One More Bit about A Christmas Story—the Un-PC Element
One More Bit about A Christmas Story—the Un-PC Element by Roxanne McDonald
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Interesting to note is how humor has changed in the last twenty years. |
While A Christmas Story still has many, many moments that contemporary viewers can laugh at without feeling socially inappropriate and therefore guilty, it is interesting to note the many un-pc moments in the movie that comic writers today would certainly never be able to pull off—or get away with:
Consider, for example, when the father (Darren McGavin) is haggling over a Christmas tree. The adult Ralphy narrates, saying that his dad “loved bargaining as much as an Arab trader.” Oooph.
Then there’s the implied evil element, known in Ralph’s imagination as Black Bart (though he is white), who is such a bad pillager and plunderer that Ralph has to save his family by shooting the man with his Fisher Red Ryder 200-shot Carbine Air Rifle (which is still at this point in the movie a coveted item).
Finally, there is the ridiculous depiction of the Chinese restaurant workers who stand around the family at the Christmas Eve dinner singing “Deck the halls with bows of horry…far ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra.” Even after their manager tries to give them accent reduction lessons on the spot, they cannot render an American version, and therefore sent back to the kitchen.
There is today such a fine line between culturally sensitivity and really funny entertainment, that I couldn’t help but consider A Christmas Story…though other shows, thankfully, still play the race humor angle and –like Scrubs, for instance, directly and indirectly incorporating the issues in the episodes—get away with it.
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