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fu king lol
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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Obama
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The funniest part of it was the fact that several people, right up to the news anchor who said the names on TV, managed to look at that list of names and not realize something was up. I don't care if the NTSB confirms them, Ho Lee Fuk and Wi Tu Lo are just...obvious.
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I have to assume that information was leaked by a smart ass 8-year-old with a spiky haircut. I'm just surprised it wasn't read by Moe Sizlak.
Posts: 2804 | Registered: May 2003
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I don't find it funny, really. I find it sad. It's sad that someone took a time of tragedy and tried to make a racist joke to make themselves feel clever.
I'm usually the one saying that racism isn't nearly as prevalent as people assume, but this is pretty clear-cut, to me at least.
Posts: 298 | Registered: Sep 2011
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They did it to make the news station look like idiots. It worked. Although I've heard people saying it may have been the intern himself who gave them the names.
I don't really see the racist angle. You don't really have to be racist to think it'd be funny to get someone to look stupid by reporting names like Ho Lee Fuk and Wi Tu Lo. Juvenile, definitely, but what can I say, juvenile humor still finds my funnybone sometimes.
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Oh, it's incredibly racist. I don't get how anyone even if they think the joke is funny can literally not understand how it's racist.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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As an immigrant to the U.S I can really appreciate Asians finding the puns offensive, but really, what's funny is the fact that the prank worked, that those names actually got passed multiple people and none of them became suspicious.
Posts: 668 | Registered: Aug 2010
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I can appreciate that in the past racists have mangled asian names to make them look lesser, and stupid.
I don't think you have to be racist to make up a ridiculous name using syllables common in asian names. In what way was using those names supposed to present asians as being lesser?
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that's not a requirement of being racist. and you can't wholly dismiss or prove that it was meant that way.
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Okay, then. What requirements does this fulfill to make it racist?
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I get the former, but I don't get 'Wi Tu Lo'. What words is it supposed to sound like?
quote:What requirements does this fulfill to make it racist?
It can be considered to make fun of the names of Asian people. So it's connected to the memeplex of putting down people of another race via mockery/presenting-them-as-silly, etc.
'Racism' is a fuzzy memeplex of behaviors and beliefs; it's not really a concrete thing. This joke doesn't have anything to do with 'racist' beliefs, but it pattern-matches to some 'racist' behaviors.
Btw, while on the topic of stupid foreign names, Charles' Heston last name means "Shit-on-him" in Greek, which why he was always advertized as "Charles Easton" over here. (30 rock mentioned this in one ep but wrongly translated it as 'poops himself'.)
Posts: 676 | Registered: Feb 2003
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It's a plane crash joke. They were too low. The fourth one isn't funny. Jokes can be a tool to spark hatred with renewed enthusiasm and can be intended to have this effect. Or they can just be intended to cause pain among people of that race.
When enjoyed responsibly jokes are always beautiful, tension releasing things. All you're anxiety goes away and you're less likely to hate anyone. It's great.
All I know is if shared on this level, who ever was repsonsible knew that it was gauranteed to offend hundreds of people. For all I know he was just trying to troll an honest work crew of news workers, because he's a kid and hate adults (not that I blame him) But he wasn't afraid of offending a race of people. This makes it a racist joke.
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Maybe it's a generational thing. When I heard it, I didn't think an entire race was being made fun of. I thought a race's names were being played with to prank a news station.
I can see how the race in question might get offended though, given how this sort of thing was used in the past.
I also don't think the joke was intended to either incite hatred or cause pain to an entire race. It's hard to see how the person pulling the prank wouldn't see it hurting the actual victims of the crash, though, if it were me on the plane I'd be more likely to roll my eyes then actually be offended.
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Intent matters ***k-all in this. Whether or not something is racist is not marked by intent. The joke was racist, and whether or not the person who made the joke sincerely 'didn't intend for it to be racist or be offensive to a specific race' literally matters not at all as to whether or not the joke is racist at all.
quote: if it were me on the plane I'd be more likely to roll my eyes then actually be offended.
speaking for and over a group and telling them that 'well if I were in your shoes I wouldn't be offended by it!' is, similarly, total nonce
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: Intent matters ***k-all in this. Whether or not something is racist is not marked by intent. The joke was racist, and whether or not the person who made the joke sincerely 'didn't intend for it to be racist or be offensive to a specific race' literally matters not at all as to whether or not the joke is racist at all.
quote: if it were me on the plane I'd be more likely to roll my eyes then actually be offended.
speaking for and over a group and telling them that 'well if I were in your shoes I wouldn't be offended by it!' is, similarly, total nonce
And had you been born in a different time and place, your attitudes about it would probably be completely different.
Posts: 3354 | Registered: May 2005
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Put me in the 'I don't find it racist' column. Juvenile? Yes. Incredibly insensitive considering that it's a story involving tragic loss of life? Yes. But just because the names happened to be Asian, that doesn't mean the joke is about Asian names. They're just the vehicle.
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