Hahaha! Wicked burn. But seriously, you already convinced me who you are with your last reponse. You don't need to keep this up just for my further entertainment.
S'funny how you think I'm reading your replies for your entertainment. But, you like, know who I am! I'm all like, spooked now.
Oh no! The guy who made a prejudiced decision about who I am didn't change it! Woe is me!
Just because I was flamed doesn't mean I was baiting for it.
From TFFAQ: Flamebait refers to comments whose sole purpose is to insult and enrage. If someone is not-so-subtly picking a fight (racial insults are a dead giveaway), it's Flamebait.
Just for reference, here's the original kingpin and here's the hollywood version. They look completely different to me (ignoring the change in race).
Since you're referencing, care to find a picture of an actor that looks more like it? An actor, not a wrassler (Big Show would be huge enough I suppose).
On a related note, I'd like to nominate Scrameustache for the most shrill and long-winded fanboy of the year award!
W00T!
But since it's only febuary, I should expect fierce competition to come.
Therefore: You are stupid (or a troll, which is the same). Because it's a simple point, and I've explained it repeatedly. I make the stupid call thusly: can't understand something simple after repeated explanation and multiple examples? Stupid.
I'm not calling you names to piss you off, or to get you to respond, I'm explaining to you that you are apparently not very smart.
Either prove to me that you aren't stupid, or live with your dumbness. I'm often surrounded by persons of lesser intellect, I'm used to it by now, but I can see how you would be in denial about it.
You care a lot that Ford should be caucasian. I don't. I think it's irrelevant.
Completely off. Your whole argument is based on erroneous foundations.
And you obviously don't think it's irrelevant, you're here arguing, obviously giving a damn. I think, in fact, that you are racist, you are happy that he's black, and you are defensive because I have a very valid reason why he shouldn't be. That would make you a racist hypocrite instead of an idiot. Which would explain your demonstrated ability to type words. You could simply be a troll, your behaviour, with the insults and the repeated baiting, is certainly troll-like. Hard to tell if you're attacking me with unfounded claims of racism because you're a troll or because you're projecting.
I don't care that he'd be caucasian. I care that he'd be like he has always been, which happens to be caucasian. There is a subtle difference. But, that seems to be some kind of abstract concept the likes of which escapes most mortals... or just a vocal minority of very dense people.
Do you understand that part? Can you understand THAT part? That I don't care that Ford be white, I care that the casting director of the "faithfull" movie cast his actors according to the established look of said characters if they are going to claim faithfullness?
Is this too complicated?
Maybe some pseudocode:
if (!theSame) {!faithfull;}
which is different from what you "understood", which was "if (!white) {bad;}".
So you're saying because your first experience of HG2G is the TV series, in which Ford was played by a white actor, that it's a deviation for him to be played by a black one?
No. You're wrong a lot, especially when you go "you are saying that". For a brit, you sure have a hard time understanding the english language.
I'm saying that it's FUCKING RETARDED (oh no! bad words and capitals, oh my) to pretend that he has never been described since I can show you pictures and an animated linedrawing of him that comes from a production that directly involved the author while he was alive.
You, and others, have a hardcore quasi-religious need to have the description in black and white (now, why didn't I just say "words"?), on paper. Well toots, the story is also in audio, and in audio-visual format. Accept it.
I find it tremendously idiotic to selectively ignore the visual information available to you when discussing how the character look. Therefore, I pass the following judgement on people who act that way: They must be stupid to do something so stupid.
I like the idea of him obliviously using an american accent for years without realizing he was the only one.
You... do know he doesn't actually speak english, right? I mean... There was a passage in the books, something about fishes (they were yellow, BTW, you seem to care a lot about colours that are specifically mentioned in writing)...
Since you bring it up, can you find a specific mention of skin colour in the book?
NO! I specifically mentioned I misplaced my copy of the book.
if you can't show where Ford is said to be caucasian in the book then the "clear deviation" may not be clear to everyone - it could only be clear in your mind that Ford was white.
