The Geekbox: Episode 44

[Rydog]

Ever wonder what year a decade is technically supposed to end on. We discuss it. At length. Give this week's episode a listen to hear all about it.

[Shadracht]

In progress listening:

* Umlaud sounds awesome. Good on ya for doing some great charity work, Karen!

* I have been remiss in legend of heroes; I haven't gotten around to playing since it went "live"

* Doctor Who is awesome. Welcome to the cult, Karen.

* Spike's idea of what the video game audience is so horribly, pathetically condescending that it makes me want to hurt things.

* That movie about RoTK sounds awesome. A friend of mine is so nerdgrossed in the whole series, I have to tell him about this.

* Wow, nerdrage on decade nomenclature

* I hope to sometime get to the area to check out Comic Conspiracy

[shadyjohnson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000–2009

=p

My brain turned off when Karen Chu said "ass and titties". It took like 2 minutes for my brain to return to higher functioning.

[Karen]

Some photos from Umloud!

Ironheade

[nukethewhales]

Ok I had to register to discuss the stupid decade argument cause I hate all people who this argument because both sides are usually wrong.

First of all, a person is free to say that something is the best thing of the decade because all a decade is is a grouping of ten consecutive years. There's nothing specific to it. Same with century and millennium (notice the lowercase). A new millennium starts whenever you want. One just started right now. And right now. Because the span of right now, to an exact 1000 years from now is a millennium. Now if someone were to say that something is the best thing of the 21st Century then they would have to go with the accepted meaning that according to the Gregorian Calendar the 21st Century spans from 2001-2100.

By the way the number year was put in place in 525 when it was decided by an estimate that Jesus Christ had been born 525 years before. But this was by the same people who decided that Jesus Christ was born on the 25th of December so what do they know?

[Pepto]

Decade = a period of 10 years (like 2001-2011 and for example 2006-2015)?

But I don't understand why wouldn't you consider the first decade of this century 2000-2009 (just like the 70s, 80s, 90s and so on).

[darfox8]

I guess I'm going to be the first one to bitch about the racism, but I don't want to make a huge deal out of this, either. Especially since I'm not an expert on how racism can spread across a culture. But just because the product is aimed at an ignorant or innocent audience(Kids in this case) it's not ok for it to have fucked up messages.

And I think Higgins is also incorrect in his argument about editing History. Atleast to how it pertained to Fantasia. I think it's good that they take that out of the movie as long as they don't pretend that it never happen. Fantasia might be a fantastic movie and I'd loved younger generations to experience it, but I don't want them to experience racism in that context. When they're slightly older it'd be good for them to find out about these specific scenes and why they exist. Sure they wont know it's racist when they're younger but that doesn't mean that it's not harmful.

And the final point about this, that I want to raise, is about the animals. Making a "cute" character and giving him stereotypical features is not harmless. Higgin's argument was that he wasn't Black or Hillbilly, he was a firefly so it was ok. It's a shockingly naive stance for someone to take. So it's OK to compare Black people to Monkeys? Is it OK to compare Chinese to Dogs? I haven't seen the new film and as I said I'm not an expert but you can't just dismiss these complaints.

[slinkdickens]

RE: Listing off great "modern" Disney movies....

No love for "The Emperor's New Groove" or "Lilo and Stitch"?!!! Those are my personal favorites.

[deadairis]

The Emperor's New Groove was such a wonderful, off-brand movie.

[IcarusII]

The word you guys were searching for during the discussion about Mega Man 10's box and promo art is 'ironic'.

I think we've learned something about Ryan Higgins during this episode: he has a smug sense of superiority over popular opinion and hype.

Fitch gets points for his enjoyment of Chinese period pieces/films.

Everyone loses during that decade talk.

[LiQuid]

Haven't listened yet but I just wanted to say: Emperors New Groove =

[GiantAsianMan]

First of all, a person is free to say that something is the best thing of the decade because all a decade is is a grouping of ten consecutive years.

This is factually correct. However, why don't you see "best of the decade" lists every year? After all, every year is 10 years from when it was 10 years before, thus every year is the end of the decade! We don't because we only like to celebrate things at the end of THE decade, not just A decade. And the technical end to THE decade is December 31, 2010.

