Althouse: "... Jon Hamm stars in an infomercial for a new product called 'White Be Gone,' which helps fight the symptoms of Acute Viral Perceptive Albinitis known as White Thoughts."

August 6, 2018

"... Jon Hamm stars in an infomercial for a new product called 'White Be Gone,' which helps fight the symptoms of Acute Viral Perceptive Albinitis known as White Thoughts."

New York Magazine sounds delighted with this HBO humor:

77 comments:

Marshall Rose said...: This is how you get more Trump.; 8/6/18, 5:54 PM
zipity said...: Gee, another Far Left Hollywood Libtard.

Fancy that.; 8/6/18, 5:55 PM
mccullough said...: Unlike George Clooney, Hamm’s movie career never took off after achieving fame from a popular TV show. He was just born at the wrong time it seems. Clooney is 10 years older and had the career that Hamm elsewise would have had. Only room for a few at the top.; 8/6/18, 6:00 PM
sean said...: This stuff is so boring and irrelevant to most white people. I don't know why Prof. Althouse finds it so endlessly fascinating. She must be a very unhappy person.; 8/6/18, 6:01 PM
Ann Althouse said...: " I don't know why Prof. Althouse finds it so endlessly fascinating."

I got tired of it less than halfway through and I didn't find it funny. I put it here not so you'd just enjoy it but so you'd know what's going on. What other people find funny is worth knowing, and it helps orient you in the culture. This is the elite culture of America. There are also many countercultures, including Trumpism.; 8/6/18, 6:04 PM
Jeff said...: Yes, let's all pretend that the people and system that finally succeeded in lifting most of humanity out of grinding poverty and a hand-to-mouth existence, is actually inferior to all the others. That's the message of this video, and it's nauseating.; 8/6/18, 6:10 PM
mccullough said...: I’m starting to believe that Trumpism is the most prominent culture and Hollywood and the News Media are the most prominent counter-culture. Tuning them both out might be the most transgressive cultural approach.; 8/6/18, 6:11 PM
Drago said...: How is it that this now completely generic non-funny snoozer wasnt the opening for SNL?

SNL might have a cause of action here..; 8/6/18, 6:12 PM
sy1492 said...: I am not sure if the other side finds it funny. Maybe this video will unite everybody and that we can all agree on something ...that this video is not funny.; 8/6/18, 6:12 PM
Birkel said...: sean,

So are you saying this stuff is not boring and is also relevant to non-white people?
Where did I leave my bottle of Moby-b-Gone?; 8/6/18, 6:14 PM
HT said...: It's not funny. I didn't get it. I bet not a lot of people find this ha ha funny in the slightest.

It's not something SNL would do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg0pO9VG1J8; 8/6/18, 6:14 PM
Drago said...: HT: "It's not funny. I didn't get it. I bet not a lot of people find this ha ha funny in the slightest.

It's not something SNL would do."

Au contraire...; 8/6/18, 6:18 PM
tcrosse said...: It's funny that they think they're being funny. Funny as in "Does this smell funny?"; 8/6/18, 6:19 PM
Ralph L said...: Hamm looks pretty rough for 47.; 8/6/18, 6:19 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: That's not Funny!

Q: Does Beer make you smart?

A: I dunno, but it made Bud Weiser.

On second thought, it's not even "not funny." It's just boring and tedious and stupid and liberal and racist (the film, not my Budweiser joke).

There's a bunch of white privileged liberals who are filled with guilt because they have it easy, and some black folks some where, have it hard. Go see a shrink and give all your money to Nipsy Russell, I say.; 8/6/18, 6:20 PM
langford peel said...: They want you to be ashamed of being white.

When in fact white supremcy is the only feasible model for human advancement.

The only real option is the Chinese hive mentality and who in their right mind would choose that.

Embrace white supramcy. It is the only hope for our species.; 8/6/18, 6:34 PM
Michael K said...: Meanwhile Fox News is endlessly rehashing the year old Trump Tower Meeting story.

I suspect this is an indication that we have reached peak outrage.

