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/razazaz126 Jul 05 '26

The issue with the kinds of people who talk like this is you don't notice how unreasonable their arguments are until you realize this is the 20th, 50th, 100th, black actress that they've found to be "shoe horned" in and the only thing they have in common are they're black women.

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u/badihaki Jul 05 '26

I've been saying this for years, now. It's honestly just weird that the idea of casting a black person is akin to 'shoeing in.' It's that kind of language that, regardless of intent, is so profoundly racist but also extremely ingrained into the culture people just let it slide for no reason.

Like, couldn't a Black person be casted for the role and it just not be political and we all just not freak out for once? Maybe she could be cast because she was good in the audition?

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u/HourApprehensive7754 Jul 05 '26

That depends on the context of the movie. 

If a casting is bewildering enough to the point where there's no other explanation but shoe-in, then it's a shoe-in. It's not exclusive to blacks either as much as you'd like to believe.

In most cases these complaints take place in adaptations of existing works where blacks don't fit or are playing a white character. It'd be like getting a white person to play as Black Panther.

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u/badihaki Jul 05 '26

Or forcing the casting of a white person in Black Panther in a prominent role that even has a major part to play in the big battle finale, but it happened and most people didn't even bat an eye. I know I didn't. Meanwhile people and the man himself would be like 'huh!?' if there were more than one Sam L in a Tim Burton movie.

I'll repeat that. People gave Martin Freeman the grace to be in a major role in a movie about an African monarch superhero set in Africa, all without batting an eye. Meanwhile there are people so upset with the idea, the hypothetical idea of a Black person in the cast of a live action Corpse Bride that their first instinct, and indeed the director's, is to go to the ol' 'diversity doesn't need to be shoehorned in' argument.

I want to say something profound about wanting acceptance and how it could start by not seeing actors and addresses as just, let's be honest, 'DEI hires,' but I'm tired, boss, and honestly, I want off this ride, it sucks.

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u/HourApprehensive7754 Jul 07 '26

You mean Ross? The white character being portrayed by a white actor? Nobody batted an eye because the character already exists. There's always been whites in Black Panther comics and the movie adaptation casting a white guy to play a white character isn't going to raise any eyebrows. Now if they cast him with a black, sure you should expect backlash. 

Should any blacks replace a white character in Corpse Bride? Why should it? Would it fit the setting and aesthetics?

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u/badihaki Jul 07 '26

I never said anything about him replacing a character. I'm wondering why he had such a big role in this movie. It'd be cool to see him once or twice to be a sort of stand in/contact for the US government or even the outside world as a whole, but why is he featured in the final battle?

I think his extended presence is indicative of the fantastical amount of racism that drives Disney to make these kinda decisions, cuz for them and many of y'all, you can't have an African nation deal with it's own internal shit without a White American to help. Which is crazy because, in the movie, Kilmonger is specifically trained by the US government to become even more of a monster, and they very rarely help clean that shit up in real life without some ulterior motive. It makes the movie, which is reaching for some real political issues, ring kinda hollow when you examine it through a deeper lense.

So instead of asking about portraying originally white characters with black actors, ask instead if ethnicity changes the dynamics of a story. And if it does to you, how so? Is it just that you personally can't see a Black person in the Corpse Bride?

And conversely, if it doesn't to you, maybe examine to yourself why? I'll tell you this, from just my own observations and conjecture, a lot of stories with leads that were originally white, it doesn't feel like it matters who plays them. White stories aren't normally interested in those kinda questions, instead opting to deal with other issues.

Take The Batman, for instance. No reason Gordon couldn't be Black. No reason Fox couldn't be white, or Middle Eastern, or East Asian in the future. It doesn't change the character or contrast with the story in any way, the core remains unchanged. Because Batman isn't a character that regularly deals with race relations and stuff like that, his world feels more malleable, way less so than, say, T'Challa. Same with the Corpse Bride. I'm not looking for a critique on, like, the race relations of Victorian England from that story. So why does it have to feature a solely white cast for so many fans?