Discussion for article #230405
This isn’t funny for a lot of reasons. One is that the joke doesn’t make sense.
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uM. BlaCK pEOPle Are HArd-wIREd to eat waterMELOn. SO there is the IRONY that sHe’s allergic?
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Jokes that play on long-term racist stereotypes are both not funny and not comprehensible. Why would anyone consider them? Just dumb.
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To think that only last year Mr James was writing click-bait posts for Andrew Sullivan’s The Dish-- and now he gets to play p.c. policeman for Josh Marshall! Hooray Brendan, you’re on our team. (well, for today anyway)
Certainly a reason I would never spend a penny to join TPM Prime!
What is wrong with these people who make racist jokes? They must be idiots.
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Um… how so?
Being old and having seen a whole lot of changes in this society, I’m frankly encouraged that this kind of joke did get a “chilly reception”. It wasn’t all that long ago when an average audience would have just chuckled a bit and gone on. These kinds of “jokes”, more and more are becoming generally socially unacceptable, tasteless faux pas at best, and embarrassing. I like it.
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You understand what he said, right? It was the wrong forum and clumsy remarks, but what he was saying boiled down to: If I wrote a book with a character who was black and was allergic to watermelon, I’d have some explaining to do. Is that statement idiotic? Because it seems pretty true, doesn’t it?
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It’s always the same tropes of “blackness”: watermelons, fried chicken, etc. Nothing original.
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Good to know, AlFuncoot. I notice you just joined this forum less than 1/2 hour ago. Was that to rag on the author of this article specifically, or are you getting paid to make negative comments in general? Do you get a bonus because I replied?
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Interesting that no one is up in arms about your joke, which is worse than Handler’s. Yes, it’s all about the time and place, but still…
Hey, at least he actually apologized. What he was thinking when he made the “joke” I can’t imagine.
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This is a smart, sophisticated guy, and it’s hard to imagine how he could possibly have made such a lame, reprehensible attempt at humor without the explanation being something drastic—a brain tumor, say, or demonic possession.
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I’ve seen the author in action, MC-ing a mock dog show for a school fundraiser event. He is incredibly quick-witted and funny, and runs at 200mph (almost Robin Williams’s speed). I can’t speak to his personal mindset about race issues, but I can easily see how someone like him could find himself suddenly skating quickly out onto thin ice with a clumsy remark about a dicey subject.
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Maybe he was drunk and accidentally just spoke from the heart?
You can’t spell Lemony without melon, just sayin’.
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At least it was a real apology, so I’ll give him that.
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Clumsy and cringeworthy but no malice intended.
I give it a pass.
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No, just racist. Glad he apologized, hopefully he actually understands why he apologized.
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Because regulars at TPM know that the GOET is a parody and that he’s making fun of people who believe such things.
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