WE should check to see if Inga's eyes have turned red yet. Sort of like Gozor.; 8/6/18, 6:35 PM
HT said...: When SNL does something like this, I laugh. Maybe not a lot, but I get it. This seems like a conservative's parody of liberals.; 8/6/18, 6:36 PM
Michael The Magnificent said...: They already tried White-Be-Gone in -Zimbabwe. Guess how that worked out.

Dumb-ass lefties.

And yes,as others have pointed out, going full-retard-racist against white people is how you get more Trump.; 8/6/18, 6:36 PM
langford peel said...: Of course you can embrace black supremcy and get Baltimore, Chicago, Haiti or Zimbabwe.
,; 8/6/18, 6:36 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: "Embrace white supramcy. It is the only hope for our species"

Disagree. I'd suggest embracing American exceptionalism as the best hope for peace and prosperity.; 8/6/18, 6:37 PM
robother said...: Will this render John Hamm unable to serve as Mercedes spokesman?; 8/6/18, 6:42 PM
damikesc said...: Im glad that this isnt racist.

I do not know how, mind you.; 8/6/18, 6:43 PM
damikesc said...: I am betting highly encouraging white folks to view themselves as white first will be a bad idea; 8/6/18, 6:46 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: ok so a white person, a bigot, a racist and a Nazi walk into a bar, and the bartender says "Get out, you racist, bigoted, Nazi white person!"

"All men(whites) are rapists(racists), and that's all they are"; 8/6/18, 6:49 PM
Mark Nielsen said...: The script needed a good treatment of Lame-B-Gone (TM).; 8/6/18, 6:55 PM
Anonymous said...: That was so lame I had to stop before the 1 minute mark.

It's like something that embarrassingly "hip" middle-aged neighbor you had 30 years ago thought was funny.; 8/6/18, 6:56 PM
Vance said...: Let me say that there is nothing about the color of your skin that makes anyone better than another. White people are not better than black, brown, red, or any other.

Nor are black people better than white, brown, red, or any other.

What then accounts for the success, generally speaking, of white dominated society? To be blunt: why did western Europe become ascendant instead of Islamic, Chinese, etc?

It's because of the fundamental realization of western civilization, which has nothing to do with the color of someone's skin: rather, the core idea of liberty and individual rights as well as individual responsibilities. This is a religious concept--the key to western dominance is also the things liberals hate the most: morality, and an individual feeling and connection to God and the individual having responsibility.

The question in the very beginning of the Bible that Cain asks: "Am I my brother's Keeper?" is the key to western dominance. Every other society said no, the King is the keeper. British society evolved to, Yes, everyone is their brother's keeper. That was most realized in America-- the farmer took care of his neighbor, etc. A personal feeling of charity, of responsibility towards each other, allowed everyone to be involved. Plus, given the liberty to act on their own, and America exploded into the world's greatest civilization, the greatest ever known, and the most powerful. Go back to the zenith of American power, the 1950's and 1960's and ask: Who is your brother's keeper? And most people would have said, "me."

Contrast today, with the left saying "it's government's job. The king, as it were." And that has always been a recipe for disaster, no matter the civilization or color of the skin. Who is responsible for you? You are. And you are responsible for your neighbor too. The key to civilization. Not skin color.; 8/6/18, 6:59 PM
William said...: I wasn't sure what they were making fun of. Generic white people I guess......It did inspire one extremely white thought. I wouldn't want to live in a country where Jeong and Waters and the people who wrote that skit were the majority. And, of course, neither would Jeong or Waters and the people who wrote that skit.; 8/6/18, 7:03 PM
walter said...: As cringe-worthy as a swath of that is, it's worth seeing till the end.; 8/6/18, 7:03 PM
walter said...: (Though less so as a vert for a premium cable channel given they need every eyeball they can get); 8/6/18, 7:06 PM
Not Sure said...: Shoulda had cgi Al Jolson do this bit.; 8/6/18, 7:10 PM
Kathryn51 said...: Althouse said: What other people find funny is worth knowing, and it helps orient you in the culture.

I have a whole bunch of white lady friends (all "elite", if by elite one means wealthy enough live in a lovely home in a lovely area of Microsoft Land and drive their foreign car 5 miles to the closest Whole Foods) who will post this on Facebook with the one word comment "THIS".

Such guilt-ridden souls they be that they won't find it "funny", they will find it "insightful."; 8/6/18, 7:12 PM
BJM said...: "Hello, Fellow children" was funny...this drivel, not so much.