TV SERIES!!!!!!!!! Jeez! First a radio show, then a book, then a TV show, then a videogame, then a movie. I don't NEED to find it "in the book", the book isn't holly, and you have the OBVIOUS source for the image we have of Ford.
Black people are just called black. In the same way that white people are actually more of a pink.
1-I have met black people, your sheltered and limited existance did not include such people? Your loss.
2-I'm actually beige, right now, and plan on temporarily becomming a browner shade over summer.
Is it too much to believe that Mos Def got the part because he is good?
Do you believe the reason of the week for the invasion of Iraq too? Here's a clue: Oil money and a strategic military foothold. Those were the REAL reasons.
Did you know that the slightly black character of Lando Calrissian was added specifically to quell the complaints of black activists who had lauched a boycott campaign of Star Wars because since the Galaxy Far Far away from A Long Time Ago didn't have a black guy innit, then it was racist?
Do you seriously believe that there is no tokenism in hollywood? That the "token black guy" concept was invented by klansmen or something? Wake the fuck up! They do this on purpose.
The sole issue with Ford Prefect is probably why he has an American accent
The sole issue YOU have with it. I have a major case of cognitive dissonance when over a decade of familiarity with this character is confronted with an image and a sound that doesn't fit the bill. You might be in denial about what he was meant to look like, originally (and no, I don't mean "meant" as in "it's important and defining on the character", but "meant" as in "Adams in white, everyone around him was white, he wrote what he knew"). An alien that could reliably pretend to be from Gilford would look and sound like all the people he knew from Gilford. Sound like it too, since the Babel Fish would transmit the appropriate accent, and after 15 years he'd pick it up naturally anyway.
I've always pictured Trillian as black. I'm not sure if it says that in the book anywhere or if it was just my imagination choosing, but I'm not complaining that they've cast a white girl. She'll be the same character.
It doesn't. She's your typical blonde english girl.
But, lemme guess, you're a black woman? That would explain 2 tyhings: Why you'd give such an atypical appearance to a british chick, and why you care so damn much about the possibility that Ford wasn't written with "caucasian" in mind.
For the record: It annoys me because it's a change. Unimportant, but unnecessary, and in a movie where the producers are telling me it's as faithfull as they could make it (don't tell me they couldn't find a guy that looked as much like the old Ford as Arthur, Zaphod and Trillian do to their old selves, it's not THAT hard). And, like I mentioned above, the cognitive dissonance, which WILL get in the way of my enjoyment for at least several minutes before I get aquainted with the rest.
But, as usual, there's no hope of mentioning race and keeping the conversation rational. SIgh.
P.S. Since you're in a flaming the Scrameustache mood over his supposed racism, I'll give you fodder: I also had a huge problem with Tuvok: 28 years of greenish/yellowish VUlcans, all with the same kind of straight features, long faces. All of a sudden, there's a black guy playing a vulcan. WTF? Are black Vulcans banned from serving on the Federation councils or something? And why in
Are you just one of those people who refuses to ever concede *anything*?
No, you are, because FORD WASN'T BLACK BEFORE! Sheesh, stop trying to nitpick your way into justifying the absurb possibility that they had miscast him the first time around.
He was a caucasian-looking alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Beetlegeuse, now he's a black/african-american/negroid/whateverthefuckyouw anttocallMosDef'srace-looking alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Beetlegeuse.
You have people upset at this because it's an unnecessary change to a well known and visually documented story whom the producers of the big-screen adaptation refer to as being followed as closely as possible, you have others who don't like it because they don't like rappers, and others because they simply don't like black people. I point out the unnecessary change, I get fucktards and loosers calling "teh rac1st!1!!". Which is an easy troll, therefore to be expected.
There are others somehow desperate to DEFEND the change by pretending that it isn't a change at all, which is dumb.
