Forum:Dat's What Uncle Remus Say

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Note: This topic has been unedited for 4206 days. It is considered archived - the discussion is over.

Before I say anything, I'd like to preface this by stating:

1. I am not suggesting that all racial stereotypes are taboo and cannot be used
2. I am not trying to tell people what they can and cannot write
3. I am interested in what our writers think

The negro says: Sho Nuff!

The Mel Brooks movie "Blazing Saddles" has often been brought up in private discussions between my peers and I as "the movie you could never make today". Let's face it, political correctness has run amok and the urge to appeal to demographics has taken a front seat to art and humor. Probably one of the best lines uttered by Cleavon Little (which was probably written by Richard Pryor) was "Where da white women at?!". In itself and out of context, that wouldn't be very funny in my opinion. When you throw in the context of attempting to bait the attention of two white supremacists, in order to knock them out and steal their Klan robes, it becomes more palatable and funny. You still would have great difficulty fitting something like that into a major motion picture produced by one of the studios in America today. Oh well. God bless you Mel and Richard (RIP), not to mention Cleavon (RIP). Frankly, I'd love to see an article about Song Of The South where the characters are overly intellectual and discuss particle physics but that's another story.

We had a recent article on VFH (like you didn't know this was coming) that simply attributed Uncle Remus style speech to a person of color with no context beyond the race of the person being satirized. I'd just like to know the opinion of my fellow writers on this, do you feel it's sloppy and hack or is it funny? I realize that it's my own personal perception based on a limited sample of Uncyclopedia's contents but I've opined that said mechanism gets employed and enjoyed more by the British segment of the population - which obviously makes me a racist who is stereotyping royal subjects. Sorry for any offense but I openly admit it's a perception based on a handful of articles and my opinion hasn't been the result of careful, diligent research. Kudos for responding to this inquiry like the slave Jim from the book Tom Sawyer.--    11:08, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

I suppose you could say something similar about the million articles that poke fun at the engrish of Asian people. But yeah, unless the article has a context for the racial...voice...word...ing then there is little point. --Nikau 14:36, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

My Fair Lady is probably one of the most unbelievable musicals ever produced since it's common knowledge that all English persons speak in a cockney accent.--    17:39, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Huh? I don't get it. What's wrong with realistically portraying the way Black Americans speak? --Black Flamingo 15:24, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

My generation grew up on Italian/Polish/Asian/N-word/Mexican jokes in a mostly white, middle class neighborhood in the 1970's - this was the allegedly Liberal, touchy feely SF Bay Area. Heck, we were kids. I don't have any remorse for that and most of us grew up. Here on the east coast, it's all about ranting against Puerto Ricans instead of Mexicans. You read the online comments for the local paper and see some pretty interesting stuff. Apparently all Puerto Ricans are on welfare and all Blacks are dealing crack. Oh well. I'll never forget going to NY city for the first time with some family members. We're Greeks. My family is full of Yale graduates and we ended up staying at the Yale club. I couldn't help but notice the odd stares which made me feel out of place. My aunt explained to me that we were too "ethnic" for the venue. lol. It's a funny, cliquish world.--    15:48, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

DrStrange: really? The Uncle Remus speech trips you out, but not the use of...a certain thoroughly offensive word in...certain unmentioned article titles which I, myself, have crusaded once or twice against? I mean, considering some of the articles on here, Uncle Remus speech is a refreshing change.  ~ BB ~ (T) ~ Sun, Nov 20 '11 16:05 (UTC)

Well in the context of the article, Uncle Remus wasn't a refreshing change just a tired device to impersonate a supposed speech pattern. When Uncyclopedia votes this for deletion then progress will have been made. --RomArtus*Imperator ® (Orate) 17:30, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, it is tired. Also, I've never heard Wilt Chamberlain's speaking voice. (That's the article this is about, right?) Oh well. At least the image wasn't photoshopped to show him humping a bucket of KFC.  ~ BB ~ (T) ~ Sun, Nov 20 '11 18:07 (UTC)

Did anyone say... NIGGER? No? Well, I guess I just went ahead and said it. Sorry folks, I didn't mean to offend anyone. More to the point, if a certain article mentions the word doesn't mean its content is necessarily offensive to ni— black people. You know what's really odd, though? In Dutch we call them niggers all the time, and "black people" is considered the offensive term. Language is a weird thing, huh? —Sir Socky (talk) (stalk) GUN SotM UotM PMotM UotY PotM WotM 19:14, 21 November 2011

Sock, even after five months as a registered user, I'm still missing the "funny" in that article. (To be fair, I wasn't picking on that one in particular, there are several to choose from.) I know you do, and I know you're not a 4chan troll who revels in offending people, and as several other people have said that article is amusing, I have to assume it's just me (among the registered users) who "doesn't get it". But that's the problem: any average non-racist (who isn't an Uncyclopedia member) who trips over that article (or any of the others) is gonna feel shock and disgust, and probably think to themselves "Fuck, how'd I end up in the sewer of the Internet?" That's all.

