This story about reactions to the title character of Luther at the show's BBC home base came to my attention earlier this week. I've read elsewhere that Idris Elba, who strikes me as having a good head on his shoulders, was attracted to the role because it wasn't race-specific. So the standard of "authenticity" is just being imposed from without by the politically minded. As Ricky Nelson said, you can't please everyone so you've got to please yourself.
It reminded me of this Saturday Night Live sketch from a couple of years ago, featuring none other than Idris Elba.
Whatever you can imagine would be the reaction of the woke Twitter addicts the skit tweaks, it was that but much moreso. Accuse some people of being humorless and doctrinaire and you can count on their reaction being I resemble that remark.
2 comments:
Great find. While I haven't seen much of SNL in a very long time (remember Roseanna Rosanadanna?) this has got to be one of the best sketches done in recent years. That Idris Elba was part of it the remarkable thing is that it wasn't promoted when the silliness of him not being black enough was brought up as a topic worthy of discussion.
When I looked at the other article you linked to, the 'I resemble that remark' line, I was surprised they didn't mention Groucho Marx until the very end. Not giving him credit first was also typical of the clueless attitudes that have become so prevalent.
An article posted on Medium last summer makes some excellent points about how wokeism has become endemic in the internet age. His conclusion about how to deal with the reality seemed too pat, but he's correct that we need to find ways of dealing with the excesses of woke behavior.
The quality fluctuates, which is not too surprising. I haven't been as into it this season, partly because they have 20 people in the cast now, which is just too much in terms of showcasing everyone. There's also a recurring (as in not really new) problem of political jokes that just regurgitate the dominant media narrative. Still, there are some funny people on it, like Melissa Villasenor (who's not in that clip.)
To be fair, the provenance of quotes (as I mention in my most recent post, ahem) can be tricky. For instance I haven't yet found a clip of Groucho saying it, although he might have made the pun off camera. There actually is a clip of Curly Howard saying it.
I think my favorite line in that Medium piece is "If your deepest-held beliefs can be comfortably absorbed into Starbucks’ PR strategy, it may be time to go on a vision quest." Wokeism strike me as very much a matter of social class, moreso than religion. Although speaking of religion, this Unherd article notes how "science" has moved to unfalsifiable doctrines in the recent past.
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