Unbearable, by David Bax

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9 Responses

  1. Jake Swayze says:

    Your comment on the fact that Seth Macfarlene uses the word Jew in as a punch line isn’t true, if the line is offensive to anyone it’s people who live in Boston. It’s a joke about anti-semitism being prevalent in boston not about jewish people. Though it is true that the movie uses the ironic racism trope where for example and asian man comes in with a duck and a “Long Duck Dong” accent where it’s racist but it’s heightened to a ridiculous extant that the filmmaker can hide under the protection of irony. And I do acknowledge that using that trope is at the least uncomfortable and at most highly dangerous I do think that in the film the character is not used to have an easy punch line, but rather to expose the ridiculousness of that stereo type.

    • Battleship Pretension says:

      Whether it’s about Jewish people or Bostonians, there’s still no real joke to the joke.

      – David

    • Jake Swayze says:

      The joke is that the spirit of Christmas (acceptance, peace, love) is subverted to be a jingoistic expression of conformity by the people who supposedly believe in Christmas the most.

      • Battleship Pretension says:

        What about all the other Jewish “jokes”? Like the plan to open a restaurant that won’t be restricted? How is that funny?

        – David

  2. Jake Swayze says:

    Oh just so you know I’m a huge fan of the podcast, it’s the first podcast I listen to when I get a new episode I don’t agree with you guy’s all the time but your analysis is always interesting and intelligent.

  3. Scott Nye says:

    Like Jake mentioned, it’s way more about white, gentile prejudice than anything having to do with the Jewish people. What struck me as funny about that moment was Ted going out of his way to hide his racism under the rush of cocaine, claiming he would never outwardly discriminate against a race that has been integrated with white society, but will happily shut out one that hasn’t (the end tag about “No Mexicans”).

    And I really don’t see how the opening bit could possibly be construed as racist. Jake hit it right on the nose, besides the fact that none of our sympathies are meant to lie with the aggressors, and we’re invited to laugh at John for wanting to join in. In fact, the joke upon John’s entrance is that he’s so desperate to fit in, he’ll happily join them in beating the kid up, which one could extrapolate out to say all kinds of things about socio-political history.

    • Battleship Pretension says:

      For the record, I never used the opening scene as an example. I don’t think that scene’s funny but it’s not as problematic for me as the restaurant discussion. Especially ending with “No Mexicans.” Maybe I’m jaded by years of alt-comedy ironic racism but I just don’t see the point or the humor in that kind of joke. It doesn’t shock or surprise me. It’s only cause for eye-rolling.

      – David

  4. Scott Nye says:

    Well, somehow my reply to this entire conversation got placed in the middle of the thread, but, uh, yeah, it was supposed to come after David’s last comment.

  5. Jake Swayze says:

    The fact that anyone would bring up the fact that there restaurant wouldn’t be restricted to gentiles is so weird and out of place for this century At this period of time restaurants would never (I assume) think about being restricted . It’s also kind of funny that the character of Ted when he says that the restaurant wouldn’t be restricted he says it like he’s some moral hero, it is (i think) making fun of certain liberals who make a big deal of the fact that they aren’t prejudiced in a way that basically no one is.

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