Lymph Nodes, Detoxing and Lancing the Boil of Institutionalized Racism: The Daily Nooner (EST)!
Awesome Video Of The DayShirley Q. Liquor Goes To K-Mark
WARNING: Today's video IS not FUNNY in any way, shape or form. It portrays hurtful racist stereotypes, and although it does so in an entertaining voice I can assure that it IS not FUNNY. I can't speak for my fellow bloggers (I'm pretty sure that Swaim is a card-carrying Klan member), but I can tell you that I personally DOn't THINK THIS VIDEO IS FUNNY.
Okay? Okay.
Shirley Q. Liquor is a character that was created by Chuck Knipp, a drag comedian who is also an ordained chaplain, registered nurse, and active member of the ACLU and Libertarian Party. On top of all this, he somehow manages to find the time to caricature southern black women and put it up on YouTube. Impressive!
His live performances have been protested several times, apparently, but I can't figure out why. Maybe they're picketed by people who hate the ACLU, or people who really hate drag comedians. Or maybe it has something to do with the fact that he PERFORMS IN BLACKFACE. I don't know. People can be so touchy.
While his critics call him a bigot, Knipp defends himself by saying he's "lancing the boil of institutionalized racism." I know I'm playing with fire by putting this question forward, but here goes nothing: What do YOU think?
The Worst Of "As Seen On TV"The Product:Sole Detox PadsThe Ad Copy: "Sole Detox Pads absorb toxins including heavy metals, cleanse the lymph system (the only thing that heals the body) and makes the painful areas of your body feel life's energy and become more comfortable... by absorbing toxins through the soles of the feet while you sleep."
Price: $59.95 plus $6.95 shipping & handling (for a box of 30 pads)
Target Demographic: Morons who don't feel good
Why It Sucks: So let me get this straight - you put these pads on your feet, go to sleep, the pads get dirty, and the dirty stuff is toxins, right? Well why, might I ask, do the toxins come out of your feet? And why only at night? When my socks get dirty throughout the course of the day, is it from the toxins seeping out of my soles, and if so, shouldn't I be wearing some Detox Pads to prevent it? If I'm really ambitious about detoxing (and lord knows I am), shouldn't I be wearing them all over my body 24 hours a day? I want to believe in this system, but I'm pretty sure I have too many toxins in my body for it to work for me in its present state. Which is too bad, really. I feel terrible pretty much all the time.
Stupid Factor (1 to 10): 9
*** FOOT PADS COMMENT ***
ReplyThose sole detox pads have a water activated dye in them. You sweat, the pads get all nasty and brown, and viola! You have been convinced that you have sweated out "toxins."
Didn't watch the video as racial humor squicks me. The image on I'm seeing on the front of the video is not inspiring me to brave it.
ReplyAbout those foot pads, you're probably right that they're bogus. They rely on reflexology, specifically the belief that the major organs all have corresponding points in the feet. Supposedly toxins from the organs pool in the feet and the ingredients in the pads draw them out through the skin. There are people who claim it works for them, but I'm pretty skeptical- especially since I've heard that the discoloration doesn't come from the toxins that are drawn out so much as from the ingredients in the pad reacting to sweat. Odds are that any positive effects can be called placebo.
Video is definitely not funny not because of blatant racist, but because it plain not funny to see another person perpetuating idiotic stereotypes. For those of you saying Dave Chappelle is pulling a double standard; his sketches in which he does his white face a quite hilarious and he isn't just going for some stupid easy racial giggles. I think people need to stop going to crazy over all the racist comedy out there. It not going away because idiots find it funny but that doesn't mean you have to start some crusade about fighting the good fight against racism unless of course your all for no freedom of speech because regardless of how you look at it it is there opinion to hold.
ReplyRace relations is a sensitive issue and we all need to understand its nuances. I don't know how Chuck feels about large, southern, black, elderly females, but I would expect that he knows something more than you do. Is he playfully imitating a manner of speech from someone or someones that he himself has known well and thinks of fondly, or mean-spiritedly mocking people he considers beneath him? I don't know. Is the word turlet-paper funny? I think so, but for the same reason I think its funny when my grandmother says "warsh" instead of wash, or supper instead of lunch. Not all white people are necessarily outsiders to black culture. Skin color means NOTHING. There are racist white people and racist black people. Neither is morally superior to the other. Though it's easier now for a black comedian to speak badly of whites, main-stream movies and T.V., politics, and sanctioned economic practices that are being largely ignored remain areas where subtly institutionalized white to black racism continues to exist.
ReplyI'm sleepy.
"Well doesn’t Dave Chapelle dress up in white-face when he si doing his newsman? Or am I pointing out double standards here?"
ReplyYou're kidding, right? There is no history of white face being connected with literature justifying white slavery, segregation and apartheid against whites or vicious caricatures of whites. Dave Chappelle's criticism of white people?
If you were from the deep south like I am, you would probably think this is hilarious. If you're from Boston, Vermont, or New York like I am sure some of you are, then you might not find this so funny.
ReplyUm, calling it Racist. Shit. I hate calling folks retards before I've managed to proofread my text. However, you're still a cock-slurping retard.
