#like I get jokes about hitler he's awful and deserves to be mocked but a nice loving amazing man who I worship (literally Jesus is actually | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wendynerdwrites · 7 years

Note

Im glad that u also like archer. Ive been rewatching it (im on s2) and i feel guilty as a feminist for liking it so much :( i know a lot of the jokes are supposed to be ironic but i still feel bad for laughing, and my bf has made comments abt "how can u laugh at that as a feminist" (he isnt one, hes using it as a gotcha). How do u feel about this? Any advice for separating myself from toxic fandom to just be able to enjoy something problematic? Love ur blog btw happy friday 💋💋

Thanks, and don’t worry, anon: You’re not a bad feminist.

It’s funny you ask this, but I used to have an entire essay series on this exact topic, and on Archer, particularly!

My philosophy is: don’t ignore the problematic, examine it. Use it as a springboard for analysis so you can learn more about the issue conveyed. Use your problematic responsibly! Because, let’s be honest, there ARE no unproblematic pieces of media. So just use it to educate yourself instead. For instance: my love of West Side Story (starring Natalie Wood as the Puerto Rican Maria) got me to learn more about the issues of white-washing.

Being a feminist is not about being perfect, it’s about learning and being open to examination and learning. Use your fandom for good!

Laughter is the balm for the soul. And listening to your boyfriend telling you how to be a feminist… less so. Kind of the opposite.

My old articles are lost, for the most part, but under the cut, I’ve pasted them for reference and included a great video on satire that also very easily applies to this discussion (just substitute feminism with the Holocaust)

Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)

Nothing and no one is perfect, so isnt it about time we learn how to call out the things we love?

We are all familiar with guilty pleasures: those things we like in spite of ourselves, that we are ashamed to admit we enjoy. Usually the term is applied to something we enjoy despite a perceived “lameness”, or because we’re not the right demographic for something. For instance, I still have a deep, abiding affection for Sailor Moon: that colorful, stock-footage-laced Japanese phenomenon that still gets me shouting “MOON PRISM POWER!” when I’m in the right mood. Yes, childhood is over, and yes, the show’s American dub did give me incest panic as a child, but I can’t help but love it.

But then there is the more difficult brand of guilty pleasures guilty pleasures that involve actual guilt instead of “mild embarrassment”. I’m talking about problematic faves the stuff that we love despite it containing clearly objectionable material.

willing18

(Image copyright Vertigo Comics)

…This is a panel from Bill Willingham’s Fables. The character there is Bigby Wolf, one of the main (anti) heroes of the story and the character the writer identifies with most. The person Bigby is waxing poetically on pro-Zionism to is someone literally called “The Adversary”.

Fables also happens to be one of my favorite comic book series on the planet.

Safe to say the issues surrounding Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East are a bit more complicated than that. And my own feelings on the matter are far more complicated. But this glorification of Israeli military policy is… um… in very tame terms… uncomfortable. After reading this, I resolved to only check Fables out of the library: a way for me to enjoy these comics in a legal way without financially supporting these ideas, however indirectly.

There are other problems with Fables: a lack of ethnic diversity, some murky racial and class commentary, and instances of some objectionable tropes, but there is a lot to recommend of these books as well. The stories are fantastic, the art brilliant, the characters well-fleshed out, and there is a definite progressive take on issues like gender and sexuality. But as much as I love this series, there is no getting around the fact that these stories have issues.

No excuses.

But it’s not just Fables that has disappointed me in the past. I am now and forever a Trekker, yet despite how horribly sexist episodes like “The Turnabout Intruder” are, or the very troubling anti-Semitic coding of the Ferengi. The Star Wars prequels famously had racist caricatures with the Trade Federation and the infamous Jar Jar Binks.

In the world of media, there’s no shortage of problematic content. From the novels of Robert Heinlein containing pro-fascist commentary, to HBO’s Game of Thrones misogynistic adaptation decisions, there’s nothing that is quite free of some messed up messages, subtle and blatant alike.

Now, when we talk about such media, we don’t merely mean triggering factors (i.e. the presentation, portrayal, or discussion of potentially traumatizing issues like domestic abuse, racism, hate crimes, substance abuse, or sexual assault), but rather how these matters are portrayed. A piece of media, such as Marvel and Netflix’s excellent Jessica Jones series, can portray certain issues (such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and mental illness) in a respectful, progressive, and sensitive light. Thus, while the content of the show can be triggering, the skill with which they portray these matters keeps it from being problematic.

In contrast, something like Game of Thrones, which portrays sexual assault in a thoroughly insensitive, exploitative, and misogynistic manner, is highly problematic.

Unfortunately, progress has been a slow-moving process, with many issues such as race, gender, sexual identity, mental illness, substance abuse, and violence only being examined in a more nuanced way fairly recently. As a result, almost all media is problematic in one way or another. Especially since even today, the majority of executives crafting, publishing, and greenlighting books, shows, comics, movies, and other forms of media are in fact cisgendered, heterosexual white men.

So what do we do?

Good news: here at Fandom Following, we don’t believe in dropping something you like just because it’s problematic. Why?

