I may not be in the U.S. right now, but I know a coon when I see one. Actually, I can’t decide what to call these two blaxploitation throwbacks. I am leaning towards CoonBots from the planet Niggatron. Let me backtrack a minute. These are two characters from the Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen movie. If you’re like me, you grew up watching Transformers and were hyped about the first movie. Even though Jazz (the only Black transformer at the time) died. That’s okay. It was wack, but okay. And then the sequel came out. To put it bluntly, I wish they kept Jazz alive and killed these two metallic sambos.
Why are these characters offensive? I’ll lay it out simply for the skeptical ones:
- they look like monkeys (as much like a monkey as a giant robot can look i suppose)
- they talk in “street dialect” clearly identifiable with certain demographics in America
- they admit to NOT BEING ABLE TO READ
- one has a gold tooth (and if you think I’m analyzing too much… ask yourself, why does a robot need a gold tooth?)
You do the math on what type of character/stereotype these two are trying to portray.
The clever guys behind Transformers already pulled all existing clips of Skids and Mudflap (yes those are the names) from youtube. But I did manage to find this scene:
If I’m reading too far into this then Jar Jar Binks is an excellent role model for kids.
Going back to the irony of the situation. Jazz died in the first film. Jazz. In the second film, he was replaced by a couple of knuckleheads who both lived. I’ll let the metaphor sink in.
As much as I love cartoons, Transformers 2 (especially Skids and Mudflap) will have to hold my pocket.
1 response so far ↓
Candice // July 29, 2009 at 2:34 pm |
You beat me to writing a blog myself about these two, I still might when classes end. I was watching the movie and thinking, “wow, does anyone else realize how offensive these two idiots are?” It’s not even just that they couldn’t read but they acted like even asking them if they could read was an idiotic question.