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Andre Meadows of the site Black Nerd Comedy breaks down why Lost and Heroes hate black people. He makes a pretty compelling argument:
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Poor Pete from Smallville. No one on here wants to talk about him.
I… um… I think people are taking this video too seriously. I thought it was funny. And that he makes some good points.
He left out True Blood. Two male black characters. One is a gay prostitute and drug dealer. The second one (who just got shot and killed) admitted that he had engaged in just about every crime in the book, including assault and dealing drugs. Two black women. Mother and daughter. The mom was a raging alcoholic and terrible mother to the one semi-decent character (her daughter) who is unable to hold down a job and has her own substance abuse problems. Would it kill Alan Ball to have just one COOL black vampire or character? So kudos to these shows for casting black people at all… but, at least in the case of TB, fail for making any of them positive.
And now that I think about it, Mr. Echo on Lost… his brother was a drugdealing African warlord and Mr. Echo was smuggling heroin while impersonating a priest.
And ooh, one more! On Heroes, they couldn’t even give one black character a real name… he was just called “The Haitian”. I stopped watching the show, but I’m sure they made him a drugdealer or an ex-con, too.
Meadows is joking, he’s playing, he’s having fun with it! (Why hasn’t G4 picked up this guy? Their on-air talent is awful!)
The African American Community doesn’t want you to know this, but there are actually quite a few “Black Nerds.” There are rumors the President of the United States is one of them. If FOX News really wanted to damage President Obama, they should press him on his impressive collection of Silver Age Marvel Comics.
isnt comedy supposed to be you know funny?
That SO many of you are SO up in arms about Black Nerd’s comments belies the truth behind his SATIRE. Yes… satire. (Look it up if your definition of comedy doesn’t extend beyond “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”) Or did you miss the “Black Nerd COMEDY” brand name?
It’s been said that the best satire strikes a cord somewhere deep within its audience, perhaps making them more inclined to fidget in their seats than to laugh outloud. Judging by most of your reactions, the Black Nerd has scored a direct hit.
Did you ever consider that you may find him “annoying” or “irritating” because he pointed out something you’re aware of subconcsiously and simply brought it out in the open. The other commentators are right: he NEVER used the words “racism” or “racist,” and he certainly never called YOU a racist. Yes, he made a KKK reference, but again… satire.
It’s not as “in your face” as a football to the groin and maybe it’s too “high brow” for you. But try digging a little deeper: you still may not find it “funny,” but you just may get it!
It was a comedy skit… I laughed. Maybe some people need a LAUGH NOW sign flashing on the screen.
I actually was about to get irritated when I read this post. Recently, there was a list of “50 racist movies you don’t think were racist” that really got my frustrated. Those people came off as out of touch and racist themselves!
But I decided to watch this anyways. No need to get mad about something if I don’t know the content, right?
So I watched it, and I actually enjoyed it. It’s very tongue-in-cheek, and he has a great final thought. Thanks for sharing.
he was just making a joke people. no need to get all “angry white man” on him. And what he says is true. And to that “black executive” feeling like he has to make excuses for this comedy. shame on you. And the argument that you look for great talent and not race — would you say any of the actors that happened to be Black on lost or heroes were not great actors?
Its comedy OK. But the shows seem to like killing hot blondes too. Lost killed off Maggie Grace and Cynthia Watros, not to mention Kiele Sanchez. Heroes killed off Nicki although they made her into triplets just in case. I could argue that the writers hate women even more as they seem to get killed a lot more often than the male stars.
The comments here are mean because the guy’s telling the truth, not about the shows per se but the business. Black don’t rate and you all know it.
So post your thinly veiled bigoted comments; the business still sucks and is slowly going down. And when all is lost (excuse the pun) there will be blacks on TV again– just like Obama and America.
IT’S COMEDY PEOPLE! Maybe not the funniest, but comedy none the less. The real question is: Why do show-runners think they can have compelling African American characters without hiring African American writers? Come on Hollywood, get it together.
Thanks for posting this NIKKI.
Wow…the level of defensiveness here is wacky. He was just having some fun with shows he clearly
loves while also making some salient observations. Nice to see the ” race doesn’t apply to anything and it’s all just about money” blogosphere chugging along. I think the crazy overreactions to a mostly innocuous rant shows how needlessly sensitive people are. Every discussion of race is not a claim for reparations. You could make similar arguments about gender or homosexuality or age in Hollywood and they would be equally valid. He made some good points and it’s not like he was saying boycott the shows. Obviously television, especially drama, have made a lot of progress in showing complex nuanced characterizations of racial identity and it’s is these critiques and other that improve the medium over time. If you can’t ever handle anyone discussing race in any context then that’s just your hang up. Mature people are objective and rational about the topic all the time and don’t see every mention of how it plays out in society as a threat or an entitlement claim.
24 hates black people. Did you see last night’s episode?
Wow… When it comes to the topic of race, white people really are clueless. Maybe clueless isn’t the right word but defensive, dismissive, hostile and arrogant. The fact is, you just didn’t get it. Probably because you don’t understand the dynamics of race in America. But then again, why would you have to… you’re white…
This comment is directed at WHISKEY who said the following, and I quote: “Whites do not find Black characters interesting or exciting in and of themselves.”
To which I reply thusly: have you lost your f***ing mind? Or have you been imbibing too much of your namesake?
Truth is, it takes enlightened producers and writers — Emmerich of “Independence Day” (casting Will Smith as that flick’s lead) and “2012″ (Danny Glover and Chiwetel Ejiofor) — to create characters that are black leads and not merely incidental to the story line/window dressing OR, as was the case in the early Star Trek television episodes, the equivalent of “Ensign Johnson.”
