At 07:19 PM 7/21/2002 -0300, you wrote:

But you people got offended. Now, I�m against racism, since I strongly
believe everyone to be completly equal and entirely different, but I fail to
see how this can be interpreted as a racist fic when the fic itself mocks
stereotypes.

Oh, I wasn't offended, myself. I got that he was spoofing the whole 
stereotype issue and so on. I just thought the "fried chicken" part was 
pushing it a little too far. There's always a line, a border for what 
constitutes how far you should take a joke. Sometimes it's salvageable if 
you completely smash the line and tear across it at 100MPH, but if you just 
sort of inch across it, then sometimes it comes off poorly.
Let's take a similar scene from Blazing Saddles, one of Mel Brooks' finest 
works. We've got Lily von Schtupp with Sheriff Bart in the dark, and asking 
"So, is it true what they say about your people?" and then exultant cries 
of "Oh, it's true! It's true! IT'S TRUE!" Now, in the next scene, she's 
feeding him some sausages and stuff for breakfast, and is hopelessly 
devoted to him. In all, it comes off as a very funny scene, and it's got 
that perfect satirical air to it that Brooks is famous for.
But, consider for a moment, if in the "morning after" scene, Lily had been 
feeding Bart a big pile of collard greens beside a large plate of fried 
chicken and a diced-up watermelon. Would it have been quite so funny, then, 
or edging on the boundaries of bad taste...? I think there's only so far 
you can push the spoofing of a stereotype before you actually descend into 
buying into the stereotype.

-Rann


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