I’m Not Buying the “Ridiculous Six” Satire Argument for One Minute

or,
Maybe Get the Ethnic Group Right Before You Claim You Are Satirizing Ethnic Stereotypes

Bliss
April 27, 2015

First of all, the jokes were just gross and racist as hell. Kudos to the Native American actors who walked off the Ridiculous 6 set. I’m totally with them on that one.

And, okay, I’m a little “how dare you?” that The Ridiculous 6 is supposed to be a satire of the classic Western The Magnificent Seven. One of my favorite Westerns ever. One that I watched because my mother watched it because my dad watched it when he and my mother were together. The movie that has in its lineup, among others, Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, and—to reference Sex and the City—the old movie star I’d have liked to fuck when he was young, Steve McQueen. The movie containing lines that I still quote at my mom and then crack up, such as “Please don’t understand me so fast” and “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Steve McQueen as Vin in “The Magnificent Seven”

No spoofing of this film allowed!

Seriously, though, the other thing that is not working for me is the claim that The Ridiculous 6 is supposedly “satirizing” The Magnificent Seven and the “stereotypes” Western films popularized. If you’re claiming to be doing a satire on ethnic stereotypes, though, maybe you should actually pay attention to what ethnic group is portrayed in the movie you are supposedly spoofing. Enough attention to know that The Magnificent Seven isn’t about Native Americans. It’s about hired guns protecting a farming village in Mexico.

Mexicans, not Native Americans.

Wrong ethnic group, dudes.

Cat in the Corner

Write
April 6, 2015

I shooed him off my writing chair.

I waved him away from my keyboard.

Now he’s found a new place to hang out.

In the corner of my bookcase, behind the printer, on top of the wireless router.

I know. So pitiful.

At least I can get some writing done.