D&D General Netflix pulls Community's Dungeons & Dragons episode over blackface concerns

[Older Beholder]

I've read that Dan had to fight for that episode to be made originally, and was told nobody knows what D&D is.
It's funny to think that they had a problem with D&D, but not blackface.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission
(V for Vendetta 2006)

That's what America has become, a moral police dictatorship where thoughts and art get censored.

I wish you’d make up your mind. Also, as someone who lived for years just a few miles away from an actual police state (North Korea), you need some serious perspective.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Because he is a hunter and hes carried one since the characters conception and now the core identity of the character has changed.

Elmer Fudd has appeared in cartoons without a gun before. No one is confused about who Elmer is. The Looney Tunes characters are all strong archetypes for a reason. When Yosemite Sam is a pirate instead of a prospector, no one wonders who the character is.

 

[R_J_K75]

Elmer Fudd has appeared in cartoons without a gun before. No one is confused about who Elmer is. The Looney Tunes characters are all strong archetypes for a reason. When Yosemite Sam is a pirate instead of a prospector, no one wonders who the character is.

Thats just my opinion. Even if hes appeared in some of those old cartoons sans gun Id imagine it was few and far betwèen. I dont remember him ever being portrayed as anything but a hunter so when I think of the character I picture him with a gun. I havent seen any of the originals in probably at least 20 years or more. I think having to come up with ways for him to hunt Bugs without a gun is going to get tired quick.

 

[Charlaquin]

Because he is a hunter and hes carried one since the characters conception and now the core identity of the character has changed.

He’s a dim-witted hunter who talks funny and repeatedly fails to kill a talking rabbit and sometimes comically maims a talking duck. Like, it’s baffling to me than anyone gives a wet fart about his “core identity,” let alone thinks that carrying a gun is some crucial part of it.

 

[Charlaquin]

Thats just my opinion. Even if hes appeared in some of those old cartoons sans gun Id imagine it was few and far betwèen. I dont remember him ever being portrayed as anything but a hunter so when I think of the character I picture him with a gun. I havent seen any of the originals in probably at least 20 years or more.

“I haven’t seen the cartoons in 20 years, but all of a sudden it’s super important to me that a new interpretation of the character must have a gun I don’t clearly remember how often he used to carry!”

I think having to come up with ways for him to hunt Bugs without a gun is going to get tired quick.

Wile E. Coyote pulled it off just fine, as did Tom Cat. If anything, the lack of a gun could lead to more creative cartoon violence.

But, again, who really cares? It’s a silly cartoon for children. I’m not going to watch it, what do I care if the character has a gun or not?

 

[Sadras]

So many window dressing changes are being done by the social paladin-demic.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Which is an interesting idea. Can you make fun of all these things without actually using the thing you're making fun of? It certainly ain't going to be easy... and we have a whole crapton of older comedians-- from Jerry Seinfeld, to Chris Rock, to Bill Maher, etc., all of whom are still in the 70s, 80s, 90s mode of "if it's funny, it's funny... even if it's politically incorrect" and are less inclined to go along with it. But they are all finding themselves on the outside looking in. The young people of America want their comedy to be different than what their parents enjoyed and are using their financial place in the country to influence it. And we are currently seeing the results of that throughout Hollywood.

I have always felt that someone should be completely free to joke about their own race or ethnicity or sex or sexual orientation, etc and those of us not of that whatever are being given permission to laugh at the jokes by the teller. But there is also a difference between good funny and bad, mean-spirited humor. Jokes that are meant to put down, rather than gently poke fun at, are something that need to be dealt with because those are often racist, homophobic, etc.

 

[Todd Roybark]

That's what America has become, a moral police dictatorship where thoughts and art get censored.

A Police Officer kneeled on an Innocent Man’s Neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, killing the human being they were sworn to protect, and depriving George Floyd of the Right to Trial, let alone Life and Liberty.

The Tulsa Massacre, The Tuskegee Experiments, Juneteenth....these topics, and countless more have not been taught or spoken about, for many Americans.

Most people do not, and have not played D&D. So a reference to Drow based Blackface is going to go over many people’s heads. Pulling the episode from streaming viewership, likely temporarily, is not a dictatorship. It is Capitalism.

Frankly, it is less an inconvenience then holding in flatulence during a funeral service

If you really want to see the episode, buy the DVDs....it is more remunerative for the Artists involved then streaming in most circumstances.

 

[teitan]

When it comes to the Drow being evil, it could easily be handled as the Drow culture of the underdark is evil. Just as the culture of the Nazis were evil. But that portrays a singular race as evil you say? Well no, unless the nazis being evil means people of German descent are evil? That would be the implication. The drow of the underdark have been dominated by an evil religion, they are a religious cult that happens to be the dominant cult and place of these people. What I liked about Wildemount was that it then, while preserving that archetype for the Drow, turned it on it's head for the Kryn Dynasty. Similarly with Orcs, evil religion. Keeping these archetypes in mind one can use them to explore themes like racism, colonialism, exceptionalism, religious bigotry etc. of characters that descend from those races. In the example of WIldemount, where the monster races vary in alignment, it would not be so out of the ordinary but what is a Drow of the Kryn Dynasty found themself in Taldorei?