LogFAQs > #980320773

#B#

[8 DAYS LATER]

Eesh, it's been a minute; after I made the rational choice to let CJones take the last two nomination slots, I stopped working on the Extra Song writeups in order to focus on getting the actual write ups done. Where were we? *goes back* Oh, Jesus Christ, we're actually saying all this shit?! Wow. Okay, moving along. With a mother that never cared to teach me anything (early childhood consisted largely of getting yelled at and hit repeatedly, as she seemed to have this theory that if she just hit hard enough I'd become normal; eventually she just gave up all hope and seemingly decided I was unteachable; it's... questionable which was worse for my development*) & a racist shitbag that couldn't pretend to give a single fuck about my existence, I was kinda raised by TV and the internet. I grew up in a DBZ RPG chatroom, but I think I'll skip that... we don't have the time and that's not where this train of thought is going. In theory, any TV show could have gotten through and taught me, but it was Duckman that proved the most influential. After this episode gave me the ability to think, it kinda took on a parental role--more than anyone in the real world ever did. All of my political views came directly from the show. The show was always really blatant about its politics and I ate it all up. Honestly, I've had to take some time to question if I even have beliefs of my own or if I've just spent my entire life parroting what Duckman taught me, but I think I'm able to evaluate my own views somewhat critically these days. At least, I really hope that I am.

[Perhaps more disturbing than the universe in which I never learned to think is a universe in which South Park, an equally blatantly politial adult cartoon on Comedy Central, shaped me. That is a terrifying thought. Let's not go there.]

*[Later Edit: Nah, it's being considered unteachable that was worse. A teacher that smacks the shit out of you on a constant basis might actually succeed in teaching you something; someone that decides you're too worthless to even bother hitting isn't going to teach you anything which is so much worse. Also, you kinda internalize all sorts of terrible thoughts about yourself, so you're trading "physical pain with some education" for "emotional pain and no education".]

Either way, Duckman was my teacher... and he abandoned me too. When the creators knew the series was being canceled, they decided to go with an incredibly wild cliffhanger while knowing there was basically no way they'd get to resolve it. Everyone was out of character, the plot jumped totally off the rails, and everything just... stopped. That really hurt. And it took me forever to realize why it hurt. Like, Clone High ended on a cliffhanger and even though I watched it at the same time, I wasn't particularly bothered... but... yeah. It's because Duckman was the third father to leave without any real closure.

[The important person I've referenced many times before would be a fourth father figure. I've danced around it because he's only a few years older than me, physically, and I was an adult at the time we got together... I'm not getting into that. Considering that the second topic's winner won because it helped me process my grief over our parting, let's just say it didn't end well... though we did speak again a few times and eventually parted on my own terms.

OH HEY, THAT'S WHY SONGS THAT REMIND ME OF HIM DON'T HURT SO MUCH ANYMORE! I actually got closure and ended the final relationship on my terms! Oh shit, guys, we're *actually having revelations about emotions* & talking about closure.]

So if I ever seem completely psychotic, please take a moment and be impressed that I can communicate at all? Like... for someone with no education who grew up in an internet chatroom and had their parental roles taken over by a cartoon duck, I think I'm doing pretty well these days. </.<

-

[Who knows how long it's been between the previous paragraphs and this one?]

Well, this is the most political song I've ever covered, so this is going to be SUPER FUN now. Thanks, Fandom! I love that *personal revelations important to my personal growth* are technically outlawed now! This is SUPER AWESOME, THANKS.

So, where the hell were we? I don't know and I'm not reading all that earlier garbage I typed, so let's say we're dealing with political censorship because this is suddenly REALLY FUCKING RELEVANT. I was going to get into it eventually for this song anyway, so fuck it, let's just get started. While I encountered this song on Comedy Central reruns, apparently at some point, the network got so offended by this song that they replaced it with complete silence. Which, one, fuck that; the fact that I could have missed hearing something so important to me because some network bigshot was offended by its lyrics really pisses me off. Not quite as much as "I'm not allowed to comment on the song on the board I've lived on for most of my life" pisses me off, but still, fuck whoever censored this. Anyway, let's move on a bit:

1: IS THIS SONG OFFENSIVE?

Yes, of course it is. There's some blatant racism in the lyrics, right from the start. The song literally opens with a line about spear throwers in Africa. But dismissing it as *only* being offensive is foolish; the character singing the line is the embodiment of the 50s. Yes, the song is casually racist--because the 50s were pretty fucking racist. If there wasn't an offensive line there, it would kill the point of the character and the song. To talk about America's history, you have to confront the racism that is so inherent to America. Now if you want to argue that the song, and the episode itself, doesn't go far enough--that having one allegorical jerk use something resembling a slur barely even counts as acknowledging things, then fine. It could have done a better job with what it was going for and I'll acknowledge that. For a three minute long parody of "We Are The World" on a comedy program, they did what they could and the message got through to me.

And while I could rant for a while about how comedy needs the freedom to be offensive and challenging, I think I'll let Duckman speak for itself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knIroVvPZU4

*continued again*