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Disney severs ties with James Gunn after controversial tweets
- Thread starter Sibersk Esto
- Start date
So ..... looking up old tweets is a "campaign" now
I hope the alt right mobs don't take to the phone book for their next campaign
I hope the alt right mobs don't take to the phone book for their next campaign
Should say this is a joke, since Einchy posted it himself earlier in the MCU thread
In case the mods see this as off site sleuthing or some shit
Screw Disney for giving in to the alt-right who wanted Gunn fired for dissing on Trump. Of course Marvel movies wont outright bomb, but I hope GotG3 is a failure along the lines of Antman and the Wasp (wow, just looked Antman and the Wasp is seriously underperforming worldwide).
That movie will have a lot of people in this thread demanding apologies and accountability.
We are talking about that posters boss, read back on the discussion.
But on topic the same could be said about making those jokes on social media regardless of your job. Or are we really going from "well he apologized and people should be forgiven" to now these jokes are appropriate anytime?
I am aware. Gunn is quoted in that article btw.
But my point is his tweets are 100% Troma shit from a time when he was a Troma writer.
The context of all this is that he was an edgelord writer, writing edgelord scripts for the holy grail of edgelord cinema.
His tweets from that time frame are 100% on brand
Which is why him actively changing and repudiating that shit is key to this conversation.
It's also why Disney is utterly insincere here because they hired a Troma writer and are now acting like they can't believe he put Troma shit on Twitter.
True. But then they shouldn't of hired him in the first place.
What this thread tells me is that some people never watched any standup comedy or even South Park with how they act like these kind of jokes are not normal and nobody does them.
They are not all nice and clean jokes.
Yep. And that's what we should assume. Talking about "raping little boy pussies" is not normal under any circumstance.
Nah. Roseanne made racist tweets while she was on an ABC show, and it took 4 times before she got the boot.
Oh Christ...
I don't want to give her a click so answer me this, does Grace blame it all on Gunn?
I find the whole thing ironic since Disney just brought FOX, you know the company that product The Simpson with its questionable joke on child abuse and lets not forget the level of stupidity that is Family Guy with its crass humour and Herbert.
This however doesn't excuse Gunn from making the tweets in the first place but he clearly said sorry and in the time I have followed him he has never made jokes on those level.
This however doesn't excuse Gunn from making the tweets in the first place but he clearly said sorry and in the time I have followed him he has never made jokes on those level.
Doing a provocative comedy routine in standup or film isn't the same as off handedly making those jokes on twitter.
Uh, people have rightfully come after South Park too for some of their "humor". Did you miss all of that?
Isn't the context nebulous and unequally applied?
Gunn gets fired for pedo tweets. Roseanne gets fired for racist tweet. Joy and Colbert survive for homophobic jokes. Lord is fired over anti semetic joke. Bee survives for misogynistic joke. Roy Moore survives for abuse. Grietens and Franken fired for it. Weinstein fired for it. Trevor Noah and Bill Maher survive racist jokes. Griffin shockingly fired for anti-trump tweet specifically.
You see what I am saying. Culture war has winners and losers on all sides. With no consistency to their fate.
So how much does context apply?
I remember one joke which it was criticized for. Plenty of people knew it wasn't ok then.
If I were you I'd watch the documentary "the Aristocrats" from 2005. I don't neccesarily think you'll like it, but it features quite a few well known stand up comics riffing on what is generally known as the dirtiest joke ever. It makes Gunns tweets seem fairly tame. Bob Saget is probably the one who takes it the furthest. You can check youtube. Search for Bob Saget aristocrats. How it's not locked behind some kind of age confirmation is beyond me.
This is not me making excuses. It's me telling you that this kind of humour existed in a cultural context different to where we are today. Quite a few famous stand up comedians that you are no doubt familiar with have done routines like this. I don't miss this strain of humour, but it's unfair to single out one solitary person and punish him like this. Especially since he's changed considerably since then.
It should, in theory. But it doesn't, for a large number of people. Nobody seeks out to be evil, they all have some sort of twisted view as to why they are right or why they are allowed to act the way they are. Maybe in their heads, they ARE good.
If that person starts to see the cracks in their logic and realize what they're doing may be on the wrong side....and then they'd see people tearing Gunn apart for actions he's apologized for 6 years ago and has never repeated...They'll go right back. "If these people were willing to tear one of the more prominent Trump critics in Hollywood apart, even though he apologized for them in 2012 and the apology was accepted, why would they accept me?"
These revelations and changes aren't overnight.
Hypothetical scenario for you: You're an employer, and an ex-convict comes seeking a job. He paid his dues to society, apologized to those he's wronged (and let's say those people accepted the apology), he hasn't been in prison for 9 years, has since tried to be a positive role model, and has never fallen back into whatever kind of behaviour that landed him in prison in the first place.
