"Might backfire, get a patsy to do it - one we can dismiss as thick when it fails..."
Jon Stewart has slammed already-embattled J.K. Rowling for the goblins that run Gringotts bank in her Harry Potter film series, calling them out as an anti-Semitic trope.
*blinks*
Stewart, who is Jewish, questioned why Rowling chose to 'throw Jews in there to run the f***ing underground bank' in a fictional world where people 'can ride dragons and have pet owls.'
Well, maybe because of this trope. Dwarves, goblins and kobolds ("You no take candle!") have been associated with mining and and hoarding in popular fiction and culture for the longest time.
What next, a claim that Walt Disney really wanted Dopey, Sneezy, Grumpy and the gang to sing 'Oy vey, oy vey, we're off to work today..'?
When he first saw the Harry Potter films, Stewart said he expected other theater patrons to 'be like "h*** shit, she did not, in a wizarding world, to just throw Jews in there to run the f***ing underground bank." And everybody was just like "Wizards."'
Ah, of course. It's not just Rowling who describes a fantasy world for a living, is it? It's people like this idiot, so certain that everyone should share his delusion.
And being Hollywood, stuffed with those capable of sensing a pile-on the way primitive fish scent blood in the water, he can always find people dumber than he is to cheer him on:
In light of Stewart's criticism, Sarah Silverman weighed in on the controversy, although she said she hadn't read the books or seen the films.
'After watching the below and then seeing the clip in the thread I am just kind of stunned. You know when you giggle but it’s really more fear than joy?' she wrote on Twitter.
I don't think it's either, my sweet.
I think it's the nervous giggle of a person so desperate to be popular and down wiv da kidz, she's cozying up to the bully and cheering him on as he taunts the odd one out, the one who won't give in and give him the capitulation he demands...
Since when have Jews had pointed ears? Anyway, I've got a big nose, maybe she was lampooning me.
ReplyDeleteI avoid those who find fault in others over their own petty obsessions. So Stewart is now on my naughty list.
ReplyDeleteWhat about dwarfism? Wasn't she being offensive about them? Or through Hagrid, offensive to big, thick, blokes? Or blacks? Luna Lovegood is Oirish, and therefore dozy. French witches from Beaubatons are sexy, German wizards are very Teutonic.
ReplyDeletePersonally, as a believer in free speech, I would be comfortable with anti-semitic rants, but I would know that the ranter was a left winger (i.e. National Socialist German Worker or simply Labour) or from a specific religious group (i.e. Labour again, or a Peaceful) and I'd know that they were to sort of person that one should avoid. At least, Joos would know who they had to deal with, instead of it being undercover (fuck me, that's Labour again!).
@Stonyground,
ReplyDeleteIt's the nose, Oi Vay!
"Since when have Jews had pointed ears?"
ReplyDeleteMaybe he's confusing them with Vulcans?
"So Stewart is now on my naughty list."
I must have missed his ouvre, whatever it is. Can't say I'm likely to be the poorer for it...
"At least, Joos would know who they had to deal with, instead of it being undercover (fuck me, that's Labour again!)."
Yup!