Implying Slavery In Pursuit of Clout: An Anonymous Op-Ed

Editor's Note:This article was sent to us by an anonymous member of the community.  We lack the required testicles to have written it ourselves.

This image has been altered to remove any signs of racism

The comedy writer is like the conscience of the king. He's got to tell the truth. And that's my job, to make terrible things entertaining. 

Such is the challenge of a comedian, and usually people who complain about it being 'problematic' and 'extremely subjective' are the least-funny people around. It is true that comedy can be subjective, and far more importantly comedy can simply be unfunny. However, in terms of the latter, people have tried to unpack the reasons behind what makes something 'unfunny.' Comedy is far from my expertise—though I'll indulge in it like a drunk at a bar (or while drunk at a bar)—and I'll not pretend to be a specialist in it nor speak with any great authority; but I have noticed a trend over my life that's worth submitting for the reader's consideration: The people who complain about comedy and those who make unfunny works are not only virtually the same; they are the most tone-deaf, unrealistic, horribly sensitive, weak-willed people you'll find.

I have to start off with that little piece because what I'm writing about today plays into this. I'll refrain from any further waxing on the nature of the subject or delve into anything unrelated and just keep it straightforward to tell what happened, though I'll sprinkle some further quotes from this one comedian to keep things in mind. That being said, let's get the quick rundown of what happened: a funny horse artist decided to do a big meme for his horse artist friend for his birthday and Twitter got mad.

Humor is just another defense against the universe. 

This is what happened when one artist decided to take the old joke of Applejack being the stereotypical racist Southron and turn it into a joke drawing for a friend as a present, complete with AJ fashioned in the Colonel's dashing white suit looking contently over an apple field being worked by a group of ever-industrious (though some less-industrious) zebras, ever so long fashioned as being black themselves. It's a slavery joke, of course, and considering the popularity of the artist and the current outrage climate, things seemed to spiral out of control.

How did they spiral out of control? As usual, primarily through the outrage crowd yelling on Twitter, which in itself is nothing new. A handful of people yelling enough to sound like a crowd, and dragging more of their ilk to do it. Now usually this could simply wash away after a few days, but, when people have their minds set to a rather foolish, unrealistic, unholy version of a crusade, they don't want to stop. That means picking a fight, every fight, and never stopping, and fighting with literally everyone. That also means dragging in other people unrelated to it, bringing in others from your own thralls to keep up the pressure, to trying to drag in people who worked on the show. So this leads, in turn, to endless accusations of racism, threats, trying to get them banned, and so on. That alone is enough to get people frustrated in return, and the natural hypocrisy of the quick-to-reeeee crowd provides some ample powder.

Life literally abounds in comedy if you just look around you. 

So if you're burning a torch about mean 'hate' art and want to get it erased from existence and having the author, his friend, anyone who likes it, and anyone who disagrees beaten down and destroyed, it's probably not the best to indulge in things far worse. Because a lot of the people wanting to get this removed really enjoy some other art that can range from degeneracy worthy of belonging-on-a-cross to absolute disgust. These would include, but are not limited to, pornographic art of rape, incest, pedophilia, and, appropriate enough for the before-mentioned, an unhealthy dose of extreme raceplay, just to scrape the surface.

Now the fact that the original picture gave one of the best meme templates the fandom had seen in a while helps to keep the joke going, but this level of hypocrisy helps to bring the situation to a new real-world level. What do you do when faced with this? Talk for as long as possible and twist logic so hard to try and justify why you're okay while also deleting and disowning everything and doubling down on how horribly racist everything is. Even those who did not like such horrible pictures were faced with an awkward apathy towards their existence while complaining about one with a slavery joke. Needless to say the love or apathy the angry people show towards serious pornography using these unpalatable fetishes, while launching their campaign against everyone over a slavery drawing with the intent of comedy, that leads to some real society-tier comedy the Joker would happily honk away at.

As of now, the storm has deflated a bit, though the fighting has not stopped. Of course, being put on the defensive from your own problems helps stem the tide, but people still seem to refuse to stop, leaving the situation to lack a satisfying conclusion at the time. It will likely fade off, as such drama tends to, though it is encouraging to look at a more general picture. Though plenty of people, some notable, came out to condemn the act, it's happy to see far more people, including other artists, come to the defense of it. It's a lot better to get a 'schism' in the fandom and to have it labeled 'racist' in some great shock by the ignorant if it helps weed out those weak-willed, hapless villains that wallow in far worse vices.

Hope for the Best. Expect the worst. Life is a play. We're unrehearsed. 

-Mel Brooks