Because knowing, examining, and yes, even appreciating problematic content can be incredibly important. While certain content can be damaging, it can also teach us a great deal. Not only about current issues, but also about how to go about discussing these matters, and constructing narratives in general.

The racial issues in things like Star Wars and Star Trek can teach us much about how coding works, and how to avoid reinforcing stereotypes. The exploitation of women and rape on Game of Thrones can open up a dialogue of how to portray these things properly and improperly.

There are three tricks to enjoying problematic media: 1) Recognizing that there is an issue, 2) Being ready for a dialogue, and 3) Not ignoring or silencing the complaints about said issues.

Well, we here at Fandom Following have decided to tackle this issue head on with a series called “Our Faves Are Problematic (And So Can You!)”, where we will be exploring specific media franchises, creators, and works and, specifically, the problematic content they contain. In this series, we’ll be examining the issues, talking about why they’re important, discussing what this piece of media did wrong, how to approach the issue in a more progressive way, and the best ways to go about discussing the issue itself. Various writers will be contributing to this project, and we’re excited to present this feature to you!

So let’s get down and dirty, people. We all have our problematic faves. Let’s talk about them.

My Face is Problematic: Archer

Honestly, doing a post like this on Archer, a show which is deliberate in its dark humor, is a bit hard for me. Not because I like the show, but because I think there’s true validity in the argument that humor and narratives about really messed up, problematic stuff has its place. The show exists to be as outlandish and absurd as possible. The extremes and the awfulness of the characters’ personalities and their actions is the point.

I VUZ BORN IN DUSSELDORF AND THAT IS VY THEY CALL ME ROLF!

Joking about awful things, awful circumstances, and awful people is hardly new ground for comedy to cover, nor does it send a poor message, necessarily. Mel Brooks wrote a movie in which one of the characters was a Nazi, who wrote an overblown pro-Nazi musical produced by men deliberately trying to make a flop. Springtime For Hitler, as it exists in our universe, is not problematic. The Nazis are the butt of the joke, in which any pro-Nazi sentiment can only function if it is wildly fabricated and over-the-top, and even then, it will still be taken for satire. Because Nazis are utterly terrible, they built their movement on total bullshit that they dressed up in shiny boots and Hugo Boss uniforms and German exceptionalism and “glory”. This song-and-dance number about “Don’t be stupid, be a smartie, come and join the Nazi party” only ever deserves to be a joke, as the Jew who wrote it can tell you. Nazis fucking suck and it’s hilarious that anyone would ever suggest otherwise.

There’s justice in reducing Nazis to self-parody, and doubling down on that by making a joke about them being reduced to self-parody. Especially when said self-parody and depiction of it is crafted by the very people Hitler tried to destroy. No one enjoys or masters mocking Nazis like the Jews. Plain and simple.

Joking about awful things and how terrible they are can be a good way to process things and not allow them to hurt you anymore. Comedy, at its core, is a defense mechanism against horror and pain. There’s a reason slapstick is a classic subgenre of comedy that people have built entire careers around. Laugh at terror and pain to make it go away. Unfortunately, some of the things we manage to find humor in can really make you wonder if were all just terrible and have no limits.

Angela’s Ashes is a memoir by Frank McCourt about his impoverished, abusive, dangerous childhood in Ireland. In it, he chronicles his own starvation, life-threatening illness, abuse, and suffering at the hands of alcoholism and brutality from adult authority figures. He was a child laborer who went days without food while his father drank away the family’s money and abused the rest of the family, who often came down with horrifying illnesses as a result of the terrible conditions he lived in, and spent his formative years suffering along with all the people he loved. Three of his infant siblings die within the space of a chapter. We get a glimpse of the time when his father, overjoyed at the birth of his daughter, finds the will to stop drinking, stop mistreating his family, go to work, provide for his family, and just generally be a better person so that his children don’t have to suffer. For a short period, the McCourts have food, heat, and happiness. Then the baby promptly dies and Frank’s father is back in the pubs, once again squandering any pay he manages to acquire on alcohol and returning home at three am to scream at and beat his wife while his remaining children try to cover their ears and sleep on the cold ground.

Along with being praised for it being a both an unflinchingly brutal depiction of poverty and a testament to the triumph of the human spirit, the book is also praised for its humor.

Remember: Angela’s Ashes is a true story written by the very man who suffered through all of these horrible things. And it’s considered a pretty funny book. And the author who, once again, is the person who actually suffered all of these horrible things, actually did intentionally try to make people laugh as they read about that time he was in the hospital with Typhoid Fever and enjoyed it because it was the first time he’d been in a place where he was fed regularly and got to sleep in a warm bed.

Hilarious.

That being said, there’s satire and dark humor, and there’s just gratuitous, shock-jock bullshit. There are jokes that are terrible simply because of what they’re about and how they’re handled. George Carlin said that anything can be made funny, even rape, if you imagine Elmer Fudd raping Porky Pig.

If we can build entire films and musicals about how any pro-Hitler sentiment can only ever be taken as satire, isn’t that proof that you can joke about anything?

