slurs and satire

Alright, folks. Building on Thursday's discussion, please address your blog post to one of the following topics:

1. This film short, Tokyo Breakfast, was featured on a part of The N Word: Divided We Stand that we didn't get a chance to see. What is the film satirizing? (Need help establishing critical distance from the clip? Try thinking about the analytical words that made it onto the board today like "context," "speaker," "race," "class".)

2. The "N word" played a crucial role in last night's episode of "South Park." Randy Marsh, Stan Marsh's father, made it to the bonus round of "Wheel of Fortune," but when he tried to solve the final puzzle, he made a terrible mistake (this version is longer, if also kind of creepy; you feel like you're watching television in a stranger's living room. . .um, because you kind of are). Give us an analysis of Randy's gaffe. What are the significant factors at play here? Where do you locate the irony? What do you make of the different reactions from the camera man, the studio audience, Randy's fellow townspeople, his family?

3. You've all heard of Michael Richards' infamous tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club last November, but you might not have seen it. It's pretty jarring, even if you know what to expect. For a few seconds, it appears that Richards is trying to turn outrageous, bigoted behavior into social commentary. "Alright, you see this shocks you to see what's buried beneath," he says tauntingly to the audience, as if it is their reactions and not his that are really at issue. What do you think?

4. At last Friday's Conservative Political Action Conference, Ann Coulter used the word "faggot" when talking about Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards. Later on the Fox opinion show Hannity and Colmes, Coulter claimed that "faggot" is nothing more than a "schoolyard taunt." “It isn’t offensive to gays,” she said. “It has nothing to do with gays. It’s a schoolyard taunt, meaning wuss. And unless you’re telling me that John Edwards is gay, it was not applied to a gay person." Do you agree or disagree? Why?