TV Shows: Renewed, Axed, Picked Up + News

[Bandit]

What bothers me is the erasure of context. Like it doesn't bother me at all Cops will no longer be shown because that really was a show about "look how cool we are exerting power over the underclass" and Live PD that wasn't nearly as mean spirited police porn for right wingers as Cops was.

What Seinfeld said about colleges was dumb because he wouldn't even be performing at one since they could never afford him. So that was "old man yells at cloud." But then you get a case like the Indian-American SNL writer who got kicked off of a stage at Columbia University for a joke about African American homosexuals proving sexuality isn't a choice because being African American is hard enough without being LGBTQ on top of it. Maybe the joke wasn't funny, but to call it homophobic would be completely ignoring the context.

So if they want to say "I don't like these comedians because they don't speak to me", that's perfectly fine. But to lump them in with Dennis Miller and Larry the Cable Guy is a little much.

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What bothers me is the erasure of context. Like it doesn't bother me at all Cops will no longer be shown because that really was a show about "look how cool we are exerting power over the underclass" and Live PD that wasn't nearly as mean spirited police porn for right wingers as Cops was.

Agreed

But then you get a case like the Indian-American SNL writer who got kicked off of a stage at Columbia University for a joke about African American homosexuals proving sexuality isn't a choice because being African American is hard enough without being LGBTQ on top of it. Maybe the joke wasn't funny, but to call it homophobic would be completely ignoring the context.

So if they want to say "I don't like these comedians because they don't speak to me", that's perfectly fine. But to lump them in with Dennis Miller and Larry the Cable Guy is a little much.

Yeah, this too. I think it's dumb to fire him over a bad set at Columbia.

Despite its critics, I think that SNL has been doing pretty well for the past few years. The political humor can get cringe-y for me while they bend backwards for the standard Democrat. But then they get Woody to play the creepiest Joe Biden ever, that shit was hilarious.



But they're almost to the end of that Kate McKinnon train ride. Beck Bennett and Kyle Mooney have been there for 7 years and they've had some great sketches. For all the hand wringing that entertainment critics have done about the future of SNL over the decades, the situation is going to get bad as Lorne Michaels is almost 80 and all of their best talent might be out the door soon.

I'm won't say that hiring people of color will or should automatically make SNL better. But only hiring WASPs ain't good either. It isn't 1988 and Dana Carvey can't go out to the clubs and round up a new batch of stand-up comedians.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

The feckers are coming after Father Ted now.

[Bandit]

They've hated Graham Linehan for a while because he says things about transgender women on Twitter they don't like.

[Big Boss Man]

In regards to shows being dropped, when it's "blackface" masquerading as "comedy" that has to be dropped, no questions asked. In no way should comedian(s) in the 2000s use it. It should have been consigned to history.

The whole minstrel show/minstrelsy where you had white performers pretend to be Black dates way back to the 19th century. The whole portrayal was to paint Black people in a negative light. The BBC had a Black & White Minstrel show which started in the late 1950s and ended in July 1978. Not only that but there was "comedy" like Curry & Chips, Love Thy Neighbour, Til Death Do Us Part on ITV among others which were full of racial slurs & stereotypes.

The main issue behind the "cancel
culture" in this instance here isn't because of "snowflakes" being offended at the slightest thing. It's these shows are intent on being derogatory and "edgy" at the expense of common decency. When the creators hide behind things like this in regards to Love Thy Neighbour

In fact, its creators, Vince Powell and Harry Driver, even went as far as to argue their comedy was written to "poke fun at the English" and actually assist with ongoing assimilation

Source: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/mba4 ... st-as-hell

As a way to make themselves feel better when they know the real clear intention of what they were trying to do, using racial slurs for cheap laughs. That blackface and racial stereotypes permeated through to the 2000s with Bo Selecta, Little Britain, Come Fly with Me and others today is really due to the "well, there was no ill will intended, it's just comedy" hyper defensive type of attitude the creators of these shows have, who happen to be white of course.

Should these shows be consigned to the archives or a disclaimer be added for further context?. At the extreme end of the scale, just watch a clip of Love Thy Neighbour or Curry & Chips and you'll see there's no place whatsoever for that type of programming today.

