Give me irony or give me offense!

Links (2)

No sense of irony
Published 8/13/2008 by noreply@blogger.com (Simon Crowe) at Mostly Movies
Critic to Tropic Thunder protestors: Get over it. (Scanners) Whenever I hear about a group protesting or boycotting a movie, as certain organizations claiming to represent the mentally disabled (whom the organizations themselves formerly called "retarded") are doing with the lightweight Hollywood spoof "Tropic Thunder," it takes me right back to Randy Newman's "Short People." This song, a bouncy radio hit in 1977, was a field experiment in just how stupid people can be. The finding: They can be very stupid. "Short People" begins: Short ...

Jim Emerson Smacks Down 'Tropic' Boycotters
Published 8/13/2008 by Eric Kohn at Cinematical
... At his Scanners blog, Jim Emerson gets this point, and smartly rails against complainers like the Special Olympics for making such a big deal out of a scene before even coming to terms with its purpose. He also brings up a brilliant historical parallel: In 1977, Randy Newman's single "Short People" was pulled from the air because it supposedly offended, uh, short people. "If you do satire or parody, you have to expect there will always be fools who will take it literally," ...