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jeff blim being problematic and unsung starkid: a thread
(tw transphobia and racism)
(tw transphobia and racism)
so unsung opens up with jeff talking and introducing the evening, and the first bit is a scrapped gilderoy/hermione duet that clark describes as "cute" (which leads into jeff making a joke about how thats pedophilia, which is played off for laughs)
next is the demo of 'take off your clothes' which jeff wrote for the princess/aladdin, its not as bad as the others but its still making light of a pedophilic relationship and thats one too many pedophilias sir
then it goes into trail to oregon (the draft version). this is where the whole story is completely different; it revolves around an 11 year old boy named josh, and starts with him at school getting reprimanded for not taking the school assignment (playing oregon trail) seriously.
while his teacher is scolding him, he starts to jerk off for no discernible reason, and thats played off as a funny joke? once the teacher leaves, the magic pedo janitor is introduced, and he taunts/flirts with josh.
this is when the song "bratty little boys" comes in, which is just the pedo janitor singing about how josh is a brat with some skeevy lines (one is "kiss me" just out of nowhere) the janitor also makes lines about being passionate; ...
"thats how i get when im around children" (another line played off for laughs) the janitor talks about how josh jacks off in the bathroom (why is this necessary - josh is a child!) and theres some exposition and then he sends josh back in time to live the oregon trail.
theres some general plot, but the weirdness in this bit is: josh for some reason has sex with a 30 year old woman (who doesnt show up? its just talked about?) and this other girl natalie (who im not sure how old she is, but she seems adult? i dont know)...
is jealous of his relationship w the woman (though she is aware of his age as she comments on him being 11). thats most of the pedophile skeeviness
okay anyway onto the racism. when josh is sent back in time its because theres a dysentery plague being spread that he has to stop. jeff is narrating and explains that it was caused by an "indian" (native american) chief named.... chief mudblood...
who is trying to infect everyone with dysentery. he infected the grass i think and its affecting the animals and giving them dysentery. josh and natalie ally with jack bauer at this time, who in the draft is a white military macho man, and they have to stop chief "mudblood."
jeff repeatedly uses the term "indian" and overall its just incredibly distasteful. He also calls said chief a terrorist.
during a livestream they also mention that jeff gave robert american beer while underage, which doesnât sound too bad until you realise that robert wasnât a starkid at that point -
it was after the panel that robert attended due to the song contest (their first time meeting!). combined with the rest of this, that seems problematic
his blm response was also late and underwhelming. while this was played off as a distaste of online activism (a valid concern), when put in the context of his racism in unsung starkid it shows a worrying pattern of racism or indifference to it
some more distasteful content; in one of the earliest rim tim timmy episodes (in 2019) jeff makes jokes about jon hating bulimics and continuously drags on a joke about bulimia.
its very insensitive in nature and despite jon looking uncomfortable he keeps dragging it on until jon finally changes the subject.
later, jeff then joks about they/them pronouns, notably that its "more than one" (one joke he makes is that he would try to date "a they" so he'd "get more bang for his buck")
jon attempts to explain thats not how that works over and over but jeff continues to push the joke until jon once again has to change the subject entirely (and jeff tries to continue the joke even then
for anyone who doesnât want to watch the full hour (itâs a lot) here is a compilation gabe made of the worst parts
https://www.youtube.com/embed/LQ6rO0RRslA
https://www.youtube.com/embed/LQ6rO0RRslA
tw // bulimia
an addition (thanks amelia): jeff posted an apology to the rtt video in which he jokes abt bulimia
an addition (thanks amelia): jeff posted an apology to the rtt video in which he jokes abt bulimia
iâd like to talk about this apology. he says that the joke is not at the expense of bulimics, but it is. in making fun of someone for an attribute (not the right word but u get what i mean) u also make fun of that attribute. otherwise u wouldnât be making fun of that person +
âI just think we should spend more time focusing on intent, rather than individual trigger wordsâ not sure if this was the intention, but this dismisses triggers which can be incredibly harmful, going as far as to dismiss them as a whole concept
additionally, this misses +
additionally, this misses +
the point entirely. heâs not being criticised for mentioning bulimia (although a tw at the beginning would be nice) heâs being criticised for joking about an incredibly harmful topic. while rtt IS a character, jeff still wrote those things and chose to post them, and
even in context they are treated like a joke, so that is what they become.
also, as far as tone goes this is very passive aggressive, and rather than genuinely taking criticism seems like an attempt to undermine it (e.g, the condescending rhetorical questions at the end of 2)
also, as far as tone goes this is very passive aggressive, and rather than genuinely taking criticism seems like an attempt to undermine it (e.g, the condescending rhetorical questions at the end of 2)