Yes, you can, but that doesn’t mean you should try, that the joke is funny, or that it’s alright, necessarily. Maybe Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and Springtime for Hitler prove that anything can be made funny and that’s okay. But if that’s true (and no, I’m not saying that it is), that still doesn’t mean every attempt at making something funny is either acceptable or funny.

Springtime for Hitler is not a get-out-of-jail-free card for any attempt to make a terrible subject the object of humor. Standards need to exist.

Unfortunately, the line between good or acceptable dark humor and simply gratuitous, insensitive, inherently problematic jokes can blur. The excuse of humor can only go so far. Yes, make light of Nazis. But there’s still a point where “humor” is used an excuse for people to act like assholes. And it’s an excuse that is used all too often. Radio Shock Jocks have been using that excuse to help reinforce racism and rape culture for quite a while. Whether certain dudebros like it or not, there’s a point where it stops being gross-out and just starts being gross.

Which brings me to Archer, the animated spy comedy on FX that premiered in 2011. Like many comedy series like Seinfeld or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, a major part of the premise is that certain characters are, quite simply, terrible people. These characters and their abhorrent behavior is the joke. And, as the show is about spies, these terrible people are often put into highly dangerous, outlandish, and traumatizing situations.

So, the main characters, by virtue of their profession, spend a lot of time killing people in cold blood. Or trying to seduce or manipulate enemies. Or engaging in clandestine operations of sabotage that harm a lot of people. Horrible, violent things are going to happen, things violent enough to serve as narratives on their own. But most of the characters are as awful as the situations they encounter, so the horror is amplified. And it’s a comedy.

Indeed, in the first episode of the fifth season, we get the whole main ensemble recounting all of their actions and experiences working for the spy agency ISIS that we’d witnessed over the course of the show’s run at that point. Drag racing with the Yakuza, knee-capping the Irish mob, encountering human traffickers, 30 year affairs with the head of the KGB that only ended when the guy was blown up because one of the ISIS members had choke sex with the victim’s cyborg replacement, actual piracy, paying homeless people to fight for spectators, defling a corpse, defiling a different corpse, sexual assault, kidnapping the pope, blowing up oil pipelines, “smuggling Mexicans”

Yeah.

There are comedic arcs about cancer, illegal immigration, kinky S&M bondage murders, cocaine addiction… a lot of stuff, basically.

Now, take those situations, and add in characters who get aroused by things like homeless people, being choked, sex with food, and the thought of their mother dying. Who spend their weekends starting fires, making hybrid pig-people, rubbing sand into the eyes of their employees, competing in underground Chinese Fighting Fish tournaments, and calling in bomb threats so that they can get a table at a fancy restaurant. You get the idea.

And it’s all totally awesome and hilarious and god damn it I kind of love these characters.

This show has a season-long sub-arc about one of the main characters getting so aggressively addicted to cocaine that she not only consumes (literally) half a ton of it in the space of a few months, but almost gets her head chopped off for buying amphetamines from the Yakuza with counterfeit money. It’s one of the most incredible things the show has done.

Pictured: An absurdly self-centered man feeling genuine dismay and concern over his friend risking her life to achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty.

The title character has a butler named Woodhouse who practically raised him. One of the first interactions we witness between them is Archer not only threatening to rub sand into Woodhouse’s “dead little eyes”, but making him go out and buy the sand himself and check if they grade it, because he wants the sand to be coarse. He’s also done things like make the man eat a bowl of spiderwebs and deliberately keep him in the dark about his brother’s death and funeral.

Another character is a mad scientist and possible clone of Adolf Hitler who kills a young intern by giving him a drug designed to turn him gay. That’s one of the less disturbing things Dr. Krieger has done.

Frequent gags on this show include one guy repeatedly getting shot, another character repeatedly getting paralyzed (it’s complicated), people trying to remember the inappropriate puns that they wanted say as one-liners, the horrific abuse and neglect Sterling Archer has received from his mother his entire life, and basically everyone being a sex-maniac.

There are plots revolving around mind-control, drugging people, and hypnotism. You can imagine the paths some of those episodes go down. Yes, there is a character that has tried to sexually assault one of her sleeping co-workers. And later deposited two unconscious, naked coworkers in a bathroom stall with an octopus, in an episode that has already made tentacle hentai jokes. Yes, the openly gay character on the show is often the target of jokes about him being gay or a woman from his coworkers. Yes, the female lead, a black woman, is referred to as a “quadroon” at one point by one of the characters.

Yes, the following exchange of dialogue does take place in an early episode:

“Oh my god, you killed a hooker!”

“Call-girl!”

“No, Cyril, when they’re dead, they’re just hookers!”

And yet… Oh my god. How it manages to play around with stuff in an amazing fashion. For one thing, it is amazing how often this show skewers micro-aggressions and fucks around with stereotypes. And, despite how unabashedly messed up it is, the writing in it actually manages to be oddly pro-social progress in ways that most modern media doesn’t even seem to be aware of.

I take pride in my sex work and I will not put up with your bullshit!