PC has killed comedy...Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" is the last outpost and the scalp hunters are circling.; 8/6/18, 7:12 PM
Sebastian said...: "What other people find funny is worth knowing"

Do other people find it funny? Who?

Sure, it's part of "elite culture," as in approved propaganda that bolsters prog hegemony, but do any progs actually laugh?

Does prog comedy make progs uncomfortable, and if not, is it still comedy, by elite definitions of comedy?; 8/6/18, 7:13 PM
Seeing Red said...: I like antibiotics.; 8/6/18, 7:16 PM
Sebastian said...: Let's tell Candace Owens.

She can do a "Jew Be Gone" or "Black Be Gone" or "Allah Be Gone" tweet and see what happens.; 8/6/18, 7:16 PM
rcocean said...: I find this scary.

Y'know this is what our "Elite" thinks is funny. These are the people who run TV/Hollywood/Publishing.

Its like reading the New York Times Op-ed page.

You just shake your head, and think the most powerful people in the USA, read this crap.; 8/6/18, 7:22 PM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: mccullough said...
I’m starting to believe that Trumpism is the most prominent culture and Hollywood and the News Media are the most prominent counter-culture."

No, it's the reverse. Trumpism is the response to the dominant culture.

damikesc said...
I am betting highly encouraging white folks to view themselves as white first will be a bad idea"

Ya think? One reason I've been enjoying the walkaway videos so much is that they feature blacks, gays, Hispanics, whites, immigrants, young people and old people who are Americans before they are anything else. It's refreshing.; 8/6/18, 7:27 PM
rhhardin said...: I liked the probably-removed Onion porn video, white lady being fucked by a black guy yes yes yes! and then go nigger!

The set falls silent, the woman is banned from her job, everything. Deep shame all around.

Could not be made today. Ahead of its time, it was.; 8/6/18, 7:38 PM
Jeff Weimer said...: Eddie Murphy did it better with his SNL "White Like Me" skit.

https://youtu.be/l_LeJfn_qW0

That was funny, even for those inflicted with whiteness.; 8/6/18, 7:40 PM
Pettifogger said...: I see that I am a minority in taking this as a satire on trendy racial claptrap in academia. Have we reached the point that the real thing is indistinguishable from satire?; 8/6/18, 7:53 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Culture is more important than race.

Let me repeat:

Culture is more important than race.

There are some stupid-ass white people that I want nothing to do with (Leftists, Nazis, Communists)

There plenty of minority immigrants who have assimilated in the US, embraced its values, and are as American as you or I. I want those folks at my side.; 8/6/18, 7:54 PM
Darrell said...: New York Magazine and HBO should do a Thelma and Louise off a cliff.; 8/6/18, 7:58 PM
langford peel said...: The only ways to the success of a society is if the whites are in charge and the mutts act white.

It is the whites mans burden.

Same as it ever was.; 8/6/18, 7:59 PM
langford peel said...: But by all means virtue signal away.; 8/6/18, 8:00 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: That was weird,...; 8/6/18, 8:01 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: The dominant culture is spawned by the subculture which has some good, new ideas, music, etc. i.e Trumpism.

The culture of the NYT, Hollywood, is as colorless [talk about white privilege] as it could be and they have not had a new good idea in years.; 8/6/18, 8:05 PM
narciso said...: So he's Peter Fonda ing himself:

http://dailycaller.com/2018/08/06/feinstein-chinese-spy; 8/6/18, 8:14 PM
0_0 said...: Yeah, fuck you, Jon Hamm, Hollywood still isn't employing your cheating old ass.; 8/6/18, 8:15 PM
Taylor said...: I quit watching when I found out the cure for whiteness was blackface.

Just imagine, if he kept rubbing in the black face paint, he would never work in Hollywood again.

Even if Whoopi Goldberg applied it!

I guess Ted Danson is working again. So that's just an expression, apparently.; 8/6/18, 8:16 PM
Taylor said...: For the record, his two "white thoughts" are...

violence isn't the answer

and

all lives matter

And the cure for this horrific thought pattern is to rub black face paint on your head. Once you get a little black on your brain, then "white be gone."