You want to start on the penguin thing? Ok: Arthur faces Ford turning into a penguin, he mentions a colour change. Penguins are black and white, their ventral feathers being the white ones. Since he's facing Arthur, a colour change that would be most noticeable would be the sudden apparation of a snow-white patch, not the slight darkening of his skin. I get some delusional person going "but penguin black is blacker than human black", and frankly, that's wanker talk.
Regarding Kingpin, I always thought they should have picked a fatter guy. Duncan is gigantic, but not so round. I always picture him the way he was drawn in the Miller/Mazzucchelli books. Also, he's a mafia boss. Mafias usually seem to be organized by race and/or ethniticity, so it seemed like an overtly political decision to make him black.
Well, he's not supposed to be fat, he's just HUGE. He's got something like 2% body fat. They actually had Duncan gain weight before the filming, I guess he wasn't willing to get THAT fat though.
And as far as mafia, not exactly: He's a crime boss, but he's not Causa Nostra, he's a self-made thug who got to the top on his own, not through family connections.
black people don't actually have black skin. They're brown.
MOST are. I've met really black people, it's surprising.
DNA, discussing casting of the characters, said [paraphrased] "Arthur Dent should be British. All the other characters can be whatever, but Arthur should be British."
It just irks me because I've had a very specific image of Ford in my head for years (from the TV show), and now he looks nothing like it.
Ok, first off, my opinion of you: Unintelligent, unable to grasps concepts that differ from the standard labels. Now that that is out of the way, the meat of the discussion:
So, since being qualified isn't enough... what exactly does a black actor have to do to NOT be the 'token' ?
Hmm... maybe the criteria I NAMED IN MY FIRST POST IN THIS THREAD? Maybe?
Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin: The only actor around that has the character's stature. He looked the part better than anyone, even with a different skin colour. Or playing a part that hasn't been established as being of a different colour before, or having a part that isn't basically showing up, looking black, then being dismissed while the actual characters with something to do and things to say do their thing.
But, you were unable to understand this the first time I explained it, so I don't expect you to understand this very simple concept this time around. you keep your binary "racist / politically correct" train of thought.
you forgot the using the notes he left that outlined eveything part.
Reminds me of Will Smith's I, Robot plug-interviews on late night talk shows last summer.
It went a lil' something like this: "The movie is very faithfull to the book!... My character is the only guy on earth who doesn't trust the robots." Only, in the books, 99.999999999999% of the population of earth has his character's distrustfull attitudes towards robots. Hmmmm...
It is in the best financial interest of those involved with the production of that motion picture to induce the public to think that the movie is an accurate adaptation of a good book. They stand to make MILLIONS from the movie's success, you don't really think they are above distorting the truth a bit, do you?
I'm sure they did use the notes... but I'm affraid they used them for toilet paper.
Acutally Mos Def is a very good actor and has been in a range of movies form Monsters Ball to The Italian Job to The Woodsman. Why can't his casting choice have been based on the fact that he is a good actor?
I'm glad that they picked a good actor to be the token black guy.
I liked the actor playing Pete in the first seasons of Smallville. He was still the token black guy, and his role was mostly limited to being hit on the head and spending half the show unconcious. At least Mos (whom you tell me is a good actor, I aven't see anything he was in) has good a role to play with, he's not "superman's concussed pal" or anything. Good for him. I still think tokenism is racist and immature.
my parent post does not fit any description of a flamebait post, yet, it's "-1 flamebait".
I think/. needs a written exam before giving away mod points, that way we could weed out those who are too ignorant or stupid to use them right.
Here's a hint: Use of profanity does not automatically euqate an act of flamebaiting. It can be used as a genuine expression of frustration and exasperation.
I'll bite, where in the book does it say what colour Ford Prefect is?
I have, for reasons I can't fanthom, misplaced that book (I have the other 4, where the helll id no1 go?), so I can't quote.
But I seem to remember a mention of his skin turning black when he becomes a penguin while onboard the Heart Of Gold. Maybe it was a comment from Arthur in the TV show or the radio series...
