How are you not outraged?

yolhanson, you did not address the main question I posed in my post. Do you believe that literally "anything goes" when it comes to comedies? As long as the director intends for a movie to be a comedy, is there absolutely NOTHING that can appear on screen that would make you say "woah, that's out of line?" Unless your answer is yes, you have no business using the "It's not real, it's just a movie" argument.

Your Hogan's Heroes example was way off-topic (and somewhat of a straw-man argument) because you're telling me that I'd be imagining scenes that are not even shown on screen. I've shown no tendency to do such a thing, so you're quite wrong about that.

You're jumping to conclusions, imagining me as some sort of goody-goody who wants everyone to be nice in movies/TV. You'd probably be surprised to know that I'm a fan of South Park and usually would defend its content because of the way the humor is slanted. South Park's humor is brilliantly done...we're not supposed to be laughing at the situation as much as the psychology of the masses that is represented on the show. We're not supposed to be on Cartman's side, we're supposed to be laughing AT him, and there are no cute attempts to redeem Cartman like there were at the end of this atrocious movie.

I watch plenty of movies that are meant to horrify, shock, etc. and have no problem laughing because the filmmakers know how to present the material properly. The audience needs to be able to KEEP its own, real-life values but still laugh at the shocking material for some other reason. It's not the CONTENT that makes a film offensive or non-offensive, it's the filmmakers' treatment of that content. Bad Teacher failed in this regard.

One of the points about ToonsNTeases reasoning is the fact that anyone can turn the "It's just a movie, lighten up," justification on anyone else. The original poster's zealous argument was met by a lot of replies of calling the original poster a prude, Puritan, etc. who needed to lighten up because "Bad Teacher" is "just a movie." However, this phrase can be thrown around making one's justification the ammunition against that very same person.

You said that you would be bothered by some topics being taken lightly in movies, but someone else could rightfully use that very same justification of "It's just a movie," to trample over your regard for the handling of the said topics. Even if it were not a movie about based on a real happening, like "Schindler's List," horrible things do happen in movies and are taken lightly, and someone could rightfully tell you to lighten up because it is just a movie. You might find it ridiculous and argue about the difference of this and that, but overall the person does have a point since it technically is a movie.

ToonsNTeases questions universality of this phrase. To what extent that those who use it as justification of others' emotions for a movie/scene? Common sense may seem like a legit factor for justification, but common sense is not uniform at all. It varies from upbringing, society, gender, nationality, race, class, experience, etc. Not that some groups are less sensible than others, but for instance consider that the common sense of a seasoned hiker bringing a mirror on a hike might not be the common sense of a recreational hiker. So the justification of "It's just a movie," can be rightfully thrown around regardless of "common" sense.

I'm not trying to put words in her/his mouth, but it seems to me that ToonsNTeases just wanted these people to give more thought into their reasoning instead of using a cliche that only seems to work when one wants it to. "What you really mean is that you don't AGREE that this movie was offensive. So stick to the topic and explain WHY you think it's okay without using a cop-out like 'It's just a movie.'"

The original poster made some statements that could have been discussed much better than they have been but most of the people who responded. Now he/she will stick to the her/his opinion even more because of the environment of attack and no education. I know that this is the internet, and no I am not uptight or "butt-hurt," I'm not some old person not keen to the current world either. I'm being real. So many people do have a tendency to say all kinds of audaciously offensive things behind the anonymity of the monitor that they will never even think of saying in real life. There's no need for that, and it is downright stupid. The internet is what we, the users, make it.

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