Posted by PinDaddy at iowa-asc2-cs-3.dial.mctcnet.net on June 14, 2000 at 23:27:50:
In Reply to: "Fag" reference in "Clerks" posted by AnimalJ on June 14, 2000 at 23:04:19:
: From Tim Goodman's San Francisco Examiner TV column on SFGate.com, 6/13/00:
: "TV constantly refuses to surprise us. Like when The WB puts all its black shows on the same night or when ABC lets the now-canceled "Clerks" use 'fag' repeatedly."
: This is the second time I have seen reference to the use of the derogatory term "fag" on the "Clerks" animated show. Luckily, I was spared the dubious pleasure of hearing it for myself since ABC had the good sense to pull the plug on this misbegotten effort before most people even knew the show existed.
I think if you care to really watch the show, you'd see that Kevin was using the term "Fag" in referace to a pack of cigarrettes! He was just noting how the term had gone from meaning a pack of smokes to a derogitory term for a homosexual. Obviously it was showing Randal's latent homosexuality himself when he was reminising on how his "Mail order Husband" wasn't such a "bad thing". It's just showing HUMAINTY, people! On thing I do honor Kevin for is his honesty in his work. If you would have cared to have taken the time to accually watch that episode of Clerks or even the movie CHASING AMY, you'd find that Kevin is less homophobic than you realize. (Especially in CHASING AMY...I think it was a very factual represntation of gays..and a very honest one!) So please..get your head out of your anus and smell the roses for a change! Give the man his due credit before you start bashing him! Fag is just a word. Try looking at the meaning BEHIND the words sometimes....Pettiness like that is somethign we can all do without!
Oh..and just because Kevin is a Catholic..doesn't mean he's a GOOD Catholic..or even a tradtional Catholic...Check out Dogma if you don't belive that! (By the way, Kevin.. I'm with you on that one..I have an IDEA..not a BELIEF!)
: ABC is to blame for letting homophobic tripe on its network in the first place, and Kevin Smith and his collaborators might want to take a good hard look at the sludge and offal that drips off their drawing boards. And the context does not matter: if the word was used, it's a slur, plain and simple, and for that reason alone the show deserved to die an inglorious death.
: But then, if Smith is indeed the devout Catholic he claims to be, small wonder he has no problem in using homophobic slurs in his "art" -- after all, it's his own Pope who calls lesbian and gay people "intrinsically morally evil". Maybe "fag" is just Kevin's clever way of distilling the words of his Holy Father into language he and his friends can understand.