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Netflix pulls "Community" D&D episode over dark elf cosplay scene

BDS

BDS

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Oct 25, 2017
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www.thewrap.com

Netflix Pulls 'Community' Episode 'Advanced Dungeons & Dragons' Due to Blackface Scenes (Exclusive) - TheWrap

Hulu also removed the Season 2 episode which features Ken Jeong's character wearing black makeup while playing "D&D"
www.thewrap.com www.thewrap.com

Netflix has pulled the classic season 2 Community episode "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" over a gag where Senor Chang dresses as a dark elf for a D&D game and is mistaken for doing blackface by the other characters. The decision has been controversial as the episode is widely considered one of the series' best, the context around the joke making it a bit more complicated than "character does blackface lol," and the fact that Chang's scenes are minor and could have been edited out with relative ease. According to the article, it is unclear whether Sony Pictures Television requested the episode be pulled or whether it might be re-uploaded with edits.

EDIT:
The point I was trying to raise isn't really over whether or not the scene is offensive. If Black people find the scene offensive, then it is, and it should be dealt with.

Rather, the question I'm raising is why we've decided to draw the line solely at this one particular type of bigoted stereotype. There are thousands of TV episodes that contain obscenely offensive jokes, characters, storylines, and tropes besides just blackface, but corporate White Hollywood has successfully co-opted the important conversation around offensive bigotry in television in order to cover up their own complicit involvement in maintaining white supremacy. "We deleted the bad episode with the blackface thing! Maybe now nobody will notice all the other horribly offensive stuff we've done." It's a sacrificial lamb.

It's not an organic, positive attempt at responding to the complaints of marginalized communities; it's a craven, hypocritical distraction created by capitalism to hijack the concerns of marginalized people.
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IneptEMP

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Jan 14, 2019
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These black face episode removals seem to be more about covering asses and protecting legacies than offending others
 
Nugnip

Nugnip

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Oct 25, 2017
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There are a ton of "look of how racist this character is lol" jokes in Community that are not always funny, this stuff is really hard to balance. It's a great episode though, edits would work.
 
Dice

Dice

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IneptEMP said:
These black face episode removals seem to be more about covering asses and protecting legacies than offending others
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TV can cut whatever it wants I guess, but it's a shame Police are so much more reluctant to budge on their policing practices.

And huh...I forgot about this. I'm guessing it was this?
tenor.gif
 

Deleted member 51691

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Okay I don't like this. Advanced D&D is one of Community's best episodes. At least reedit it to remove Chang or something if anyone found it that offensive (even though Chang has some great jokes here).
 
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BDS

BDS

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Oct 25, 2017
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Also, as an unrelated reminder, Netflix currently airs The IT Crowd, a TV series created by vicious transphobe Graham Linehan that features, among other things, an episode in which a trans woman character is violently attacked as a comedy bit. I'm sure they'll be removing this episode any day now...right?
 
Weebos

Weebos

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Oct 25, 2017
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Sadly one of the best episodes, but it seemed to be over the line even back when it aired.
 
Petruccis Biceps

Petruccis Biceps

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Oct 27, 2017
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I hadnt seen community up until a couple of months ago and I remember this scene.

I wonder if theyre gonna go back and pull tons of Office episodes because there is a lot of questionable stuff, especially in the earlier seasons.
 
OtisPepperoni

OtisPepperoni

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This is getting a little ridiculous...he's an elf
 
selfnoise

selfnoise

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Oct 25, 2017
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This is a bit of a bummer just because ken jeong's line delivery in this scene is phenomenal. "I am BRUTALITOPS!!!! ... the *magician*"
 
Richiek

Richiek

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Nov 2, 2017
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I can sort of understand why, since those unfamiliar with D&D or fantasy lore would mistake Chang's dark elf as blackface.
 
Skel1ingt0n

Skel1ingt0n

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Oct 28, 2017
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I'm sorry, but I'm really struggling with being okay with this.

