Very Banksy, which raises an interesting thought for me.
I went into this knowing it was a Banksy video, and therefor I found the absurdist qualities of it quite funny. But what would I have thought if I hadn’t been told it was by Banksy?
Sure, in retrospect this is perfectly in his style, but I’m not sure I would have immediately known he was behind it if not for the tip-off beforehand. And therefor I might have just been puzzled by the bizarre and inexplicable nature of the video.
Even though goFlow is apparently incapable of making the distinction between race and culture, it bears pointing out that Islamic jihadists represent only one subset of Muslims and Islamic-influenced culture. They are no more universally representative of any nation or nations than Americans who invoke Jesus while disobeying the Gospels are universally representative of either Christians or Americans.
I would, too, would like to ignore the content of the video and instead launch a tone argument.
Ugh, can we stop poking fun at Arabs and Muslims? This is getting tiresome. Also, “Allahu Akbar” means “God is the Greatest,” and it’s like the many instances on youtube where someone yells “Jesus!” or “God Damn!” without the person being religious.
You see! This is why we can’t have nice things…
Yeah, that’ll get him to stop. Stop, Rob, stop making me laugh. Stop it!!! Stooooooooppppppp dude, stop!!!
Btw, all you haters are stupid. You clearly didn’t WATCH the vid. The vid is about how, yet again, a kid comes to save the day. Across all cultures, the kids are who keep us from destroying everything. Didn’t you see the kid run up, tell Dumbo to play dead and then kick the guy in the shin? No, clearly you did not because you are too busy grandstanding in your petulant little cesspool of bilious, uneducated froth and misconception.
My only criticism of BoingBoing is that it needs a more exclusive membership, to at least attempt to filter out the synaptically-challenged detritus of the Internet.
I like Banksy. I think he’s a decent cartoonist. I also think everything, at times, can and should be made fun of. The only personal exception for me is animal cruelty, but don’t worry, I’m not invoking that here since it’s a cartoon elephant and there is sympathy for it. But I still feel it deserves pointing out that in this film he used as his point of ridicule a group of people trying to, ostensibly, defend their home country from invading fighter jets. I suppose we’re supposed to forget THAT reality and instead assume they KNEW it was Dumbo they were shooting at? I guess. Still, I can’t help but walk away thinking it’s going to be mostly the never-been-bombed-by-an-angry-hegemonistic-superpower pasty westerners who think this is hilarious. Maybe someday residents of the West will be ‘privileged’ enough to have foreign bombers strafing their country and later get to be entertained by one of those same foreigners making a semi-witty cartoon film about it.
“Allowed”, eh?
Right. Making fun of Mujahadeen is no more racist than making fun of Westboro Baptist Church members is racist.
Getting one’s knickers in a twist over this is predicated upon the idea that a race - or a religion with some 1.6 billion adherents - is being represented in this video. Mujahadeen are neither a race nor representative of anything more than a small sliver of Islam’s adherents.
If this reaction says anything, it’s about goGlow.
This video is a nice counteragent to Cory’s Disney posts.
I wish I too believed that the child told Dumbo to play dead, rather than watching a magical elephant die.
I think the video is a commentary on how foolish warring adults ruin magical futures for their children.
Notice the previous statement has no cultural, national or religious references. That was intentional.
[quote=“Drabula, post:37, topic:11497, full:true”]
But I still feel it deserves pointing out that in this film he used as his point of ridicule a group of people trying to, ostensibly, defend their home country from invading fighter jets. [/quote]
You mean the Pakistani trained and supplied Taliban who ignored the Peshawar Accord, took over Afghanistan, formed a government only 3 other nations recognized, enacted Sharia law, were later ousted by the coalition, forced to flee to the mountains and to Pakistan, who continue to try to invade Afghanistan, and accounted for 80% of the civilian casualties in 2012? Those guys?
What color is the sky in your world?
Ah - I didn’t catch that he was playing dead. But it makes sense now that you say that.
I have deleted much of the bickering. STAHP IT! and Stay on topic. Thank you.
I don’t think he’s meant to be playing dead. But if you feel comfortable seeing it that way, I see no reason why you shouldn’t 
I also don’t think anyone should try to interpret too much into it. It’s BANKSY, so there are multiple ideas and it is left to yourself to associate your own.
To myself, the main one is: if you make art, make it well 
I do believe this thread has been successfully trolled. Well played, troll!
And also, Allahu akhbar!
Hey, I didn’t like the Taliban back when the Soviets were trying to deal with them and we called them “freedom fighters” but I think videos like this tend to portray, shall we say, “similarly dressed people” in one broad stroke. And since half of Americans can’t quite seem to comprehend that Sikhs aren’t Muslims I think the less there is of this kind of stuff the better. And it’s quaint that you think the billions we’ve wasted and the lives spent are going to make any positive difference in that region. From overthrowing Mosaddegh to supporting Middle Eastern dictators the West’s legacy there is nothing but bullshit and I think it takes a lot of gal to make fun of people, no matter who they are, trying to perhaps, shoot down a drone before it slaughters a wedding party somewhere.
The color of my sky? Well, it’s not red white and blue. That’s for sure.
Sorry, I hate, loathe, and despise Facebook and will throw a party when it dies. Otherwise I’d follow you there.
