Dark comedy

[oldr_n_wsr]

Back! Ya beast! Don't be hatin' BunRabs!

I don't hate them, I find them rather tasty.
And those bred for "eatin'" are much more tender than the wild ones I used to shoot. Guess it's the more leisure lifestyle they lead.

Pet rabbits I consider off limits.

[loCAtek]

The joke was playing ethnic and cultural stereotypes. I included Borat because it is filmed in the US, and distributed by an American production company, 20th Century Fox.

Eminem is clearly portraying himself as a wigger: a white -igger. The 'w' can also stand for wanna-be;



Don't know if 'Down undah' you have these white kids, trying to be gansta?

[thestoat]

Yes, but lo,

Eminem wasn't playing a wigga - he IS a wigga. He grew up in an area where pretty much everyone is black. Just like if a girl grows up among loads of boys she will tend to become more tomboyish (over simplification, I know, but you know what I mean). That isn't taking the piss out of the races.

As for Borat, he was actually taking the piss out of the Americans. Not Kazakhstan-ites. It is a little like Dads Army in the UK (not sure if you would have seen it). My wife, being German, when she first came to this country found it awful that we were making fun of Germans in the war. She didn't realise then that we weren't - we were taking the piss out of ourselves.

[loCAtek]

Stoat my friend, no one knows what it's like to black, unless they are black. All else (and I'm Latino) is posing.

I have good friends who are black, my BF likely has black ancestors ...and I do not presume to know, nor understand, truly what it is to be black. That would be audacious, if not disrespectful, to the point of being rude.


Granted, Borat dissed Americans; we can take the piss. Apparently according to the OP, the Brits can't; a phony foreigner in their country is not allowed.

[Rick]

Eminem wasn't playing a wigga - he IS a wigga. He grew up in an area where pretty much everyone is black. Just like if a girl grows up among loads of boys she will tend to become more tomboyish (over simplification, I know, but you know what I mean). That isn't taking the piss out of the races.

Need to go back and do yer homework on that...

[Gob]

I think KLeld may be right on this one..

Eminem was born Marshall Bruce Mathers III on October 17, 1972 in Saint Joseph, Missouri, as the only child of Deborah R. Nelson Mathers-Briggs and Marshall Bruce Mathers, Jr. He is of Scottish, English, German, Swiss, Polish, and possibly Luxembourgian ancestry.

His father abandoned the family when he was 18 months old, and he was raised solely by his mother in poverty.

By the age of 12, Mathers and his mother had moved between various cities and towns in Missouri (including Saint Joseph, Savannah, and Kansas City)before they settled in Warren, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eminem#Early_life

The racial makeup of the city was 91.3% White, 2.7% African American, 3.1% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races, and 2.2% from two or more races. 1.4% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren,_Mi ... mographics

[Sean]

I do think that the main point being made was that neither Eminem or Baron Cohen changed their skin colour for the role they played...

[Gob]

True...

[Crackpot]

The whole 8 mile thing was in reference to the city limits of Detroit. Southern Warren isn't all that different than Northern Detroit (aside from likely being poor and black being poor and white)

[thestoat]

Stoat my friend, no one knows what it's like to black, unless they are black

I am sure that is true. I haven't said that he is black.

Granted, Borat dissed Americans; we can take the piss. Apparently according to the OP, the Brits can't; a phony foreigner in their country is not allowed.

That is interesting. I don't know who the OP are, or what the story is with the phoney finger, but the Brits have a long history of taking the piss out of everyone, including themselves. Having said that, these days we have become pretty scared of taking the piss out of Muslims.

Keld and Gob, I wasn't trying to suggest that most people in Detroit are black, just as my analogy of a girl growing up with lots of boys doesn't imply the general population is male. Eminem grew up with rap, which is considered by most (including Eminem) to be black music. I have read reports suggesting to make it in business (male dominated) a woman must be more like a man (e.g. Mrs Thatcher) - similar in a black music world. That was all I was saying.