This article for the non UK BGers takes a brief look at things here

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1108234/index.html

Ironically this was banned by the BBC (& even
Lawsuits were threatened) which looked at racism on British TV

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[ian]

I don’t know wether to laugh or cry. Maybe both?

[Dr. Zoidberg]

What's going to happen with Bob's Burgers, 2 men playing female characters? Tsk tsk!

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[Bandit]

Gen Z Beavis & Butthead would do nothing but watch videos on Pornhub all day.

They reboot it in 2011 briefly and it was okay, nothing as good as the original run. If it's specifically about making the characters another generation that wasn't that great when they made Bart and Lisa millennials. South Park did it right where they gave the kids modern things but weren't all "Hey we are another generation now!" since Trey and Matt are smart enough to know they don't understand the kids ( even kind of doing a show on it inspired by Trey's son telling him Pewdiepie was his favorite comedian and Trey not understanding it at all.)

[ian]

What's going to happen with Bob's Burgers, 2 men playing female characters? Tsk tsk!

Just don't tell anyone that secret. Actors (of the screen, stage, and voice variety) are now no longer allowed to play people other than themselves.

You know what was Hilarious? When Charlie Murphy and Samuel L. Jackson played a pair of Incompetent, bumbling, ignorant white people.
But don't tell anyone that either, or the episodes will be removed from history.

or is Black people playing white people ok?

I don't know, I'm not American.

The biggest problem in Australia is that someone stole some baby crocodiles in Darwin.. For some fucking reason.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" premieres August 6, only on CBS All Access. Developed by Emmy Award winner Mike McMahan ("Rick and Morty," "Solar Opposites"), "Star Trek: Lower Decks", a new half-hour animated comedy series, focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.

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[Roofus]

"Star Trek: Lower Decks" premieres August 6, only on CBS All Access. Developed by Emmy Award winner Mike McMahan ("Rick and Morty," "Solar Opposites"), "Star Trek: Lower Decks", a new half-hour animated comedy series, focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet's least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.

I'd rather have season 3 of Discovery but I'll take it for now. If nothing else, it's been fun watching the people complain that Star Trek has gotten too dark and takes itself too seriously that this looks too frivolous and doesn't treat the source material seriously enough.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

[pixel]

I'm really interested in the Ned Flanders and Donut Homer ones. The Devil and Homer Simpson is one of the better Treehouse segments because of Lionel Hutz and the Hell gags.

The Treehouse of Horror episodes were a big reason I got into the Simpsons, I loved Halloween as a kid. So I had to do a definitive ranking of the first seven editions:

1. Treehouse of Horror V (The Shinning, Time and Punishment, and Nightmare Cafeteria)
   The all-time king: All three segments would be top-ranked on their own. Shh! You want to get sued?
    
2. Treehouse of Horror IV (The Devil and Homer Simpson, Terror at 5 1/2 Feet)
   The Devil and Homer Simpson might be my favorite Treehouse segment, but V is an all-around better episode. Bonus points for a Hans Moleman appearance in Terror at 5 1/2 Feet.
    
3. Treehouse of Horror VII (The Thing And I, The Genesis Tub, Citizen Kang)
   This is a toss-up with IV, especially with all the great political jokes in Citizen Kang. Twirling, twirling towards freedom!
    
4. Treehouse of Horror VI (Homer Cubed)
   Homer Cubed is a top-ten segment, but Nightmare On Evergreen Terrace is just okay. I never really liked Attack of the 50-Foot Eyesores.
    
5. Treehouse of Horror III (Clown Without Pity, Dial "Z" For Zombies)
   This is where the list drops off, some pretty good stuff from here on out but nothing earth-shatteringly good.
    
6. Treehouse of Horror II (Monkey Paw, It's A Good Life parody)
    
7. Treehouse of Horror I (The Raven)

[Bandit]

That's a good ranking.

The only figure I don't recognize is Gamer Bart. I remember one episode where Bart became a pro gamer but it wasn't a Tree house of Horror episode.

[Dr. Zoidberg]

I'm interested in getting Donut Homer & Raven Bart.