Photo credit: Alexx Thompson
As TV personality Stephen Colbert, who plays “Stephen Colbert” on “The Colbert Report”, learned this weekend, the line between satire and offensive is often all in the context and the information one has about that context. That said, anything attempting to be funny can just miss the mark or hit the mark for some, those who don’t feel small after watching a cultural depiction that essentializes one group.
So, 7 years ago, there was a short lived television program called “Bronx Bunny”, an American version of a short lived Irish series of the same name about a “foul mouthed bunny” who lives in low income housing in East Los Angeles and Teddy T (pictured above), his chain smoking sidekick. They are apparently from the Bronx, as it is not East Los Angeles Bunny, clearly. So why use the word Bronx? What baggage does it carry?
There have been many stories over the years of depictions of the Bronx in European culture or by European artists that have irked our Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and many Bronxites with pride for a place with people who aren’t just criminals, you know?. Before the Borough Presidents tenure, an German military video got out of a German army instructor telling a soldier to shoot and yell obscenities while thinking of African Americans in the Bronx. But a military video is different than humorists and entertainers who can lovingly roast a place or people they love, or it can be done with bile in bad taste. But again, how much is that to the beholder or can we establish community standards without silencing creative speech? Satire must straddle “the line” but not cross it, and such is a difficult project. Push the envelope, not crumple it.
What do you think? “This show is just…bad” is a reasonable response. 🙂 Own your response, whatever it is. Here are the first three episodes. There are not that many more. Finally, one last thought. How many times did Bugs Bunny say something horrendously racist or sexist? When we see debates about offensive content for consumption today, its good to consider how far society has come in creating multicultural culture that bridges gaps, and enables us to laugh with our neighbors rather than at them like four year olds that don’t know any better.
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