For instance the “hooker” referred to in that exchange? (spoiler alert: she wasn’t really dead) She’s Trinette, and she an unbelievably refreshing and strangely progressive depiction of a sex worker. While she’s a minor character, every time she shows up, it’s awesome. Trinette is a sex worker who is unashamed of her job, a woman who truly does take pride in and enjoy her work, who does not put up with poor behavior from her clients, and is just generally awesome. She call people out and makes them pay for any mistreatment she receives, from calling out micro-aggressions by insisting on her preferred terminology for her profession (“Call-girl, you puke!”), shaming men for their sexual misdeeds (“How can you cheat on Lana bare-back?!”), demanding restitution for any injuries or threats she’s suffered (Threatening Archer into giving her his car after he fakes her death and stuffs her in a rug to fool Cyril into thinking he killed her), and determining her work and clients (“What about Trinette? She said that? Damn it!”). When she has a baby, she gives it her last name along with his father’s (“Magoon-Archer”) and she unapologetically proud of her Irish heritage. She’s easily one of the most functional characters in the show, and every one of her appearances on the show manage to defy at least one whore-phobic trope a minute. She’s the best.

Then there’s the show’s handling of race, which is mixed. While arguably the most important female character in the series (the show, despite its name, is very, very much an ensemble, especially as the series progresses. But in the early episodes when they focussed on fewer characters, she was the one who got the most screentime) is Lana Kane, a highly-competent (for ISIS) African American woman who is really, really well-developed, there is also the fact that she’s the only POC in the main cast. Granted, part of that IS the point. One of the earliest episodes is “Diversity Hire”, where, aside from Lana, the spy agency is so overwhelmingly white that they hire a “diversity double-whammy!” Conway Stern, a black Jew.

“Sammy Gay-vis Junior!”

Now, granted, that doesn’t sound great the way I describe it, but there are so many great moments in this episode alone. For instance, when Mallory Archer, terrible woman and owner of the spy agency mentions their lack of diversity, Cyril, the tragically white accountant and “nice guy” puts his hands on Lana’s shoulder and says he thinks they’re pretty diverse, a statement Lana finds hilarious. Cue Sterling Archer, other horrible person, telling Lana she’s “black-ish”, then responding to her offense at this with “Well, you freaked out when I said quadroon!”. The framing of this entire discourse is that Cyril and Archer are fucking idiots and Lana is of course taking offense because, duh, she should. The episode proceeds with a lot of references and discussion about racism, highlighting casual racism in a nuanced, funny, and organic way. For instance, Archer’s relief that Conway didn’t sleep with his mother. While Archer freaks out about anyone sleeping with his mother, regardless of race, Conway believes it’s racism on Archer’s fault. And in no way does the narrative act like he’s overly-sensitive or irrational for thinking that. Because the stereotype about black men seducing white women and fear from white men about this is still a very real, pervasive thing that has somehow managed to survive in our “enlightened” times. Of course Conway encountering a guy who displays a downright violent fixation on whether or not his new black coworker is sleeping with his mother will assume it’s a race thing. Because why would anyone be so preoccupied with such an idea? In that situation, it’s almost certainly based on the long-standing paranoia white men have about black men’s sexuality “conquering their women.” It’s one of the most common varieties of anti-blackness in existence.

Of course, since it’s Archer, who has kidnapped a LOT of people under the suspicion that they were having sex with his mom, we know this is the one case that it isn’t racism. It’s Archer’s disturbing, Oedipal relationship with his mother. He even kidnapped and threatened his role model, Burt Reynolds, for dating his mother. When he says “Not in a racist way” to Conway in this episode, it’s actually true. He’s just honestly that screwed up where his mother is concerned.

Conway’s conclusions on this, regardless, are still framed as a totally understandable. To the point where the episodes suggests that it would make no sense for Conway to think otherwise. Part of the joke is that no, Archer isn’t a horrible racist at all. He’s way too screwed up for his actions to be motivated by racism.

And before anyone asks, no, this wasn’t the “episode that acknowledges that racism is a thing.” You know the ones… The episodes that talk about race and why racism is bad to prove to the audience that they’re not racist, then proceed with the rest of the show, which never acknowledges race and racism again. There are frequent instances of highlighting racism, from violent outright bigotry to common micro-aggressions to clueless white people demanding how the thing they just did/said could POSSIBLY be considered racist! They’re not racist! How is THAT racist?! Cue Lana face-palming.

I just really, really like this. It doesn’t just end there, either. Racism is called out pretty frequently on this show, and not in a cliche, strawman way. Nor is it treated like something that only exists in the form of aggressively bigoted bad people shouting slurs and holding cross burnings. Nope. The “heroes” of this show just say shit that you could easily imagine someone saying in real life, shortly before getting defensive about any racism on their part. It’s treated as a common, pervasive thing that Lana and other PoC have to deal with every day, and the offense they take at it is treated as nothing short of sympathetic or justified (even in the cases of misunderstandings, like with Conway). This includes Mallory telling Lana to “put [the race card] back in the deck!” as reminder of how much of an unapologetic douche Mallory is.

It’s made clear: people say and do some super racist shit on a regular basis with realizing it or meaning to, and regardless, it’s still uncool and people have every right to get upset and call you out on it. See: Ray’s bionic hand at the end of season six.

Lana’s reactions and how they’re framed is usually pretty awesome. Mostly they come in the form of small, reasonable confrontations, which are never framed as an overreaction on her part. The fact that she “freaked out” when Archer called her a quadroon is framed as “well, duh, of course, she should.” Then there are instances like when she, Archer, and their child visit a high-end nursery school where they encounter a pretty obvious racist. The guy ignores and dismisses Lana at first, then expresses surprise at the fact that she’s the mother of the child (despite the baby being black), remarking about the “times we live in” and telling Lana “good for you!” when she informs him that yes, she is the mother, not the nanny or the maid.

Not all of the racism stuff stems from Lana being back, either. They skewer bigotry against Latinos on a pretty regular basis. When an Irish mobster rants about Latinos (he doesn’t refer to them by that name) “taking American jobs!”, Archer immediately calls bullshit, recalling actual history of the Irish being accused of that exact same thing during the mass immigration of the Irish to America during the potato famine, and it’s just as shitty and bigoted to say such things about immigrants now as it was in 1842. He is extremely irate about a mission ISIS is assigned to do on behalf of border patrol to arrest people who just want to get a job, and he ends up siding with and befriending the Mexican illegal immigrants he encounters. All of this while aspects of certain Latinx cultures are often highlighted, often very favorably (“Ramone is Latino, so he’s not afraid to express affection.”)

That being said, there are still a lot of issues in the show. The lack of diversity is definitely an albatross around this show’s neck. Especially so many seasons after the “Diversity Hire” episode. While I do praise Archer for not treating racism as a thing that is rare and only needs to be addressed in one twenty-minute block of time, it is telling that the lack of diversity at ISIS is never addressed again.

Then there’s the approach to sexuality. The show loves gross-out sex humor, especially regarding Krieger. And the depiction of sexuality is actually pretty mixed. On one hand, the openly gay character in the show adheres to a lot of stereotypes about gay men: he mocks Lana about her “knock-off Fiacci drawers”, his go-to alias is “Carl Channing”, his free time is spent at raves, and he loves to make effeminate poses. He’s also a frequent target of homophobic jokes and remarks. His outrage at this is treated as being every bit as valid as Lana’s, but it doesn’t change the fact that their main gay character is basically ALL of the stereotypes, as are a number of the other gay characters.

“Alright! Were off to get our scrotums waxed!”

Then there is the sexual assault. Which, once again, is called out for being what it is, in defiance of many common biases (such as the idea that female-on-male sexual assault isn’t a thing). But this show is way too flippant about this.

While I consider Archer to be very sex-positive, allowing every character, regardless of sex, age, or orientation, to be comfortable and expressive about their sexuality without judgment (a lot of jokes, yes, but not any that come off as particularly shaming). Almost every character, male or female spends a fair amount of time naked or scantily clad. We see Archer stripped down just as often as Lana. And the fan service isn’t relegated to just women who adhere to the typical youth and weight obsessed eurocentric standards we all know and hate.

Pam, who is a big woman (and often the target of fat jokes, which the show always treats as nothing short of detestable) is a total sex goddess who grows to be utterly confident in herself as a woman to the point where she’s giving Mallory (one of the most desired women on the show) advice. When she reveals that she keep ingesting cocaine because it’s made her thin with big boobs, Archer is utterly dismayed, telling her she was way better off the way she was, acting horrified that she’d risk her life to be “hot”, and just generally freaking out about Pam’s desire to be thin. It manages to avoid being cliche or empty given that Archer considered Pam the best sex he ever had before she got thin, to the point of blowing off assignments just to have sex with her, because she’s just that awesome. After she gains the weight back in season six, she’s still sexy, making Archer’s jaw drop in the episode “Edie’s Wedding.” She’s also unapologetically pansexual, which is awesome.

Mallory, meanwhile, is still actively sexual and treated as desirable. While sex and sexuality are always sources of gags and jokes on Archer, never do the jokes about Mallory’s sexuality ever come across as ageist. Sure, some characters make ageist comments on the show, but it’s never treated as valid. Mallory is still treated as being extremely sexy and confident about it. While Mallory is generally a horrible person, her enthusiastic sexual agency is never once treated as a flaw or something disturbing or gross. What’s disturbing, gross, and worthy of ridicule is her son being so preoccupied and reactionary about his mother having a sex life. It’s clear: if you have a problem with Mallory having a lot of sex and enjoying it, you’re the one with issues.

Even the one young, thin, white woman in the main cast gets to be unapologetic about her kinks. It’s really only a problem when her desire for choke-sex motivates her to lead a KGB cyborg to the ISIS safehouse. Or when she coerces Cyril into sex. And generally acts like a violent, awful person.

Essentially, there’s no tolerance for shaming women for being sexual. All of it, regardless of preference, age, size, or race, is nothing but fun and should be enthusiastically represented. “Can’t talk, got a pussy to break!”

Being a predator is shameful. Having belly rolls is not.

Who on Earth finds this funny?