Anyway: Did he sound like an American rapper in the original radio show? No. What did he look like in the TV series? It's not as though there is no source material for his appearance that was created with the direct involvment of the author.
Hey, maybe Mos Def is gonna do a kick-ass job. One thing is clear: Casting a black guy for that role is a deviation from the established appearance of the character. No matter how unable you are to recall a specific mention of skin tone in the book.
P.S. I've been defending the choice of Michael Clark Duncan for King Pin in Daredevil on the basis that the definening visual characteristics for Kingpin are size and baldness. I can't think of one actor with a better morphology for that role than Duncan, therefore the change in skin colour is unimportant. But for Ford: It's not as though they're running out of gangly, wild eyed actors. Casting him is a CLEAR case of tokenism, make no mistake about it. When you release a movie in the states, you HAVE to have a black actor, otherwise, you're a racist! The irony of this escapes most people, but that is usually the case.
Slashdot Mirror
You win the Internets!
W00T!
I'll hang 'em over my mantle.
Hahaha! Wicked burn. But seriously, you already convinced me who you are with your last reponse. You don't need to keep this up just for my further entertainment.
S'funny how you think I'm reading your replies for your entertainment. But, you like, know who I am! I'm all like, spooked now.
Oh no! The guy who made a prejudiced decision about who I am didn't change it! Woe is me!
So aside from the British shown on TV, I could be left to assume a fifty-fifty shot that any average British female was black or white.
Meh, "aside from british TV" seem to be some kind of dogma around here. Dunno why exactly... I must have missed the "ignore the BBC" memo.
Okay, you are one of those people. Just making sure.
People who don't concede nonsense? sure.
Being off-world, will they legally be able to host space gigolos?
Just because I was flamed doesn't mean I was baiting for it.
From TFFAQ:
Flamebait refers to comments whose sole purpose is to insult and enrage. If someone is not-so-subtly picking a fight (racial insults are a dead giveaway), it's Flamebait.
I like how you consistently pretend that you weren't the troll. Especially after:
Unwavering denial and systematic attack of the the other side... you've been to the Karl Rove School Of Communication, haven't you?
Just for reference, here's the original kingpin and here's the hollywood version. They look completely different to me (ignoring the change in race).
Since you're referencing, care to find a picture of an actor that looks more like it? An actor, not a wrassler (Big Show would be huge enough I suppose).
On a related note, I'd like to nominate Scrameustache for the most shrill and long-winded fanboy of the year award!
W00T!
But since it's only febuary, I should expect fierce competition to come.
You.
Are.
Unable.
To understand.
My point.
Therefore: You are stupid (or a troll, which is the same). Because it's a simple point, and I've explained it repeatedly.
I make the stupid call thusly: can't understand something simple after repeated explanation and multiple examples? Stupid.
I'm not calling you names to piss you off, or to get you to respond, I'm explaining to you that you are apparently not very smart.
Either prove to me that you aren't stupid, or live with your dumbness. I'm often surrounded by persons of lesser intellect, I'm used to it by now, but I can see how you would be in denial about it.
You care a lot that Ford should be caucasian. I don't. I think it's irrelevant.
Completely off.
Your whole argument is based on erroneous foundations.
And you obviously don't think it's irrelevant, you're here arguing, obviously giving a damn. I think, in fact, that you are racist, you are happy that he's black, and you are defensive because I have a very valid reason why he shouldn't be. That would make you a racist hypocrite instead of an idiot. Which would explain your demonstrated ability to type words. You could simply be a troll, your behaviour, with the insults and the repeated baiting, is certainly troll-like. Hard to tell if you're attacking me with unfounded claims of racism because you're a troll or because you're projecting.
I don't care that he'd be caucasian. I care that he'd be like he has always been, which happens to be caucasian. There is a subtle difference. But, that seems to be some kind of abstract concept the likes of which escapes most mortals... or just a vocal minority of very dense people.
