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By David Futrelle
Angry superhero movie fans have discovered what they see as a deeply unsettling fact about the lead actress in the Captain Marvel film that hits theaters this Friday, whom they have collectively decided to hate because she thinks people other than white men should have some say in movie criticism, or something: Brie Larson’s first name is the same as the name of a popular French cheese!
Apparently this is all the more reason to hate her.
Oh, but it gets worse: Some of them have given her unflattering cheese-based nicknames!
Not only that, but the cheese in question is RUNNY!
The dudes with NPC avatars are on the case:
This fellow is struck by the irony that the cheese in question is WHITE.
I was a little concerned that Mr Solo’s burn (below) wasn’t quite sick enough. But then I saw the crying-laughing emoji. BAM!
Then this bad boy with an Elon Musk wearing an eyepatch avatar kicked it up another notch by adding a thumbs-up emoji after the laughing-crying one. DOUBLE BAM!
And get this: Some of Brie’s critics don’t even bother to use her first name — they just call her “Cheese Larson!” TRIPLE BAM! Fourth graders have nothing on these insult-slingers!
Damn, the crazy cheese lady is also a “Matriarchy Bot?” Wouldn’t the runny cheese gum up the gears?
I guess I probably shouldn’t try to think these through too much. Clearly the people posting them didn’t.
Regardless, it’s not clear to me if “Cheese” Larson will ever be able to recover from these devastating burns.
Testing with a
kittensweet kittyPagan Reader-Misandrist Spinster, nice pic!
More Jewish comic creators:
Many Jews had fled the growing anti-Semitism in Germany and other European countries.
Joe Shuster was an artist born in Toronto, Canada and Jerry Siegel was an American writer; they met in high school in Chicago in 1933.
Joe Shuster was a cousin of comedian Frank Shuster of the Canadian comedy team Wayne and Shuster.
Superman was also a dedicated NAZI puncher.
I am always amused that the motto of Superman, co-created by a Jewish Canadian, is “Truth, justice and the American way.”
(And that “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, was also born in Toronto.)
@Fabe
Of course, if Contract Jack knew that, he’d probably immediately change his screed to “See? SJWs hate free speech!”
@Talonknife:
Yep. Beowulf.
…only the tree-defacement reference is left unidentified.
Nice!
(For the benefit of others: Because WHTM is still running on HTTP, if you want to post a pic you need to copy the http:// URL, and not the https:// URL)
Sounds of furious Googling
@ Pagan Reader,
I had the same reaction! I wouldn’t have gone to see this film otherwise; the misogynists’ reactions convinced me I should. As they did for Fury Road.
@Hypatia: I think the “American way” part got stuck in in the 1950s, much like how “Under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance. The 1930s Superman cartoons (which are worth seeking out, BTW) simply describe him “fighting a never-ending battle for Truth and Justice!”
Brie is very tasty though! It’s good on crackers (rosemary and sesame are my faves), and at a restaurant I worked for we sliced it in half, filled it with sliced apples that were sauteed in cinnamon brandy (that part was my favourite because I got to set it on fire!), then wrapped in puff pastry and baked! It was so tasty!
@ Crip Dyke @ Alan Robertshaw
Sorry to be late to the party. On the subject of ambassadors and parking charges, a scene in the West Wing played for humour has President Bartlett, angry about something else, blasting the Secretary General* over the phone on this very subject. I forget which episode.
*Or rather, as Bartlett’s PA points out, probably the SG’s secretary. Which, for me, takes a little of the fun away.
Oh, and:
I am naming Crip Dyke as Humour Chief of the Internet today. I would have rolled on the floor laughing if I didn’t have a sleeping dog on my lap.
@ Ottery
I concur. I couldn’t bear to eat it all through my teens because I went on a school exchange to France when I was 11 and we visited a cheese factory (pretty sure it was actually Camembert, but same principle).
Short version: the aphorism about not watching laws and sausages being made should be extended to include cheese.
Longer version: the factory had a series of rooms for ageing. The first had fresh milk, the second slightly sour milk, the third very sour milk, and so on. The room immediately before the finished product smelled so darn awful and for years that was the memory I accessed when I looked at Brie and Camembert. Thankfully I’m over it now.
Conclusion: if you’re a cheese fan and someone invites you to a cheese factory, politely decline unless you’re seriously considering veganism.
I thought it was Thesmophoriazusae (because of the cross-dressing), but I guess that doesn’t quite fit either.
@Schnookums
Thank you! I thought I was the only one clamouring for a Monica Rambeau/Captain Marvel film! She will be in the film, but as a younger incarnation, so I’ve been told.
