If there's anyone still "out there" in Internetland, my apologies. It's been a long, weird Summer. They could make a film out of it, maybe. It wouldn't be a very good film, but it'd involve extreme emotional opposites - dizzying heights of happiness, nauseous lows of depression, love and heartbreak, lies and deceit, scary gangsters, threats of every kind imaginable, death, courtroom dramas, some good music, a lot of booze...
But that's not what we're here to discuss. This is a "fun" and "happy" place where fun and happy things are looked at. Normal service will resume shortly, but for now (just to "tide things over"), here's some cultural sensitivity courtesy of DC Thomson, circa 1993. Enjoy in an "Oh we're so much more enlightened twenty years later" sort of way.
Glad to see you're back. was getting worried there.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I remember that BSK strip well and shamefully not thinking anything of Danny's gesture in the 2nd last panel. What is weird to think is that the 90s seems like recent history to me and I remember the general media culture of the time regarding itself as enlightened in comparison to the stupid old 70s, but yet there is no way a mainstream comic would even think about doing that in 2013. The 90s is the 2010s 70s, if that makes sense.
"You can get away with a lot if you don't speak English" !!!!!!!!! Unbelievable!
I couldn't bring myself to ditch this place - it's too enjoyable, just the lack of time I've been having.
DeleteSuppose that's the "danger" of early exposure to racial caricatures - see enough of them and nothing's shocking (or maybe that's a good thing?). Two of my all-time favourite cartoons are 'Jungle Jitters' and 'Scrub Me Mama With A Boogie Beat' (check YouTube for them). We had them on VHS way back when, and watched them daily, never making the connection of how astoundingly racist they were!
Still, it's all contextual... Those mentioned cartoons are from the 1940s, and then we had DC Thomson's Cracker in the 1970s with its weekly "Yellow Man" jokes - but somehow I can't forgive the above examples. Still funny to look at, mind.
"It's just...TOO marvellous. Huh huh, four words."
DeleteMHS reference + 100 points. Good to have you back.
ReplyDeletePolitical correctness can take a fucking running jump!
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet enlarged the strips to read them, but I'm immediately struck by how pleasing to the eye Roger the Dodger is, compared to the current version.
ReplyDeleteSomething only achievable by reprints today, sadly.
DeleteAt least the actual Chinese people sort of get revenge on Roger XD.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I bet if I was to show these to a 50-something Chinese woman at my work, she'd probably like them.