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Today will go down in history as a dark day for manbabykind. For today, the lady Ghostbusters trailer dropped. And there was much wailing and tweeting of tweets.
Let’s take a stroll amongst the wailing manbabies on Twitter, indulging their ridiculous rants.
And then let’s talk about what’s really wrong with the Ghostbusters trailer, which has nothing to do with gender and everything to do with race.
First, the manbabies:
There were those who pulled out the old “my childhood has been raped” nonsense.
https://twitter.com/M_Stewarr/status/705445173568868352
So my childhood has been officially raped now… #Ghostbustershttps://t.co/vrQ2jmwDc4
— Dat Dragons Dude (@dragonsfan1988) March 3, 2016
There were those who strenuously insisted that their anger at the female Ghostbusters had nothing whatsoever to do with misogyny, nuh-uh, but was rather a reaction to the trailer’s objective terribleness.
Anyone else not impressed with the new #Ghostbusters trailer? (No feminazi's its not because i hate women)
— Ryan (@DeeTownn) March 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/katmereMUFC/status/705463502278959108
There were the fat-shamers, because at no point in history has a fat person ever been funny.
New ghostbusters movie has that annoying white fat lady. Not interested, I'm shitting all over it! #Ghostbusters
— 8Bit (@The8BitVillain) March 3, 2016
https://twitter.com/NerdzurK1/status/705500568035397636
@voxday gender aside, original Ghostbusters at least weren't fat
— Константин Мокин (@goga002) March 3, 2016
My Ghostbusters have dicks. Long, swinging, dicks. They're also funny. These Ghostbusters have big fat sweaty vaginas and are not funny.
— Matty Almeida (@MattyCat24) March 3, 2016
There were Trump fans:
https://twitter.com/easternmney/status/705506566758383618
https://twitter.com/jaesex23/status/705499814415486977
Hell, there were so many Trump fans that one observer made a helpful Venn diagram:
https://twitter.com/BCDreyer/status/705475020076785665
There were even a few Knights Who Say Cuck:
https://twitter.com/kcD___/status/705472132185202688
Some raised the specter of WHITE GENOCIDE:
https://twitter.com/TheSamGrady/status/705434158152224772
https://twitter.com/TheSamGrady/status/705496761662578689
Some worried where the evil feminazis would strike next:
https://twitter.com/garmonbozia/status/705427963789979648
Others offered somewhat less comprehensible critiques:
#Ghostbusters, a new scapegoat for idiot hipster trash and feminazi garbage, fuck this obvious PC toilet fest.
— Rob Grundy (@Officer_Grundy) March 3, 2016
One Tweeter summed up the day on Twitter with a little haiku:
https://twitter.com/luketunderwood/status/705500826580594688
And another Tweeter left us with this existential question:
https://twitter.com/cleotrav/status/705505847129022464
Still another raised the possibility of a second reboot with a rather different cast:
Already working on a new new Ghostbusters that is played entirely by my favorite versions of Kurt Russell from every decade.
— ozempic godskin noble (@hamsandcastle) March 3, 2016
And this guy helped us put it all in perspective:
https://twitter.com/GregorySantos/status/705462910714183680
So what happens once we step back from all the manbaby whining, and the jokes about the manbaby whining. and actually watch the trailer? Well, be my guest:
I don’t know about you, but I’m a bit underwhelmed.
There are a few funny moments, but the trailer sort of steps on them. It’s hard to tell if this is a terrible trailer for a good film, or if the Ghostbusters reboot will end up being, well, basically a female version of Adam Sandler’s godwful Pixels.
But the really distressing thing that the trailer reveals is that the three white gals in the movie are the scientists, while Leslie Jones’ Patty is relegated — or so it seems from the trailer — to the tired, stereotypical role of sassy black sidekick who may not be educated but who “knows the streets.”
This racial/racist failure has not exactly gone unnoticed; it’s already inspired thinkpieces and polemics on sites ranging from The Root to The Inquisitr, as well as in innumerable Tweets.
The original Ghostbusters, however hallowed it has become, was infamous for a similar racial failure. That movie’s “black ghostbuster,” played by Ernie Hudson, was so forgettable, and so obviously a token, that the designer simply left him off of this recently reworked Ghostbusters poster featuring his three white comrades.
Despite all the complaints by angry manbabies about the gender-swap of the main characters, it may well turn out that the real problem with the film isn’t that it’s too radically different from the original, but rather that it is too similar — at least in its inability to imagine a black character as more than a token or a stereotype.
The one thing that gives me some hope is Jones herself, an amazing comedian who may have been able to transform her character into something more nuanced and less stereotypical than what we see in the trailer.
I guess we’ll see.
I was disappointed by the trailer, pretty much for the exact reasons you stated. Moving past the OBVIOUS racial issues, the part I couldn’t believe was just how none of the jokes landed.
Fingers crossed that it’s just a case of a bad trailer, but my enthusiasm for the movie just dropped considerably.
Just want to remind everybody that it’s being distributed by Sony, who still hasn’t let Kesha out of her contract with her alleged abuser Dr. Luke.
I hate that they get to be the ones profiting of such a cool and progressive venture…
…Winston Zeddemore was actually my favorite Ghostbuster…
I’d disagree with the racial aspect. Winston Zeddemore was probably the most relatable character for some viewers. (i.e. “If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”) He’s the salt of the earth and plays straight man opposite three wacky academics. From the trailer I saw, it seemed like they were trying to do something similar with Leslie Jones’ character. Some decent movies have pretty bad trailers, so I’ll forbear judgement for now.