The Cloak & Dagger series produced for some premium download service or other (it’s good! Watch it!) takes place in New Orleans & substantially involves a bay / harbor area.
Since Rambeau was a New Orleans cop and then (after friction with corrupt cops) in the harbor patrol, a great place to introduce her would be Cloak & Dagger.
The only downside is that despite the setting being perfect and the quality of the show being high, the viewership is probably low given the exclusive streaming format. Still, I’d love to see her in that show, maybe even getting her origin there before getting her own show later…
@Weatherwax
I do try. I’m glad to have served you well.
O/T; but to quote a spaghetti western (can’t remember which one): “Jesus, that boy don’t ever learn”.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/mar/07/tommy-robinson-to-face-fresh-contempt-of-court-proceedings
@Alan Robertshaw, I’ve seen it suggested that Yaxley-Lennon does this deliberately, as a scam: get arrested, and immediately post a call for donations from his devotees, purportedly to help protect him from terrible legal oppressionses.
Raise a fair bit of dosh, serve a tiny sentence, keep the money.
Does that sound plausible?
@ opposable thumbs
That does indeed sound very plausible. Plus all the martyr thing. And contempt proceedings aren’t technically convictions so they don’t even go on your criminal record. Although he’s already got one for fraud.
@Alan, @opposable thumbs: It certainly sounds like the modus operandi of the Comicsgate hucksters milking the manufactroversy surrounding Captain Marvel and other comics properties, viz.:
1. Whine about how the evil SJWs are subverting the comics you new and loved with their filthy (please tick one or more of): ❏ political correctness; ❏ identity politics; ❏ cuckoldry; ❏ cultural Marxism; ❏ other non-specified right-wing dogwhistle.
2. Promise that for the low low price of $X, you– yes, you!– can strike a blow for FREEZE PEACH by backing me on [insert crowdfunding platform of choice] to produce the two-fisted tales of CAPTAIN WHITE MALE POWER FANTASY!! Gloat as he punches down, not up! Gasp at dialogue so hackneyed your 8yo nephew would be ashamed to have written it! Furtively masturbate at female characters in poses so contorted it’ll keep Escher Girls in posts for years! Years!
3. Produce a few desultory comics (if any), then abscond with the rest of the loot.
4. Point and laugh from a safe distance while the crowfunding platform’s laughable excuse for a fraud-resolution procedure rapidly kicks into ass-covering mode
5. Lather, rinse, repeat
This has occurred AFAIK numerous times and the rubes keep on coming. It may soon be necessary to amend Barnum’s (?) maxim to state that no-one ever lost money underestimating the bitterness of inadequate white men.
@ cat mara & opposable thumbs
He’s got lawyers anyway. And even if he was impoverished, the court just appoints one. Even if it’s contempt in the face of the court so dealt with there and then.
It’s called a ‘dock brief’. The judge just points at the nearest barrister and says “you’re now acting for them”; and we have that cab rank rule so we can’t say no.
@Alan Robertshaw: Yeah, they have that “taxi rank” rule for barristers in the Irish courts too, though it doesn’t stop the silks trying to cherry-pick the cases they think will look good on their CVs. If the local scandal-sheets are to be believed, a number of former barristers who went on to bigger and better things were notorious for doing so during their legal careers *cough* allegedly *cough* former Presidents of Ireland *cough very dusty in here all of a sudden cough cough* 😉
Heh, I’ve done cases in the Irish Supreme Court. I love it there; but they have some strange rules.
“Hi, would you mind putting out a tannoy for opposing counsel in X case?”
“Sure, who is it?”
“No idea”
“But we only ask for people by name!”
And the judges once insisted my client pay a €25,000 deposit before we could continue an appeal.
“I’ll ask the solicitors to arrange a telegraphic transfer”
“No, cash. We know what your boy is like”
Anyone seen the movie? I will not get to it right away.
About comicgate it is worth to notice that that started with some female editors posting a picture of themselves drinking milkshakes.
That is even more pathetic than gamersgate and sad puppies.
And non-white not male superheroes have existed for a long time.
(Captain Marvel had her first series not under the name Captain Marvel in the 70es)
I am ashamed that we have to fight fights again, that should have been over before I was born.
@Alan Robertshaw: The latest bit of court-related scuttlebutt here is the Master of the High Court taking a hammer to the windows of his office because he claims they’re inadequately ventilated— an Irish solution to an Irish problem, methinks.
