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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Friday Open Thread: How Are They So Bad At This?

Friday Open Thread: How Are They So Bad At This?

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I’m sure you’ve probably already seen this, but I just became aware, and I’m still stunned at how bad they are at this. AND how hard is Disney going to backhand them for using their trademarks?

The comments in the thread are a hoot as my dear departed mum used to say.

Image

That’s all I got. It’s 90+ degrees here, so I’m going to go eat some excellent ice cream.

This is an open thread

 

 

 

 

Reader Interactions

80Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    AND how hard is Disney going to backhand them for using their trademarks?

    Not at all. Parody is fair use.

  3. 3.

    Urza

    White House should reach out and ask if its ok to use these in campaign ads, while pointing out how stupid they are for copyright infringement and still using some ancient memes that everyone with a brain gave up on.

  11. 11.

    NeenerNeener

    @TaMara: Apropos of nothing, TaMara…did you get a new car to fit all 3 of those Danes in? I can’t imagine all of them fitting in a Kia Niro, which is what I seem to remember that you drive.

  12. 12.

    MagdaInBlack

    @TaMara: I figured they think they’re the rebel alliance. Who knows, really? I doubt they actually think much at all, they just react.

  13. 13.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I’m sure you’ve probably already seen this

    Nope, not I. Not a Star Wars person (I only ever saw the original film, in 1977 or ‘79 or whenever it came out), although the memes and cultural references are part of the air we all breathe. So I did immediately get this as a fairly ham-handed effort to poke fun at Joe. Can’t think why anyone would find it remotely funny or clever.

  15. 15.

    CaseyL

    @The Moar You Know: Back when I was writing SW fanfic (when the first movie came out, which would be the late-1970s) I played with the idea of the Empire being, if not the “good guys,” at least a not-unreasonable response to fecklessness and idiocy on the part of the Republic.

    The idea being that Jedi were too enamored with their reputation and self-image, and the common folk were too uneducated and parochial, to manage a star-spanning civilization.

    I do think an argument can be made along those lines… but not the current pro-Empire fanboyism, which is simply “Cruel is Cool, plus their uniforms are badass.”

  16. 16.

    Urza

    @TaMara: Its not just the Empire.  Its basically any greedy, fascist in any media.  And generally they think the only problem with them is they didn’t go far enough stamping out the liberal mindset.

  21. 21.

    kindness

    Republicans have crappy media grunts.  See what happens when you party all your way through college and get a job using Dad’s connections?

  23. 23.

    patrick II

    I may be reading too much into the cdaily caller Start Wars name, but I think those red lines are supposed to represent a subliminal call to the old Nazi eagle.

  29. 29.

    eversor

    @Baud:

    They aren’t.  Red is the color of the Sith Lords and all their sabers and The Empire.  They are attempting to say he’s a Sith Lord Emperor.  Of course they fucked up the title and compared him to a Skywalker.

    The intent of this is Joe Biden is the fascist Dark Lord and they are the plucky rebels but they fucked up the title.  Beyond that it looks cool and even if Biden was The Emperor it still makes him look cool.

    They are just stupid.  Like Paul Ryan saying he loves Rage Against The Machine.  Because he see’s Libertarians as the ones raging against the machine of Liberal Government.   They see themselves as the good guys in everything.

  30. 30.

    JoyceH

    @Urza: when we were first seeing the footage of 1/6 and the goons were hunting for Pelosi, with that one guy calling in that sinister, mocking sing-song, “Naaancy, oh Naaaancy…” sounding like every villainous stalker in every woman-in-jep movie of the week, it hit me. They know they’re the bad guys. THEY KNOW.

  31. 31.

    eversor

    @patrick II:

    Red is the color of the evil side in Star Wars and all the fascist symbos in the movies are in red as well with lines and Nazi style flags as well.  The use of red is trying to drive home the point with a hammer.

  33. 33.

    moops

    It is just so weak to try and portray Joe Biden as a mean guy.  He’s your smarter, kinder, grandpa.

  34. 34.

    gene108

    @Geoduck:

    I’ve read the one on of him on the throne was originally created by someone in China, not a local nutjob.

    I’ve read that too.

    Biden’s on a thrown of assault rifles.

    Probably some mockery of our stupid gun laws and gun violence problems that sails over the heads of Americans. Also, the throne of assault rifles looks a bit like the Iron Throne, from GoT’s, and lord knows that show’s generated its fair share of memes.

  35. 35.

    Matt McIrvin

    @zhena gogolia: Spaceballs is not one of Mel Brooks’ strongest entries, but looking at it in hindsight, one thing I do like about it is that, unlike the material Brooks was parodying, he absolutely refuses to make any of the bad guys cool. In a Mel Brooks movie the fascists are always ridiculous, always the butt of the joke.

