It appears the main reason some eps were edited were because of music rights. One was dropped altogether because the star was convicted for possession of child pornography.
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I suppose it’s something to do with helping audiences quickly identify what the character does. But it does feel clichéd and surprising the writers/animators don’t just flesh out a fuller character.
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I mean, I don’t know if stereotype short hand for different countries is necessarily a bad thing. For sure they use similar things for Americans in other countries as well. I think it depends on HOW it is used. Demeaning or negative stereotypes are bad. Also I think it depends on context. I am assuming Mickey Mouse shorts are, well, short and just touching on touchstones of differences. I think most people acknowledge this is just short hand - not everyone is running around dressed like sumo wrestlers or matadors.
It would be different if you had like a two hour dramatic movie where the whole time you have a Neaderlander dancing around in tulips in a maids dress. (Unless, maybe, it was a historical piece?) But even then you would focus on they are real people in a real place at a specific time. You don’t need to backslide into stereotypes.
I just watched an IT Crowd, the one with the German cannibal, and he was dressed in a black turtleneck like he just got off the set of Sprockets.
O_O do what now???
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We’re never going to have nice things ever again.
Ed. to add: No, I don’t mean racist cartoons.
You can always watch the DVDs if a warning at the beginning of the episode on Disney+ is a bit much for you.
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Whatever else it may be, a cartoon in which Mickey can’t traverse a train in Japan without getting into a Sumo match is clearly relying on ethnic/cultural stereotypes for laughs, whether it was mean-spirited or not.
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Chris Langham. He was brought in as a last minute replacement when Richard Pryor dropped out.
In 2007, Chris Langham was arrested and sent to jail for possession of child pornography. In general, we try not to dwell on the personal lives of Muppet people, but of course this changed my view of this episode. I was devastated to learn it. After all, I would never have heard of Chris Langham without The Muppet Show. I’d built him up in my head as a comedy hero, and it turned out he was a creep the entire time.
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Yikes! Never heard of the guy and don’t remember that one. 
Similarly, writer who did most of the Green Lantern comics I grew up reading in the 90s also was put in jail for the same reason. Definitely puts a tarnish on those books 
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Sometimes it would be an an invasion of privacy to depart from the stereotype.
The case inspired a US-made horror film titled “Butterfly, A Grimm Love Story,” but Meiwes succeeded in blocking its release on the grounds that it infringed on his privacy.
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As someone who is “ethnically” Irish, I would disagree. We are pretty much fair game and are one of the ethnicities that it is still OK to stereotype, etc… I see it all the time.
But, honestly, I’m a white, straight guy in the US, so my privilege is why, in spite of that, I never gave a shit and still don’t. It doesn’t harm me like other similar things do for other ethnic groups who have experienced prejudice*. Of course, it doesn’t mean it’s OK, but, I’m pretty meh about it.
(edit: * I don’t mean that Irish haven’t experienced prejudice in the US, they most definitely have, I was referring to my lifetime and experiences… for sometime the Irish have been “acceptable” white people in the US)
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He was supposed to be the lead character in The Thick of It, rather than Peter Capaldi. He was written out after two series, for obvious reasons.
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- The song was such a high note, it was the only one to play over end credits.
- Jim Henson considered that sketch his best work on the show
- Harry Belafonte played it at Henson’s memorial service.
- When I saw this one as a kid, I didn’t really appreciate it. As an adult, many years since, it has become its become my favorite.
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Thanks. I never would have made the connection.
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Ha, and I thought this was going to be about Peter Sellers promoting cigarettes and whiskey and wild wild women.
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I watched the Rita Moreno episode last night and it had a warning about tobacco.
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It’s arguably not punching down, which is why (see also my example above about Swedes and Canadians). While white Italian Americans certainly were an oppressed group at one time, they don’t really seem to be any longer. At one point they weren’t even considered “white”, so things have come a long way.
It’s interesting to see this process in action now with Asians. While there is still huge amounts of discrimination and oppression happening, we do see the early signs. Racist white people often refer to them as “the good minority” or forget to treat them as people of color. This is a weird sort of progress, I guess, as happened with Irish and Italian immigrants in the 19th century.
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At least for food advertising it’s not generally seen as making it more authentic. It seems like a lazy shorthand for branding cheap foods. For cuisines like Italian or American Chinese the brands that use stereotypes are kind of their own cuisine, too.
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I remember Cartoon Network banned Speedy Gonzales in the 90s. They brought him back after a campaign from Mexican Americans. I imagine his cousin(?) Slowpoke doesn’t carry the same empowering characteristics.
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Chef Boy-Ar-Dee at least was originally created by a guy from Italy, and the brand features his face and (Americanized) name and the old ads with a chef with a thick Italian accent were actually him.
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