Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Brown People!
I've been reading a bit of media hype about CBC's new sitcom, "Little Mosque on the Prairie" - most of it leading stuff about how it had to be vetted by Muslim Community Representatives (MCRs, for short). This facktoid, comes from CNN:
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To ensure it doesn't cause unforeseen offense with "Little Mosque on the Prairie," the government-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) has hired an independent Muslim-Canadian consultant to comb through the sitcom's creative elements and suggest possible alterations.
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I really like the "government-owned" part. It's never "taxpayer-owned" - is it? Funny that. Cripes, those American privately-owned by rich guys broadcasters sound more and more like Canwest/Global every day. Eh?
Meanwhile, according to its creator, Zarqa Nawaz - it isn't true that CBC hired an independent Muslim-Canadian consultant to vet the series:
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There was no official outside consultant, she says with a laugh. I think that's part of what has sparked so much interest in the show, the thought that it might anger Muslims, how would they react, et cetera. But there is really nothing in the show that could offend Muslims.
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Hm. Well, then. SOMEBODY'S lying.
Now, I haven't watched any of the clips and I only read a couple of blurbs about the show. Two to be exact. And I've quoted both blurbs above. The second one comes from the Globe & Mail. But if "Little Mosque on the Prairie" doesn't offend anybody, my guess is it's not something I'd bother watching. While I don't like being offended, myself - I do enjoy it when others are offended. So I'll probably give the show a pass.
Unless a group of Russian Jews show up to the town of Mercy to demand that the rural folks' homes be bulldozed. Then I'll watch. Because, so far, the only truly offended reaction to the show that I've read on the internet comes from the usual wh/right suspects who've HAD IT UP TO HERE with wh/right (in this case, rural) folk being the butt of the joke while Muslims are about to be portrayed as, well, stereotypical television sitcom vizmins - instead of as terrorists, as it should be.
Think "The Jeffersons" on "All In The Family".
Except... gentler. Because... we haven't come a long way. Baby. TV Muslims on the Prairie in 2007? Gawd, say goodbye to George Jefferson and hello to Sidney Portier - in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". Yup. It's true. Vizmin stereotypes Vs White stereotypes never get old. Not in the movies and not on television. They just skip a generation to be reborn in a more politically correct outfit.
Although, the wh/right stereotype holds pretty true in real life. Especially when it comes to rural folk. They are wh/right. And stupid. But I would say that, wouldn't I. I'm from the city. A city-slicker, I believe they'd call me out on the Prairie if I suddenly showed up and opened a human secular feminist lesbian pornography bookstore and spa.
But back to reality and 2007 and the reaction to "Little Mosque on the Prairie". The Globe also made comparisons between "LMotP" and a popular CTV sitcom, "Corner Gas". Apparently, the comparison is made because "it's inevitable" and not because CTV and the Globe and Mail are like Kissin' Cousins and the Globe & Mail will use any excuse to mention "Corner Gas". (In the way that Global and all the Canwest newspapers are like the offspring siblings of twins, I guess, and Canwest will use any excuse to mention the Global sitcom: "Global News".) Here is a third blurb from one of the two articles I read on "LMonP":
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Comparisons to CTV's homespun hit Corner Gas are inevitable. Both are set in fictional Saskatchewan backwaters ( Corner Gas in Dog River, Little Mosque in Mercy), where madcap locals (including the requisite rednecks) basically have a lot of time to kill.
But whereas creator Brent Butt and his gang on Corner Gas might get outraged when the local diner hikes a cup of java to $1.50, the good townsfolk of Mercy get their shorts in a knot over entirely different things, Muslims paying rent to pray in an Anglican parish hall, or a daughter of a devout Muslim wearing a tummy-baring tank top.
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Ooh. I dunno. I'd say "Corner Gas" creator Brent Butt, being a talented stand-up comic, pretty much made a show in the Seinfeld mold except with all the characters delivering their lines exactly like Brent Butt. Corner Gas seems a lot more like something a bunch of urban metrosexuals at CBC would be at one with - not the Conservative straight suits at CTV.
I'd say CTV just pretty much lucked out with "Corner Gas". But will CBC luck out with "Little Mosque on the Prairie"? I mean, without expanding Mercy to include a bunch of wild-eyed, gun-toting Russian Jews who want to bulldoze existing rural folk homesteads to make way for MORE Russian Jews?
Well, not with this viewer. But I'd advise "Corner Gas" to bring in a little more politics. And racism. Like maybe the Indian half of the Dog River police force could drive a drunk Oscar out into the middle of nowhere and drop him off so he freezes to dea... hey... wait a minute!
HOW COME IT'S NEVER WINTER IN DOG RIVER?!
Gawd. TV. Just when they've got you believing there might possibly be, somewhere in Canada, a police force that is 50% Indian - in an otherwise all white town.
Phff.
