Spring Break
OP-ED: Gravity ad fails to display the wit or context needed to make good satire
by Rory Hatfield
Op-Ed | 5/22/07
Posted online at 12:24 AM EST on 5/22/07
As an alumnus, reading about the controversial Gravity BlackJerry ad has shocked me. While I share the campus's dismay that members of our community could produce something so tasteless, the piece must be analyzed to determine why it was so degrading. Yes, the Gravity writers used racial epithets-as did the infamous Justice article from fall 2003-but it's not like they were presented in a vacuum. Television shows like South Park and Family Guy frequently feature tactless racial jokes as well. But nobody is seriously mounting a campaign to cancel these shows: Why the double standard?
These jokes must be analyzed objectively. The humor of South Park and Family Guy explains white people's impressions of blacks, while the humor of Gravity and the Justice column doesn't explain anything. People should be offended by Gravity because it's ambiguous and unfunny, which therefore makes it insulting.
It's no secret that South Park's humor gambles upon the thin line between satire and poor taste. In one episode, on a Wheel of Fortune-like game show, Mr. Marsh, a father of one of the show's main characters, makes the gaffe of thinking that the answer to the clue "people who annoy you" was n--, instead of the correct answer, "naggers." The joke is clearly humorous, but the rest of the episode branches off from that incident. News stations condemn Mr. Marsh. People on the street mockingly call him, "The N--Guy," and he is forced to humiliatingly apologize to Reverend Jesse Jackson. Ultimately, the episode is inconclusive, but at least people's reactions on both sides of the political divide were satirized, so viewers could possibly be enlightened.
The writers of Family Guy are also "equal opportunity lampoonists." Consider the episode when Peter discovers he has a black ancestor: That heritage has always been a part of his genetic makeup, yet when people discover his background, they treat him like a different person. His wife is thrilled that she's "sleeping with a black man." Peter receives reparations from the family who owned his ancestor, and even joins the Quahog, Rhode Island chapter of the NAACP. Family Guy has never been a show for literati; however, one can still infer deeper meaning from the show. the theme of "an infinitesimal black heritage changes your entire identity" can clearly be predated to Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Its humor is boorish, but it's definitely ripe for analysis.
These jokes must be analyzed objectively. The humor of South Park and Family Guy explains white people's impressions of blacks, while the humor of Gravity and the Justice column doesn't explain anything. People should be offended by Gravity because it's ambiguous and unfunny, which therefore makes it insulting.
It's no secret that South Park's humor gambles upon the thin line between satire and poor taste. In one episode, on a Wheel of Fortune-like game show, Mr. Marsh, a father of one of the show's main characters, makes the gaffe of thinking that the answer to the clue "people who annoy you" was n--, instead of the correct answer, "naggers." The joke is clearly humorous, but the rest of the episode branches off from that incident. News stations condemn Mr. Marsh. People on the street mockingly call him, "The N--Guy," and he is forced to humiliatingly apologize to Reverend Jesse Jackson. Ultimately, the episode is inconclusive, but at least people's reactions on both sides of the political divide were satirized, so viewers could possibly be enlightened.
The writers of Family Guy are also "equal opportunity lampoonists." Consider the episode when Peter discovers he has a black ancestor: That heritage has always been a part of his genetic makeup, yet when people discover his background, they treat him like a different person. His wife is thrilled that she's "sleeping with a black man." Peter receives reparations from the family who owned his ancestor, and even joins the Quahog, Rhode Island chapter of the NAACP. Family Guy has never been a show for literati; however, one can still infer deeper meaning from the show. the theme of "an infinitesimal black heritage changes your entire identity" can clearly be predated to Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson. Its humor is boorish, but it's definitely ripe for analysis.
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