Fawlty Towers episode removed from streaming

[Emelee]

That is just too ridiculous! Yes, it's racism, but it's written perfectly. We are not supposed to agree with the Major. He's from a past generation where these opinions were acceptable. It's ridiculous to censor views of past times. We are not meant to agree with the Major. Nor with Basil, he's a complete nutcase. We are laughing at him, not with him. It's much better to keep them in and show viewers what it was like and what you could actually say back then. No one can be so utterly stupid to think that such opinions back then are as acceptable today.

I feel the same about movies like Gone with the Wind. It's filled with racism, but the movie is from 1939 and it takes place in the 1800s for heaven's sake. What's next? No one can make a movie about slavery because it's racist? Will they remove Roots from all platforms? 12 Years a Slave too racist to show? It's important to let the ugly truth be out there. If we go to such extremes, then let's just ban everything with Adolf Hitler too so that no one will think we are all anti-semites.

Besides, comedy has always been about testing boundaries and sometimes even crossing them. It's often about being a little venomous to someone or something. Remove that element and we are left with puns.

 

[Daniel Avery]

What's next? No one can make a movie about slavery because it's racist?

In some cases you end up with bizarre shows like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. It created a world of 1990s PC attitudes in characters set in the 1800's Old West. It was unbearable to watch at times as they attempted to apply modern sensibilities to history. TV westerns had never been true to life, I know, but Dr. Quinn went too far in trying to re-interpret the reality of frontier life. It's hard to adequately describe how cringe-y it got before I abandoned it.

I think the (temporary) pulling of "The Germans" (as well as the pulling of Gone With The Wind) is just the other end of the pendulum that always swings in these situations. People with legitimate reasons to be upset get drowned out by the 'outrage mob' (whom I affectionately call The Cult of the Perpetually Offended) who have to outdo one another to seek out new and unique sources of outrage. So the pendulum swings toward listening to their objections, and actions are often taken to (supposedly) quell their outrage by removing that TV show, firing some actor with problematic tweets in their past, or "cancelling" someone who isn't sufficiently toeing the outrage line. Those in charge try to predict what might 'trigger' them and goes out of their way to remove them or otherwise take them out of the (possible) mix.

Pacifying the outrage mob by pulling a TV episode or firing a studio exec never satisfies, though, since the feigned outrage isn't true outrage as much as it is an addiction to wielding power over people. Are they really angry about a callous depiction of slavery in GWTW, a movie from eighty years ago? No, it's more about firing the gun and making people dance to the tune. ​

But inevitably the cultists go a few steps too far. The search for new, unique sources of outrage becomes an exercise in diminishing returns. I recall people calling for the removal of reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard from syndication a few years ago because the Duke boys had a Confederate flag painted on the roof of the car they drove, "General Lee". The show was basically a live-action cartoon; why would anyone take it seriously? To me, this was the 'jump the shark' moment for the perpetually outraged. But I was wrong; it occurred a few days later when a correspondent on ESPN was targeted by the outrage mob because his name was Robert Lee--and ESPN actually removed him from covering a football game for them to appease the angered. The man is Asian, but ESPN bowed to the pressure anyway....and then, when the dust settled they became a laughing stock. But it was ESPN who got dragged for not standing up for their employee (or just publishing a photo of him and assuring everyone he was not trying to re-start the Civil War), not the idiots who were searching high and low for another excuse to show how "outraged" they were and latched onto some poor Korean guy who just happened to have a common last name.

 

[Willie Oleson]

Boy, am I glad they always got it exactly right in Little House On The Prairie (aka That Filthy Shack Nearby Oleson Town).
Nobody's going to hate us.

 

[Swami]

That is just too ridiculous! Yes, it's racism, but it's written perfectly. We are not supposed to agree with the Major. He's from a past generation where these opinions were acceptable. It's ridiculous to censor views of past times. We are not meant to agree with the Major. Nor with Basil, he's a complete nutcase. We are laughing at him, not with him. It's much better to keep them in and show viewers what it was like and what you could actually say back then. No one can be so utterly stupid to think that such opinions back then are as acceptable today.

