I find the commercial funny. I laughed at it, but then caught myself and really started thinking about the message under the message. My main sticking point with the commercial arises from the question, would the pitiful let-down character ever be played by anyone who doesn’t look like this decrepit, bald white man?
This really has nothing to do with the racial differences between the two Michael Jordans. If we were comparing the Tom Brady to another schlubbier Tom Brady, the loser Brady would probably also look like the loser M.J. It would be hard to imagine the loser Tom being played by a black guy. The basketball star Michael Jordan being black merely provides relief for the white Michael Jordan.
Advertisers often want to portray a loser character whom we pity but who we just view as a one-dimensional character. Advertisers need characters who we aren’t supposed to think deeply about. They sometimes need to create the feeling of pity but not sympathy. These guys are cast-offs but they weren’t wronged by society. If we harped on a loser who had been wronged by society then we’d just be mean-spirited. This only leaves the white male as the go-to loser character since he is supposedly privileged and what not.
Amid the on-going talk of dog whistles and silent racism this commercial reminds me of the many cultural signals which harp on this cohort of white men. I think that people who are concerned about the ways in which other races are depicted i.e. black males as criminals, forget that the white (or Asian) male nerd trope is impactful as well. Leftists and social deconstructionists tend to believe that economic and political issues are the only important aspects of society, but they forget that most of us regular people are down here in the trenches bouncing into one another in a myriad of ways which are outside the politico-economic realm.
But as I said, I found the commercial funny, so I’m not sure how much to make of it.
As a matter of fact I have met and worked with a number of White males that resemble this White guy in the jew made commercial. They are not losers at all but almost always serious hard working men who get the job done. Men like them are the backbone of many organizations in this country. In their younger days they served in the military honorably, went to college in fields like business, accounting, engineering, math, and other such sciences, and fields. They still carry this nation for the most part. On the other hand I can’t say as much for the professional atlethes, so I’ll leave it at that.
While I am sometimes bothered by the portrayal of white guys as the perpetual butt of the joke in most commercials I think that this one is different. The reason is that they are going for the exact opposite of a particular celebrity, namely a tall athletic black man. Therefore his opposite must by necessity be a short pudgy white man. The character wasn’t arbitrary in other words. Of course, that being said, I don’t think it would be politically correct in the current climate to make this joke with a pitiful looking minority always being mistaken for a white celebrity so don’t look for a similar commercial with the races reversed.
I was sitting in a bar yesterday with a bunch of old white guys. ESPN was playing, and I couldnt help but notice (i hate pro sports) the over-the-top glamorizing and worshipping of these black male athletes in the commercials.
But those of us who notice the sickness of these things have “issues”.
People in advertising don’t want to be called racist, but they really don’t want to be called boring and unfunny. When Steve Sailer wrote that The Onion isn’t funny on race, I guarantee that bothered them.
This commercial is not that great because we’ve been seeing white men be made fun of for years for not being black. It is ho hum, even though the premise of an average person with a celebrity name is clever.
In the post I pointed out that I believe that even if we switch the celebrity figure, the same type of loser white guy would be used as the butt of the joke. If we had Tom Brady as the celebrity, we could still imagine this schlubby Michael Jordan playing the character that lets everyone down. A black guy could never play that role. That’s why I wrote that the fact that the two Michael Jordans are of different color isn’t really the most important aspect of this. It merely provides a starker contrast to show that white nerd types are the go-to butt of jokes in the media.
The black TV character that comes closest to the guy in the commercial is “Stanley” from The Office. Stanley is a lay-about schlub who is seemingly miserable. But there’s a difference between him and the Michael Jordan in the commercial, and that is that Stanley doesn’t take shit from people. He is confident in his misery. But our Michael Jordan here seems to be pleading for acceptance.
If you found it funny (and I did too), just laugh and don’t obsess over it.
Irrational leftists would be up in arms and flinging their poo around if the character was black.
The character is white, I wonder if I should be upset.
Um…no?
I just checked out Spearhead’s really nice series on the author’s visit to Latvia, which just compounded my hatred for Amerika that was brought out by the above commercial. On a funny side-note, some bitter half-fag MRAs in the comments section makes it a hobby of clicking “Dislike” on every one of Lara’s comments — all of them being innocuous and without a hint of trollery or passive-aggressiveness.
More negro worship, that’s what I see. Michael Jordan is irrelevent. He played basketball 20 years ago. He’s a dancing monkey, a clown.
It’s not healthy for white men to watch stuff like that. Watch that basketball scene between the whites and blacks in American History X. Better yet, the curb stomp.
If you are a WN, solving the men/women schism is a great difficulty. You might start a blog and specialize in it, if motivated. There is a small group of WN women like this forming right now.
I found it to be stupid, not funny at all. Michael Jordan is 20 years past his prime, and just presided over the shittiest team in NBA history; nobody’s panties are moistening over that guy. Plus, Michael Jordan is a common name. The character needs to be black, so he at least sounds black on the phone. No way any fanboi of Jordan will think that white guy sounds like him.
I thought it was humorous, even though I was never a Jordan fan. But I agree that if it was a schlubby black man it would have been funnier for a variety of reasons.
The question isn’t whether it is funnier in a utilitarian sense of the word i.e. the greatest level of humor. Advertising and the media wants to maximize entertainment value while minimizing offensiveness. A black schlub may be funny for ironic reasons, but it wouldn’t hit home with another segment of viewers. The white loser trope is the safe play. It can be funny and viewers feel perfectly fine and even superior to the guy which helps maximize the impact of the commercial. So it plays to stereotypes that are somewhat rooted in truth. The truth being that there are more white guys like this Michael Jordan than there are black guys. But what happens when blacks are stereotyped in similar fashion? It’s not allowed.
