At the movies.

Clerks 2 and Monster House. What could they possibly have in common, besides being really fine films I've seen in the last couple of weeks? Both of them have come under fire for material potentially offensive to African-Americans. As an African-American, I find this rather laughable.

In Clerks 2, there's a scene introducing a foreign (to me) racial slur: 'porchmonkey'. I can't be faulted too much for my ignorance; it originated in the South and I'm a Yankee. The scene also features the 'n' word (used in the context of a broken bottle as a 'n***er knife'). Racial slurs trouble me, but, used in this context (Randal trying to take back that which I've never heard before), it's surprisingly funny. There are some at the IMDB message boards up in arms that this stuff might be offensive to my people. Two points I want to make: a) For some reason, I just know that someone who isn't Black made that comment and b) Would comics Wanda Sykes and Earthquake have done the scene if they considered it offensive? Besides, where are those people claiming that this film could be offensive to Christians, Lord of the Rings fans and people who are pro-ass to mouth?

Monster House is certainly a more benign film, but, lo and behold, people (at the IMDB) have raised a fuss over it. One of the bungling cops investigating the house is Black, and people have actually stated comparisons to Stepin Fetchit. Christ on a pogo stick! It's just a forking movie! Besides, the two of them struck me as 'these kids are making this up', bumbling authority figures one tends to see in these movies.

To steer away from racial issues, which I honestly couldn't care about, I read one of the funniest lines I've ever seen in a movie review, about the Will Ferrell vehicle (pun not intended) Talladega Nights: the Ballad of Ricky Bobby:

It approaches its few funny ideas like a cat watching fish in an aquarium: It sees them, it wants them, but it has no idea how to get to them.