As for what was mentioned on the podcast, I appreciate the love Fitch, but its you who is misguided. When we talk about the Seventies of the Eighties, we're not referring to specific, according-to-Hoyle-10-year-span-of-time; we're talking about the general era that was experienced in the time frame. No one who talks about the Eighties is limiting themselves to the events that only occurred between 1980 and 1989 (you know, unless you're on VH1 or something). Culturally, the Eighties began sometime after the death of disco (the decedent symbol of the Seventies) stretched into the early 90s. One could argue that the Eighties (era) didn't end until 1991/1992, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the election of a Democrat (Clinton) after 12 years of Republicans (Reagan/Bush), and the rise of the "alternative" into the previously conservative mainstream (aka- Generation X).

And Master Higgins, you seriously haven't seen The Big Lebowski? What's wrong with you, man?!?

[LiQuid]

And the technical end to THE decade is December 31, 2010.

Uhhh, in recent history though, the "best of the x decade" lists have always followed the 0-9 year range though. Would you consider 1990 a part of the 80's? It doesn't matter how it relates to the calender, whether or not you count year 0, or whatever. This is the proper year for the end of the decade lists.

[Crazypanda_85]

I guess I'm going to be the first one to bitch about the racism, but I don't want to make a huge deal out of this, either. Especially since I'm not an expert on how racism can spread across a culture. But just because the product is aimed at an ignorant or innocent audience(Kids in this case) it's not ok for it to have fucked up messages.

And I think Higgins is also incorrect in his argument about editing History. Atleast to how it pertained to Fantasia. I think it's good that they take that out of the movie as long as they don't pretend that it never happen. Fantasia might be a fantastic movie and I'd loved younger generations to experience it, but I don't want them to experience racism in that context. When they're slightly older it'd be good for them to find out about these specific scenes and why they exist. Sure they wont know it's racist when they're younger but that doesn't mean that it's not harmful.

And the final point about this, that I want to raise, is about the animals. Making a "cute" character and giving him stereotypical features is not harmless. Higgin's argument was that he wasn't Black or Hillbilly, he was a firefly so it was ok. It's a shockingly naive stance for someone to take. So it's OK to compare Black people to Monkeys? Is it OK to compare Chinese to Dogs? I haven't seen the new film and as I said I'm not an expert but you can't just dismiss these complaints.

I do agree with your point of racism in the media. I do not think that everything that is made to reflect a stereotype of a gender/race is racist but a lot of it is based on ignorance. From the Aunt Jemima characters to Speedy Gonzales, stereotypes and some racist views have allowed themselves to be portrayed in animated form. I haven't seen the Princess and The Frog (which I heard was a good movie) but the complaints I heard about the film had nothing to do with her or the animals in the Bayou. One of the complaints that I heard was about the princess not falling in love with a black prince. The main reason why some did complain about that point was because of the way films have been portrayed in the past. A lot of major motion films that are not directed by black directors (mainly in the past) always had the popular black actress falling for a white male. Disney did make a point to say that the prince was Creole to mute the complaints. Also, there were a lot of people weren't happy with the twin autobots in Transformers 2.


Also, a lot of people were upset with the Australian show, "Hey Hey It's Saturday." They thought it was funny to do black face and act like moneys in the name of Jackson 5. Harry Connick Jr. stood up against it and explained why. Australia thought nothing wrong of it because their past wasn't the same as America's (I guess they forgot how they treated the Aborigines). Again, were they racist? I don't know but was the performance ignorant? Yes. I don't know any person of color who thought it was funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DhNJsU2N6Q

There are some jokes about race that are light hearted but some movies/televisions shows take it too far. Some outlets feel that it's okay to make racist/religious jokes as long as they make offensive jokes about every race/religion. I wish we didn't promote films and cartoons that continue to further ignorant views of any culture. To be honest, as a black man, some of these things do not bother me. At the end of the day, people do have the right to make what they want but I can choose to not watch something if I find it offensive.


And to end this on a good note, keep up the great work on the podcast everyone!

