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And then asked "What is racist about that?" Whether she personally feels she's racist or whether she personally has done it in being racist, she's been around to know it's something that racists have done--she certainly ought to be well-read enough to know what blackface has been in American history--and shouldn't have to ask that question.
Actually, no, because knowingly upending social custom is their profession, and has been for several hundred years. They wear blackface ironically.
Kimmel's Karl Malone monologue is a prejudice affirming performance complete with feigned lingo and dumb mentality. "Mammy" is tame in comparison. And his audience yucks at least as heartily and comfortably as Jolson's did.
Kimmel only gets away with it because he's the comic who shows his malleable following what they should laugh at.
Kimmel's Karl Malone monologue is a prejudice affirming performance complete with feigned lingo and dumb mentality. "Mammy" is tame in comparison. And his audience yucks at least as heartily and comfortably as Jolson's did.
Kimmel only gets away with it because he's the comic who shows his malleable following what they should laugh at.
Here is Kimmel interviewing Karl Malone some years after that period...with Kimmel doing his "Karl Malone" right to Karl Malone's face on Karl Malone's living room sofa.
Before Kimmel went to late night, he was host of a Comedy Central program, "The Man Show" that poked ironic fun at "man things."
He had an ongoing segment doing Karl Malone on various subjects.
Here is Kimmel interviewing Karl Malone some years after that period...with Kimmel doing his "Karl Malone" right to Karl Malone's face on Karl Malone's living room sofa.
I'm aware of "The Man Show", consistently found it in poor taste. Watched very little of it.
I fully agree that that performance with Kimmel in "black face, black body" was unacceptable.
The second video I had watched earlier. Both men seem to be having a good time. I don't see anything wrong with that one...and apparently neither did Karl Malone. I thought it was dumb...but not unacceptable.
But I want to add that comedy is difficult. Comedians of the day (probably beginning around 1970) often talk from a position. They often push the envelope. And whenever you push the envelope, you're bound to sometimes cross the line. Was Don Rickles funny? Yup. But I found him to be terribly offensive. I remember on the Dean Martin Roast of Mohammad Ali, I was wishing Ali would have stood up and pounded Rickles right through the floor of the dais. On the other hand, Billy Crystal could be hilarious in his imitations of Ali. And maybe the difference was that Rickles laughed at people at their expense, while Crystal laughed with the people he was poking fun at. And maybe that's the dividing line with comedians and other performers who have done black face -- were they all making fun of Blacks at their expense?
I'm aware of "The Man Show", consistently found it in poor taste. Watched very little of it.
I fully agree that that performance with Kimmel in "black face, black body" was unacceptable.
The second video I had watched earlier. Both men seem to be having a good time. I don't see anything wrong with that one...and apparently neither did Karl Malone. I thought it was dumb...but not unacceptable.
The second video was four or five years after the first--I suspect Karl was aware of the first (which was actually a series--Kimmel did it several times).
Yet, Malone didn't seem to be upset.
Nor are black people in general upset about Kimmel doing Malone. Nor is it really the black makup.
Quote:
On the other hand, Billy Crystal could be hilarious in his imitations of Ali. And maybe the difference was that Rickles laughed at people at their expense, while Crystal laughed with the people he was poking fun at. And maybe that's the dividing line with comedians and other performers who have done black face -- were they all making fun of Blacks at their expense?
That's what I said earlier, but you rejected that notion.
Think of most of those Dean Martin roasts. Most did not, of course, involve differences in skin color, but they were all superficially events where one person was being repeatedly insulted by everyone else.
And yet, there are differences. There are times when "Playing the Dozens" is in good fun and times that it leads to a fight.
I found Crystal's impersonations of Ali to be hilarious...and also affectionate. I think most people found them that way.
I never liked Rickles myself, but his only saving grace was that he was equally offensive.
There are always repercussions for stating opinions. I mean...almost always. Especially in these days and times.
There is a part of me that doesn't have much sympathy for people in the public eye, who somehow stick their foot in their mouth.
I can tell you the difference between what Megan Kelly said, and what the small town politician said. Megan said "I fail to see the problem." She couldn't just report the story, she felt like editorializing at the end. And her comment came off sounding either obtuse to the times she lives in, or purposely stirring a pot.
The politician was speaking to a time when he was young, and when he was with his friend. He did NOT say "I fail to see the problem." We can, for now, presume he knows what the problem is NOW.
We don't do black face now. We, as a society haven't done Blackface in probably 20 years. Most of us DO see the problem with it. Megan took her chances and she lost.
Plus...regarding Megan. Her ratings have been sucking for awhile. If her ratings had been golden, she might've gotten a stern talking to, and had to do a on-air apology, and she might've kept her job. But her comment was probably just the opportunity the TV show needed to get rid of her.
In the clip I heard, Kelly said basically that going blackface “used to be all right.” ( I may not have remembered her exact words.) The thing is, it was all right for whom? White folks! She was seeing things from a white viewpoint. Do any of us imagine that seeing white folks dressed as Black folks was OK with Black folks? She is also on record as saying that obviously Santa Claus is white. Santa is a made up character who can be whatever you want him to be. For someone who is an experienced media person, she sure is tone deaf—at the least.
In the clip I heard, Kelly said basically that going blackface “used to be all right.” ( I may not have remembered her exact words.) The thing is, it was all right for whom? White folks! She was seeing things from a white viewpoint. Do any of us imagine that seeing white folks dressed as Black folks was OK with Black folks? She is also on record as saying that obviously Santa Claus is white. Santa is a made up character who can be whatever you want him to be. For someone who is an experienced media person, she sure is tone deaf—at the least.
1. What is your background to know how all African-Americans felt about all entertainers who donned black face in the late 1800s and early 1900s?
2. Santa was based on an actual person who was Turkish.
Megyn Kelley got fired because it isn't allowed to point out that at one time, blackface was acceptable. The line is that blackface was always unacceptable and only racists and the ignorant did it or weren't offended by it.
Well, I was there. And I can say that in polite society blackface was acceptable. And not only on Halloween. Maybe blacks found it offensive but equally as likely, they weren't instructed to find it offensive yet and so didn't.
And a couple of decades earlier, "White Only" was socially acceptable. It was the way of life in the South and few in the North thought much about it one way or the other.
Why weren't Jimmies Kimmel and Fallon fired? They actually wore blackface and wore it after it had crossed the line of social acceptability.
My own opinion is that NBC lured MK away from Fox because they didn't want a smart, attractive (beautiful, actually), conservative woman having a successful TV show. They put her in situations they knew wouldn't work, biding their time and knowing eventually they'd have a pseudo excuse send her to Siberia.
The one they got was close enough. For them.
You are attempting to rewrite history. No one argues that is WAS acceptable at one point, but it isn't any longer. Likewise, just because it was acceptable to society doesn't mean it wasn't racist back then as well. If anything it is just more evidence that American society has a very racist past.
Megyn even admitted that she was ignorant on the topic as evidenced by her attempt to use the term "white face" as an equivalency.
Al Roker dressed-up as a White character from Back To The Future!!!!
Holy cow, so what, it is a fricken dumb holiday anyways.
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