And so you start thinking better thoughts, I guess. Which would be what, exactly?

Violence is the answer?

Some lives don't matter?

These idiots at HBO associate Christ, MLK, and Gandhi with "white thoughts."

And the authors of this HBO skit are so racist against white people they are completely blind to how racist they are being against black people.; 8/6/18, 8:28 PM
n.n said...: Contributing to the diversity of a culture: White Be Gone, Black Whore, Jew Privilege, etc., for profit.; 8/6/18, 8:35 PM
DKWalser said...: I noticed that the video isn't very popular on YouTube. Seems not enough elites are watching and voting.; 8/6/18, 8:44 PM
Taylor said...: Okay, it's funnier once the camera cuts off and Hamm talks with the director.

I see that I am a minority in taking this as a satire on trendy racial claptrap in academia. Have we reached the point that the real thing is indistinguishable from satire?

I think you're right, but satire is hard to pull off. Really hard to pull off.; 8/6/18, 8:45 PM
mezzrow said...: I see this and then consider, for the first time, Ivanka as the first female POTUS.

She'll wear white for the inauguration, you know. I bet you'll watch.

SMH.; 8/6/18, 9:08 PM
Saint Croix said...: I got tired of it less than halfway through and I didn't find it funny.

I did the same thing.

It's worth watching the whole thing, because the second half is funny.

Several things are working against the skit.

1) We've all got ADD now, so we are quick to jump away, stop watching things, form opinions too fast.

2) Race is an emotional subject with a fraught history. A lot of evil has been done because of race and racial division.

3) There's not a lot of trust in media now, and the people who make media. I don't trust Jon Hamm, for instance. I thought Mad Men was stupid. And if you substitute George Clooney or Brad Pitt, I don't trust them, either. These guys have given us a whole bunch of political opinions, and I know where they are coming from, so I have zero trust. I have more trust in the Althouse commentators (walter at 7:03, and Pettifogger at 7:53) than I do in Hollywood filmmakers on any political subject whatsoever.

4) Anyway, the second half is laugh out loud funny, at least for me.

5) I think the audience for this is limited. Most white people don't like the subject of race. We don't like it at all! So the audience for this are those people who are really comfortable talking about race. And he's mocking the shit out of those people.; 8/6/18, 9:15 PM
Saint Croix said...: I am Taylor and Saint Croix, by the way. Depends on which frickin' browser I'm using, don't get me started.; 8/6/18, 9:16 PM
Martin said...: I, too, gave up around one minute in; it was just unwatchable. A bit offensive but mostly just not funny, not informative, not anything, just boring and bad.; 8/6/18, 9:23 PM
pdug said...: at 5 minutes and 35 seconds in it changes. There are popups between the editor and analese lockheart (?) saying at the end, they should stop talking about whiteness so much and just affirm blackness instead.

Semi-self critical there at the end. I liked it better when I saw that ending.; 8/6/18, 9:48 PM
Saint Croix said...: The skit is very racist at the beginning. That's why people keep turning it off.

About three minutes later, we get a different reality, and we realize the whole thing is a joke, and he's mocking whiteness studies and the whole idea of race and racial division. He's pointing out that people are born white, that you are blameless in the skin color that God gave you. He's mocking the idea of "white thoughts" and using creams and/or laser surgery to get rid of your whiteness.

And then he pulls back another curtain, where he's having an internet conversation about the skit. He's uncomfortable with the idea of saying that white people are blameless for their white skin. And his black friend says they shouldn't say anything about white people, fuck them. And he agrees.

I liked it better when I saw that ending.

The New Yorker liked the ending, too.

It's a tonal shift, from comedy to serious, from farce to reality.

they should stop talking about whiteness so much and just affirm blackness instead.

That's the race-positive racism that the New Yorker likes.; 8/6/18, 10:03 PM
langford peel said...: You should realize that hatred of whites is the new normal. The Democrats, liberals and the media hate white people and want you to die.

One lame joke about a black and you lose a top rated TV show and millions of dollars.

800 racist hate tweets about whites and you get a cushy job at the New York Times.

Take them at their words . They hate normal white people.

The answer is to give it back to them.