They didn’t have the nerve to use a skinny, short, or short and dumpy and nerdy black guy, did they? It’s racist…it’s profiling, isn’t it? We should contact them about how it demeans white guys.
As a matter of fact I have met and worked with a number of White males that resemble this White guy in the jew made commercial. They are not losers at all but almost always serious hard working men who get the job done. Men like them are the backbone of many organizations in this country. In their younger days they served in the military honorably, went to college in fields like business, accounting, engineering, math, and other such sciences, and fields. They still carry this nation for the most part. On the other hand I can’t say as much for the professional atlethes, so I’ll leave it at that.
>2012
>still watching television and politically correct Disney owned ESPN
I seriously hope you guys don’t do this.
I think the commercial would be funnier if the main character was a black man. This is unoriginal.
While I am sometimes bothered by the portrayal of white guys as the perpetual butt of the joke in most commercials I think that this one is different. The reason is that they are going for the exact opposite of a particular celebrity, namely a tall athletic black man. Therefore his opposite must by necessity be a short pudgy white man. The character wasn’t arbitrary in other words. Of course, that being said, I don’t think it would be politically correct in the current climate to make this joke with a pitiful looking minority always being mistaken for a white celebrity so don’t look for a similar commercial with the races reversed.
I think that this one is different
It’s not. You’re rationalizing your enemy spitting you in the face.
this is just like all those stupid Jordan Hanes commercials where Jordan gets approached by some idiot loser overzealous white man who is a fan.
PA is right.
I was sitting in a bar yesterday with a bunch of old white guys. ESPN was playing, and I couldnt help but notice (i hate pro sports) the over-the-top glamorizing and worshipping of these black male athletes in the commercials.
But those of us who notice the sickness of these things have “issues”.
I just want to watch it all burn.
People in advertising don’t want to be called racist, but they really don’t want to be called boring and unfunny. When Steve Sailer wrote that The Onion isn’t funny on race, I guarantee that bothered them.
This commercial is not that great because we’ve been seeing white men be made fun of for years for not being black. It is ho hum, even though the premise of an average person with a celebrity name is clever.
Douche ~ You must cut down on the time you spend with jock-sniffing, black-worshiping betas.
White Raven,
In the post I pointed out that I believe that even if we switch the celebrity figure, the same type of loser white guy would be used as the butt of the joke. If we had Tom Brady as the celebrity, we could still imagine this schlubby Michael Jordan playing the character that lets everyone down. A black guy could never play that role. That’s why I wrote that the fact that the two Michael Jordans are of different color isn’t really the most important aspect of this. It merely provides a starker contrast to show that white nerd types are the go-to butt of jokes in the media.
The black TV character that comes closest to the guy in the commercial is “Stanley” from The Office. Stanley is a lay-about schlub who is seemingly miserable. But there’s a difference between him and the Michael Jordan in the commercial, and that is that Stanley doesn’t take shit from people. He is confident in his misery. But our Michael Jordan here seems to be pleading for acceptance.
@George
A while back a guy wrote about the type of guys you are talking about:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/adwords/renaissance/gotoguy2/
http://perrymarshall.wordpress.com/2009/03/13/the-secret-vulnerable-soft-spot-of-go-to-guy/
If you found it funny (and I did too), just laugh and don’t obsess over it.
Irrational leftists would be up in arms and flinging their poo around if the character was black.
The character is white, I wonder if I should be upset.
Um…no?
I just checked out Spearhead’s really nice series on the author’s visit to Latvia, which just compounded my hatred for Amerika that was brought out by the above commercial. On a funny side-note, some bitter half-fag MRAs in the comments section makes it a hobby of clicking “Dislike” on every one of Lara’s comments — all of them being innocuous and without a hint of trollery or passive-aggressiveness.
More negro worship, that’s what I see. Michael Jordan is irrelevent. He played basketball 20 years ago. He’s a dancing monkey, a clown.
It’s not healthy for white men to watch stuff like that. Watch that basketball scene between the whites and blacks in American History X. Better yet, the curb stomp.
Lara,
BTW, I saw what happened to you over at TS.
If you are a WN, solving the men/women schism is a great difficulty. You might start a blog and specialize in it, if motivated. There is a small group of WN women like this forming right now.
I found it to be stupid, not funny at all. Michael Jordan is 20 years past his prime, and just presided over the shittiest team in NBA history; nobody’s panties are moistening over that guy. Plus, Michael Jordan is a common name. The character needs to be black, so he at least sounds black on the phone. No way any fanboi of Jordan will think that white guy sounds like him.
I thought it was humorous, even though I was never a Jordan fan. But I agree that if it was a schlubby black man it would have been funnier for a variety of reasons.
The question isn’t whether it is funnier in a utilitarian sense of the word i.e. the greatest level of humor. Advertising and the media wants to maximize entertainment value while minimizing offensiveness. A black schlub may be funny for ironic reasons, but it wouldn’t hit home with another segment of viewers. The white loser trope is the safe play. It can be funny and viewers feel perfectly fine and even superior to the guy which helps maximize the impact of the commercial. So it plays to stereotypes that are somewhat rooted in truth. The truth being that there are more white guys like this Michael Jordan than there are black guys. But what happens when blacks are stereotyped in similar fashion? It’s not allowed.
They didn’t have the nerve to use a skinny, short, or short and dumpy and nerdy black guy, did they? It’s racist…it’s profiling, isn’t it? We should contact them about how it demeans white guys.
BTW, agree that Michael Jordan is yesterday’s news.