Sunday, January 24, 2010

This is Scary

From an auction that ended. The ending price says R 46. Is that rands? Was this South Africa? Is the date correct? I suppose Smurfs have been around a lot longer than when they appeared and were briefly popular here? Is this a faked-up Smurf? Is it meant to be racist? So many questions.
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5 comments:

Rachel said...

wierd. The winning bidder's username is 'la cock.' haha

January 24, 2010 5:17 PM
William Keckler said...

Haha.

I was just reading about what makes a Smurf purple. It's the g'nap fly.

I don't know about that auction.

It struck me as unseemly.

Black smurfs are cute, but that one has a bit of the old racist "savages!" thing going on, the sort of thing that comes up occasionally on Antiques Roadshow.

I know the last time items like that were on Antiques Roadshow, it was a black man or woman (I forget) who was collecting them and thought they were funny as hell.

Thank God.

That would have been so uncomfortable to watch (but funny) if it were two clueless white people just talking about it in a really literal way."

"And look at his mouth."

"He's eating watermelon!"

"Precious!"

Could you imagine.

I'd love to see the PBS phones lighting up.

I think they had the "liberal cred" to show that on ANTIQUES ROADSHOW and I guess they were saying, "Look how far we've come."

But what if FOX had aired it.

Everything is context.

Maybe it's a matter of "Tragedy plus time = comedy." Hard to believe anybody could really enjoy a good laugh at the expense of slavery, but comedy respects no one's tragedy really. David Alan Grier loves doing slave humor and he's often very funny. But then there's the "who's making the jokes" thing. The context. "Tragedy plus time= comedy." Remember Alan Alda playing that annoying character who kept repeating that in the one Woody Allen film?

I can't remember which one.

God, he knew how to make that character annoying as fuck with his drone lol. He was very good in that role.

EBAY (I think wisely) bans such items, but I see some sellers have items like that up anyway (usually postcards, which are just truly horrible). The computer software isn't smart enough to flag it. But if people report them, they get warned.

I only know because I used to collect albumen photographs and cyanotypes and many of the dealers also just indiscriminately listed items like that. Usually postcards.

I wouldn't buy shit like that if I ever saw it in a thrift store, even though I know there's money to be made.

But I can honestly say I've never seen any full-out hateful items in the stores.

I've seen some that were in the process of crossing the border between "type" humor and "ugly stereotype" humor. Put out on the shelves I mean.

You know, the Aunt Jemima territory.

Or the mammy in general.

There's a school of thought that says, "This is part of history. Don't be afraid to look your disgusting history in the face."

That would put it in museums.

And then you get to crack the kids on the school trip on the head when they giggle.

Which sounds like fun.

The cracking part, I mean.

January 24, 2010 5:47 PM
William Keckler said...

I think my favorite non-white director "on racism" is Todd Solondz.

He's funny as hell.

So dark. So light.

January 24, 2010 5:49 PM
William Keckler said...

Did I just call Todd Solondz "non-white."

I meant white or something.

whatever he is.

the film with the writing class.

the film divided up into vignettes.

especially.

January 24, 2010 5:51 PM
William Keckler said...

Todd likes to make you squirm.

January 24, 2010 5:51 PM

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