[darfox8]

I listened to the podcast again and I realize it was Karen who made the argument about the firefly, not Higgins. I'm so used to chasing Higgins around and "correcting" him, I guess, it came a force of habit. But the thing he said afterward was kinda fucked up. He admitted that it might be a racial stereotype but he acted as though it didn't matter because he was a "good guy". That's bullshit and a very dangerous way of thinking. I know it's not fair for me to pick apart their conversation and blow up small things they said, but not all stereotypes are evil creatures that foam at the mouth. In fact the worst type of racism in media is the type that may be subjective. Where you may feel comfortable with it.

If there's one thing I don't like about the Geekbox podcast is that they never bring back a previous conversation point. If they act like they've always acted then they'll never mention this racism issue again. Even if they do they'll bring it up as a joke and say "The folks in the message boards went all agro over what you said..." and not even address what the poster's problem was with the podcast. I hope you guys can recognize me, and see my posting history, and see that I didn't just make a disposable account to bitch about this. I feel I'm part of the community and I'm just one voice in it. I'm not saying you need to read this post on air or have user submitted questions or something like that, but you guys have a audience and you shouldn't ignore them. I just think: you guys are grown adults and you should always becareful of what you say. If your wrong or ignorant then you can't escape it.

[slinkdickens]

Stereotyping and racism are not the same.

"People from the south have a southern accent" = stereotype.
"People from the south have a southern accent, therefore they are stupid" = racism.

"Arabs are Muslims" = stereotype.
"Arabs are Muslims, therefore they are terrorists" = racism.

"Black people in post WWI New Orleans are poor" = stereotype.

I don't think Disney took that extra step from stereotyping to racism.

[slinkdickens]

According to Roger Ebert, "The Princess and the Frog" is the first Disney animated film to feature black people since "Song of the South" in 1946. Is that true? Hot damn!

Personally, in my mind, most of the characters in "The Lion King" were black when I saw it as a kid.

Regarding "Song of the South", I never thought Uncle Remus was portrayed in a racist way. Then again, I'd tease my brother and friends that they were "tar babies", which is something I learned from the movie. Later, as a teen, we used to mockingly sing "Zipadee do da, zipadee ya. My oh my I love being a slave". So, I don't know what that tells you (btw, I'm half-black, if that changes anything).

[darfox8]

Yeah I think I put up enough disclaimers in my first post that I'm not claiming to be some sort of expert on how racism exist in out culture. I feel my complaints still stand though.

[Trebor]

I signed up for two reasons - the first is regarding the final ramblings regarding the first decade of the 21st century:
There's such a simple way of looking at year-dates.
Writing the year 2000 means two thousand years have passed - not that we're in the two thousandth year. It's strange how the english speakers seem to refer to "Year 2009" or any otherone likewise thinking it's the two thousand and ninth year. If that was the case we would have originally started on the "zero-0-th" year and that makes no sense!

So with the above thinking, when we get to January 1st 2010, ten years have passed since the start of the new millenia. Hence, technically, the first decade of the 21st century starts January 1st 2000 at 00:00:00 and finishes December 31st 2009 at 23:59:59 when 59th second is just about done. I hope I'm stating the obvious, and if there's anyone geeky enough to show I'm wrong I'm geeky enough to read it. Eurgh, ramble-stop.

The second (much more important) thing:
I went through a similar phase with The Big Lebowski. Whenever you do see the film (and if your taste vaguely resembles that of the many legions of fans) you will kick yourself and question why you put it off.
Watch it with a good buddy who doesn't talk during films, maybe even have a glass of vin-rouge on stand-by or something green and smokeable if either of those are your thing. That makes it sound like you have to be intoxicated to enjoy the film - this is not true at all. Nevertheless, minimal to moderate use of the above will make for a real nice way to experience the film for the first time. I'm not sure about the US but the DVD copy of the film can be found for £3 in some places around London - so there's no excuses!

I'm late adding either of the above contributions to the discussion (and I've even edited my year-ramble twice) but some part of me felt it had to be said. Fat penis.

[LiQuid]

"People from the south have a southern accent, therefore they are stupid" = racism.

Fuck...