insidious -isms

[kengr]

I'm sure most of you deplore the stereotypes of blacks and Asians in older cartoons (including ones as recent as the 70s).

And you wouldn't laugh at unkind and inaccurate stereo types, right?

Ok, I'm going to name a well known series of cartoons that are *based* on such stereotypes. They entire series wouldn't exist if not for the stereotype.

And I bet you, like me, never thought twice about how they'd piss off members of the group being made fun of.

Think real hard and then I'll name it after the cut...



Mr. Magoo.

If you know anyone who has severe visual impairment, ask them about those cartoons. Be ready to duck.

Comments

[tallin.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I, of all people, would never have considered this, insofar as I would never have thought any intelligent human (although, I suppose, I've just winnowed out about 80% of the population there) would take the "stereotypes" portrayed there seriously. The other side of that, though, is that anyone actually thinking that X is true because "Mr. Magoo did that" would probably annoy me a little bit—for suitably tallin values of "a little bit".

[kengr]

Well, the same friend that bends my ear about Mr. Magoo also gets really pissed off about "I've fallen and I can't get up" jokes.

Basically, the idea of laughing at things that resemble real, and *serious* problems for some folks.


ps. *only* 80%?

[tallin.livejournal.com]

OK, 80% was a conservative estimate (I'm apparently in a reasonably good mood). =)

[kengr]

"Everyone's an idiot except me and thee. And some days I'm not so sure about thee."