Via Metafilter, where it's not much appreciated, and the commenter billysumday says:
This was funnier when Rush Limbaugh did it and called it "Barack the Magic Negro." And even then, when Limbaugh did it? It wasn't funny. It was stupid. Well, and racist. But mostly just stupid.I added the "Magic Negro" link so you can make the comparison. Apt?
[NOTE: I put a link in place of the embedded video, which was slow-load-y.]
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39 comments:
But at least somebody's willing to poke fun at the President.
As political satire goes, it's not nearly in the same league as Bush morphing into Hitler or Bush morphing into a chimpanzee.
Is it possible to tell a joke about Obama without the left dutifully calling you a racist? I'm not asking if it will ever happen, I'm not naive, I'm just curious if its possible within the laws of physics.
"Barrack the Magic Negro" wasn't making fun of Obama it was making fun of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. They insinuated that Obama hadn't earned his race credentials like they had. It was their turn not his.
Neither this or BTMN are racist.
We can't call black people negros anymore? What can we call them then!? Geesh.
Adding onto What Roux said.
Limbaugh "borrowed" the magic negro line from a LA Times editorial by a balck author.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ehrenstein19mar19,0,5335087.story?coll=la-opinion-center
I am not seeing the racial humor.
Someone needs to get a "lighten up, Francis" tattoo.
The animation of jibjab Obama matter was well done, but I did not laugh like I did when they had Obama riding a unicorn, and nothing like the fun of the Bush Kerry parodies. Those were much better.
And while Barack the Magic Negro was a parody of what others said about Obama, I never thought it was that funny.
This Jib-Jab thing is funny to anyone who doesn't adore Obama and therefore will brook no criticism of him.
It's important too, because he NEEDS to be laughed at and often. Every politician does . . . especially this one.
The Barack the Magic Negro schtick didn't originate with Limbaugh. It came from an LA Times editorial, back in the days when very, very few people really and seriously thought Obama had any real chance of wresting the nomination from Hillary. Limbaugh merely did what he always does with his parodies, he took the material the left handed him and ran with it.
How exactly is this disrespectful to Obama? I think he would probably love it.
I like the part where his ears pop out when he puts the hood on. And i think Obama would find that funny too.
"Run your car on nuts and corn!"
Love it. Bumper sticker material.
Disappointing.....needs a sidekick ... Bo Obama with a super cape.
The real lowdown on Bo
I agree with TRO. Obama needs to be laughed at and we as a country NEED to be able to poke fun of and deflate the politicians who think they are somehow elevated high above us ordinary schlubs.
The Magic Negro was a term coined in the early 1950's to describe a literary and movie device, long before Obama was an eager little sperm in his daddy's testicles.
"The term “magic negro” (or “magical negro,” and other variations), refers to a stock character of (white) fiction — a benevolent African American who drops into the plot Deus ex machina-style to counsel and redeem the struggling white main character."
Rita Kempley discusses this in 2003
http://www.blackcommentator.com/49/49_magic.html
Well, my kids were cracking up. My problem with it is that Obama's Biggest Fans seriously believe he can do all this stuff. There's too much truth in this video for it to be really funny. For everything that made me smile (the pirates, the bunny in Iraq), there was something that made me wince ("spend the money, write the checks, disregard the mounting debt").
Note: I'm wincing because it's too real to laugh at, not because it's wrong.
That's great satire and I do love it, but sad to say, eCards are such a pathetic cop out. If it comes to that, honestly, just give up.
I've received eCards and my brain forced me to think the sender even less imaginative than the guy who picks up a card at the grocery store, which turns out to be a pretty good place to buy cards.
But speaking of cards, I just finished a pop-up card that I worked at off and on over the last two days. The card is intended for a long-time friend living in S.F. and I'll mail it the week after next. I might come up with something more mechanically elaborate in the meantime but for right now I'm satisfied with this.
Chip, you may be one of Elmer's Glue's best customers.
I don't think most Americans think any president gets a free pass, even Obama, who is enjoying pretty comfortable approval ratings.
With that said, I think even if you did drink the Kool-Aid (as people apparently love to say) I think if you don't find this funny, it shouldn't be because it is "critical" of the President, let alone racist.
This is pretty easy on the President, if you ask me. And I agree with Chase when he wondered how this was disrespectful to Obama? I agree that Obama would probably find this funny.
And actually, this video just plays off the media's latest pressing question, "Is he taking on too much?" I find that to be the wrong question, because he's the President. He should be able to take on everything. The more appropriate question, and the one I think the media ought to be asking is, "Is he taking on too much, given the amount of money it's going to cost us." I think that's the more relevant question.
We can't call black people negros anymore? What can we call them then!? Geesh.
Well, garage, I remember when calling negros, black would be understood by them as demeaning. Things change. You must remember when colored people was acceptable, don't you? NAACP. Ever heard of it?