As a kid watching at the time, I always knew the “Ensign Johnsons” – the clean-cut black males who practically elbowed their way ahead of Spock to beam down to some purple planet’s surface — were not long for this world, er, episode.
This young man on the Youtube clip uses comedy to address a very REAL issue, snarkily so.
If he were to attack it headlong our humorlessly, so many of you would gripe and moan and dismiss him as you do the chilling reality elucidated by so many Writers Guild reports that lambaste the diversity, or lack thereof, in liberal Hollywood.
I find it interesting that celluloid science fiction, which is supposed to embrace a colorblind and diverse world, is still lily white. It’s as if black sci-fi writers of note — hello, Octavia Butler anyone? — never existed.
Reality has already strangled invention.
Here, in 2010, we have a black president in Obama. But on current television shows and re-runs the worlds conjured up (HELLO…any black male presence of note on “Friends” or the new “Battlestar Galactica”? Not to mention “Heroes” (yes, this show needs to be canceled) and “Lost” (a once-brilliant idea turned pretentious pixelated mush) — are Clorox City.
Finally, WHISKEY, to pierce your synaptic-challenged mind, I pose this question:
“Do whites find black presidents interesting or exciting in and of themselves”?
Just curious.
Meadows did not go so far to call them racist, but “hate black people” is close enough. He does make his point, (other than the cheap shot at Sarah Palin..please find a more appropriate target
in the business).
I did watch Heroes but not Lost and rarely do I recall a black character on any regular TV series being the “bad guy” (maybe one or two times on Law and Order). Viewers want entertainment, networks want rating for advertisers. If your creative people craft a show that delivers viewers, makes advertisers happy, is that not the objective ? Do we want networks creating obvious racial standards and practices so writers lack freedom to do what they want ? I suspect most writers and show runners are already very aware as to how their shows are perceived. Am I wrong ?
Are networks themselves insensitive to these issues.? Their leadership appears very concerned about political correctness and multi-culturalism or is that just for PR. Do we tell reality show producers never show a member of this group or that group in an unfavorable way ? This is an appropriate discussion.
What’s with the hand wringing and name calling? I thought this was pretty funny, and laughed out loud several times. Plus, I love that he’s clearly a nerd and I’m pro-nerd power.
At least he didn’t mention how much those shows ignore latinos. Wait – ?hay heroe latino? ?con el poder de invisibilidad?
Some touchy people on here… You all do realize it’s comedy; don’t you? A bit of truth, a bit of exaggeration?
I don’t know about Lost or Heroes, but I sure hate this black person.
Wow, secret racist! Dial it down a notch!
It was funny and true. Sorry if you can’t handle it.
My Mexican soap opera just went to commerchal, so I’ll try to be queeck: Chingao man, that Black comedian was fucking funny but all ju idjuts missed why.
For a Black man to complain about the lack of Blacks on TV chose, as say, compared to Hispanics, is the best pinche comedy I have heard in jears. Two Black women on the View, no Hispanics? But let me go back to point for a second: at least Lost and Heroes have Blacks cycling in and out on a regular basis; whereas, Hispanics, we don’t get cheet!
Hey, my novela eez back, so let me close off point with this fact for all my Black and White effete intellectual elitist friends: the New York Times and the Washington Post feature two Black columnists on their editorial pages twice a week. Guess how many regular Hispanic columnists they got? F-ING NADA, I MEAN ZERO!!!
A mis pinches Black hermanos: quit your llorando’ing and count your pinche blessings.
LOL, you must have never heard of telemundo, or mundo2 or the several dozen other ALL HISPANIC channels on cable TV.
Blacks have Bet, black women have oprah and the view. Other than that, all of Cable is WhiteEntertainmentTelevision.
Um dude, you are aware that in the West at least, Hispanics get an entire block of cable channels? Telemundo is one of them, HBO latino is another.
Blacks get BET and thats about it, Asians and Natives get ‘nada’.
You mentioned that hispanic columnist get no editorials? Have you never been to LA, or heard of the LA times, or Miami, or San Antonio, or even Chicago?
I think you should probably think about your claims that hispanics get shafted in favor of blacks. Hispanics have an entire media bloc, blacks have scraps and natives and asians have…nothing.
In my country (Canada) the natives have their own network called APTN (Aboriginal Peoples’ Television Network) which is available on satellite but it’s certainly available on basic cable.
It’s funny how White people always object to a Black person characterizing the quite obviously unequal portrayal and treatment of Black people in film and TV as racist, yet every time Spike Lee makes a movie White people are quick to scream “it’s racist! it’s racist!” because the White people in it aren’t treated flatteringly enough. There are hundreds, thousands of portrayals of White people every year that glorify White people and it has been that way every year for a century. On the other hand Blacks have had to put up with every horrible stereotype that comes into White people’s minds whether openly meanspirited (check out how Blacks are treated in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or Out Of Sight, some time) or just patronizing (Blind Side, anyone?)and it has been that way for a century. Look at how often Blacks are the jivey comic relief compared to being the romantic lead. In fact, name a single romantic moment between a Black man and Black woman that you’ve seen in an American movie. The AFI had it’s 100 greatest romantic scenes. NO Black folk.
Can I get an Amén, ‘Los
?!
Me thinks the nerd’s just trying to get attention … as is this inflammatory post.
And all defensiveness aside, the nerd is good at what he does: a bit of Chris Rock + a pinch of Spike Lee consciousness + a dash of whiny Woody Allen = endearingly annoying comic persona.
Good formula, Andre.
Thanks Nikke, that was funny as hell. Too many dour, no sense of humors haters on this board, oh well.
This is not funny at all, not that it’s offensive or misinformed (the Lost stuff is a little misinformed), but it’s just not funny.