Monday, January 5, 2009
The Blagojevich Tar Baby
Posted by: lain // Category: Failed Attempts at Looking Reputable, Joel Chandler Harris, Tar Baby // 11:41 am
If there’s a more apt description of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, I can’t think of it.
I wonder if the cartoonist, Pat Oliphant, will hear any criticism about using the phrase tar baby. Though the use of tar baby is spot-on in the Joel Chandler Harris connotation, readers of this blog know how folks can flip out whenever someone says it.
Thanks for sending the cartoon along, Deb.
Related:
- Tar Baby Is Alive and Well on the Internet
- Tar Baby in Classic Saturday Night Live Sketch
- The Black Addams Family
Comments: 0
The Howard School Brings the Adorable and the Brer Rabbit Stories
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Herding Cats, Storytelling, Tar Baby, When Babies Ramble // 2:46 pm
First of all, Happy Halloween! I hope you’re having a spooktacular day. We totally are.
The Howard School visited today, and brought a hearty amount of awesomeness in the form of 21 second graders (we think). They were a hoot.
Nannie and Jeri gave them a tour of the Wren’s Nest, Donald gave them a performance of the Brer Rabbit stories, and I provided them with a mess of Brer Lion t-shirts. Lain sat around and put his feet up.
In return, the kids performed their own versions of the Brer Rabbit stories on our stage.
The children had crafted papier-mâché masks of various characters and “acted along” as their teachers read from The Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit.
Here’s one of the masks, up close and personal.
Below is Brer Rabbit (and family–you can understand the need for poetic license when you have 21 fidgety players) stumbling upon the tar baby.
Pretty convincing, if I do say so.
My favorite part of the performances were when the students, instructed to repeat after their teacher, would boisterously yell stage directions. For example:
TEACHER: (with repeat-after-me emphasis) And then Brer Fox said, puffing up his chest, “I’m–”
2-3 CHILDREN: (with passion) PUFFING UP HIS CHEST!
TEACHER: (chuckling) I’m going to cook you in a stew!
1 CHILD: (timidly) I’m going to cook you in a stew?
I loved it. Thanks for a great day, Howard School!
Comments: 4Disney’s 1956 Joel Chandler Harris Tribute
Posted by: lain // Category: Brer Rabbit, Historic Preservation, Joel Chandler Harris, Sing Songery, Song of the South, Storytelling, Tar Baby, Technological Advances, Uncle Remus // 4:53 pm
This tribute to Joel Chandler Harris aired on the television show “Disneyland” on January 18, 1956 to coincide with the theatrical re-release of Song of the South. Walt Disney himself hosted the program.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5306178916172912157The video concludes with the Song of the South version of “The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story” (37:45).
Items of note–
1. Young Joel Chandler Harris is played by David Stollery, who went on to design the Toyota Celica A40 series in 1978. Thank you, David.
2. Joseph Addison Turner is depicted as Colonel Sanders himself. In reality he was probably 35 or so when he hired Harris.
See what I mean?
3. My apologies if this video gets taken down. If I go to jail for posting this, please call my mom.
Comments: 9Tropic Thunder Starring Uncle Remus, I Mean Robert Downey Jr.
Posted by: lain // Category: Joel Chandler Harris, Mr. T., Robert Downey Jr., Tar Baby, Uncle Remus // 12:07 pm
On Friday Tropic Thunder, the action-satire directed by Ben Stiller, opened in theaters.
Robert Downey Jr. stars in the film and plays Kirk Lazarus, an absurd method actor who undergoes skin pigmentation treatment to better portray a black man on screen.
My “Uncle Remus” Google Alert has been blowing up ever since. From CNN, and echoed by a few others (1, 2):
“Downey’s blackface performance is an appalling mixture of Mr. T and Uncle Remus, but at the same time he endows the actor with enough straight critical intelligence to appreciate the severity of their situation.”
Downey’s character, Kirk Lazarus, creates a seemingly tough (like Mr. T) and sagacious (like Uncle Remus) onscreen persona. But since Lazarus is method acting (and rarely shooting the movie-within-the-movie), he’s ridiculed for failing to stop acting like a black war hero when the cameras aren’t rolling.
So that part of the comparison is fair. But it’s unfortunate that the CNN journalist ignores the intelligence of Uncle Remus. No offense, Mr. T.
I doubt it was a choice–Uncle Remus is so often connoted as shuffling and dimwitted, no matter what was originally written. It’s not unlike what’s happened to the connotation of “tar baby” recently.