Ever notice how it's always the liberals who have to be gently coached back to reality by the adults?
It's always the liberals who have to be provided historical context by their intellectual betters?
Why is that?
Is liberalism inherently childish... and therefore turns otherwise well-adjusted people into children? Or are childish people just drawn to liberalism?
Jason, most liberals open mouth, before inserting brain.
re: pop-up card. Nice! I like the Egyptian theme and the mummy-wrapped cover.
A whole ago I sent my young niece a pop-up book. Commerically made. It would be interesting to make one, I think.
Coming next year, white guilt and sin -such as in laughing at this animation- will be redeemed by a Caucasion Reparations Tax and confession at the Our Lady of Perpetual Shame.
Hair shirts, self-immolation, and university professorships remain appropriate options.
It's always the liberals who have to be provided historical context by their intellectual betters?
As if the original incarnation of the "magic negro" stock character in fiction from the 1950's, thought that would be set to words to a childrens song and provide context for a CD by a right winger called "We Hate the USA", amongst other hits such as "Bank Amigo", and "Star-Spanglish Banner", and "Ebony and Ivory".
"Is liberalism inherently childish... and therefore turns otherwise well-adjusted people into children? Or are childish people just drawn to liberalism?"
Liberals are perpetual adolescents.
The infantalization of modern society is a direct and intentional result of liberal indoctrination. Such a populace gravitates to the parental figure of the nanny state and the immature fantasy reality promised by leftist dogma.
All leftist revolutionary movements target the young and foolish eager to believe that utopia could easily be ushered in if only the reactionary, conservative old order (cultivated though millenia of trial and error) could be jettisoned and its proponents discredited.
Or exterminated.
The first I ever heard of the magic negro was in discussions of the short lived TV series "Jericho." There, exactly as DBQ says, we had a young white hero who was aided (frequently rescued) by the mysterious, but super competent and super cool, black man. The term made me uncomfortable, but I quickly saw no disrespect intended. Should I have?
Should I have?
Yes.
But you were guilty just by being born.
No matter what you say or do, you are always tainted by Original White Sin.
Only by voting Democrat can you be redeemed.
Well when it comes to racial descriptors, I think Spearchucker Jones tops the lists.
"will be redeemed by a Caucasion Reparations Tax and confession at the Our Lady of Perpetual Shame."
I can't wait to see how well that Caucasian Reparations Tax (transfer of wealth) goes down with the Hispanics, Jews, Italians,Poles, Native Americans and other ethnic groups that had zippedy doo dah to do with slavery in the United States. Just how is the government going to sort this out. If I have a half hispanic heritage, do I only have to pay half of the reparations? Nothing like really dividing the country by race, creed and color. Martin Luther King would be so proud ... (not).
I believe my paternal ancestors were speaking Welsh and struggling with the British at the time or on my maternal side (I am distantly related to General Grant and descended also from Quakers in Pennsylvania)fighting to free the slaves. On the paternal side the first relative who came to the US was an indentured servant: just a cute word for a white slave. I have no white guilt and they can take their reparations and shove 'em where the sun doesn't shine.
Imagine the surprise on my Quaker Great Great Grandmother's face to hear that she is guilty of oppression and slavery and that therefore her descendants should have to pay through the nose in perpetuity.
As to the video.....it IS funny. I especially like the ears in the 'batman style' searchlight. Poking fun at Obama who has gotten too big for his britches and the media suck ups who have blown hot air up his britches and inflated them beyond all reality.
I thing the "magic negro" theme is an example of how white people still can't look at black people as equal human beings and thus just a remenant of white supremacy. Originaly, white people considered blacks to be innately inferior. That thankfully is no longer allowed in polite company. But many white people still can't look at black people as completely one of them. They still see them as the other but at the same time feel guilty about it. So they compensate for this guilt by looking at black people as some kind of magical creature capable of things white people are unable to do. Thus, the magic negro who comes and saves white people.
Obama since he grew up in a white family understands the modern white person's neurosis about race and played it perfectly in the election. Obama is for many progressive white people, the magic negro. The other who comes and through his superiority will both clense them of their white guilt and do things they cannot do.
In the end, white progresive's creepy devotion to Obama is not an expression of them having overcome racial division. In fact, it shows just the opposite. When white voters are willing to treat a black politician like they do any other white politician, we will finally be able to say that perhaps the last vestiges of white supremacy have been expelled.
The Magic Negro was a term coined in the early 1950's to describe a literary and movie device, long before Obama was an eager little sperm in his daddy's testicles.
"The term “magic negro” (or “magical negro,” and other variations), refers to a stock character of (white) fiction — a benevolent African American who drops into the plot Deus ex machina-style to counsel and redeem the struggling white main character.".
DBQ is right. The "magic negro" has been a stock character in novels and movies for a long time. In old movies, 45-50 years ago, it was Sidney Poitier's regular bread&butter role.
