Kiss my ass, Anderson Cooper!
Wait a sec…he would probably like that.
But, I digress. Anderson Cooper and the hoodlums at GLAAD, took offense to the line, “That’s Gay!” in the new upcoming comedy, The Dilemma.
As often is the case with “these people” (LGBT crowd) and I say it to piss them off, and it always does, whenever you make them the butt of a joke, they can’t seem to act like adults and take it in stride.
No way!
They just have to raise up and throw the dreaded “H-word”, HOMOPHOBIA around. It can never be a matter of was it or wasn’t it funny. No, it has to be an accusation meant to intimidate and squelch free speech.
These professional offendees must stay offended in order to solicit grants and donations from dopes dopey enough to believe their premise.
IT WAS ONLY A JOKE!
And if you don’t like it, don’t go see the movie and stay home and watch Steve McQueen instead.
The Los Angeles Times reports that comics have been making gay jokes for years, but perhaps none of them has caused as much of a stir as the quip uttered by Vince Vaughn when he made fun of an electric car by saying, "It's gay," in the trailer for the upcoming Ron Howard comedy, "The Dilemma."
Coming just as the media was full of stories about taunts and attacks on gay teens that drove some to suicide, the joke hit a raw nerve. After CNN's Anderson Cooper publicly took issue with the trailer's joke, saying "we've got to do something to make those words unacceptable 'cause those words are hurting kids," a full-blown controversy erupted. Universal Pictures pulled the trailer, substituting a new one scrubbed of any gay humor.
But that was three weeks ago, and this is now. Universal has confirmed to me that the joke is staying in the movie, which is slated for release in January. The decision is ultimately Howard's call, since he is a final-cut director, although my sources tell me that Howard sought advice from a variety of sources, not only from talent involved with the film but also from people at Universal and in the larger comedy community.
I've already staked out my own opinion on the issue in a column I wrote several weeks ago. I concluded that "comedy is a lot like free speech--sometimes you have to hold your nose to support it." In other words, I'm not sure that I'm all that comfortable with most of the gay jokes I've heard, but once you start trying to make value judgments about one joke over another, you're on a slippery slope to the arid wasteland of political correctness.
Howard recently asked if he could respond to a series of questions I'd raised when the news first broke about the controversy. He's provided answers to everything I initially wondered about, and even asked a few provocative questions of his own. He makes one particularly important point about an issue that was lost in all the hubbub, but applies to a lot of art that is viewed as offensive or controversial: Just because a character in a film says or does something wildly inappropriate doesn't necessarily mean that the filmmaker agrees with it.
He explains why the joke stays in the film, as well as offers his take on the difference between sensitivity and censorship. Here's what Howard has to say:
Patrick,
I've been reading your posts about THE DILEMMA with a lot of interest.In the couple of weeks since you started covering the debate over our joke, it seems a larger conversation made up of many questions about all sorts of freedoms of expression has broken out: When's it okay to walkoff of a talk show if you disagree with the guest?
Who is appropriate to cast in a movie and who gets to decide that?
Should news people be held to a different standard in what they say?
How risqué can a photo shoot be for a men's magazine promoting an all-audience show?
What role does comedy play in both pointing out differences and unifying us throughlaughter?
They're all good questions and I'm certainly not the person who has definitive answers to all of them. The debate about what is appropriatein films and advertising has been going on since well before I startedin the business -- which is to say a very long time -- and will never have a conclusion. But I do have some answers to the five questions you put forth in your post.
I suppose you're right that since our movie about two friends trying to do right for each other has been caught up in this larger debate, I'll have to face these questions as we start to promote THE DILEMMA. I figured I'd address your questions here and maybe answer them once and not from, as you said, "every reporter with a functioning brain."
So here we go.
So why was the joke in the movie? Our lead character of Ronny Valentine has a mouth that sometimes gets him into trouble and he definitely flirts with the line of what's okay to say. He tries to do what's right but sometimesfalls short. Who can't relate to that? I am drawn to films that have a variety of characters with different points of view who clash, conflict and learn to live with each other. THE DILEMMA is a story full of flawed characters whose lives are complicated by the things they say to and hide from each other.
More details here
It’s ridiculous that Howard is explaining the basis for this comedy.
