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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7868227" data-attributes="member: 177">Let me be clear - I didn't say anything about it being too serious to joke about.&nbsp; I said the way he did it was hurtful.&nbsp; While Carlin may have felt he was observing culture in that segment, what he was actually doing was normalizing bullying people for their weight.&nbsp; He misidentified the root cultural phenomenon he was observing, and took easy shots at the wrong targets.This is a possible problem any time a comedian takes shots at an entire demographic group, rather than an individual.&nbsp; I this case, Carlin got it wrong, and it aged very poorly as our understanding has increased.It is a darn shame, because I think Carlin could have taken wonderful shots at the right targets. Now, in the right context (which may appear in the movie) the Harbour thing may actually be good - a bit of wistful self-effacement on how middle-age takes us all, eventually.&nbsp; And maybe it even turns into something more like what Lebowski-Thor eventually gets us - body shape doesn't determine value.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 7868227, member: 177"] Let me be clear - I didn't say anything about it being too serious to joke about. I said the way he did it was hurtful. While Carlin may have felt he was observing culture in that segment, what he was actually doing was normalizing bullying people for their weight. He [I]misidentified the root cultural phenomenon[/I] he was observing, and took easy shots at the wrong targets. This is a possible problem any time a comedian takes shots at an entire demographic group, rather than an individual. I this case, Carlin got it wrong, and it aged very poorly as our understanding has increased. It is a darn shame, because I think Carlin could have taken wonderful shots at the right targets. Now, in the right context (which may appear in the movie) the Harbour thing may actually be good - a bit of wistful self-effacement on how middle-age takes us all, eventually. And maybe it even turns into something more like what Lebowski-Thor eventually gets us - body shape doesn't determine value. [/QUOTE]

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