(Been lurking foreva, hi everyone!!!)
So dude says that at least the original Ghostbusters weren’t fat. I seem to recall Bill Murray in 2 saying, “Suck in the guts guys, we’re the Ghostbusters.”
@Zyvlyn
I agree with your agreeing. I do hold on to some hope because Paul Feig’s last Film, Spy, was a high concept comedy with a sizable budget and terrible trailers, yet I thought it was hilarious and loved every minute of it.
Repeat after me, shitlords: “No one has retconned my childhood. The original movies still exist, and I can go and watch them whenever. This movie doesn’t change history.”
Though, I would watch an all-male version of Little Women. Of course, pissbabies will cry about that too because there won’t be any explosions and there’ll be those dreaded “feelings” and things, and that the plot doesn’t revolve around violence or murder.
On the topic of the racism: Yeah, I’m also hoping this is a case of bad trailer, and not a case of “we didn’t learn from our past and are now doomed to repeat it”.
Regarding the manbabies, my husband saw a Reddit comment about how awful this movie is going to be because the original wasn’t a comedy but now they’re making it one.
Some folks may need to re-evaluate what they understand about their childhood favorites.
I had just watched the trailer before reading this. It just looked like a shot-for-shot remake of the original – and I’ve already seen the original many many times. I’ve no need to see it again with the actors swapped out.
I will reserve judgment until I see/know more, but yeah, underwhelming. I had hoped they would bring something fresh to an old favorite.
And this is all not even counting racism.
I am a bit encouraged by the fact that she has enough scenes to make it into a good trailer clip. That alone makes it an improvement over the original, which manages to make complete sense even when you cut his scenes out. Even though the premise is pretty cliché, I think there’s definitely potential for subversion. We’ll just have to see, though.
Ryan,
I’d believe your claim that your dislike of this movie has nothing to do with misogyny a little bit more if you didn’t use the word “feminazi” unironically.
Jae,
Ghostbusters will be arriving in theaters not only before the inauguration but well before the election. So even if it wouldn’t be a violation of the 1st amendment – not freeze peach, actual free speech violation! – President Trump will not be able to stop it.
Vox Day,
Louisa May Alcott did in fact write a sequel to Little Women called Little Men. Jo turns the large house she inherited from her grumpy aunt into a boarding school for poor and/or orphaned boys. Yes. Jo March, that evil feminist type of woman did more for fictional boys than any MRA ever did for real ones.
You might not have known about Little Men because it wasn’t turned into a movie. I would think an “author” would know about books that weren’t adapted into movies, but apparently not.
https://twitter.com/Lesdoggg/status/705449841330102272
Jones herself is in the movie, thus knows more than we do from a trailer. overall she seems to be defending the movie in the strongest possible terms.
The trailer wasn’t great.
Welcome!
What I think you’ve forgotten is that to misogynists, only men who are quite obese are fat. Although I think they lower the fatness bar for feminist men. Women, on the other hand are fat if they are larger than a US size 2.
Exactly! He’s the only one of the four who, when it comes to telling others about ghostly phenomenon, actually gets how outrageous all that stuff would sound. He doesn’t disbelieve it, of course, but it’s clear that – next to Bill Murray – he’s more of a people person than either Egon or Stantz.
I’m hoping the full movie will bring out more of Patty’s municipal historian side, which sounds like a pretty fascinating thing:
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/services/historian/winslowdoc.html
It looks terrible. 🙁 And if it fails, there’ll be a bunch of people ready to jump in and say “See? This is why we don’t make comedies with female casts.” 🙁
His childhood was *officially* raped! There were forms and everything. In triplicate. The notaries wept.
As I posted over in the “feminists want white guys to die” thread, before knowing there’d be a specific Ghostbusters thread, this looks relentlessly okay.
I’d probably *still* rather go to some specialty lost-film screening or a Mister Lobo (local horror host) presentation.
I’m thinking probably not as good as Ghostbusters but better than Ghostbusters II? Somewhere on a par with a good episode of Real Ghostbusters? Eh, you could do worse.
Seems a lot of people are quick to pick on a movie based on the trailer as someone who watched the first & second trailer for Suicide Squad today. The first one had me figuring I’d save my money & see it on Netflix, the second had me marking the release date in my calendar.
So I’m going to reserve judgement . . . for now. What I think annoys me the most is the guys tweeting act like no comedy with an all male cast ever tanked.
It’s funny how that one dude says he hates fat people, but Trump is an exception. Because of course he is.
As for the new Ghostbusters, it sounds like unfortunately they are doing the “token sassy black woman as sidekick” thing that has been done to death. Although it’s kinda hard to tell from just the trailer.
Besides that fact, the trailer itself doesn’t make the movie look very funny or appealing IMHO. I’m probably still going to see it though.
If these people’s childhoods are erased, do they disappear from the world as adults? I kind of hope so.
Maybe it’s like a weird Butterfly Effect.
Maybe if they never saw Ghostbusters or became Ghostbusters Fans (which I doubt all of these people are, some of them just seem like they’re complaining because something they liked as a kid is now being “feminized” despite the fact they might not like it now) events would have changed, they wouldn’t have experienced certain things, and they would have different world views and they wouldn’t be massive misogynist shitheads.
I sort of thought the trailer was okay. Aside from the racism.
Why… why is the childhood so sacred? This has to be part of the manbaby psychology; not only can we not put our toys away, we must defend them to the death. If you’re stuck in a romanticized past, it makes sense that you would wish nothing to change, critique, or add to that past.
This made me realize how pathetic these people are. I’m sad now.