I feel the same about movies like Gone with the Wind. It's filled with racism, but the movie is from 1939 and it takes place in the 1800s for heaven's sake. What's next? No one can make a movie about slavery because it's racist? Will they remove Roots from all platforms? 12 Years a Slave too racist to show? It's important to let the ugly truth be out there. If we go to such extremes, then let's just ban everything with Adolf Hitler too so that no one will think we are all anti-semites.

Besides, comedy has always been about testing boundaries and sometimes even crossing them. It's often about being a little venomous to someone or something. Remove that element and we are left with puns.

Another thing to consider with "The Germans" episode of Fawlty Towers is for much of the episode Basil has discharged himself from hospital, clearly still in a state of concussion, therefore even by Basil Fawlty standards, his train of thought is not going to be brilliant.

I wonder if those wailing and grinding their teeth about this (ie those who demanded the episode be removed from streaming) will be so vocal about the thug who, yesterday, urinated next to the memorial to the policeman killed in the Westminster terrorist attack in 2017?

I think they need to get a sense of perspective, amongst other things.

Swami

 

[Sarah]

He’s been arrested @Swami

 

[Emelee]

Regarding Fawlty Towers, Basil is a character with a too short fuse. He is quite a lot like the Major really. In the episode of two young couple who wants a double room with a double bed, Basil goes to extremes trying to keep them apart simply because they are not married. He wants them in two single rooms on different floors and misunderstands them time and time again because he assumes that they are perverted. He shows us that he is really conservative and judgemental. He wants people to behave as though it's year 1870. He has absplutely no humour himself and expects others to be formal, serious, rich, posh and gracious. Anything else is utter rubbish.

Polly is the only normal main character on the show. And that's the reason why she's also the least funny character, since we are supposed to laugh at character flaws and the situations these flaws cause.

Sybil is fairly normal, but her manners with Basil made annoying as to make him go even further in his madness. However, she's been dealt a raw deal. It wasn't her wish, but Basil's wish to run a hotel. She had to go along with it which caused some resentment against Basil. It doesn't help that he's a cheap nutcase with stern conservative expectations of others.

You can't take one comment out of context and judge it. You need to understand the series, the characters and what they signal to us. And with Fawlty Towers, we are not supposed to agree with the Major or with Basil. If we were, they wouldn't be funny.

 

[Swami]

Regarding Fawlty Towers, Basil is a character with a too short fuse. He is quite a lot like the Major really. In the episode of two young couple who wants a double room with a double bed, Basil goes to extremes trying to keep them apart simply because they are not married. He wants them in two single rooms on different floors and misunderstands them time and time again because he assumes that they are perverted. He shows us that he is really conservative and judgemental. He wants people to behave as though it's year 1870. He has absplutely no humour himself and expects others to be formal, serious, rich, posh and gracious. Anything else is utter rubbish.

Polly is the only normal main character on the show. And that's the reason why she's also the least funny character, since we are supposed to laugh at character flaws and the situations these flaws cause.

Sybil is fairly normal, but her manners with Basil made annoying as to make him go even further in his madness. However, she's been dealt a raw deal. It wasn't her wish, but Basil's wish to run a hotel. She had to go along with it which caused some resentment against Basil. It doesn't help that he's a cheap nutcase with stern conservative expectations of others.

You can't take one comment out of context and judge it. You need to understand the series, the characters and what they signal to us. And with Fawlty Towers, we are not supposed to agree with the Major or with Basil. If we were, they wouldn't be funny.

And don't forget the characters of Basil and Sybil Fawlty were very much inspired by real people - the infamous Sinclairs of the Gleneagles Hotel in Torquay where the Monty Python team stayed. Mr Sinclair's rudeness and apparent feeling that the hotel would run so much better if it wasn't for the guests sparked the curiosity in John Cleese and Connie Booth.

Swami

 

[johnnybear]

I'm not at all surprised! We are being told what to do and say enough as it is but the way to think correctly will be among us all within the next twenty years! I'm glad i'll be too old and not considered a threat by then!
JB