In the style of meta-movie making, Parenthood‘s Dax Shepard is embarking on a celebrity cameo-filled adventure to become a martial arts action star in Brother’s Justice, a mockumentary with a bit more testosterone than anything Christopher Guest has come up with. Forced to quickly learn the ranks of ass-kickery, Shepard finds himself woefully out ranked by the experts he encounters. Like the guy who knows Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu — or, as Shepard describes it, “fag fighting.”
Shepard, who became a household name with Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d, could be entering The Dilemma territory with his anti-gay joke.
But this is a mockumentary, after all, where Shepard plays a supposedly fictional version of himself.
In an attempt to reinvent his career, actor Dax Shepard makes the rash decision to abandon comedy in pursuit of his true dream: to become an internationally-renown martial arts star. Without any formal martial arts training, nor adequate funding for his ‘blockbuster’ action movie script, Dax enlists the help of his buddies including producer Nate Tuck and actor Tom Arnold. Together, they fight to realize Dax’s true passion while facing rejection at every turn. With maniacal conviction, Dax journeys on a bizarre path that becomes increasingly nonsensical and destructive, all at the expense and exploitation of his personal and professional relationships.
Does that mean he’s off the hook for the “fag fighting” remark?
How about we take this to the next level?
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Only if you’re also willing to let Vince Vaughn and Universal Pictures’ The Dilemma receive the same pass. Both phrases are uttered by their films’ main protagonists, who audiences are supposed to cringe at (for their buffoonery) but also root for. Which puts you in the awkward position of cheering on a man who uses terms like “fag fighting.” Haha?
We’ve made the case a number of times that all gay humor, even involving slurs, is not created equally. And the news climate does impact the comedic value of such stabs at humor — which means with all these suicides racking up, and even the president publicly acknowledging the on-going (but not new) bullying epidemic, won’t be helped by American audiences ROFLing at lines like these.
“What’re you gonna do? Make out with me until I tag out?” asks Shepard of his Jiu-Jitsu challenger. And while I’m sure the line might offend some actual practitioners of the martial art, that guttural reaction you have to even hearing a line like this one — that instant, “OMG, did he really just fucking say that?” feeling — is a decent barometer as to whether these are “funny haha” jokes or “wholly insensitive” jibes.
So goes the test: Replace “fag” with another slur aimed at a certain culture and see where it gets you. If Shepard referred to Taekwondo as “gook kicking,” would you give it a pass? How about mixed martial arts as “nigger wrestling”?
Uncomfortable yet? You just answered the question.
alan brickman
He’s playing a kind of jerk….so this is what he would say in character….grow some skin and some humour…
Pygar
No, I’m not uncomfortable. And the “Jiu-Jitsu challenger”? That’s an actor by the name of Bradley Cooper, by the way.
I’ve heard lots of gay men make this comment about BJJ. Perhaps if I hadn’t have “gone around the world” with a hot “straight” BJJ trainer in Austin, TX my opinion might have been different.
This is NOT in the same league as Vince Vaughn line, sorry. We have more important issues to deal with.
hephaestion
@alan brickman: You wouldn’t say that if it were “N-word” fighting or Kike Fighting or any other slur. Stand up and fight these assholes who expect us to dish out $12 to go to the theatre and then they fucking INSULT us. FUCK that shit. No more money to those who are responsible for all these gay kids killing themselves.
Ted
Society is fast become overly sensitive. Do the people who are offended by this not watch Family Guy or Southpark, etc? They are far more offensive than these one-liners from these movies.
Mr. Enemabag Jones
Clearly, the Vince Vaughn line was offensive because Vince is fat and ugly. Dax however, is thin and cute, so he will get a pass from queers like Alan, Pygar, and Ted.
C
No, it’s not acceptable. This stuff doesn’t happen in a vacumn. If homophobia is normalised on TV and in movies, it seeps into wider society.
Remember September, when five kids who were gay or percieved as gay killed themselves, and how this site and every other LGBT site was shocked,horrified and genuinely sad? I can guarantee hearing this kind of stuff in casual contexts like this really didn’t help.I’m not denying the bullying was the main cause, but I suspect the bullies were influenced by media that was homophobic, as well as parents and so on.
You might be tough enough and old enough to cope. But teenagers most often aren’t. Before you lash out at me, I am a teenager and I see the effects of casual homophobia around me every day.When shows that are aimed at a teen market that contain high levels of homophobia come on the air, I see a marked upswing in the number of anti-gay comments made at my school.
I repeat: this stuff doesn’t happen in a vacumn. You cannot mourn the death of gay children and then next month say “grow some skin and some humour.”
greg
i find it quite funny. i do. alliteration makes me laugh.
but humor is subjective. what i find funny is often offensive to others.