I get it, gotta cover asses and also it's only a TV show. But I vividly remember watching this episode with a group of friends when it aired, and two of my black buddies were freaking full body laughing at the entire episode. I just can't imagine anyone was offended by this one... the context makes it a lot more difficult than just "it's blackface."
 
NeoGold123

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Oct 27, 2017
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Part of the joke is definitely its similarity to blackface, but there is the argument that he is supposed to be a different species. Not sure how to feel about this one, quite honestly.
 
Dice

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BDS said:
Also, as an unrelated reminder, Netflix currently airs The IT Crowd, a TV series created by vicious transphobe Graham Linehan that features, among other things, an episode in which a trans woman character is violently attacked as a comedy bit. I'm sure they'll be removing this episode any day now...right?
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lol, this is a time for black people! Not trans! One social revolution at a time please! /s

Graham is such a piece of shit. Like, how he's actually up-ended his life to ONLY talk about this one thing is honestly creepy as much as it's scary.

Richiek said:
I can sort of understand why, since those unfamiliar with D&D or fantasy lore would mistake Chang's dark elf as blackface.
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...Honestly this is a bag of worms itself. Why is change so damn hard?? Because we adhere to a certain status quo that's lasted for fucking ever. A lot of fantasy (classic literature and even relatively newer stuff) works those racist sterotypes. :/
 
Tahnit

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ok. this is getting out of hand. Its a dark elf. A fantasy creature. This isnt the same thing.
 
Pai Pai Master

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NeoGold123 said:
Part of the joke is definitely its similarity to blackface, but there is the argument that he is supposed to be a different species. Not sure how to feel about this one, quite honestly.
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The joke is that he is mistaken for doing blackface, so the joke is still centered around blackface.

I definitely agree there is a difference from actually doing blackface for comedy or ridicule. I don't think blackface should be used in any kind of joke but obviously people disagree about how this kind of material should be handled.

Stuff like this and Tropic Thunder will get lumped in with the rest for sure. I can't say I like it but if it makes any single person feel more comfortable in their own skin then I can't disagree with it.
 
Tochtli79

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I don't agree this was necessary... it wasn't blackface. But even if it was determined it was offensive, they could've just edited the scenes or deleted them from the episode. Hopefully they put the episode back up, most people seem to agree it wasn't racist.
 
Kinthey

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This seems like an overreaction. I admit I'm also a little bitter because I planned to rewatch the show and this is one of the best episodes
 
Neece

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This trend of scrubbing episodes feels more like whitewashing than anything actually progressive. Oh well.
 
Tahnit

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Ok so my question is when can this not be offensive? Can someone cosplay a dark elf for example at a DND convention?

If its clearly being used not to offend but to match up with the character is that ok?

Real people I can see that being very offensive. But when it comes to sci-fi fantasy I dont see why it would offend anyone.

Im not trying to downplay blackface AT ALL. But its also kinda not the same thing as its depicting fantasy imo.
 

Deleted member 25799

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Oct 29, 2017
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What? He's a fucking elf, for fucks sake. This is beyond stupid; Advanced D&D is one of the best Community episodes ever!
 
NeoGold123

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Pai Pai Master said:
The joke is that he is mistaken for doing blackface, so the joke is still centered around blackface.

I definitely agree there is a difference from actually doing blackface for comedy or ridicule. I don't think blackface should be used in any kind of joke but obviously people disagree about how this kind of material should be handled.

Stuff like this and Tropic Thunder will get lumped in with the rest for sure. I can't say I like it but if it makes any single person feel more comfortable in their own skin then I can't disagree with it.
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That's a pretty good point. Laughs aren't about making others feel uncomfortable. If anything, they should just cut the bit and put up the rest.
 