When Joel Chandler Harris wrote the Uncle Remus stories in the late 19th Century, Remus was a significant departure from other black characters in popular fiction. Uncle Remus was a philosopher revered by the author, not a minstrel presented only for cheap laughs.
In 1986 Ralph Ellison wrote:
“Aesop and Uncle Remus had taught us that comedy is a disguised form of philosophical instruction; and especially when it allows us to glimpse the animal instincts lying beneath the surface of our civilized affectations.”
Reading about Uncle Remus in movie reviews, you’d have no idea what Ellison was talking about.
Film critics and historical characters aside, if you like extremely inappropriate jokes and meta-fictional hijinks (like the staff of the Wren’s Nest), Tropic Thunder is for you.
Comments: 2Stuff White People Like–Being Offended
Posted by: lain // Category: Joel Chandler Harris, Tar Baby // 3:09 pm
Stuff White People Like is one of the smartest and funniest blogs on the internet.
While recent posts have been few and far between, the latest post–Being Offended–is very pertinent to the legacy of Joel Chandler Harris–
Naturally, white people do not get offended by statements directed at white people. In fact, they don’t even have a problem making offensive statements about other white people (ask a white person about “flyover states”). As a rule, white people strongly prefer to get offended on behalf of other people.
Tar Baby, anyone?
The fact that Joel Chandler Harris (white guy) recorded the stories of the slaves (enslaved Africans / African Americans / black people / folks he revered …you pick) he grew up with on the plantation–well, that makes him a perfect target for politically correct backlash.
Often, we hear that parents won’t bring their children here because we’re too racist. Other times, folks read the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia article and get all scholarly on us when we’re trying to give tours of the home.
Ironically, it’s almost always the white folks who are offended. I’m not saying that all white people get offended–I’m just saying that when we hear about how we’re kinda racist, well, it’s mostly white folks doing the talking.
Previously– Tar Baby is Alive and Well on the Internet
Related– Joel Chandler Harris Biography, New Georgia Encylopedia
Comments: 0Tar Baby Is Alive and Well on the Internet
Posted by: lain // Category: Tar Baby // 9:05 am
The other day Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) included the phrase “tar baby” in a memo to his GOP colleagues.
“Hispanic voters are a swing group in this election and future elections. John McCain, being from a border state, may be out of sync with many Republicans but he has standing among Hispanics. Barrack Obama has not made the sale to Hispanic voters. Thus, this issue is a tar baby for anyone who touches it, with land mines everywhere.”
Political bloggers have eaten this right up. Yesterday, Tim from Baby Got Books directed me to this post over at the political blog The Crypt. The comments are particularly enlightening.
Seriously, if you’re bored at work today, you should at least skim the 210 comments (at press time). The spectrum of opinions about the phrase “tar baby” is incredible and, apparently, infuriating no matter what side you’re on. I particularly like the people who suggest that others “get a history lesson and watch Song of the South.”
Also interesting is that it takes quite some time before either Joel Chandler Harris or syntax enter the discussion. [Tar Baby?]
Previously–
Tar Baby in Classic Saturday Night Live Sketch
Response to the Charlotte Observer’s Tar Baby Editorial
Comments: 5The Black Addams Family
Posted by: lain // Category: Good Questions, Historical Quagmires, Storytelling, Tar Baby, This is awkward // 1:43 pm
A few months ago, the folks at Sketchworks Comedy asked us if they could use the Wren’s Nest to film a sketch that would play during their live show. We’re pretty cool, so of course we said yes.
The sketch was the Black Addams Family, and it’s just now online–
Given that I like what’s funny and that Joel Chandler Harris is an author whose work has sometimes been called stereotypical and racist, I found the premise of the Black Addams Family at the Wren’s Nest remarkably intriguing.
It’s also really well done. Compare it to the original version, and I think you’ll be impressed–
What made the Black Addams Family even more interesting was a bit of conversation I overheard between some of the cast members who were taking a break. They were talking about the Wren’s Nest–
“Isn’t this place racist or something?”
“I don’t know. I think they’ve got a bunch of tar babies running around.”
The Black Addams Family is a parody that relies on two things: (1) the creepy house that happens to be the home of Joel Chandler Harris and (2) racial stereotypes being funny.
Ironically, it was exactly this type of humor, often used in the 19th century by white writers, that Joel Chandler Harris sought to avoid.
Many writers who wrote stories involving blacks relied on stereotypes through overwrought dialect or blackface-like presentations. (The enormous difference between that and the Black Addams Family is that this time black folks are, of course, in on the jokes.)