It's stupid to credit Limbaugh, 50 years later, with doing anything with it other than making up a stupid nursery rhyme to fill airtime.
What is interesting is how the concept of the Magic Negro has spread out from fiction to broader societal settings by people who believe the movies and novels. Now we have people telling us (back in the 90s, not now) that the DIVERSITY of Detroit - hapless whites, magic Negroes, and wise Latinas - made for a better synergy and automotive product than anything monoethnic Japan, China, or Germany could do.
That black politicians with the "right schools" and right degrees - are now marketed as magic negroes. And the media took the NYC publishers and Hollywood version of Magic Negro as having "great moral authority over others" mainstream. Obama was to morally redeem progressive Jewish media figures of their guilt, as well as the nuts and bolts lesser quantity of liberal blonde beauty queens now reading teleprompters(who we all know now MUST support gay marriage, or else!), and your Gentile Lvy Leaguer now "going with the flow" in media positions..
Add in that recently, "Victimhood", as applied to the great absolute moral wisdom and superiority of 9/11 widows, POWs, cancer survivors, Israel policies since they are entitled to do as they wish due to the Holocaust - naturally is applied to the Magic Negro. The Magic Negro is consecrated by the collective suffering of slavery, of "discrimination".
(Ironically, the greatest Magic Negro success story outside movies comes from an Obama who had no slave ancestors and knew no discrimination...only bonus points for his skin color opening up doors...)
Magic Negro would be a great stage name for one of those colored magicians.
"In old movies, 45-50 years ago, it was Sidney Poitier's regular bread&butter role."
It is still alive and well today. Denzel Washington has just replaced Sidney Poitier. Remember the Titans is nothing but a magic negro story; magic negro becomes football coach and gets everyone to live in harmony. Will Smith also plays the occasional magic negro; see the Legend of Begger Vance for an example.
Hollywood is really the worst in many ways. I can think of very few movies where black people are written to be human beings instead of some symbol for their race. Not surprisingly, the best examples of writing black characters as full human beings comes from black film makers not named Spike Lee, The Barber Shop being one of the best recent examples.
Ah, the joy of it all.
When we all laughed at W, Rummy and Dick - JibJab was the bastion of fair an balanced humor.
Now - all haters!
Hollywood is really the worst in many ways. I can think of very few movies where black people are written to be human beings instead of some symbol for their race.
This is quite true. However, the point is that the Democrat Party the Press and many of the public/Obamabots have cast Barack into the role of Magic Negro.
"It isn't that the actors or the roles aren't likable, valuable or redemptive, but they are without interior lives. For the most part, they materialize only to rescue the better-drawn white characters"
We know nothing much about Obama's past, however he appears to have been cast as the "One" with super powers, mystical charisma and will SAVE us. Instead of the man, we have a caricature, a one dimensional construct just as phony to the long term plot as a scripted Hollywood stereotype. The Magic Negro, in our real life drama where the press and others have unthinkingly accepted the stereotype, ever looking for the happy ending. Unfortunately, and unlike Hollywood, we can't guarantee that the script will stay on track or that the happy ending is a slam dunk.
I liked Winston Zedemore in Ghostbusters. Talk about bucking the stereotype. There you had a negro who was so unafraid of ghosts he joined three white guys to kick paranormal ass.
That is so insipid. Race had nothing to do with the JibJab satire. Anybody who saw something racial in it is revealing more about themselves than about the cartoon.
A brief journey into the mind of a leftist:
"Race...race...race...race...
class...gender...race...race...
race...gender...gender...race...
clas...clas...
...
...race...race...race...race...
class...class...
...
...racegenderclassracegenderclass?
JEWS JEWS JEWS JEWS!!!!
...
...race...race...race...race..."
Shows just how ridiculous he is.
Pogo said...Coming next year, white guilt and sin -such as in laughing at this animation- will be redeemed by a Caucasion Reparations Tax and confession at the Our Lady of Perpetual Shame.
Hair shirts, self-immolation, and university professorships remain appropriate options.
It's not just White guilt/White racial self hate and all that. It's also something different.
It's about Super Whitey, the SWPL crowd, using "people of color" and the Sainted Negro as a litmus test of their moral/intellectual/social superiority over Other White People.
They don't hate themselves, they're full of themselves. They are endlessly smug and self satisfied.
They just hate Other White People.
These Other White People tend to reside in threateningly backward places like The Midwest, The South, trailer parks, the Republican party, NASCAR events, church on Sunday, fishing tournaments, and your local small town America Jew burning competitions.
Places like that.
"In the end, white progresive's creepy devotion to Obama is not an expression of them having overcome racial division. In fact, it shows just the opposite."
Well said, John. It's unhealthy for the nation and everyone involved. Electing a president is serious business and the sooner the body politic moves past this ridiculous (and poisonous) "white guilt" concept the better off we'll all be.
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