The Geico Cavemen catching flak

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Blackjack, Jul 29, 2007.


  1. Blackjack

    Blackjack Monkey+++

    It seems the Geico cavemen have upset some minority rights groups


    LOS ANGELES - The producers of ABC's "Cavemen" pilot, hammered by critics for relying on offensive stereotypes with strong echoes of those aimed at African-Americans, said they intended no such parallels.
    Moreover, they said, the pilot wouldn't air until four or five episodes into the series.
    "In terms of them standing in for any one group, that's not our intention," executive producer Josh Gordon, who co-directed the original Geico ads, told members of Television Critics Association.
    The "Cavemen" pilot, though, was described and denounced by critics as presenting its hairy heroes as sexually potent and aggressive, athletically gifted, relatively unmotivated and potentially violent.
    "We're aware that the pilot seems to lean a little bit more in that direction," Gordon said. "But in the episodes that we're sort of coming up with now, we never saw them as a stand-in for one group."
    Executive producer Mike Schiff raised the question of how how people might associate with cavemen if they existed in this world - a world in which most would look down at cavemen.
    "You know: thickheaded, primal, not as sophisticated or cultured as us," he said answering his own question. "And then, of course, what we want to show in the show is that all those stereotypes are incorrect."
    Schiff said that the pilot - which writer Joe Lawson (author of the original Geico ads) admitted was a rush job to be finished in time for pilot season and consideration by ABC for fall - may indeed have leaned too heavily on familiar stereotypes.
    "Is that something that concerns us?" Schiff asked. "Of course ... we want to make sure that we're not saying anything offensive with the show."
    Delaying the broadcast of the pilot until other episodes have been televised, he said, would help establish the show's characters and tone more effectively - and less offensively.
    "I actually didn't know," Lawson admitted, "we would catch so much hell."
     
  2. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Hey, if the skins fit...

    [beat]
     
  3. sheen_estevez

    sheen_estevez Monkey+++

    wait, I thought I was now though of as minority group, [beer] I thought they were pretty funny. But go figure some group is going to freak out about it.

    But yet no one says a word about the "ED" commercials that are on all day long!!:mad:
     
  4. E.L.

    E.L. Moderator of Lead Moderator Emeritus Founding Member


    Brilliant.[LMAO]
     
  5. Blackjack

    Blackjack Monkey+++

    [fnny][LMAO][LMAO][LMAO][LMAO][LMAO]

    Can't say I wasn't thinkin it.
     
  6. Minuteman

    Minuteman Chaplain Moderator Founding Member

    "The producers of ABC's "Cavemen" pilot, hammered by critics for relying on offensive stereotypes with strong echoes of those aimed at African-Americans,"
    The "Cavemen" pilot, though, was described and denounced by critics as presenting its hairy heroes as sexually potent and aggressive, athletically gifted, relatively unmotivated and potentially violent."

    So what's wrong with this picture?

    Some people see these traits being portrayed and assume that it is a slam to Blacks? (I refuse to hyphenate any American).[LMAO]

    Who is being racist there? If I were a Black American I would be po'd at the critics, not ABC. [LMAO]
     
  7. Blackjack

    Blackjack Monkey+++

    Good point


    Funny.... I've been refusing the same for years now, and until everybody starts calling me German-Irish-Scottish-Cherokee-American instead of just white, I'll continue refusing. That is except for Native-American. I use that one just to avoid confusion with the word Indian.
     
  8. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    I guess we need a German-Irish-Scottish-Cherokee-American caucus in Congress. And a German-Irish-Scottish-Cherokee-American think tank, with a German-Irish-Scottish-Cherokee-American college with an endowed Chair in German-Irish-Scottish-Cherokee-American studies.
     
  9. sniper-66

    sniper-66 Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    A guy showed me a news article in which a black man killed another man and he was identified as a African American.....the only hitch, it was in France and he was a French black!
     
  10. Tango3

    Tango3 Aimless wanderer

    HMMM...
    Is pain in the a$$
    hypenated??? Just want to know where I fit in...b::b::
     
  11. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    That would be P-I-A I think. Welcome to the National P-I-A membership. (actually, the German-Irish-Scottish-Cherokee-American-P-I-A league) We are a large and shrinking majority, we need political representation and action to preserve our heritage.
     
  12. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    [fnny][LMAO] Now THAT is funny, I don't care who you (or the ignorant news weenie) are. I'd like to see the article so I could flame the twit in a letter to his editor, and maybe a few others as well.[winkthumb]
     
  13. Ardent Listener

    Ardent Listener Monkey+++

    I don't recall seeing a black caveman yet. That's what they should be protesting.:mad:
     
  14. NOOB

    NOOB Monkey+++

    The "Cavemen" pilot, though, was described and denounced by critics as presenting its hairy heroes as sexually potent and aggressive, athletically gifted, relatively unmotivated and potentially violent.



    TOO FUNNY

    NOOB
     
  15. dukenukum

    dukenukum Monkey+++

    the problem with these critics and whiners is they do not have enough hard work to occupy their time .
     
  16. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    Seems o me that the critics who are saying these characteristics are related to blacks are the racists in the situation, just like when they decided that the one species in the Starwars movie (Jar-Jars people) represented blacks and so were racist. The characters dont represent anyone so if they are claimig they do then its by their own views not others.
     
  17. Blackjack

    Blackjack Monkey+++


    [LMAO][LMAO][LMAO]

    I never heard that controversy before.
     
  18. monkeyman

    monkeyman Monkey+++ Moderator Emeritus Founding Member

    It was back when or before the movie came out and some of the anti racism groups came out whineing that those critters (the species like Jar-Jar) were based on blacks and that it was therefore a racist slur.

    I also have to wonder though if it isnt just some kind of publisity stunt FOR the show. You know they always say any press is good press and as far as I know, the show hasnt even aired yet. So how would these folks know anything more about the cavemen than just the omercials?
     
  19. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Same way any dimwit knows that music is evil. :sneaky:
     
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