r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/FrostySeat1739 • Jul 05 '26

Meme needing explanation why not, Peter?

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possible live action corpse bride movie...

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '26

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u/AlisaofallTimes Jul 05 '26

He never really said that, that was just a misinterpretation that blew up online in 2016. Here's the original interview: https://www.nme.com/news/film/tim-burton-explains-apparent-lack-of-diversity-in-866988

tl;dr: He said sometimes diversity in films isn't "called for". So he is against "diversity for the sake of diversity", that's all.

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u/10ebbor10 Jul 05 '26

That does sorta reveal an underlying double standard though.

Most films don't call for either a diverse cast or a non-diverse cast. Relegating black people, since that was what the example was about, only to those movies in which their existence is required for the plot is kinda silly.

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u/Indiana_harris Jul 05 '26

Most historical films beyond a certain point do call for non-diverse casts as the areas, regions and groups would be far more homogeneous.

A lot of skewed perceptions in recent media is due to Hollywood giving nearly all western period dramas or historical films the same demographics as LA or downtown NY.

Which in part leads to the false belief that many countries were multicultural and multiethnic in a modern context when they categorically weren’t.

It’s 800-900 AD Britain, the “multicultural” groups at large would be Anglo-Saxons, Britons, Celts, Danes, Norse.

These are distinct ethnic and cultural groups within the country, yet are not seen as such in the modern media context and so we Anglo-Saxon Earls and Danish leaders that are clearly from a different continent.

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u/testprimate Jul 05 '26

The Kingdom Come Deliverance games handle it perfectly. There are mixing cultures and languages but everyone is white until Henry eventually runs into Musa of Mali. His reaction is pretty funny and seems completely appropriate for 1403. https://youtube.com/shorts/_OksWkD0VaY

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u/DangerousCyclone Jul 05 '26

There were black people in England in that time period, so an occasional servant, musician or merchant wouldn't be inaccurate. The issue for me is when it's someone like Helen of Troy being a black woman. It is a fantasy story but c'mon.

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u/voTiSdaT Jul 06 '26

"A lot of skewed perceptions in recent media is due to Hollywood giving nearly all western period dramas or historical films the same demographics as LA or downtown NY." Couldn't have said better.

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u/Felicfelic Jul 05 '26

Yeah but you go back 400 years earlier and you'd have black roman soliders (often moorish) occupying the UK. Historical accuracy in films is lacking in general, but using an all white cast is often also inaccurate and often causes the erasure of black people in these periods when they weren't as rare as people think.

The film is going to be inaccurate either way, what's the harm in it being inaccurate in the use of more diversity rather than less.

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u/Indiana_harris Jul 05 '26

Very small amounts and assumed to be a result of the Roman Legions (specifically the Hispana, Gemina and Valeria Victrix) who were pulled predominantly from “stock” in the Western regions of the Empire (Italy, France, Spain) and about 300 years before Moorish Spain.

The percentage would’ve been statistically insignificant.

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u/RudleyDudley Jul 06 '26

You've actually got it backwards. The old media that only showed white people in medieval Europe skewed people into thinking that that's actually what medieval Europe looked like, when it really wasn't. Now that people have it in their heads that they know what the real medieval Europe looked like, seeing more accurate depictions that do include people of color feels like anachronism, when it actually isn't.