Ariblester – thank you for the link! I was intrigued by the trope in the play of indolent layabouts running off to Virginia to make a quick fortune, given that that was exactly the aim of many of the earliest settlers at Jamestown. In 1608, the Virginia Company brought in a group of German colonists who tried to start a glass factory; apparently, they found the English colonists so disappointing they defected to join the Powhatans.
Ottery – I’ve made crostini with thinly sliced baguette, pesto and melted Brie.
@Cat Mara:
Ahhh, Escher Girls.
I do a lot of little conventions, and often commission artwork from people there. Since I like the artists to have fun as well, I usually go with ‘here’s a theme, draw whatever you like that fits that theme’. One of my books is all superheroes… and one (female) artist drew Nightwing in very much an ‘Escher Girls’ pose.
(Which is actually more appropriate for him than most of the people drawn in those poses, given that Nightwing, aka Robin I, aka Dick Grayson, was a circus acrobat growing up…)
@Alan:
I got called in for Jury Duty once and while I didn’t serve (the judge was mostly using the jury panel which had been convened for a different case but not needed as a threat to convince a plea bargain) the judge explained that the guy in question had two previous lawyers refuse to work with him and he had fired his own court-appointed lawyer. He was also a disbarred lawyer, which takes work. Most of what was on his sheet was contempt of court. (Basically, started with stalking and harassment of his ex-girlfriend and had extended to some 20 charges over the period of time since the initial incident.)
@Who?:
Yes, one of the things that keeps coming up with Comicsgate, Sad Puppies, and the like is that the people doing the loudest complaining about ‘recent’ ‘takeovers’ are also usually completely ignorant about the history of the field they’re in.
Really, the problem isn’t that people are making movies starring women. The problem is that the public consensus is that making movies starring women is a good thing and would probably be an improvement in an industry that could use a shakeup anyway. The problem is that the complainers can’t as easily convince themselves that they’re the silent majority anymore as more people feel unafraid to speak up and say they’re wrong.
This makes middle school insults look mature.
It’s not even as if female superheroes are remotely new, or that having female “spinoffs” like “supergirl”, “the bionic woman”, etc. is, either. Even sex change (of fictional characters at least) is as old as the ancient greeks.
Lost in all this is the simple question: is the movie any good?
So far it seems it is neither Womder Woman nor the ghostbuster remake – neither a great hit nor a lemon. The movie has a 6.4 rating on IMDB, 82% on rotten tomatoes, and 71% liked the film according to google.
So, it seems it’s a middle-of-the road rather standard Hollywood product, by all accounts.
(Shrug) I myself couldn’t be flayed to watch any superhero movie, so I don’t see what all the fuss is about, but still, for the record.
Who wants to bet that the racist fuck screaming that Marvel was made by white men doesn’t think Jews are white?
I saw Captain Marvel. It was good. Not as good as Black Panther but on the better end of Marvel movies. And while Wonder Woman had some great sections that aren’t matched by Captain Marvel it had some really clunky bits and I think Captain Marvel is better overall.
I think I liked Wonder Woman more, but I think that’s because I’m less into sci-fi than I am into fantasy. Once we get into space going “pew-pew-pew,” I kinda check out unless there is a cat involved. Fortunately…
It’s definitely worth a watch if you like superhero movies and the MCU, though. There’s a lot of origin myth here: not just of the individual character, but the overall universe. Plus, there is a cat. The cat is awesome.
And there is some definite feminist stuff and just plain woman stuff. The standard-butt “fight on top of a speeding train” is different when Our Heroine walks through the train cars, looking suspiciously at which passenger just might be a dangerous asshole. Because while the first is sort of action movie cliche, the second is real life, man. Also, gotta appreciate the solid Bechdel Test pass, more than one strong/interesting female character, and female friendship. The audience I was in was screaming approval by the end.
Plus, there is a cat.
@Anonymous
Couple of the grandkids “took me to see it”* today as a belated birthday present.
By my lights, yes, it’s good. It’s entertaining, absorbing enough that you forget you’re watching a movie most of the time, a reasonable storyline for ones as haven’t obsessively read the comics and, most importantly – FUN.
Money well spent.
*As in, they really wanted to see it, and there were a perfect excuse for an adult to take them to the cinema just sitting there waiting to be used … raised a bunch of chancers, we have. 😛
Interesting that you choose female character led movies for comparison. As if a woman starring in a movie puts it in a separate category and we must only compare it to other films starring women. Also interesting that you call Ghostbusters a lemon. 229 million on a 144 million budget is a lemon? What a success, in your eyes?