Do you understand that part? Can you understand THAT part? That I don't care that Ford be white, I care that the casting director of the "faithfull" movie cast his actors according to the established look of said characters if they are going to claim faithfullness?
Is this too complicated?
Maybe some pseudocode:
if (!theSame) {!faithfull;}
which is different from what you "understood", which was "if (!white) {bad;}".
So you're saying because your first experience of HG2G is the TV series, in which Ford was played by a white actor, that it's a deviation for him to be played by a black one?
No.
You're wrong a lot, especially when you go "you are saying that". For a brit, you sure have a hard time understanding the english language.
I'm saying that it's FUCKING RETARDED (oh no! bad words and capitals, oh my) to pretend that he has never been described since I can show you pictures and an animated line drawing of him that comes from a production that directly involved the author while he was alive.
You, and others, have a hardcore quasi-religious need to have the description in black and white (now, why didn't I just say "words"?), on paper. Well toots, the story is also in audio, and in audio-visual format. Accept it.
I find it tremendously idiotic to selectively ignore the visual information available to you when discussing how the character look. Therefore, I pass the following judgement on people who act that way: They must be stupid to do something so stupid.
I like the idea of him obliviously using an american accent for years without realizing he was the only one.
You... do know he doesn't actually speak english, right? I mean... There was a passage in the books, something about fishes (they were yellow, BTW, you seem to care a lot about colours that are specifically mentioned in writing)...
you're saying that Ford is white because
look
Arthur was staring at Ford's bare chest.
As you can see from this anatomical illustration of a penguin, the white feathers go all the way up to the beak.
Since you bring it up, can you find a specific mention of skin colour in the book?
NO! I specifically mentioned I misplaced my copy of the book.
if you can't show where Ford is said to be caucasian in the book then the "clear deviation" may not be clear to everyone - it could only be clear in your mind that Ford was white.
TV SERIES!!!!!!!!! Jeez!
First a radio show, then a book, then a TV show, then a videogame, then a movie. I don't NEED to find it "in the book", the book isn't holly, and you have the OBVIOUS source for the image we have of Ford.
Black people are just called black. In the same way that white people are actually more of a pink.
1-I have met black people, your sheltered and limited existance did not include such people? Your loss.
2-I'm actually beige, right now, and plan on temporarily becomming a browner shade over summer.
Is it too much to believe that Mos Def got the part because he is good?
Do you believe the reason of the week for the invasion of Iraq too? Here's a clue: Oil money and a strategic military foothold. Those were the REAL reasons.
Did you know that the slightly black character of Lando Calrissian was added specifically to quell the complaints of black activists who had lauched a boycott campaign of Star Wars because since the Galaxy Far Far away from A Long Time Ago didn't have a black guy innit, then it was racist?
Do you seriously believe that there is no tokenism in hollywood? That the "token black guy" concept was invented by klansmen or something? Wake the fuck up! They do this on purpose.
The sole issue with Ford Prefect is probably why he has an American accent
The sole issue YOU have with it.
I have a major case of cognitive dissonance when over a decade of familiarity with this character is confronted with an image and a sound that doesn't fit the bill. You might be in denial about what he was meant to look like, originally (and no, I don't mean "meant" as in "it's important and defining on the character", but "meant" as in "Adams in white, everyone around him was white, he wrote what he knew"). An alien that could reliably pretend to be from Gilford would look and sound like all the people he knew from Gilford. Sound like it too, since the Babel Fish would transmit the appropriate accent, and after 15 years he'd pick it up naturally anyway.
I've always pictured Trillian as black. I'm not sure if it says that in the book anywhere or if it was just my imagination choosing, but I'm not complaining that they've cast a white girl. She'll be the same character.
It doesn't. She's your typical blonde english girl.
But, lemme guess, you're a black woman? That would explain 2 tyhings: Why you'd give such an atypical appearance to a british chick, and why you care so damn much about the possibility that Ford wasn't written with "caucasian" in mind.