But, then there’s the flippancy about sexual assault. There ARE gags about Pam and Ray dropping their pants when encountering an unconscious Cyril. And sorry, but the framing of it is all manner of screwed up. There’s tons of sexual coersion as well. Another one of the most problematic instances comes in an episode of season two, where Archer is repeatedly sexually assaulted by a sixteen-year-old German socialite. The show goes out of its way to make it clear that Archer explicitly refuses consent, that he’s being violated, yet the show treats this as funny.

While I get that this is a comedy show and that in-depth exploration of the trauma of sexual abuse isn’t going to be something they can spend a lot of time on, the option they should have gone with is, you know, not base an episode around a german schoolgirl raping the main character. It’s not funny, guys. It’s not necessary. It’s actually just uncomfortable and off-putting.

The show mentions things like alternative gender identities, emotional triggers, and sexual exploration in ways that treat these things as totally valid, which is good. It also frequently portrays poor people as jokes in and of themselves, which is a lot less good. While materialism is lampooned frequently, it’s not treated as a joke in and of itself the way poverty is.

The way the show often portray legitimate abuse for laughs also often goes overboard. While the show does a good job of exploring and following through on all the ways Mallory’s abuse screwed up Archer, there’s a point where the volume of “abuse humor” gets to just be downright gross. Dark humor is one thing, not being able to go an episode without a “Haha, ten-year-old archer was abandoned in a train station at Christmas!” joke is, uh… Not great.

Archer is an awesome, immensely watchable show. But it’s not one I always feel clean watching. It’s a show that celebrates extremes, yes, but there’s a point where certain lines are crossed and it’s just problematic rather than gallows humor.

Archer is one of those series that really makes me struggle to distinguish the gallows humor from the simple tastelessness. To give pause to the idea of problematic content being the “point.”

The line blurs with Archer. A lot. It often manages to distinguish itself with the things it gets right, especially since they often do well on things that most shows, movies, and books are often terrible at. And that’s enough to buy it some goodwill for when they screw up.

But seriously, guys, please stop treating sexual coercion and child abuse as bottomless gag wells. I would have really preferred to have Pam and her awesome sexuality without her sexually assaulting Cyril and Ray. It’s not funny or clever or edgy. It’s just gross.

youtube

#archer fx #your fave is problematic #anon #feminism

11 notes · View notes

cstesttaken · 7 years

Text

BRITAIN: BBC Comedy Show Spawns Social Media Storm With Real Housewives Of ISIS Sketch [VIDEO]

Joking about the Islamic State can be a dangerous matter. A BBC comedy show featuring a sketch called “The Real Housewives of ISIS” has come under fire for trivializing the very real issue of Jihadi brides. The sketch, lampooning the Real Housewives TV series and posted online Tuesday to promote the show Revolting, features four British women in hijabs discussing their new life in the Islamic State.

Perhaps predictably, the response from social media was less than enthusiastic. Many said it was “distasteful” when there were many cases of British girls under the age of 18 who had been groomed online and lured to the Islamic State. But not everyone has been offended, with several Twitter users pointing out that the whole point of satire was to bring people down to a level. “If you can mock something, you’re not scared of it,” posted one person. “ISIS want to be feared. Don’t give them that. And yes I’m Muslim, and a leftist.”

The Milkman

I have a hard time being sympathetic toward people who are either so stupid or so unstable that they can be lured into joining ISIS via online “grooming”. Mockery is the least they can expect.

ElenorRigby

If you’re that weak-minded, maybe the world is better off without you.

Jeffrey

It is, though it’d be great if you could just pass yourself away without taking a hundred bystanders with you.

Yalma Cuder-Zicci

This is how I’ve felt about “Trump as comedy” for the last six months. It trivializes how dangerous he actually is.

Todd20036

It helps us to deal with evil when we can laugh at it.

james1200

I heard someone say, maybe even right here on JMG, that the best way to deal with fascists is to laugh at them, because they just can’t deal with it. That is certainly true about the humorless Trump; his skin is as thin as his political qualifications. We need to do nothing but laugh at Trump, ISIS and other lunatic fools because it gets to them and throws them off their game.

Ore Carmi

You have a good point. During the summer, I did not believe Trump would ever be elected. I underestimated the lack of rationality of the American populace. I’m mortified. I’d found him funny and worthy of ridicule. After the election, I couldn’t even smile.

Bared Bear

I’m still holding out in my mind (yes, I’m a little bit of a Pollyanna) that Trump was never really elected by voters, that he was projecting when he kept saying that the election was rigged, and that he was given the title by a clusterfuck of Mafioso, Russian, and FBI working together to bring on another coup to they can harnass “merikkka for their own evil agendas. But I so often misunderestimate the stupidy of ‘merikkka.

Ore Carmi

It’s frightening when we start asking, “wait, would a coup be bad?” For me, honestly, it’s more about all the frightening things the Republicans in Congress are trying to push through–dismantling healthcare, giving subpoena power to their staffers, gutting ethics oversight, messing with Medicare, wrecking the economy… How do we stop them?

fuow

Well, for starters, we could vote.

marshlc

I believe this to be true. The entire election smells to high heaven.

fuow

PT Barnum got the number of ‘real’ ‘meriKKKans’ right a long time ago. What we liberals are bad at, awful at – voting. It makes us even stupider than they are.

marshlc

I think mockery serves a useful political purpose.