ReplyCalling Imus' Nappy-headed Ho comment is just completely, bat-shit, toad-fucking, asshole-licking retarded.
ReplyFucking whiner.
"There were caricatures of Jewish people with large noses or money grubbing ways in Germany not long before the camps began"... kat, you must have no understanding of European history do you.
ReplyThe Dave Chappelle white guy act is usually followed by the most negative black stereotypes and is used as a tool to underline the fear of reinforcing the negative stereotypes that pertain to your particular race, he is also FUNNY. Don't confuse bad comedy acts or jokes and actual racism ( Imus, Michael Richards(Kramer), and Mencia ). This guy aside from being not funny is most likely a big ass racist, unless the joke was on the audience, if he took down their addresses and mailed them to the modern equivalent of the Black Panthers, that would be hella funny! Black face can both be funny and misinterpreted see Ted Danson.
And you people (predominantly white, I presume) are really getting up-in-arms about this thing. It isn't neccessarily a belittling of a race. You wouldn't be hard-pressed to find a woman just about anywhere in America who would tell you a story like this. There's no flashing disclaimer on the bottom reading "ALL BLACK PEOPLE ARE LIKE THIS" or anything. Chill out. Comparing this is nazi propaganda against the jews is ludicrous...I never heard this character say anything to imply she was of a race that is ruining a country. Also, to say that you find Dave Chappelle dressing up in white face to be an ironic comment on racism is a new level cognitive-dissonance resolving justification. Not that I have anything against him doing it or am insulted by it as a white person. But then again, I'm not a big pussy.
ReplyI'm pretty sure this takes place in New Orleans
ReplyWhile I feel guilty about imposing a double standard, I would say that Chappelle is very conscious of race, and if you look at his comedy, he is saying some very good things. His dressing up in white face I found to be an ironic comment on racism. That being said, I found the Wayans brother's "Hot Chicks" completely insulting. That being said, there is not a history of blacks dressing up in "whiteface" to mock and degrade white culture, nor were white folks every slaves, or subject to Jim Crow laws
ReplyOn another note, might I postulate that Tyler Perry and the Wayans brothers were born out of some unholy union between the Devil and Ellen Degeneres? It would explain a lot, and would give us all hope, as one day, someone might invent a time machine, go back in time, and remove Degeneres from the gene pool before she has time to procreate with Satan.
I'll agree that Tyler Perry sucks and essentially makes the same jokes as Chuck Knipp, the difference is you're allowed a free pass when you're making fun of your own race. This is why everyone laughs when Mel Brooks make jokes about Nazis or The Boondocks has Sam Jackson talking about "niggah technology."
ReplyDave Chappele in white face is more a joke about black face than a genuine attempt to imitate the white man.
It's also worth pointing out that drag queens have a habit of confusing "edgy" and "offensive." I recently saw a drag show where a white man dressed as Margaret Cho and proceeded to do ten solid minutes of his ching-chong-chin-chinaman schtick before someone in the audience threw a tiny disco ball at him.
Tyler Perry isn't funny but for completely different reasons. The point here is that the only "comedy" i see this guy putting forward is hinging completely on people laughing because "he's talking just like them!" Bad imitations aren't funny. Comedy that you don't perceive as having any truth in it isn't funny. I didnt' laugh once.
ReplyThis is just someone attempting to be as racist as possible at the expense of a group of people -overweight black women- who are seen as fair game. There is nothing insightful or progressive to even hint at why he sees this as socially progressive. I'm sick of people excusing racism as free speech (Kramer), comedy (Mencia), or somehow acceptable for any number of reasons. Cartoons and hate driven humor have been used for years to desensitize people to bigoted thinking. There were caricatures of Jewish people with large noses or money grubbing ways in Germany not long before the camps began. You can't separate racist humor from racist actions. They always go hand in hand. It is Not something to "lighten up" or "Get a sense of humor" about. This is serious. Check up on it if you don't believe me.
Flub, It's not at all that I approve of blackface (which I really, really, absolutely don't) and I'll admit, I didn't watch the whole video. It was really just a sad, lame, excuse for me to rip on Tyler Perry because I don't think that fucker is funny at all. I didn't mean that this guy WAS funny, just that being funnier than Tyler Perry doesn't take a whole lot. Shyeah. Lame joke.
ReplyAnnnnnd whatever I'm defending myself on the internet. No one wins.
Well doesn't Dave Chapelle dress up in white-face when he si doing his newsman? Or am I pointing out double standards here?
ReplyIf you really want to drop some bread, spring for one of those aqua foot detoxifiers. It's a footbath with an electric current running through it (sounds good, huh?) and it's supposed to suck all the nasty toxins out through the soles of your feet. It will only set you back 3 grand. Like the footpads, it's also bullshit.
ReplyFlub your comment is too damn lame. Could you please realize that Germans aren't antisemitic.
ReplyYeah... blackface is pretty much never funny.
ReplySo, according to the before and after picture on the box, I just stick the brown doo-doo covered sole pad on my feet and afterwards it becomes clean? Hmmm...I have to say I'm still skeptical.
Reply