Brodo Baggins

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Oct 27, 2017
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Shame this was one of my favorite episodes, hopefully they just edit out this part as this was only a very small bit. IIRC him inadvertently doing blackface and being ignorant was the joke... and he was called out and lambasted for it.
 
take_marsh

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Oct 27, 2017
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How shitty Pierce was allowed to be and still be part of the group after the episode was over is alone enough to trash the episode. The dark elf thing was... awkward and it's understandable to trash it. Pointing out it's wrong is the only excuse to use blackface and it's just not working anymore (not that it should've been working in the first place).

BDS said:
Also, as an unrelated reminder, Netflix currently airs The IT Crowd, a TV series created by vicious transphobe Graham Linehan that features, among other things, an episode in which a trans woman character is violently attacked as a comedy bit. I'm sure they'll be removing this episode any day now...right?
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They should absolutely do that. I'd also like them to add "Total Cunt" in between his first and last name in all the credits.
 
Dice

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Kinthey said:
This seems like an overreaction. I admit I'm also a little bitter because I planned to rewatch the show and this is one of the best episodes
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I'm kinda sad there's little room for nuance (but reading the room, I can see why they'd go for an all or nothing approach). Not that I'd defend blackface, but I find the jokes """okay""" * if it's played for comedy, specifically in situation that point out how fucking terrible it is or gets their asses beat for it. :P
But I do think since the discourse is about how poorly represented people of colour have historically been, it just feels like punching down when a white person is playing it for laughs. If we were at a point where society didn't swing so hard for white folks all the time, then maybe in that world it would be more "okay for comedy". But we live in a world where Karen's are offended by being called Karens. :P



I like this exchange since they seem to cover different aspects of the issue, and try to find the "merits" of it (spoiler: they don't).

even rarely then; it's just too awkward and ugly to look at, tbh
 
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TorianElecdra

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I am currently binging Community and just saw that episode the other day. Yeah...how did they get away with airing that in the first place.
 
DiipuSurotu

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OtisPepperoni said:
This is getting a little ridiculous...he's an elf
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Tahnit said:
ok. this is getting out of hand. Its a dark elf. A fantasy creature. This isnt the same thing.
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MikeOnTheRadio said:
What? He's a fucking elf, for fucks sake. This is beyond stupid; Advanced D&D is one of the best Community episodes ever!
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qQ7FDTs.png


"Ok this is getting out of hand. That's a Pokemon. A fantasy creature."
 
Charamiwa

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It's a joke around blackface, where no one is being actually racist. It's not even a Pierce joke where you're supposed to laugh at how racist he is (which I understand is more of a grey area). The misunderstanding is the joke, as well as Chang cluelessness. I don't want to speak for everyone obviously but I think the Community audience would be able to understand the context.
 
The Real Abed

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I mean it's one of the best episodes but yeah I can see that being a bit... uh problematic. It's Chang. He's an idiot. I'm pretty sure Pierce of all people calls him out on it when he directly refers to him as "blackface" when he shoots him with an arrow and he leaves the game. Why not just give it the Gone With the Wind treatment and put a disclaimer before it? I dunno.

If they edited Chang out completely the episode would be a lot shorter. He even has the best death and reaction.
 
jph139

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Looks like it is still up on Hulu, though, so might be a Netflix decision?

Having been rewatching the first couple seasons, there's a lot that really wouldn't fly today. It's sort of a monument to how far LGBT acceptance has come in the past decade, frankly.
 
Morrigan

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Tahnit said:
Ok so my question is when can this not be offensive? Can someone cosplay a dark elf for example at a DND convention?

If its clearly being used not to offend but to match up with the character is that ok?

Real people I can see that being very offensive. But when it comes to sci-fi fantasy I dont see why it would offend anyone.

Im not trying to downplay blackface AT ALL. But its also kinda not the same thing as its depicting fantasy imo.
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If someone goes to a convention with black paint on their face to cosplay a dark elf, you don't think there'd be outcry? Come on, it's obviously still problematic. Don't darken your skin with paint, period.

And, well, I haven't seen the episode but based on what I'm reading, the show points out that the guy dressing up is being ("accidentally") racist, so... maybe not die on that hill, people
 
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