There is something very disturbing about this video, "The Manny," written and directed by Jay Peterson and Michael Jaffe and based on the novel of the same name by Holly Peterson (Jay's cousin) about a rich New York family who hires a male nanny for a variety of self-indulgent purposes.
As Lauren Collins at the New Yorker points out:
""The Manny" could be called a mock-mockumentary—a parody that attempts to inoculate against criticism, without inflicting too much (intentional) damage on the group it purports to send up. But, as Karl Rove’s hip-hop performance at the Radio and Television Correspondents’ Association dinner demonstrated, laughing at yourself can be a tricky business."
With a script that includes, "...got a driver from Jamaica, a tailor from Hong Kong, got a super from Rica, and a maid named Wong, got a nanny from Manila, another from Peru...," the word "irreverence" comes to mind easily. That's because Peterson and Jaffe did, in fact, want to create one of those "irreverent, un-P.C. Internet videos."
When asked about some of the negative comments the short film has been getting on YouTube, Jay Peterson said, "I’m fine with that, because at the end of the day you can only do it for people in your world, and most people in our world find it funny."
Scary.
Read more.
Monday, June 25, 2007
The Manny
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6 comments:
When people in power (generally white people) satire other groups and play it off as,"It's okay, we satire ourselves too," what these white people don't realize is that because they are at the top of a power structure looking down on "others," their expressions of so-called "creativity" or "comedy" come off as and often are racist.
I am happy that this video was made because its very creation really exposes and reflects an ugly and dangerous segment of society that may have formerly hid behind kind manners.
I want a Manny
The video is sickening in the way it exploits not only racial, but also class distinctions for a laugh or for some sort of messed up book promotion strategy. Either way, it's offensive.
Who finds this funny? Straight white healthy ignorant/misguided people who don't care/know how they use their power.
Not only offensive, it's not funny. It also appears to be a (hetero-) rip-off of Frank Azaria's fantastic character in the Hollywood version of "La Cage aux Folles."
Wow. They have their own world to live in? Oh yeah, it's called Earth. Bastards. Sucks even more when folks WILLFULLY stay ignorant.
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