Romney targeted the wrong muppet, claim victims


Former Governor Mitt Romney refused to answer questions from reporters Monday morning over charges that he targeted the wrong muppet in his election campaign. Leaving his Belmont MA home to attend a series of business meetings, the president-elect took the time to strap and secure three yelping chocolate labradors to his car's roof, while ignoring clamoring protestors and reporters in front of his mansion gates.


As he tightened a harness around the neck of Snickers, the latest addition to his car dog collection - bringing the canine's head down so that it was flush with the roof - Mr. Romney ignored the chants that he should have called for "Not Big Bird's head, but Elmo's instead [on the block]".


The Sesame Street scandal - involving Elmo - is an American remake of the crisis that struck the BBC earlier this year, when the late television and radio presenter Jimmy Savile was exposed as a serial sex offender responsible for indecent acts over the course of some four decades. Critics claim that the US version of the scandal will not be as successful as its British predecessor, with many insisting that late broadcasting icon Dick Clark - rather than Elmo - would have been far better qualified to play "Jimmy Savile".

"Dick's longevity is similar to that Jimmy Savile guy. He's also recently passed, he was into his music... he really ticks all the boxes - unlike Elmo, who just tickles," one pop culture blogger was reported as saying. "Come to think of it, Elmo doesn't even do the tickling. He's the Ticklee. The Tickler, he ain't. #itschipsnotcrispsyoustupidbollocks"


Similar attempts at "translantication" have caused controversy on both sides of the Atlantic in the past. American remakes such as The Office and Three's Company indicate that the tradition has a rich and fruitful history.

Image sourced from Wikipedia

However, in 2009 professional dancer Anton duBeke - on the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing - told his celebrity dance partner Laila Rouass that she "looks like a Paki" after she had applied spray tan. Ms. Rouass rightly took exception to the comment. On ABC's Dancing with the Stars, meanwhile, the re-enactment was not a success: Singer-actress Mya Harrison's professional dancing partner Dmitry Chaplin was given "a ten minute window" by producers to describe Ms Harrison "in the worst of racially derogatory terms" while they rehearsed. With members of Ms Harrison's family present to watch the rehearsals, the footage has been described by commentators as some of the most uncomfortable in the history of television.

 © Glenn Francis, www.PacificProDigital.com

2009 also saw efforts at racism in other versions of the popular franchise worldwide, with the insulting comments in the Indian version of the format - Slumdog Dancer - causing confusion, when the celebrity and her equally high-caste professional dancer described each other in offensive but identical terms.

Meanwhile, President-Elect Romney was seen Monday evening returning home with a loaf of bread, a container of milk and a stick of butter. Unroofing his yelping and traumatised pets, he made an appeal to the press to permit him "time to reflect" while he clarified his "Sesame Street policy" until his inauguration in mid January, "or as soon as those missing ballot boxes show up".

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: JIHADI A Love Story by Yusuf Toropov

Image
With a fantastic opening purportedly penned by a recently deceased narrator and edited via running commentary by a secondary narrator, JIHADI: A Love Story is written by Yusuf Toropov. The emotional intelligence of the main protagonist and the story itself are high on the list of pluses at the outset. Although many expectations are confounded throughout the story, the expectation of more confusion, while reading the opening pages, does not bear out. So if you find yourself asking: “What’s this about?”, just power on through the opening five pages. The quality of the writing will draw you in at the outset. But the plot is riveting, and it all starts to become fairly clear fairly quickly. It’s one of those novels that merits a second read not because of its difficulty, but because of the prose's beauty. In terms of plot, there is so much to it that there are things you may miss the first time out. Among much else, readers may find they are reading the novel for its story, and then
Read more

Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro

Image
Dario Cannizzaro’s narrator Louis, the protagonist of Dead Men Naked (available at Amazon ), loses his best friend Neil in a bizarre, seemingly hallucinogenic near-remote attack from an attic window as they stand in the same room, by Lou’s neighbour and a giant crow. Given the tequila and other substances taken, it is difficult to determine what exactly occurred through the narrator’s eyes. But Louis comes round the following morning worse-for-wear; he finds his friend’s body, realises that what happened was no dream, and summons the authorities to the scene. Strange beginnings complement a funeral where Neil’s parents end up consoling him as much as vice versa. On the trip, while Lou drowns his sorrows, he meets Mallory at a nearby, not-so-nearby dive, and begins an exploration of the spirit world. The journey is a theme in this novel, the roadside scenery described with a vivid and subtle poetry throughout. Also beautifully captured are aspects relationships – for instance,
Read more

The Survival Girls Book Review

Image
The Survival Girls book: http://thesurvivalgirls.com/ Among her other achievements, Ming Holden gained the top prize in a Glimmer Train fiction contest in 2013. The email announcing her win came into my busy inbox one morning last year, and I almost deleted it. I clicked on it, more to get it marked as read than anything else, and I glanced at some words of acceptance from the prizewinner of the latest story competition, with a quote from Madeleine Albright and something about the power of intentionality. “Politics and philosophy,” I thought. When I clicked through beyond the teaser (which DID NOT do her writing-advice piece justice, although quoting a Democrat-appointed cabinet secretary, and a bit of philosophy will - surprisingly - get me clicking at anything), there was a wonderful Obamaesque idealism in Holden’s jesuitical plea to write for others, once you have an intended readership in your head. That readership can be the EMO kids, the dispossessed, the refugees, the voice
Read more