For the record: It annoys me because it's a change. Unimportant, but unnecessary, and in a movie where the producers are telling me it's as faithfull as they could make it (don't tell me they couldn't find a guy that looked as much like the old Ford as Arthur, Zaphod and Trillian do to their old selves, it's not THAT hard).
And, like I mentioned above, the cognitive dissonance, which WILL get in the way of my enjoyment for at least several minutes before I get aquainted with the rest.
But, as usual, there's no hope of mentioning race and keeping the conversation rational. SIgh.
P.S. Since you're in a flaming the Scrameustache mood over his supposed racism, I'll give you fodder: I also had a huge problem with Tuvok: 28 years of greenish/yellowish VUlcans, all with the same kind of straight features, long faces. All of a sudden, there's a black guy playing a vulcan. WTF? Are black Vulcans banned from serving on the Federation councils or something? And why in
Are you just one of those people who refuses to ever concede *anything*?
w anttocallMosDef'srace-looking alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Beetlegeuse.
No, you are, because FORD WASN'T BLACK BEFORE! Sheesh, stop trying to nitpick your way into justifying the absurb possibility that they had miscast him the first time around.
He was a caucasian-looking alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Beetlegeuse, now he's a black/african-american/negroid/whateverthefuckyou
You have people upset at this because it's an unnecessary change to a well known and visually documented story whom the producers of the big-screen adaptation refer to as being followed as closely as possible, you have others who don't like it because they don't like rappers, and others because they simply don't like black people.
I point out the unnecessary change, I get fucktards and loosers calling "teh rac1st!1!!". Which is an easy troll, therefore to be expected.
There are others somehow desperate to DEFEND the change by pretending that it isn't a change at all, which is dumb.
You want to start on the penguin thing? Ok: Arthur faces Ford turning into a penguin, he mentions a colour change. Penguins are black and white, their ventral feathers being the white ones. Since he's facing Arthur, a colour change that would be most noticeable would be the sudden apparation of a snow-white patch, not the slight darkening of his skin. I get some delusional person going "but penguin black is blacker than human black", and frankly, that's wanker talk.
It was Ford who stuck out his thumb, and he had a glowing blue ring on it.
By "blue" you meant "yellow", right? : )
No it fucking can't, you bullshitting bastard.
THAT is flamebait.
Notice the lack of any content aside from insults? The randomness of it all? Take notes now!
I'm a big motherfucker
You're some kind of fucker allright.
Regarding Kingpin, I always thought they should have picked a fatter guy. Duncan is gigantic, but not so round. I always picture him the way he was drawn in the Miller/Mazzucchelli books. Also, he's a mafia boss. Mafias usually seem to be organized by race and/or ethniticity, so it seemed like an overtly political decision to make him black.
Well, he's not supposed to be fat, he's just HUGE. He's got something like 2% body fat. They actually had Duncan gain weight before the filming, I guess he wasn't willing to get THAT fat though.
And as far as mafia, not exactly: He's a crime boss, but he's not Causa Nostra, he's a self-made thug who got to the top on his own, not through family connections.
black people don't actually have black skin. They're brown.
MOST are. I've met really black people, it's surprising.
I suppose that astute assesment of my intelligence, based on 2 lines of text, says all that needs to be said about snap judgements.
That they are sometimes amazingly accurate? Yep, it does say that.
Ya know, it IS possible to converse on the internet without being a dick.
It's too bad you never tried it.
You wouldn't talk that way to my face
You'd think so, wouldn't you?
Did you actually read what you were replying to?
Did YOU? I was originally replying to +5 comment stating Adams wrote it all and everything in it had been approved by him.
So will you stop freaking out already?
Will you people stop being stupid first, please?
DNA, discussing casting of the characters, said [paraphrased] "Arthur Dent should be British. All the other characters can be whatever, but Arthur should be British."
