What's up everyone, I'm Justin Block for Complex News, and welcome to 2017.
Thanks to social networks, a relentless news cycle, more entertainment options than ever,
and tried-and-true protesting, we live in an age where minority groups are making their
grievances heard.
This places white people, especially comedians like Amy Schumer, in a world where they must
clearly define whether their work is cleverly provocative or just plain offensive.
In many, many instances, Schumer's comedy has landed her in some hot water because it
tends to lean more towards the latter.
She has a new movie that just dropped called Snatched, co-starring comedy legend Goldie
Hawn.
The pair play a mother/daughter pair vacationing in Ecuador, who get held hostage by some locals
Because two white women being kidnapped by Latino criminals doesn't seem racist at all,
right?
Wrong.
The thing is, Amy Schumer has been awful for a while now.
Let's take a look a back at just some of the examples of her worst behavior.
April 2010: Amy Makes a Racist Asian Joke So back in 2010, when Schumer's career as
a stand-up comedian was really taking off, she dropped this attempt at a joke on Twitter:
"My Asian friend kim is really excited she just met a great guy that looks just like
her dad...and her mom...and... nevermind."
All I can do is sigh at that one.
Maybe she thinks I look like her friend Kim too?
I don't know.
But as you can see, it's not just her new movie—Schumer has long relied on tired,
racist humor and stereotypes for her material.
June 2013: It Sure Looks Like Amy's Stealing Jokes
By 2013, Schumer's comedy was landing on more and more screens.
She did a sketch on her Comedy Central show "Slap Chef" which is essentially a diet
program based on a chef slapping food out of your hand.
See for yourself: Pretty funny, right?
Well, it was even funnier when comedian Kathleen Madigan did the same flood-slapping joke
in 2011: Schumer even had it copied down to the bit
in which Amy joked about having someone else work you out while you're asleep.
It could be argued that this was an innocent coincidence, but we're not buying it.
June 2015: Another Racist Joke Controversy After The Guardian ran a couple pieces that
about her past racist jokes in 2015, a new controversy flared around this tasteless joke
from her standup routine:
QUOTE Amy Schumer "I used to date Hispanic guys, but now I
prefer consensual."
So, here she implied that all hispanic men are rapists.
Where have we seen that one before?
I'll let our current president take it away:
June 2015: Amy Apologizes For Racist Jokes, But Not Really
After critics started piling on about her use of lazy, offensive racial stereotypes
in her comedy, Amy gave a lazy, defensive sort-of-but-not-really-apology on Twitter:
"You can call it a 'blind spot for racism' or 'lazy' but you are wrong.
It is a joke and it is funny.
I know because people laugh at it."
We aren't laughing though, Amy.
October 2015: Amy Accused of Stealing Jokes, Again
At this point in her career, Schumer was regularly starring in movies, TV shows and comedy specials.
Still, she was called out two more times for allegedly stealing jokes from comedians Wendy
Liebman and Patrice O'Neal.
For example, Schumer's joke about wanting a guy to pay for sex on the first date is
way too similar to Liebman's from the 90s—even down to the delivery.
Judge for yourself:
January 2016: Amy Swears She Never Stole Jokes It took a few years, but Schumer finally responded
to the joke-stealing accusations.
Did she apologize?
Let's see what her tweets say:
"On my life, I have never and would never steal a joke."
Got it, Amy.
Deny, deny, deny.
At this point, it's a career strategy for her.
September 2016: The Odell Beckham Jr. Fiasco Schumer was involved in fellow problematic
celebrity Lena Dunham's deeply irritating complaint about Odell Beckham Jr.
For Dunham's Lenny newsletter, Schumer interviewed Dunham, who was angry that OBJ wasn't talking
to her at their Met Gala table.
Dunham foolishly equated Beckham minding his own business with the NFL star not finding
her attractive, and was widely criticized.
While Schumer isn't directly to blame, she could have checked her friend.
September 2016: Amy Gets Racist Again, And It Wasn't Even A Joke
Don't worry, she somehow managed to make herself a part of Dunham's systemic racism
when she could have left it alone.
After a New School professor tweeted about the Dunham conversation and said that all
races of men are equally misogynistic, Schumer tweeted back: "How would you know?
Statistically who is hollerin at you in the street more?"
Schumer was merely a side character in Dunham's original controversy, but she still managed
to make herself look bad!
I guess that's what good friends are for: Having your back when you say problematic
things.
Nice work, Amy.
September 2016: Amy Defends Her Writer's Rape Joke
It's truly wild that one interview between Schumer and Dunham could contain multitudes
of fuckery —but this one did.
Kurt Metzger, a writer for Schumer's show, made fun of rape victims in a Facebook post,
which, just so we're clear: NO ONE SHOULD EVER DO.
Schumer has been outspoken about her feminism, so people assumed that she'd denounce him.
But nope.
Instead, she went after his critics:
QUOTE Amy Schumer via Lenny Letter "Why are these women treating him like he
raped someone?
He's not Bill Cosby; Kurt has never raped."
On top of that, she talked about how Metzger's scandal was outshining her, and that she was
resentful about the lack of "good will" she thought she had built up.
Wait, what goodwill?
October 2016: Amy Parodies Beyonce's "Formation" Let's top everything off with this doozy:
Schumer parodying Beyonce's "Formation" video in the name of selling her film Snatched.
Schumer thought it was a good idea to put a light-hearted take on Beyonce's "Formation,"
co-opting a song about the struggles and power of black women and making it all about white
women (V/O 2:12 to 2:20).
Beyond the insult to Queen B, Schumer also dragged along Goldie Hawn, Wanda Sykes and
Joan Cusack into it.
The video has since been removed from YouTube, because of course it was.
October 2016: Amy "Apologizes" for "Formation" Parody, But Not Really
After the "Formation" backlash, Schumer took to Medium to pen yet another non-apology.
QUOTE Amy Schumer via Medium "I did not mean to detract any of the meaning
from the video.
I am of course horrified and sickened by the events that are addressed throughout that
video and didn't see this as minimizing that and still don't."
She could've just said sorry and actually acknowledge the rightful grievances of the
women she's claiming she wants to empower.
But that's obviously not her style.
So, Amy, we realize that being a celeb puts you under a microscope for criticism, but
please, do better.
For more on Amy Schumer's problematic past, go to Complex.com.
For Complex News, I'm Justin Block.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét