I can't fathom how it would be an allusion to stuffing a potato in a tailpipe.
It was obviously just an allusion to car tailpipes. What remains unexplained is why a 23rd century person would know what a tailpipe was.
Gotta have a tailpipe?
- Thread starter Captain Mike
- Start date
It was obviously just an allusion to car tailpipes. What remains unexplained is why a 23rd century person would know what a tailpipe was.
Some words take on a new life as a saying, with the original meaning being lost. For example, in Australia we'll still refer to going "miles out of our way", even people born after 1971, when our weights and measures went metric. Record shops are still called record shops, even though they sell only CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays. Why does Kirk call McCoy a "sawbones"?
If starships still have a need for a tailpipe/exhaust outlet why wouldn't people still call it a tailpipe?
Because the obvious term for it is plasma exhaust manifold.
Because the obvious term for it is plasma exhaust manifold.
But the hackneyed saying is, "The thing's gotta have a tailpipe!"
I just hear 'em say, "The thing's gotta have a plasma exhaust manifold."
I think you guys are expecting a bit much of today's youth to know about internal combustion engines and exhaust "tailpipes" in this day and age of Mr. Fusion-powered flying cars where tailpipes have gone the way of the dodo.
If they really wanted to make it clear what they were talking about in the scene in context, they would have had a minute-long conversation immediately before about tracking the cloaked Bird of Prey by its exhaust instead of wasting all that time discussing equipment for tracking gaseous anomalies. Old people making fart jokes; really Meyer?
I can easily see how anachronistic words like "tailpipe" can be confused with other much more racist terms from this scandalous movie, such as "vouched," "mothball," and "prototype."
It can be difficult to recognize racism when we see it, especially in a movie like 'The Undiscovered Country" where the actual racist and stereotyping comments by the characters were so subtle and not completely obvious like what you would use to make a point about having to overcome their own prejudices. If they were really trying to make the racial comments obvious they would have done something like using references from old movies about people dealing with racism. They really dropped the ball on that one.
If they really wanted to make it clear what they were talking about in the scene in context, they would have had a minute-long conversation immediately before about tracking the cloaked Bird of Prey by its exhaust instead of wasting all that time discussing equipment for tracking gaseous anomalies. Old people making fart jokes; really Meyer?
I can easily see how anachronistic words like "tailpipe" can be confused with other much more racist terms from this scandalous movie, such as "vouched," "mothball," and "prototype."
It can be difficult to recognize racism when we see it, especially in a movie like 'The Undiscovered Country" where the actual racist and stereotyping comments by the characters were so subtle and not completely obvious like what you would use to make a point about having to overcome their own prejudices. If they were really trying to make the racial comments obvious they would have done something like using references from old movies about people dealing with racism. They really dropped the ball on that one.
Or indeed "sawbones". Or "man traps".
As for the tailpipe enuendo, I always thought it WAS a racial kind of thing in the U.S.
Seriously?Tailpipe = exhaust.
No more, no less. No racial connotations at all.
^Sounds like its deletion was a good thing tbh.
You say that you agreed with her that the line was racist. Can you please explain WHY you feel it's racist? No one here can understand how the line could be.
Anyone who thinks it's racist is a closet racist trying too hard to prove they aren't racist by saying it's racist.
Seriously though, I like to imagine the line as an in-universe pop culture line from some movie that was released that everyone saw.
Like how we'd quote a film today.
Seriously though, I like to imagine the line as an in-universe pop culture line from some movie that was released that everyone saw.
Like how we'd quote a film today.
Shon's "deleted scene" was entirely satirical. It's not real.
To Captain Mike: like everyone else says, there's no racial connotation to the word "tailpipe" and you're conflating that line with two others that Nichols refused to say. According to Memory Alpha:
Memory Alpha said:
No mention anywhere in that article of the tailpipe line.
It did sound ludicrous!
A shame really. This film isn't about being racist, this film's moral story is about the human journey of overcoming racism and hostility, which is what Star Trek does at its very best - showing us the importance of challenging our incorrect assumptions and prejudices by using aliens and sci-fi concepts to reflect our nature and the very real problems of our times.
Be that as it may (and I agree with you there), you'd still want actors who would have the ability to deliver lines, and if they can't, you'd need to find another way (get another actor, reassign the lines, whatever). And when the subject matter is something as delicate as race, it's real easy to mess something up if it's not taken care of properly. Nichols and Peters had every right to refuse or feel nervous about certain lines, even if the ultimate intention of the writers was the opposite of what they feared.
One might argue that one of the differences between a good actor and a great actor is the ability to credibly deliver lines that one finds personally distasteful, understanding that they serve the interests of the larger story and aren't meant to be taken at face value.
It's the whole "nigger Jim" argument all over again.
It's the whole "nigger Jim" argument all over again.
I don't. They were having the status quo that they lived with their whole lives challenged.
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