It just irks me because I've had a very specific image of Ford in my head for years (from the TV show), and now he looks nothing like it.
Ok, first off, my opinion of you: Unintelligent, unable to grasps concepts that differ from the standard labels.
Now that that is out of the way, the meat of the discussion:
So, since being qualified isn't enough... what exactly does a black actor have to do to NOT be the 'token' ?
Hmm... maybe the criteria I NAMED IN MY FIRST POST IN THIS THREAD? Maybe?
Michael Clark Duncan as Kingpin: The only actor around that has the character's stature. He looked the part better than anyone, even with a different skin colour. Or playing a part that hasn't been established as being of a different colour before, or having a part that isn't basically showing up, looking black, then being dismissed while the actual characters with something to do and things to say do their thing.
But, you were unable to understand this the first time I explained it, so I don't expect you to understand this very simple concept this time around. you keep your binary "racist / politically correct" train of thought.
you forgot the using the notes he left that outlined eveything part.
... My character is the only guy on earth who doesn't trust the robots."
Reminds me of Will Smith's I, Robot plug-interviews on late night talk shows last summer.
It went a lil' something like this: "The movie is very faithfull to the book!
Only, in the books, 99.999999999999% of the population of earth has his character's distrustfull attitudes towards robots. Hmmmm...
It is in the best financial interest of those involved with the production of that motion picture to induce the public to think that the movie is an accurate adaptation of a good book.
They stand to make MILLIONS from the movie's success, you don't really think they are above distorting the truth a bit, do you?
I'm sure they did use the notes... but I'm affraid they used them for toilet paper.
Acutally Mos Def is a very good actor and has been in a range of movies form Monsters Ball to The Italian Job to The Woodsman. Why can't his casting choice have been based on the fact that he is a good actor?
I'm glad that they picked a good actor to be the token black guy.
I liked the actor playing Pete in the first seasons of Smallville. He was still the token black guy, and his role was mostly limited to being hit on the head and spending half the show unconcious. At least Mos (whom you tell me is a good actor, I aven't see anything he was in) has good a role to play with, he's not "superman's concussed pal" or anything. Good for him.
I still think tokenism is racist and immature.
my parent post does not fit any description of a flamebait post, yet, it's "-1 flamebait".
/. needs a written exam before giving away mod points, that way we could weed out those who are too ignorant or stupid to use them right.
I think
Here's a hint: Use of profanity does not automatically euqate an act of flamebaiting. It can be used as a genuine expression of frustration and exasperation.
Zaphod's second head simply hasn't been created in CG yet.
Funny, I wonder what that thing coming out from under Zaphod's chin in the trailer is then... the with two eyes, a nose, a mouth, etc.
I'll bite, where in the book does it say what colour Ford Prefect is?
I have, for reasons I can't fanthom, misplaced that book (I have the other 4, where the helll id no1 go?), so I can't quote.
But I seem to remember a mention of his skin turning black when he becomes a penguin while onboard the Heart Of Gold. Maybe it was a comment from Arthur in the TV show or the radio series...
Anyway: Did he sound like an American rapper in the original radio show? No.
What did he look like in the TV series? It's not as though there is no source material for his appearance that was created with the direct involvment of the author.
Hey, maybe Mos Def is gonna do a kick-ass job. One thing is clear: Casting a black guy for that role is a deviation from the established appearance of the character. No matter how unable you are to recall a specific mention of skin tone in the book.
P.S. I've been defending the choice of Michael Clark Duncan for King Pin in Daredevil on the basis that the definening visual characteristics for Kingpin are size and baldness. I can't think of one actor with a better morphology for that role than Duncan, therefore the change in skin colour is unimportant. But for Ford: It's not as though they're running out of gangly, wild eyed actors. Casting him is a CLEAR case of tokenism, make no mistake about it. When you release a movie in the states, you HAVE to have a black actor, otherwise, you're a racist! The irony of this escapes most people, but that is usually the case.