Sean - absolutely! Though When SBC (Borat) played Ali G, he once asked a policeman who tried to move him on "Is it because I is black?", which the policeman completely didn't get

[Sean]

Sean - absolutely! Though When SBC (Borat) played Ali G, he once asked a policeman who tried to move him on "Is it because I is black?", which the policeman completely didn't get

Indeed Stoat, that was the beauty of the characterisation. He patently wasn't black but when he would insist that he was people would begin to doubt the evidence of their own eyes.

[loCAtek]

I do think that the main point being made was that neither Eminem or Baron Cohen changed their skin colour for the role they played...

Ah, I thought just the mimicry of other cultural stereotypes was enough to fit the bill.

Carlos Mencia does don make-up on occasion, but much of his stand-up is just taking on the accents and mannerisms of other people, in order to spoof stereotypes.

[Rick]

Guess I hit the wrong button the 1st time.

Eminem grew up with rap, which is considered by most (including Eminem) to be black music.

Wrong again, Mathers 1st exposure was the "Beastie Boys"...

[loCAtek]

There are two of my acquaintances who are white men, that grew up in black neighborhoods;


The first is one of my best friends who was raised in a poor black neighborhood up in San Fransisco. He never liked Hip Hop (because he has fine taste in music) and while he's very non-judgmental, he's not a wigger.

The other grew up in Boston, and completely adopted the culture and music. He's such a wigger, he prefers the company of black people. (However I've seen him commit the faux pas, of trying to call a black person by the n-word. It was not appreciated.)

It's not growing up with black folks that makes you a wigger. Being a wigger, is not acting black per se, but behaving like a member of a sub-culture in the black community that likes Rap and Hip Hop music. That's why I believe it's a stereotype.

[thestoat]

Wrong again, Mathers 1st exposure was the "Beastie Boys"...

Wow Keld, did you not read my post or simply misunderstand it? I wasn't talking abut his 1st exposure - I was talking about his background.

And how "again" when the first time was again due to your misunderstanding?

Lo - I see what you are saying about the mimicry of other cultural stereotypes. Do you think Eminem does? Obviously SBC does but I don't think Eminem does, at least not intentionally.

[Rick]

Wow Keld, did you not read my post or simply misunderstand it? I wasn't talking abut his 1st exposure - I was talking about his background.

No Stoat, I read your posts.

I'm just pointing out that you are wrong...

edited to add:

Mathers formative years were NOT influenced by hip hop or as you seem to insist by the black community.

Elvis Presley on the other hand was.

No Elvis has nothing to do with the OP, I just thought I would mention it...

[thestoat]

I'm just pointing out that you are wrong...

Let's keep it nice and simple.

I say: Eminem grew up with rap
You say: Mathers 1st exposure was the "Beastie Boys"...

I don't see how this makes me "wrong". Please explain.

[thestoat]

Mathers formative years were NOT influenced by hip hop

"He discovered rap as a teenager, and in its tough talk and street smart sound, found his voice.

After dropping out of high school, he began competing in local rap battles - one-on-one verbal fights where the goal was to come up with the cleverest rhymes and the best insults. " (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/10/ ... 6406.shtml)

"Em spent his formative years living in a largely black lower-middle-class Detroit neighborhood" (http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ ... 105?page=2)

[loCAtek]

Lo - I see what you are saying about the mimicry of other cultural stereotypes. Do you think Eminem does? Obviously SBC does but I don't think Eminem does, at least not intentionally.

Hmmm, is he adopting a culture that is not his own? Another way of asking that is: did he have much cultural hertitage to call his own, before he discovered HipHop/Rap? Perhaps he didn't because apparently his father left him when he was but a toddler and his family moved fairly often.

I guess in all fairness anyone can behave culturally any way they like. Most often wiggers are doing it because it's 'cool' at the time, but their heart isn't really in it.

Perhaps, Eminem doesn't intentionally mean to mimic, but is sincere in his integration, because he didn't have much other background, and he was strongly encouraged by his success in that musical style. However, he is doing it for entertainment value, so I may just have strayed off a little bit by including him.

[Rick]

OK Stoat I'll let him be black.

I was informed he lived in MO until he was 12 then lived in Warren MI.

Guessed he lived in the only "Black" neighborhood there.

So if you insist Mathers is black...