Joel Chandler Harris, meanwhile, distanced himself from his peers by presenting a black protagonist, Uncle Remus, in a way that was respectful and meticulously faithful to African American folklore.
For example, when Uncle Remus tells the little boy the story of the great deluge and the little boy mentions Noah, Remus explains that Noah isn’t in the story. It’s significant that Remus doesn’t conform to the Noah’s Ark story accepted by white America–he gives legitimacy to his own, African American version of the story.
This kind of cultural equality was, suffice to say, somewhat rare in the southern United States during the 19th century.
One hundred years later, Harris is often confused with his peers who mostly relied on stereotypes for yuks, and his (along with Uncle Remus’) reputation has suffered.
It’s kinda complicated, but I think that there are three morals here–
- Go see Sketchworks in Decatur.
- Historically, Joel Chandler Harris hasn’t had great marketing.
- When you’re holding a bucket of KFC, a fake illegitimate child, and the afro pick for Cousin It’s hair, it may be the absolute best time to discuss racism. Or maybe it’s the worst. There’s not much in between.
I’m just sayin’.
Comments: 0Tar Baby In Classic Saturday Night Live Sketch
Posted by: lain // Category: Storytelling, Tar Baby, Very Serious Posts With No Funny Business // 3:05 pm
This is one of the best sketches ever performed on Saturday Night Live.
I know this because I’ve seen it before and loved it, and also because the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time just told me so (via Funny Pages 2.0. Thanks!).
Richard Pryor and Chevy Chase are obviously amazing. The flow, timing, and writing are tight and masterful. I wish they kept most sketches this short.
It’s interesting, however, that the drama hinges on the phrase “tar baby,” which may or may not be a racial slur. Tar is of course black, and baby is diminutive, so it’s been easy for many to assume that it is a racial slur.
For example, check out the end of this article, published yesterday, which once and for all declares John McCain a racist because he used the phrase tar baby–
The big question is: Is McCain racist? Or is he pandering to racists? And is there a difference?
His 2007 use of the term “tar baby” pretty much settles it. Unless, of course, you’re a sucker for yet another apology: “I don’t think I should have used that word and it was wrong to do so.”
It hasn’t always been this way. The tar baby image comes from the “sticky hair” stories from Africa. There are hundreds of these. As circumstances changed, and enslaved Africans were brought to the United States, the image changed too–from sticky hair to the glue man to the tar baby.
Donald, one of our storytellers, regularly tells an African story called “Anansi and the Glue Man” juxtaposed with Joel Chandler Harris’ “Wonderful Tar-Baby Story.” They’ve got quite a bit in common.
If you listen to the Wonderful Tar Baby story, it’s pretty clear that the tar baby represents a lot of things, but not a racial slur.
Donald Griffin - The Wonderful Tar Baby Story
While it’s a shame that the Saturday Night Live sketch has broadcast phantom connotations of the tar baby, that doesn’t make the clip any less of a classic. Not only is it hilarious, but it’s historic.
And although tar baby is misused as a racial slur, I like how it’s ambiguous. Would Richard Pryor have reacted the same way had Chevy Chase not preceded “tar baby” with “negro”?
Comments: 7Br’er at Beep Beep Gallery
Posted by: lain // Category: Brer Rabbit, Tar Baby, Uncle Remus // 5:23 pm
From Thought Marker:
“At BEEP BEEP [map] is the first collaborative show between Michi and Dosa. The work will cross a number of media, and focus on issues of race with particular reference to the Uncle Remus / Br’er Rabbit tales.”
Dope!
Beep Beep is open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays during the afternoon. The staff at the Wren’s Nest suggests that you take off Friday early sometime over the next month to check out the show.
Comments: 21940s Uncle Remus Comics from Disney
Posted by: lain // Category: Marketing Tricks, Old Comics, Shameless Promotion, Tar Baby // 3:46 pm
Occasionally, my google alerts point me to neat stuff, like old Uncle Remus Comics.
These ran in the funny papers for nearly three decades, from 1945 to 1972.
A full color comic strip was drawn up for the Cheerios Premium Giveaway. According to my friend the internet, these Premiums are kind of a big deal for collectors, but are really just a one-time marketing gimmick from Cheerios long ago.
Here at the Wren’s Nest, we’ve got some copies of the original comics from 1906. Our scanner is being fickle at the moment, however. In the mean time, enjoy!
If you’re into old comics, that is.
Comments: 0