Movies, Race, and My Puerile Joke of the Day

Filed Under friends, humor, lil things, movies, pop culture

For her birthday, the LH and I decided to buy our friend - a Russian immigrant - some of the movies that we grew up with as kids of the 80s and early 90s. She was raised in the US, but her family was very religious and she never watched television or movies until she went off to university. When we went to Disneyland earlier this year with her, she didn’t know who any of the characters were, except Mickey Mouse.

So, as part of our American Childhood Pop Culture “Starter-Kit” we picked up The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Mary Poppins, The Muppet Movie (the LH’s choice), and ET. (We also wanted A Neverending Story, but the store didn’t have it.)

The LH started quoting the Princess Bride, and then became concerned that some of the verbal humor will fly right over her head. I pointed out that we enjoyed those jokes as adolescents and so very likely she’ll get them too. Movies that made us laugh (or cry) as kids should definitely be broad enough to register on her radar. He said okay. Then we started talking about the silly jokes that kids tell each other, and he related this one to me:

Q: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a rhino?

A: Elef-ino!

That just cracked me up. He says it’s a common joke, but I never heard it!

Depending on the success of this movie sampler, I think that for Christmas I want to get her a collection of movies about people of color in the US. There’s an HBO movie version of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and I wonder if it’s any good. I’m thinking specifically of when she told me that she would “LOVE” to be an Indian because “they get everything for free.” The LH says we should also get her Roots.

Comments

3 Responses to “Movies, Race, and My Puerile Joke of the Day”

Steve Caldwell on October 7th, 2007 7:44 pm

The UUA Youth Office has an anti-racism movie guide on their web site:

Anti-Racism Movie Guide
http://www25.uua.org/YRUU/resources/online/armovieg.htm

The four movies used in this movie guide are:

Mi Familia
American History X
SLAM
Smoke Signals

In addition to these movies recommended by the UUA Youth Office, you might want to look at these movies:

“White Man’s Burden”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Man%27s_Burden_%28film%29

“C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.S.A.:_The_Confederate_States_of_America

“White Man’s Burden” tells a story of race relations in an alternate version of America where the cultural roles of blacks and whites are reversed.

“CSA” is a mock documentary about a fictional timeline where the Confederacy won the Civil War (the Wikipedia article says this mock documentary POV is used to satirize subsequent issues and events in American culture).

Regarding the HBO film adaptation of Dee Brown’s “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” it seemed like a good adaptation of Dee Brown’s book (based on my memory of reading this book back in the early 1990s).
hafidha sofia on October 8th, 2007 3:46 am

Thanks for the links, Steve. I’ve seen American History X and Smoke Signals, but not the other two films in the AR film guide. I need to be mindful of “adult” content and overall sensibilities, so that the informative content isn’t lost in a form that a Christian unfamiliar with pop culture might find offensive or just bewildering.

I’m thinking AHX might fall into the category of “offensive,” while I remember SS as being an indie flick without a very clear plot. I thought both movies were excellent, but it’s hard to know if they will have an impact on someone with such a different pre-existing view of race and class.

That being said, at the birthday party, the LH talked about Pat Buchanan’s writings on immigration, and my friend was appalled. She said Buchanan should be sent “back to Germany.” She never ceases to surprise me!
chutney on October 16th, 2007 12:31 pm

Wounded Knee was very good.