Alan Moore, sometimes you fail

[terabient]

So over at scans_daily somebody posted a 90s comic satirizing Silver Age comic plotlines and attitudes.

there was also a fake PSA 'making fun' of the casually racist attitudes of the era.



I hope you didn't laugh at anything there, because if you did I'm going to have to punch you in the face and stop being your friend.

This is the absolute worst kind of racial 'humor.' Dear World: Spouting a bunch of exaggerated racist views and following that with a punchline like "but seriously, we're not racists, we're just kidding' IS NOT FUNNY. I guaran-fucking-tee there are a shitload of people out there who would read that strip and think it was a really fabulous way to bring cultures together, or who are laughing because hahahahaha those kids are eating dog meat, and black people looooooove jambolia!!! instead of hahahahaha those kids are so fucking stupid.

'But creators shouldn't be held accountable for the stupidity of their potential audience!' one might argue.

And I would tell you to sit down and shut the fuck up, because hiding behind misunderstood intentions is the coward's defense. First of all, 'this shit's crazy!' jokes are funny approximately never percent of the time. OBSERVE:

GUY: Oh wow, black people sure love grape soda, hahaha!
GUY 2: I can't believe you actually exist. That shit's crazy.

Did you laugh? Of course you didn't. It's debatable if that even qualifies as a joke, and yet so much racial humor is just a really long, exaggerated 'this shit's crazy!' statement. It isn't funny. It's fucking offensive.

If your humor relies on having the audience accept a premise as absurd/hilarious, it will fall apart if there are people who believe there's nothing inherently wrong with it. There are a whoooooole lot of people who accept racial stereotypes as partially or wholly true. There are a whole lot of people who have heard these stereotypes applied to them. The former will find you funny for all the wrong reasons, the latter will wonder what the hell is funny about seeing more of the racist behavior they deal with everyday.

If you want to challenge racial stereotypes, or make fun of the people who hold them, you can't just make outrageously racist statements, then point and laugh at yourself. That's lazy and stupid and utterly lacking in cleverness or wit. You are a terrible person who needs to go sit with Mr. But Some of My Best Friends are Nonwhite and That Guy Who Respects Women As Long As They Aren't Sluts, and hopefully you will all die in a fire.

THE END.

In other news, I have failed miserably at my goal of posting every day in June. In my defense, I was put on a new medication and went up in dosage on another one, and for the past week that one-two punch has left me feeling like ¯\(ºдಠ)/¯ this

but it's ok now

Comments

[cavocorax]

So people are ok because they make yummy food? kthxbai

Yeah I have to say that's pretty messed up. I went through a phase when I was really into Alan Moore but it didn't take long for me to snap out of it and realise that he was kind of a dick. This comic sorta adds more to that impression, and I'm happy you shared it (as a genuine PSA - watch out for people like this!)

[terabient]

Alan Moore's a really frustrating writer. He's written some amazing stuff, but even in his best work there's little moments of sex/race/etc. failure all over the place. :c

And maybe it's just me, but I feel like this kind of lazy 'humor' is becoming more commonplace, not less...it's been bugging me for awhile.

[birgitriddle]

The only thing that's funny about this (and it's not a good funny) is that in the first panel the kids are whining about "all those foreigners that just moved in" and...well, my new next door neighbors are...well, just like that - at least the male is. He's happy that white middle class people moved in next door because in NYC or something he had to live in an apartment above omg Arab people and he was afraid they were terrorists. -_-

Then again, he also has more bumper stickers on the back of his car than should ever be on a car and all of them are neo-con propaganda.

[terabient]

Oh wow...that's unfortunate. :O And cars with neo-con bumper stickers creep me out, they're so...aggressively mean! Whenever I see cars with them on, my mind screams GET AWAY GET AWAY.

[dioscuri]

The baseball bat is officially the least funny thing ever. What the everloving fuck? Would they have "parodied" a white man walking to a black family's home with a noose? (Maybe.) That's genuinely sick.

[lustychan.livejournal.com]

That was quite possibly one of the most offensive things I've ever read. Surely the most offensive comic I've ever read. Ugh!

[terabient]

I know. It's exceptionally terrible, and it's supposed to be funny.

Somebody needs to punch everyone involved in the face.