Anyway, this is a slightly different issue from the one DrStrange was peeved with (he's concerned not with racism, but lazy hackery disguised as racism), so I guess I shouldn't have mentioned it to begin with.  ~ BB ~ (T) ~ Tue, Nov 22 '11 7:05 (UTC)

Still though, the article hardly even mentions black people, so I'm kind of in the blue why it'd be such a big deal. —Sir Socky (talk) (stalk) GUN SotM UotM PMotM UotY PotM WotM 10:42, 23 November 2011

The Herman Cain Article

Quick Flamingo! You'd better get that unrealistic manner of speech Socky and company are attributing to Cain changed quickly. I think a "where da white women at" may be in order.--    15:51, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Sure, ok! Is he a basketball player too? --Black Flamingo 00:04, November 21, 2011 (UTC)

He plays for the Georgia Godfathers in the Republican league and he's bagged a lot of dumb sluts as well!--    00:30, November 21, 2011 (UTC)

Wilt Chamberlain Interview 1987

File:Wilt Chamberlain interview, 1987

Basically, Wilt Chamberlain could have spoken any way he pleased. I'm not upset about plantation negro accents being used, like in the movie Blazing Saddles (which I REALLY encourage our large contingent of youthful writers to see) but when it's just tossed out like another tired cliche you're really doing yourself and your audience a disservice.--    18:51, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Uncle Remus vs Modern Slang

I think it bears mentioning that there's a huge difference between the modern slang or "ebonics" employed by some African Americans and the dialect of plantation slaves in the 1800's. The old plantation dialect is documented in Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer". "Sho nuff" may be still heard in the deep south but it's usage is very minimal and isn't limited to blacks.

"Dis" in place of this

"Dem" in place of them

"De" in place of the

"Dat" in place of that

These would be examples of plantation negro dialect which bears no resemblance to modern slang used by African Americans. I consider these examples of "Uncle Remus" speech. Used improperly, it's unnecessarily offensive (IMO) and it exposes a lack of knowledge by the writer. Reading Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn does not make one an expert on how modern African Americans speak.--    20:56, November 20, 2011 (UTC)

Isn't that kinda part of the modern slang too, though? —Sir Socky (talk) (stalk) GUN SotM UotM PMotM UotY PotM WotM 19:31, 21 November 2011

Well, I work with a decent amount of lower income African Americans and I rarely hear anything like that. It's all hip-hop speak if you ask me (not that I'm en expert. Can we all say "hizzy"?). It all varies too. There's southern drawl and there's urban and there's people who speak completely straight English with regional dialect. I've heard somebody say "What's wit dat?" but we're talking about a small percentage. It's just like cockney English - not part of the mainstream in Britain. Regardless, refer to the "see and say" toy. It's just overtly cliche and tired as a writers device.--    20:20, November 21, 2011 (UTC)

It's Dead, Jim

Two years ago, if anyone had told me that we'd end up getting an article featured with not just one HUGE list (the ultimate in lazy, hack writing) but also a couple more below it, not to mention the use of "username" (which is pointless to anyone who's not a registered member) and a pile of cliches - I would have told you that you're smoking crack. The fact that the thing is even still alive (currently 9 for) means that Uncyclopedia is dead. Features are now meaningless, awards are now meaningless and it's just a pile of kids jacking off on each other.--    22:08, November 21, 2011 (UTC)

Oops, I should have been more concise: A pile of white kids telling each other nigger, spick and chink jokes and thinking it's real funny - like back when I was 10 years old. All Wilt Chamberlain needs is some fried chicken and watermelon now - to spin on top of that gigantic penis which we all know that black males have.--    04:54, November 22, 2011 (UTC)

DrStrange: You just daubed some paint on me with that big, broad Racist brush of yours. I'm probably the most racially-sensitive white liberal weenie here. Take it back. Take it back, you bastard, or I'll come to your house myself, bang your dog, and steal your wife.  ~ BB ~ (T) ~ Tue, Nov 22 '11 7:05 (UTC)

A single article you don't like getting voted for by some users is not omg the end of the site forever. --HM (T) 20:31, November 23, 2011 (UTC)