breaking up black neighborhoods etc. You could argue that the reparations that are truly owed are everything since the Emancipation Proclamation.
     
  12. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member


    The last two sentences are going to be less and less true in the new cultural left, unless those offended are a very specific set of populist right-wingers.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page