In spades.; 8/6/18, 10:25 PM
langford peel said...: Virtue signalers and self hating white guilt trippers should kill themselves before the gangbangers and illegals get to your neighborhood and turn it into the South Side of Chicago or Juarez.

Save us all from listening to your kumbaya bullshit.; 8/6/18, 10:28 PM
wholelottasplainin said...: Sebastian said...
"What other people find funny is worth knowing"

Do other people find it funny? Who?

*************************

Didn't a lot of Germans laugh on Kristallnacht? I guess that was "worth knowing", but what did it lead to?; 8/6/18, 11:21 PM
wholelottasplainin said...: Saint Croix said...

3) There's not a lot of trust in media now, and the people who make media. I don't trust Jon Hamm, for instance. I thought Mad Men was stupid.

*************************

Then you must be a kid, not alive then and somehow not able to understand that the sun did not shine out of your ass the day you were born. American social history was alive and well on that series.

Jon Hamm can't be trusted because he played a role in a TV series?

How deep do we have to dive to learn just how shallow you are?; 8/6/18, 11:26 PM
HT said...: Dance break!; 8/6/18, 11:28 PM
Kelly said...: He knows this isn’t funny. This is aimed at his fellow actors. Isn’t he woke. Isn’t he oh so edgy and mean. Give him his own talk show. Please!; 8/6/18, 11:31 PM
eddie willers said...: I quit watching when I found out the cure for whiteness was blackface.

I kept waiting for this to be the punchline. I don't know if it could make it funny, but at least it'd make some sense.; 8/6/18, 11:41 PM
FIDO said...: This was PAINFUL to watch and not in a 'wow, now I understand my white privilege' way but more like a 'wow, that is one of the most racist things I have seen on television and boy howdy do the Dems NOT want 79% of the population to start to actually start voting 'white'"

How fucking stupid are these people? It has 310 likes on YouTube. It has 4.5K (that is thousands, Inga) dislikes, including mine.

And John Hamm has likely lost the power of his big beige face.; 8/7/18, 12:29 AM
FIDO said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/7/18, 12:45 AM
Saint Croix said...: wow, Jay, you really like Jon Hamm!

I'm sure he likes you too; 8/7/18, 12:45 AM
FIDO said...: It is amazing to me at how many 'woke' women seem to think that their Vag Badge protects them from being 'white'.

I believe Ms. Althouse noted that during that huge 'woman's march' that the white female speakers were disparaged and sidelined unless they were famous enough to get on camera.

A white woman is a majority and the emphasis is on 'white' not 'woman'.; 8/7/18, 1:39 AM
cubanbob said...: Silly me. I thought that Jolson was going to come out at the end singing mammy.; 8/7/18, 2:37 AM
Jaq said...: I just had my first sighting in the wild of of a white leftist who denied her whiteness out loud. I am not ashamed of being white, I am not proud of it, I am white, can’t change it and no point thinking about changing it. I do get a good belly laugh when somebody says that whites have no culture though.

Like the new racist at the New York Times who said that whites have appropriated just about all culture. Does the black music we listen to come on a twelve tone scale? To this day the scales are given their Greek names, only an ignoramus doesn’t know that. Who invented all of that electronic equipment that Hip Hop loves so much? Their whole shtick is based on emotion only.; 8/7/18, 6:08 AM
Bill Peschel said...: "Embrace white supremacy. It is the only hope for our species."

I embrace American supremacy. After all, where's the Dutch Empire? The Spanish Empire? The German Empire?

It's American supremacy that won. Best of all, any race can enjoy it!; 8/7/18, 11:57 AM
Yancey Ward said...: My reaction was the same as Ms. Althouse's- I made it halfway through before giving up because it wasn't really funny, even though it seemed to have some promise at the start.; 8/7/18, 1:49 PM
Unknown said...: Considering this skits' platform (as part of a larger skit questioning race, gender, and sexuality); the current climate orchestrated by the alt left movement, and the risk to Hamm's career at offending said movement; I'm not convinced of the satirical quality of this piece. If it is indeed satire, I think we can all agree it is badly executed. I can imagine the groups tasked with running pd's to educate people on their unconscious bias will enjoy trotting this one out; maybe after they've done the privilege bridge rap over morning tea.; 8/21/18, 12:36 AM