"Code of Honor" Ligonians: Humans or Aliens?

Not entirely true. It wasn't just their accents, it was their character and their movements.

Watto's large hooked nose, beady eyes, and covetous personality evoke anti-Jew stereotypes, especially with the voice they gave him. Jar Jar's movements, bug-eyed, scaredy-cat behavior are pretty minstrel-show, and the "meso youso" speech pattern is the just the icing on the cake. Then there's the Nemoidians with their pseudo-Thai accents, far east costumes, duplicitous nature and diagonal (read squinty and slanted) pupils.

I don't think I need continue, and I feel the urge to wash my hands.

 

None of those caricatures would have caught on with people if those characters/aliens spoke an alien language that needed subtitles instead.

The Watto designers and animators had no input into how he would sound, and if you look around the internet, people have varied ideas about what his accent sounds like, everything from Arab to Yiddish to Greek to Italian.

 

The voices play into it, but it's not just the voices. The physical appearances reinforce the voices.

 

The "Gold Baby!!!!" was a joke. Its not always a sure thing,but performances like that, in the right hands, tend to stand out. Murders, psychos and characters with over the top personalities resonate with the public and the academy.

 

Ironic, since the actor (Ahmed Best) who voiced Jar-Jar and came up with his voice and mannerisms actually IS black. Is he not allowed to do what he wishes?

 

^ He's allowed to do what he wishes, but other people are also allowed to take issue with it and not like it. I looked up what he had to say and found this YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEMSYL_LUyA

It does say something to me that he’d only ever done shorts and student films before he got that role, and obviously you don’t bite the hand that fed you.

I took it as a joke, but I also wanted to make a point from it.

Very true.

 

The cast of Amos 'n' Andy was black, too. This doesn't stop people from calling it racist.

 

^^^Only the cast of the TV show was black. The original radio show and the first feature film featured the white actors who originated the roles. Wikipedia Entry here.

 

You're right, of course.

 

Just like Watto was voiced by a Welshman.

 

A fantastic selling point for the new blu rays.

Can't wait for all those counselor troi camel toe scenes in HD.

 

Deanna should take a lesson from the very lady-like Tasha, and hit the old symbols.