    Moranis’s performance is the funniest thing in it, and it was really a preemptive parody of every right-winger who ever took Darth Vader as a role model when he shouted “That is why evil will always defeat good… because GOOD is DUMB!!”

  37. 37.

    eversor

    @moops:

    The real stupid in this is their main assault is “Joe Biden is too old, too weak, too stupid, to brain addled” and then you compare him to the all powerful Dark Lord Of The Sith.

    It just doesn’t work as a put down.   It’s like saying your opponent is a Pirate Ninja.  Pirates and Ninjas are villans but they are actually kinda cool and everyone likes them.

    They’re just extremely socially awkward.   Remember Ben Shapiro did a whole episode about the WAP song and claimed that if a woman had a WAP during sex something was medically wrong with her and then threw a fit when people asked if he was a virgin.  Or Jordan Peterson recorded a video with “we’ll see who cancels who” at twitter and got clowned.  Both of those were furious own goals.

  38. 38.

    different-church-lady

    So lemme see if I’ve got this straight: they spend 4 years pumping up Trump by making him look like a fake bad-ass. So they think the way to diminish Biden is to… make him look like a fake bad-ass?​

  41. 41.

    Dangerman

    PR listening to RATM is right up there with their thinking “Born In The USA” is a patriotic song; shit son (s of bitches), read the fucking lyrics.

  44. 44.

    different-church-lady

    I think we’re only a few months away from half the GOP thinking his name really is Brandon.

  45. 45.

    Brachiator

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Spaceballs is not one of Mel Brooks’ strongest entries, but looking at it in hindsight, one thing I do like about it is that, unlike the material Brooks was parodying, he absolutely refuses to make any of the bad guys cool. In a Mel Brooks movie the fascists are always ridiculous, always the butt of the joke.

    I’ve never seen the entire movie, only clips, but they tend to confirm what you are saying.

    And yeah, in his other films, fascists, fools and hypocrites are always mocked.

  47. 47.

    Gravenstone

    They suck at this because they aren’t used to having pushback on their bullshit. As such, they have no idea how to counterpunch, only sucker punch.

  48. 48.

    ColoradoGuy

    The GOP is already there. It’ll be Dark Brandon soon. They already see everything as a video game with themselves as the heroes.

  49. 49.

    bbleh

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Can’t think why anyone would find it remotely funny or clever.

    Ah, I see your problem right there, the target being MAGAts and all.

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:

    How does one even reach the level of obliviousness where they think these memes make Biden look bad?

    I would hazard that they were never blivious in the first place.

  51. 51.

    different-church-lady

    But one does wonder why they went with red. Is Independence hall always lit like that?

  52. 52.

    different-church-lady

    @moops: ​
      I think that’s one of the things that’s so damn funny about the Dark Brandon memes. The contrast makes you laugh, because it’s so absurd. It’s just impossible to take seriously if you’re even halfway sane.

  53. 53.

    Geoduck

    @eversor: It’s a common thing in right-wing authoritarian circles, your political enemy is simultaneously a limp-wristed effeminate AND a ruthless would-be dictator. They did it with Obama as well, all the time.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @CaseyL:

    Back when I was writing SW fanfic (when the first movie came out, which would be the late-1970s) I played with the idea of the Empire being, if not the “good guys,” at least a not-unreasonable response to fecklessness and idiocy on the part of the Republic.

    That was at least part of the theme of the prequels.  The Galactic Republic was clearly deeply sick as an institution, and the Jedi were arrogant in their power.  Palpatine was able to bring the Republic down because it had already rotted from within.

  55. 55.

    eversor

    @Dangerman:

    They don’t get Rambo was criticizing the military either.  I mean fuck if you want to do “mainly war dude, but cool” Predator and Commando are far better flicks from that time to do it.  Rather than a broke brained deranged loony hanging out in the woods.  But Trump is Rambo.

    Just as with Warhammer 40k they don’t get that the God Emperor of Mankind was an atheist and hated religion so much he genocided all religious humans in the entire galaxy and then got killed in the final battle by a traitor and is now a human battery/lighthouse corpse on a chair.

    They are incapable of seeing anything beyond the top layer for the depth and deeper meaning behind it and so constantly self own.  It’s iceberg mindset.

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    @eversor:

    It’s bizarre that the same people who wear “Camp Auschwitz” t-shirts and deny the Holocaust are also happy to compare their enemies to Hitler.  There’s a huge disconnect.

  58. 58.

    Poe Larity

    So who is Jar Jar?

    I was thinking TFG as Jabba the Hutt, but I don’t have the photoshop skills.

