So, a little about myself. I love art and entertainment, so I try to keep up with all the news about these topic as I can. So, what have been the biggest news stories we have? The news that has everybody talking? Is a new movie studio gonna burst onto the scene unannounced with a smash hit? Is an new indie game gonna sweep the internet with a charming and retro styled throw-back? Are rock and roll legends gonna get together and record a one off album that will either be really cool or a total disaster that you gotta hear to believe? Well...
Okay, I may be exaggerating, the news about entertainment is not really that exciting, even when it's good, and quite frankly, so far the news has been exhausting. Not because the news itself is exhausting, but because the reactions to it are so tiring to listen to.
What are some of the biggest news stories about the entertainment media that we've gotten. Off the top of my head, there was the closure of Blue Sky, which I think was a bigger deal to people in the Animation Community, and something I also talked about on my previous Editorial about the cancelled Nimona movie. There is also, Lola Bunny's sex appeal, Mr. Potato Head's pronouns, content disclaimers on The Muppet Show, Dr. Seuss books being put out of print, and now discourse about Pepe Le Pew and Speedy Gonzalez that I guarantee we have already discussed at length, because there was a time when you could say you didn't like Pepe Le Pew and not be called a "Snowflake" or "SJW" because that was just an opinion that unwanted romantic advancements weren't funny.
This is going to be one of THOSE posts.
The thing about this kind of discourse is there is only one side that is actually opinionated about it, and those are the people that complain about them. Most people that are okay with these things spend most of their time pointing out how idiotic getting upset about these things are. I've made tweets about how people's priorities are so jacked that they get more upset about Pearl Milling Company retiring Aunt Jemima than they do about police officers abusing their power and authority to get way with murder.
Social media has taken all the fun out of discussing the mediums I hold so dear to my heart. A large reason I don't watch modern cartoons is because there is gonna be a jerk that has to have an opinion about how "Steven Universe is SJW Garbage" or the flipside that "Steven Universe is telling kids to forgive Nazis", both of which are equally garbage opinions. I can't go onto Twitter without seeing someone retweet a complaint about Aunt Jemima or Lola Bunny and with their own views on the matter, and I'm not saying having an opinion is a bad thing, I'm saying having an argument over unimportant stuff like this is exhausting.
Like, what's the big issue with Mr. Potato Head? The toys are now being called "Potato Head". So? Guess what, they can still be Mr. or Mrs. Potato Head, it's just that the kids will have to put that title on them themselves. Why does it matter what a kid's toy is called anyway? Okay, yeah the names do matter, I wouldn't want my kids playing with a toy that is named after a sex act or something, but that is a very specific situation that I'm fairly certain most people would already know, don't name a children's toy something inappropriate. Unless "Potato Head" was some kind of racist nickname, I don't think it's wrong. Is it a company trying to go "woke" to receive brownie points? Maybe, probably leaning towards yes there, since I haven't thought about Mr. Potato Head the toy since I started High School. That's kind of the thing companies do, they market based on the prevailing culture. Imagine if toys and products were just marketed in a way that didn't resonate with prevailing culture, would those toys sell? So, even if dropping the pronoun form the Potato Head toys is a marketing stunt for social brownie points or social media outrage? That is kind of the job of the marketers!
On that same note, what is the big deal with content disclaimers preceding select episodes of The Muppet Show? Yes, select episodes, of 118 episodes, not even a quarter of them have content disclaimers, according to the Muppet History Twitter, only twelve episodes have the disclaimer, punching those into an online calculator, that is only 10.17% of episodes but, don't quote me on that.
Yes, having to sit through the disclaimer is a little annoying, if I had some criticism on the system, I would think that a simple button would work better than the timer. That way, for people that have already seen the disclaimer they can just skip the disclaimer instead of wait fifteen seconds, and they can also read it at their own pace. This gives the added benefit of being able to specify what exactly is wrong in the episodes or movies. Honestly, I'm kind of surprised Disney didn't go with that idea first, but whatever.
As for Lola Bunny... All I can say is, there is more to female characters than their looks. They got to have, you know, character. Yes, good characters can also be visually attractive to the audience, but there is more important things to a movie than if you can pull the pork to it. There is a completely other form of film and animation for that, you don't need to criticize a kids movie for lack of sex appeal.
On the topic of Looney Tunes, we've already had discussions on Pepe Le Pew and Speedy Gonzalez. Yeah, opinions may have changed, but my opinion is still Pepe Le Pew cartoons were not good, Road Runner for life.
And that is all the discourse I can deal with for now. Social Media has taken something that was fun and made it tiring. However, those are my views on the matters, and I'm sticking to them. This has been an exhausting post to write and an exhausting topic to think about. Quite frankly, I find myself lucky that I am pretty much allowed to have these be my biggest problems in life. Not everyone can have this luxury.
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