But it’s got to be intelligent mockery, and have a point.

I know that the “orange cheeto” type mockery of Trump is popular around here, but to my mind it’s not the most useful kind. Making fun of Trump’s hair turns him into a kind of pet, rather than pointing out the outrage that he is.

The kind of mockery that Jon Stewart used to do, on the other hand, can help deflate the Emperor with no clothes.

Yalma Cuder-Zicci

I agree. I am afraid that because Trump is such an infinitely ludicrous person people are going to settle into this dense fog of mockery as a source of entertainment and not take his real dangers seriously.

safari

another_steve

“Laughter: The best medicine.”

Silver Badger

I hope this skit does not cause bloodshed. Muslims have no more of a sense of humor than christians.

Michael R

My first thought was ( unfortunately ) worry about the safety of the actresses .

kaydenpat

Yep. ISIS deserves mocking though.

Goodboy

It’s not a matter of if but when. Their religious psychopaths take being made fun of as a insult worthy of death.

Bj Lincoln

Only the extremists are humorless. The average Muslim probably found it funny because they know it is only extremists

kaydenpat

Is it bad that I laughed?

safari

Only to people who don’t understand comedy.

Bj Lincoln

Bared Bear

Nah. I laughed too. Religions (or anything that takes itself so seriously) to me are pretty much the epitome ridiculousness. I mean Christianity is a complete sham and has shunned even the façade of what is supposedly their most sacred reasons for existing (helping those in need, loving one another, bring compassion into the world, etcetera) over to just being the power-mongering, political bitches in heat that they are.

I do have a hope that in 50 to 75 years, that Islam will truly be the religion of peace and rightfully supersede Christianity… which will be relegated to even more obscure idiots like those who pay for Scientology membership. And that at least 100 years from now, humanity will have totally outgrown the need for religion.

kaydenpat

To be honest, I wouldn’t want to see Islam supersede Christianity. I’d just like to see all religions take their rightful place outside of politics and the public square. Worship whoever and whatever in the privacy of your homes and places of worship. I don’t need to hear about it.

another_steve

^^ Yes. Very well-put, kaydenpat.

Worship whomever you want. Worship the corner fire hydrant if you want. I could not care less.

Just don’t make me pay for it out of my taxes — and do it privately, outside of the public square.

Bared Bear

I agree that religion must be kept separated out from politics and the public commons. But I do think there’s a lot of beauty to their religion… to many religions. I don’t need to believe in it to appreciate it. (Just like I can appreciate Scarlett Johansson’s beauty… but that doesn’t mean that I want to worship her sexually).

It’s when religions are allowed to metastasize… to become something much more in a society or your personal life than something that should be quietly contemplated like a nice cup of hot tea that you enjoy all the fuck alone and not thrown in your neighbor’s face (or bed).

Colonel Panic.

Budge up and make room on the naughty seat then.

Goodboy

I think it was great and brave of the producers and actors.

Sean Williams

karmanot

Yes, why yes, but you can ALWAYS sit by me and do it!

geoffalnutt

That’s a great way to get dead. Religion doesn’t take kindly to being made fun of. Hello?

Bj Lincoln

Only humorless extremists take it the wrong way. They are the ones with the problem.

Ore Carmi

I disagree. People who have been recently traumatized by ISIS would probably also not find this funny. Not that that should bar people from making comedy.

boatboy_srq

If you’re going to exclude from comedy any humorous situation that is potentially painful, pretty soon you won’t have anything you can laugh about.

Cousin Bleh

That video is no more distasteful than the actual Housewives. And at least it was funny.

dcurlee

PeterC

I might have found it funny, if I could have understood it. On my computer it arrives on U tube which is in short blips (stops and starts) which makes it totally Non-understandable., Must rely on pictures.

james1200

I really wish the press would stop covering it as news when a few hundred people are outraged about something stupid on Twitter. The P.C. Brigade on Twitter are not a representative sample of the population at large (any more than the Nazi Brigade there is) and the mainstream press is feeding into this constant “outrage cycle” in the news about utter bullshit like this. It just wears people down and they tune out real outrage being committed out there (and it will help Trump, who’s actual criminal actions will just be part of the background noise.) This skit was funny; fuck anyone who thinks otherwise and I refuse to believe even the British have become this humorless.

safari

If you think twitter is bad, wait until you see tumblr.

james1200

Tumblr seems awesome and not just because Tumblr porn is so much better and kinkier, lol! I love Tumblr! They have a PC brigade but they have everything and whatever happens on there isn’t covered by the press like it reflects the attitude of everyone in our society, which is how the press covers Twitter, which was my point.

btw, I don’t know if this makes me a hypocrite since I was condeming being overly PC but this is one of my fav Tumblrs and it will be very important in the age of Trump’s Nazis; a Tumblr that makes employers aware of any racist assholes they have working for them and getting their ass fired.

safari

Tumblr does have superior porn.

Millstone

I didn’t know tumblr had any content other than really filthy, really great porn.

David Walker

I can’t decide whether you’re being redundant (filthy = great) or really, really enthusiastic. Both are totally acceptable.

Mike Solo

I laughed, and comedy is a very important tool. Now that it has aired, maybe more will realize that groomed jihadi brides actually is a problem

another_steve

Making fun of the enemy is good therapy.

We here on this blog do it all the time, most recently with respect to Donald Trump, the Sexual Predator-Elect.

David Walker

Hell, Mel Brooks says that’s why he wrote the movie “The Producers.” That was a bit more than 20 years after WWII and he felt that making a musical about Hitler was a way to knock him down. Great concept, great movie.

BeaverTales

If you are dumb enough to leave the UK to be a jihadi wife, you probably deserve to be widely and resoundingly mocked for your stupidity.

james1200

Didn’t we all used to laugh at ourselves? I laugh at gay stereotypes, or the mocking of them, and in fact most human beings can laugh at themselves. But it’s not just Jihadis who’re humorless: a lot of people in our society want exemption from being laughed at, including Trump’s followers, who according to even some on the left, are victims of PC culture (because they can no longer call people the “n” word without being called on it, I guess), and because Hollywood ignores them by not setting romantic comedies in Kansas but always setting them in New York and the general mocking of their culture by mean liberals (which is sister-fucking and making meth in the back yard, as far as I can figure out.) There was a Vice article talking about how Trump won because we’re big, elitist meanies to the flyover states and even Bill Maher has said something similar. Everyone wants protection from being made fun of now, I guess.

PickyPecker

Frederick

Also see: Chaplin, Charlie ‘The Great Dictator ‘

Ore Carmi

Maybe it’s because I haven’t been directly affected by ISIS violence, but I was amused.

Dot Beech

I can see PBS affiliates optioning this for viewing in all the US Red States.

MBear

This white male colonialist (//hatever the current terms are against why I find this funny) in me found this funny. #Awkward

Andymac3

This ‘twitter storm’ is a storm in a tea cup. it’s what the Daily Mail and all the day time news shows thrive on.

The comedy clip was great, I really miss British humor over here almost as much as I miss dropping the letter ‘u’ from the word humour.

next episode….the housewives help out by duck taping a sassy gay guy to a chair.

Snarkaholic

If you can mock something, you’re not scared of it!

Natty Enquirer

Looks fantastic. If people aren’t pissed off, your satire isn’t working.

If people watched the whole show they would realise it takes the piss out of all politics, not just ISIS, but also the Labour Party, UKIP, and the Conservatives. It took a stab at the lack of resources in the NHS, also council houses that were being knocked down for property for the rich and so on. Some of the skits were part Candid Camera style too. It was very well done. Attacking injustices with humour is very effective way of memory retention of a bad situation. American politicians should be mocked more in this manner, for their ass-holery. If you are thinking of joining ISIS you are an ass-hole, if you try to evict poor people from their homes you are an ass-hole, if you are a conservative trying to turn health care into American version of it you are an ass-hole…and so on.

fuow

Yup, make fun of something evil – it works about as well as anything else to end it. Seriously. Of course the SJWs and the humour-challenged PC-Politessas are upset about this. A sense of humour is the one essential difference between gay activists and feminists – we have one, they all too frequently do not.

The sketch is clearly about the women who want to become Jihadi brides, not the ones who are forced. If the implication had been “What’s true for the dangerously unbalanced members of ISIS and their psycho groupies is true about all Muslims” I would have been offended. After watching it, I’m only offended because so many of the jokes felt a bit stale.

no religion lacks a “force virgin pre-teens into “sacred” marriages” sub-sects, my friend. they all do it.

June Gordon

It was cute, but went for all the obvious jokes. That being said, I think it is important that NOTHING be sacred from mockery, especially religion.

Megrim Twist

We need MORE satire, not less.

well, go on and hate me now. cause, i had no problem with it. it was a bit heavy handed, but the joke parts were funny, and like jokes that i make, if a bit less obviously.

religion isn’t “special.” it’s OK to say, “believing in mythological beings is stupid.” you shouldn’t want to shoot me or fire me or kick me for saying that. if you do, YOU are the problem. Jeebus and the rest of them will come and spank me silly when they get mad enough with me. i’ll be over here, waiting for that to happen. meanwhile, all of us should be focused on our bills, kids, dogs, food, bridge game making a small slam, yoga… if the fairy beings need help, let them come and ask for it, or better still, pay for it.

Jmdintpa

well i see we are starting off the new year right… offended !

karmanot

For Allah’s sake, let the Burka Badies BE!

Earl

I might sign up to watch tv again if it’s shown here.

Acronym Jim

Perhaps young women seeing this kind of satiric skewering will be less inclined to be groomed online.

Jean-Marc in Canada

Personally, I laughed; then again, I’m an adult who can discern comedic satire and not some wilting regressive left/far right snowflake. Seriously, the only people who should be offended are ISIS and that’s a good thing.

Source

http://www.joemygod.com/2017/01/05/britain-bbc-comedy-show-spawns-social-media-firestorm-real-housewives-isis-sketch-video/

0 notes