Stuttering Characters
I've watched alot of 1920-30 films and I noticed that they really liked having characters back in those days that stuttered. Did they think that was funny back then? Strange.
shareI don't know about "back then."
I remember seeing "My Cousin Vinny" which is a great movie. There is a scene where a character stutters and it is used to great effect to embarrass him in the scene. (court scene). i didn't think it was funny, since I never thought stuttering was funny, but the entire packed theater laughed as hard as any I have ever seen.
But you are right it is still strange why they laughed.
I found it very annoying though it felt like it was a way of mocking the black doorman in terms of a racial sterotype. Making him the comic relief but in a negitive way.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
If the doorman was played by a white actor, would you have found the stuttering a negative white stereotype? I'm sick to death of people pussyfooting around the racial question, as evidenced by this year's Oscar ceremony. Hey, we're all equal in 2016, so let's stop all the self-flagellation, okay?
(This was written by a lifelong liberal who has been in the forefront of the equal human rights battle for decades, so please don't think about throwing the words racist and bigot at me.)
P.S. Kudos to Charlotte Rampling for speaking out against this year's nonsensical Oscar furor.
you have to be kidding.
the man was called 'boy' about 50 times, the cop told him to shut his 'big fat trap' apropos to nothing, the man could not be trusted to put a key in a lock to open a door, but noooooooooooooooooooooo, no racism here. the man was purely an object of derision. the fact that he was a black man imitating a monkey was just coincidence.
we could use less 'lifelong liberals', and more folks with a sense about the vestiges and realities of racism when they stare us in the face.
Have you forgotten the early cartoons of Porky Pig already? He was considered very funny and his stutter was real because the voice actor stuttered (according to stories around at the time). When Mel Blanc was brought on to do the voice, he turned it more into a stammer, but it's still used by Warner Brothers in the recent "Looney Tunes" show reboot.
[I know this seems obvious, but sometimes the obvious is what I overlook -- so maybe you did as well