Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

 I don't really want to, but I'm going to talk about "cancel culture" again. I thought I cleared this shit up last week. Y'all need to pay closer attention, I've only got so much time a week.



 Apparently, today's Big Thing is John Phillips pissing & moaning that he has to work a little hard than he did 10 years ago. This is the guy that directed the three Hangover movies & the new film with Joaquin Phoenix playing a Joker than apparently has nothing to do with Batman, so who the hell cares. Anyhow, there's been some worry about this Joker movie, the changes main to the character's origin, & how all that relates to some ugly shit going on now.

 In just about every rendition (except when Heath Ledger played him) the Joker's come about because he was somehow involved in shady shit that was broken up by Batman. To escape, the man who would be the Clown Prince of Crime had to deal with some toxic chemicals in some form or fashion. The end result was his hair turned green & his skin white, plus he developed a rictus grin. This all combined to drive him various forms of loopy, from mass murderer/serial killer to pain in Batman's ass.

 I forget how Ledger's Joker became the Joker. He had a lot of stories about his scared-up face & nihilistic outlook, but he wasn't very funny. I think a Joker should be funny, even if just to himself. Sort of the whole point, but I digress.

 The theater in Aurora, CO, where Century Theater has announced it won't be showing the film because  some dick with whitened skin, green hair, & a punk ass shot 58 people & killed 12, thinking t might be bit tacky. Also, a big on pearl-clutching SJW's like the U.S. military & the FBI have issued statements to their concern at how this current Joker, who's character seems to be inspired by the whole "incel culture/Proud Boy" thing. Whether it is or not, I don't know, but that's what we're dealing with.

 There's been some news today that Phillips is bleating that all this obviously put on concern was solely due to people being "too sensitive" & maybe even punishing him for the raucous nature of his earlier movies. This woeful is indicative of "cancel culture", which is destroying comedy, stand-up, video games, comic books, &, indeed, means the end of art.

 As someone who has no interesting in The Joker & has seen only maybe 20 minutes of the first Hangover movie, & is thus totally objective, Mr. Phillips, no you are not being "canceled". You're still going to get your big-time Hollywood film released & people will still go see it. You're still going to make a lot of money & you'll still be in a position to make more major Hollywood movies.

 The only way you won't is if The Joker bombs so hard that Warner Brothers looses money. It's been said over & over that Hollywood only cares about making as much money with as little expense as they possibly can with concern for actual artistic merit being a distant second. If you think otherwise, you, sir, are a damn fool. You might make fun movies, but you're still a damn fool.

 Another worn joke is how many comedians have stand-up specials on Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu or wherever, & most of them are called "Triggered" or something depressingly similar. Completely useless human beings like this PewDiePie character is still making a ridiculous amount of money playing video games with a shitty attitude after getting booted from Disney for making an antisemitic joke. This Steven Crowder person makes buckets of money on YouTube despite not being all that funny & so long as he doesn't say certain words, he'll never loose his gig unless he causes YouTube to loose money.

 Those two factors are the most puzzling aspects of this whole non-thing: rich people want to make money rather than not, but for the most part, the guys who've made & continue to make the most money off this medium are apparently unwilling to try just a little bit harder so as to not be considered mean-spirited dicks, even though their audience rarely suffers.

 Who has actually been canceled? Sean Gillis & Gilbert Gottfried still make bank on the circuit. Paul Dean still makes bank. Rosanne Barr is working up a comeback. Ben Shapiro & Michelle Malkin are still paid attention to. Hank Williams Jr. still sells records & plays concerts. I've discussed this on the Twitter &  the only one the hive mind has come up with is Michael Richards, & there are plenty of comics that consider him a friend worth defending & excusing.

 The only movie I can think of that's actually been "cancelled" was The Hunt from earlier in the year, & that nothing to do with SJW's being woke or whatever. It was social conservatives thinking they were being mocked when, apparently, they were the protagonists & "limousine liberals" were the antagonists. One of the freshest horror movies in years, Get Out, had NPR-listening bougie white people as the bad guys.

 People will complain that "you couldn't make Blazing Saddles now" without ever considering that maybe since Blazing Saddles has already been made, maybe come up with something new & maybe put a little effort into to actually make it something everyone can laugh at. There's reason Airplane! is consider a classic & Date Movie is decidedly not.

 You know, we're selling kids bulletproof backpacks, telling them that their safety isn't as important as Joe Frank being able to own a half-dozen military-grade shooty bangs so his dick doesn't feel tiny. A kid in Tennessee was bullied into suicide because of his sexual orientation. The Trump Administration is actively fighting to rollback anything LGBT have accomplished to satisfy a bunch of hateful dingbats. I don't have much sympathy for John Phillips or Dave Chapelle.

 Cory Johnston from the always fun Some More News had a good show on this topic last week. Check into it, he goes into much more intelligent detail than what I do. Plus, he's funnier.

 And remember, these are the same people losing their shit because a 16-year-old girl from Sweden is going around shaming governments because it's October 1 & reaching 90 degrees. "But she's appealing to emotion," I hear you bleat. "Where's the facts & logic?" Dude, the facts are settled, you're letting your emotions allow you to ignore it. You won't pay attention to science so appeal to emotions is all we got left.

 Oh, what else is there. I don't really feel up to the news today, but there's so much to mention. Quick takes, then, here we go.

  Trump's continuing to be stupid & shitty as the Impeachment talk gathers steam. The cop who shot a guy in his own house because she was scared got convicted of murder. It's Jimmy Carter's birthday, proving the good don't always die you. There's a lot of support for going after Koch Foods, the owners of the chicken plants ICE raided earlier in the year. Elizabeth Warren is scaring the shit out of Mark "Possum" Zuckerberg & good for her. California's move to restore Net Neutrality in the state & that, along with some U.S. Court of Appeals decisions, may weaken the current butthole attitude held against it thanks to utter nerd & FCC head Ajit Pai.

 From what a mutual tells me, the impending doom of WeWork will soon set off an explosion among shifty-yet-legal grifters, a la the Dot.com burst & Bernie Madoff & what all. The Miami Herald's Leonard Pierce Jr. wrote another excellent column, this time on the insanity & banality of Trump & Co. threatening "civil war". A sixth GOP legislator from Texas is throwing in the towel & can't adequately explain why.

 And that's good enough. I'm starting to get a headache. This is fun but it does take a toll on me. Pretty much after today's news & events, I'm more & more comfortable with the idea of having as little to do with the outside world for as long as I can manage it. I just wish I could get inspired to put this much soul into something that isn't cynical political ruminations. The writing part's fun again, but this shit is a drag, man.

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