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  1. #1
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    Default Leslie Jones And Respectability Politics (AKA About that Slavery Joke on SNL)

    So you've probably heard by now about that SNL bit on Weekend Updates where writer Leslie Jones talks about how a woman with her looks would never land People's Most Beautiful and then talks about how back in the day, she'd be breeding cattle. I got her point and I thought it was funny although you could feel the audience's discomfort.

    Don't get me wrong, I don't think that comedians are exempted from criticism, when you go for edgy/offensive humour sometimes you fail at getting your point across, Case in Point The Onion's C*nt joke about baby girl Q. I also understand that not everyone share's my taste for unPC humour. But to me the way Militant Black Twitter responded struck me as respectability politics, something that I find ironic they're the first to condemn tone police. It's like we can only do edgy humour if it follows certain parameters, like the idea that we can only do certain jokes within family but not to a white audience, a burden that white comics don't have (and yest, privilege and all that). Oh and also, I do get the discomfort of making certain jokes to a white audience, it is how I felt about Dave Chapelle who's show I loved but I had a feeling that the white people I knew who loved him probably didn't the subtext of what he was saying.

    So what say y'all about this?

    PS: I'm guessing that the link to the bit in WaPo can't be seen by canucks, you can see it on Globaltv.ca's SNL page.


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  2. #2
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    I just watched the video and I must say that I have to admit it does not bother me. I didn't find it funny, but I was not offended by it either.
    Never Underestimate ANYONE

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  4. #3
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    I watched the clip on the web (SNL isn't funny to me in general so I don't stay up late to watch) I wasn't offended, irritated may be a better word for it. While she's telling jokey jokes, she makes it seem like slave breeding was some kind of dating show. WE know it didn't go down like that. It was all RAPE and DESTRUCTION. She would have been RAPED repeatedly, dishonored, abused and maybe even killed. I don't expect people such as this to TEACH folks anything and if people are looking to SNL to educate than we've missed the mark. However it just seems strange to me that the VERY FIRST sketch she comes with (with her on camera) is jokey jokes about slavery, breeding, and rape. I know it's all for ratings and spotlight ('cause we are talking about her) but it seems they went with the easiest and lowest form of humor to get that shine. I won't support it. Just my take.

    I hate how she's now saying it's all joke and fuq all ya'll because truth be told when SNL is done with her it's going to be her black audience who will have to support her. I've never found her funny (I remember her stand up from decades ago) much in the same way the big gummed chick on the talk isn't funny to me.
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  5. #4
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    I can't really justify my position, but I think the skit came off as kind of coonish given the overwhelmingly white audience of SNL. They're gonna take the joke differently than black people would, a joke like that is just going to affirm (MANY not all) white folks' already-formed opinion that black women are masculine and beast-like breeders. It will just give them an excuse to laugh at this "truth." And she just helped them along.

    I totally get why Dave Chappelle left his own TV show.

    It's the same reason my husband and I sometimes joke around with the n-word at home but never around anybody else, especially white folks.

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