So this is where Samuel L. Jackson's acting talent is channeled from! Petey Wheatstraw is one of the stranger movies I have ever come across but, speaking honestly, I'm not that all surprised or shocked. After listening to Professor McRae's introduction to the film, asking us if we wanted to see Shaft or a woman give birth to a watermelon, I was stoked to see a nonsensical movie and was expecting to have my head explode from some of the strange things I'd encounter. Yet I walked away after 30 minutes of the film thinking "wow, that wasn't that strange!" But I guess I'm just numb to this type of exploitive film and I'll tell you why...
Have any of you ever seen Tim and Eric's Awesome Show: Great Job? If you have you'll see the similarities between Wheatstraw and Great Job immediately, if not here is a link to some clips. I am in love with TEASGJ; the comedy is so bizarre and at times just plain shocking/ inappropriate. I can't tell you the countless times the show uses gay, black, Native American, disabled, and religious stereotypes to promote specific jokes. Petey Wheatstraw was doing the same thing, only the movie was focusing on black stereotypes instead of many of them.
There are countless other shows out there that do the same thing as Petey Wheatstraw and Tim and Eric's Awesome Show: Great Job (Chapelle's Show and South Park just to name a few) not to mention the internet has "enlightened" the public with very informative images and videos (thank you youtube and 4chan). Jump back ten years and I think Petey Wheatstraw would have gotten a much different reaction from the class. But the youth of today are numb to this exploitive film simply because we have seen a lot of it!
Chris Rock and (I hate speaking his name) Carlos Mencia have bits where if you're going to laugh at one group, you have to be able to laugh at others and yourself.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the class was numb to the exploitation. I know that I was uncomfortable with the blatant overcharacterized black people. When the jokes are made today, they are lighthearted and all in good fun. What I want to know is if the blaxploitation was all in good fun? If we had seen this movie with white characters would we have reacted differently?
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel numb to the exploitation. My jaw definitely dropped more than a few times. I think that is why I didn't really like it. Probably for the same reason as I don't always enjoy Samuel L. Jackson. Exploitations of stereotypes can be funny, definitely. But sometimes they can also go too far and there may not be any significance to them. In South Park, they tend to make fun of stereotypes and the people who believe them to be true. They sometimes have a message in their exploitation. In Petey Wheatstraw, I didn't see that at all.
ReplyDeleteEven though I'm not particularly numb to it, I definitely see and can agree with what your saying. More and more shows are being made that are based off of this type of humor. I liked your comment about youtube and I think it's really interesting to look at Petey Wheatstraw as a youtube video. Youtube is pretty much a huge step for independent filmmakers who want to expose their unprofessional material to an audience. Oftentimes online videos such as these are shocking and ridiculous just to get our attention. Petey Wheatstraw and many exploitation films were exactly this.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in myjackinthebox's comment and would really like to find the answer to that question. Although it would seem that this particular genre would need to be not all in good fun in order to get across a message, the film wasn't serious at all. I can't imagine anyone taking away anything from it and would guess that for all of the African American people who found entertainment in this there were just as many that found it to be degrading.
Interesting to think that Jackson got his style from blaxploitation. But when I think of the character he played for Pulp Fiction, for example, he probably definitely played up those aspects.
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