Wesmirch
Tell two friends about this blog
Wait a sec…he would probably like that.
But, I digress. Anderson Cooper and the hoodlums at GLAAD, took offense to the line, “That’s Gay!” in the new upcoming comedy, The Dilemma.
As often is the case with “these people” (LGBT crowd) and I say it to piss them off, and it always does, whenever you make them the butt of a joke, they can’t seem to act like adults and take it in stride.
No way!
They just have to raise up and throw the dreaded “H-word”, HOMOPHOBIA around. It can never be a matter of was it or wasn’t it funny. No, it has to be an accusation meant to intimidate and squelch free speech.
These professional offendees must stay offended in order to solicit grants and donations from dopes dopey enough to believe their premise.
IT WAS ONLY A JOKE!
And if you don’t like it, don’t go see the movie and stay home and watch Steve McQueen instead.
The Los Angeles Times reports that comics have been making gay jokes for years, but perhaps none of them has caused as much of a stir as the quip uttered by Vince Vaughn when he made fun of an electric car by saying, "It's gay," in the trailer for the upcoming Ron Howard comedy, "The Dilemma."
Coming just as the media was full of stories about taunts and attacks on gay teens that drove some to suicide, the joke hit a raw nerve. After CNN's Anderson Cooper publicly took issue with the trailer's joke, saying "we've got to do something to make those words unacceptable 'cause those words are hurting kids," a full-blown controversy erupted. Universal Pictures pulled the trailer, substituting a new one scrubbed of any gay humor.
But that was three weeks ago, and this is now. Universal has confirmed to me that the joke is staying in the movie, which is slated for release in January. The decision is ultimately Howard's call, since he is a final-cut director, although my sources tell me that Howard sought advice from a variety of sources, not only from talent involved with the film but also from people at Universal and in the larger comedy community.
I've already staked out my own opinion on the issue in a column I wrote several weeks ago. I concluded that "comedy is a lot like free speech--sometimes you have to hold your nose to support it." In other words, I'm not sure that I'm all that comfortable with most of the gay jokes I've heard, but once you start trying to make value judgments about one joke over another, you're on a slippery slope to the arid wasteland of political correctness.
Howard recently asked if he could respond to a series of questions I'd raised when the news first broke about the controversy. He's provided answers to everything I initially wondered about, and even asked a few provocative questions of his own. He makes one particularly important point about an issue that was lost in all the hubbub, but applies to a lot of art that is viewed as offensive or controversial: Just because a character in a film says or does something wildly inappropriate doesn't necessarily mean that the filmmaker agrees with it.
He explains why the joke stays in the film, as well as offers his take on the difference between sensitivity and censorship. Here's what Howard has to say:
Patrick,
I've been reading your posts about THE DILEMMA with a lot of interest.In the couple of weeks since you started covering the debate over our joke, it seems a larger conversation made up of many questions about all sorts of freedoms of expression has broken out: When's it okay to walkoff of a talk show if you disagree with the guest?
Who is appropriate to cast in a movie and who gets to decide that?
Should news people be held to a different standard in what they say?
How risqué can a photo shoot be for a men's magazine promoting an all-audience show?
What role does comedy play in both pointing out differences and unifying us throughlaughter?
They're all good questions and I'm certainly not the person who has definitive answers to all of them. The debate about what is appropriatein films and advertising has been going on since well before I startedin the business -- which is to say a very long time -- and will never have a conclusion. But I do have some answers to the five questions you put forth in your post.
I suppose you're right that since our movie about two friends trying to do right for each other has been caught up in this larger debate, I'll have to face these questions as we start to promote THE DILEMMA. I figured I'd address your questions here and maybe answer them once and not from, as you said, "every reporter with a functioning brain."
So here we go.
So why was the joke in the movie? Our lead character of Ronny Valentine has a mouth that sometimes gets him into trouble and he definitely flirts with the line of what's okay to say. He tries to do what's right but sometimesfalls short. Who can't relate to that? I am drawn to films that have a variety of characters with different points of view who clash, conflict and learn to live with each other. THE DILEMMA is a story full of flawed characters whose lives are complicated by the things they say to and hide from each other.
More details here
It’s ridiculous that Howard is explaining the basis for this comedy.
Wesmirch
Tell two friends about this blog