  60. 60.

    eversor

    @Roger Moore:

    There’s a whole “Vader was right” trope out there.   The Jedi go around the galaxy kidnapping infants and children against their parents will and then indoctrinate them into a one sided fanatical palidan mindset in a harsh celibate monk lifestyle.  When said children grow up they are fanatical warriors who engage in all sorts of chicanery and mind control people against their will only to repeat the process with more infants.

    In the extended universe both the Jedi and the Sith come out looking like shits.  You get a lot of grey Jedi (Luke turns into one and that’s when he gains his full power) who are quick to point out that both the dark side and the light side have ups and downs.  And while the light is generally better, the Jedi are abosolutely jackasses of the highest order.

  62. 62.

    eversor

    @Roger Moore:

    They also point out Israel, China, and Japan are ethnic and religious homelands so if they can have it why can’t white Christians?  Yet they hate Israel and China and they like Japan for cartoon rape porn and video games.

  63. 63.

    LeftCoastYankee

    I think the funny part is most these “living in extended adolescence” fanboys will probably make it look cool to actual adolescent fan-folk who are excited by whatever is new and badass.

    The “Stupid” is strong in these ones Obi-Wan….

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @eversor:

    They don’t get Rambo was criticizing the military either.

    First Blood (the movie that introduced Rambo) was criticizing the military, but that was erased in people’s minds by the sequels, which became more and more jingoistic.  The same thing happened with a lot of action movie franchises in the 1980s.  The original movie was original, but the subsequent offerings were cookie cutter productions that turned jingoistic in response to Reaganism.

  65. 65.

    Jeffro

    Just for giggles, picture going back to 1988…or even 2008…and trying to explain to people how we got to “Dark Brandon”.

    You can’t.  I know I can’t.

    Better writing next season, please!

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @eversor:

    There’s a whole “Vader was right” trope out there.

    The Jedi may have been wrong, but that doesn’t make Vader right. But I guess that’s too hard a thought for some people to hold in their heads.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @eversor:

    They also point out Israel, China, and Japan are ethnic and religious homelands so if they can have it why can’t white Christians?

    That sounds like a vaguely reasonable argument until you see how those countries treat people who aren’t members of the right ethnic or religious group.

  70. 70.

    Llelldorin

    @eversor: Exactly! “The beloved babbling grandpa is actually a badass” is a real trope, but it’s a heroic trope! (Uncle Iroh, for example.)

  73. 73.

    Geminid

    There was an interesting article about the Alaska special election this morning in Politico, titled “Why Sarah Palin’s loss is a warning for the GOP.” It describes how Alaska Republicans opposed the 2020 ballot initiative that brought ranked choice voting to their state. It passed, though, so this year they tried to make the best of it by promoting a “Rank Red” campaign (I don’t think they meant smell).

    Third place finisher Nick Begich went along. Although he was very critical of Palin while campaigning, he let it be known that he would “rank red” and make Palin his second choice. But almost 50% of his voters either ranked Ms. Peltola second (29%) or ranked no one (20%).

    The writer allowed that Palin has a lot of political baggage in Alaska and that may account for some of her underperformance in second rankings. They also note that this year Republicans are running a lot of candidates in critical races who in style and substance are not that different from Palin.

    Palin did not lose by too much, but Alaska is redder than states like Arizona, Georgia, and others with tight races and radical Republican candidates. How many defections can Republicans afford in these states? Not many.

  74. 74.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: The Politico article also noted that while Palin said the special election result showed that Begich should drop out of the election this fall, Begich said it showed that Palin “is unelectable.”

  76. 76.

    VOR

    As another example, consider the series “The Boys” on Amazon Prime. The show has “superheroes” who are incompetent at best and malevolent at worst. The leader of the biggest superhero team is “The Homelander” who is a dark mirror of Superman. Homelander kills people he could easily simply arrest. This article in the Guardian compares him to Trump. And yet, the article claims people do not see Homelander as a villain.

    He is as unequivocally, irredeemably evil as any character you will ever encounter, and the fact that people have been missing this is truly bewildering.

  78. 78.

    El Muneco

    @Matt McIrvin: “Spaceballs is not one of Mel Brooks’ strongest entries”

    OTOH, it’s not one of his _weakest_ entries. It’s a solid picture, for what it is. Mel Brooks’s strongest entries are top-500 (maybe even top-200) all-time.

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @Geminid: Palin said […] Begich should drop out of the election, Begich said […] Palin “is unelectable.”

    The only solution is Thunderdome. Two candidates enter — none leave.

  80. 80.

    El Muneco

    @eversor: See also their inability to see beneath the lyrics of the chorus of _Born In The USA_ or some of John Cougar Melonhead’s populist songs.

    Even more so, Paul Ryan (or Rand Paul? Can even their wives tell them apart?) who loves Rage Against The Machine despite never listening to any of their lyrics.

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