Would you kick him to the curb because you don't think he actually is redeemable? Would he just be an opportunist because he wants a job?
Maybe He loved Gangs of New York and Master and commander
FWIW, the Expendables tweet reads to me as being about a weakling/manlet rather than a child.
No, plenty of people didn't, or it wouldn't have been in the film which was screened, edited, cut.
I suspect he'll get the Hogan treatment and rehired eventually.
That or Taika Waititi to direct GOTG3
That or Taika Waititi to direct GOTG3
Twitter and Troma are different. You are not accepting this. Working as a writer for some Troma films doesn't mean you get a free pass to make raping a boy joke on Twitter. Like, you can work in Troma and be hired at Disney but they're not going to dig super into your past just because of it and they aren't going to assume you made these really awful jokes because you wrote for Troma.
So the countless comedians over the years who've made jokes about Priests touching kids are all pedophiles, or harbor latent pedophilia feelings? GTFO with that shit.
I largely agree with most of your post (which leads me to believe you misunderstood mine, since we're in agreement) so I'll address each of these things briefly:
1. Yes, you only hear the "forgiveness" line in connection with privileged people because you can only forgive someone who has done something wrong. White men, very frequently, do things that are wrong, hence they are the ones who may or may not deserve forgiveness. Ultimately, only you can make the decision, personally, as to whether or not you forgive someone.
2. I completely agree with this, we should not be "reaching out" to Trump supporters. But Gunn is not a Trump supporter. He is a liberal ally who supports social justice. I'm not suggesting you go out and ask Nazis to come hang with you, I'm suggesting that if someone is already on your side that you extend at least the slightest benefit of the doubt to their intentions.
3. Once again, I agree, but none of this applies to Gunn. Nothing he has done today, in 2018, indicates that he is opposed to our cause.
4. I again agree with most of this, but a key point is that I'm not asking oppressed people to "welcome" Gunn. Disney is not run by oppressed white people and Gunn was not fired for oppressing anyone. Disney is run by capitalist white men who fired Gunn because other capitalist white men threatened to boycott their products. His firing was not some kind of rectification of social injustice.
I would certainly give him a chance just like I wouldn't have canned James Gunn and instead would have just asked him to issue a sincere apology owning up to everything and deleting all of those old posts.
I'm not Disney, though.
I don't necessarily disagree. But I still believe a lot of people would want some kind of punishment rendered.
Like I said earlier, Family Guy is also especially guilty of this.
Amen.
People aren't reading the thread?
God damn!
Part of being an artist is having a brand and staying on brand. It got Gunn the gig, and those very same tweets lost him the gig.
James Gunn was in the project in August 2012
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/james-gunn-marvel-guardians-of-the-galaxy-363928
Then a few months later after he got hired he then apologized for his tweets
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/guardians-galaxy-director-james-gunn-395796
So even around this time when Disney could've chosen someone else or even fired him when those statements were brought up again and by the LGBT community no less. Despite that they hired him and kept him on the project and even brought him back for the sequel and let him consult for his characters in Infinity War. If Disney actually gave a shit about this even back then they wouldn't have let him touch this with a ten foot pole and they still did
Where did I say that? It's clear that people were twisting his words and telling people that the context of the original tweet is something other than what it was in the post I quoted had found out to make it seem like the old link was supposed to be directed to something at young kids that he was supposedly sexualizing. My point is that without that video the context is all gone and trying to twist it into something else is either people being lazy and not looking into something beyond what they are told it is, or they have an agenda.
Where does Mr. Gunn mention catholic priests, a group of people whom have been widely known and admitted to pedo behavior?
It's almost like context is important!
And obviously, like most things, it would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. What I'm talking about here is stuff like Gunn's tweets, i.e. things that are very obviously intended to be jokes (even if most people would agree they're not very funny). There's a big, clear difference between "This shower is so weak if feels like I'm being pissed on by a child!" and "I believe penalties for people who abuse children are too harsh".
I feel like as a society we can try to exercise a little critical thinking, rather than just scanning for naughty words and sending out letters of termination.
Given that this is a sensitive topic, please don't post photoshopped tweets as a joke in here right now. It risks derailing the thread and conversation.
So if you tell a joke about murdering someone then you're a murderer? Just following the logic. Y'know what? Don't worry about it, I'm gonna go ahead and check out of this thread lol.
There's a difference between jokes that are meant to be criticizing and exposing the criminal and James Gunn joking about raping people himself...several times
Are you seriously acting like you've never told or laughed at a joke about pedophilia?
Are you guys teenagers or something?
South Park had an entire bit about Cartman being tricked into sucking a stranger's dick in a parking lot to get semen for his sea monkeys.These jokes weren't uncommon in the early 00s and late 90s.
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