Friday, August 15, 2008

Coulrophobics and Capitalists, Look Away!

All others, feast your eyes on THIS:

The End of Neoliberalism

I'm not sure I grasp all the politics at play here, but still--HO-LEE SHIT.

Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 2:01 AM

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7 comments:

Fred said...

The French have a thing about McDonalds. Just google the name Jose Bove. Still, I think he would want pomme frites and les shake before requesting le fromage, non?

August 15, 2008 at 10:24 AM
The Vicar of VHS said...

Ahh, but cheese is TRES FRANCIAS, oui? It's an attack on home turf, maybe.

When I was in Paris as a student I geeked out over the fact that you could go into McDonalds and get a beer with your order. Or more appropriately, a McBeer. In a wax-coated paper cup, no less.

August 15, 2008 at 10:43 AM
The Duke of DVD said...

Damn, that was pretty fucking awesome. Obviously the gun was a metaphor for the working man's penis, and he wanted to "shoot" a clown with it, only find out he was firing blanks and was thus devoured by the clown, who obviously represented the man's sexual attraction to clowns.

Well, it was all quite obvious to me, I don't know how one could have interpreted it otherwise. Sheesh.

August 15, 2008 at 2:04 PM
Tenebrous Kate said...

Yes, but does he like cheese on sandwiches?

Seriously, though, that was some truly traumatizing junk right there, made all the worse by the Duke's sexual innuendo that I can NEVER UNSEE in my mind's eye--thanks for this, guys.

August 15, 2008 at 2:12 PM
Fred said...

I don't know what is scarier Kate, that song or the fact that there are actually folks lining up to eat at Arby's. Still, it's nice to see Richard Simmons getting some work and I love his new face lift!

August 15, 2008 at 4:35 PM
Pierre Fournier said...

Time out. Wrong track, here.

First of all, this film is not French, it’s Québécois. Big difference. Québec is as French as Texas is British. Same language, different culture, vastly different accents and expressions. Evoking pomme frites is like making fish and chip jokes about Americans. The French Jose Bove’s campaign against fast food crap is as big in Quebec as, say, the British preoccupation with genetically modified “Frankenstein Foods” is big in Ohio.

Blame the bad subtitles. The clown doesn’t say he wants cheese, a la frenchie french, he says “UN cheese”, which is how we call a Macdonald’s Cheeseburger in Quebec. What he says is, basically, “Fuck, I’d sure like (or, I’d prefer) a cheeseburger.”

As to understanding the politics here, it has to do with your perception of Ronald MacDonald. In the States, at worst, Ronald might represent junk food and crass commercialism. Everywhere else on the planet, the Macdonald’s clown represents rampant capitalism. Editorial cartoonists use Ronald as shorthand for American-style consumerism.

Simply said, the film shows that you can run, but capitalism will eat you alive.

August 18, 2008 at 12:50 AM
Fred said...

Pierre, as a frequent visitor to Quebec, please accept my apology for my provincialism. As for Ronald McDonald, I am still po'd at him for inviting us to the grand opening of his shop in my hometown, then blowing us off because he had a hot date with the Hamburglar. At least that's what little five-year-old me was told at the time. And yes, I was crushed and can never forgive him.

August 27, 2008 at 11:44 AM

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