Anti-defamation, a Punch Line
(January 30, 2011)
Sofia Coppola
Something Funny about Somewhere.
I saw Sofia Coppola’s film Somewhere last night and while I was underwhelmed (it’s no Lost in Translation), I was struck by a line of dialogue. During a press junket with foreign reporters hurling questions at the film’s main character, Johnny Marco, an anomic actor of second-rate movies
, the disembodied voice of an “Italian journalist” asks, “How do you think this role represents Italian Americans?”
Online reviews [4] reference this query as illustrating “the staggering inanity of film journalists.” This throwaway line is also curious because it points to the various ways anti-defamation efforts are perceived as a punch line for TV and film directors, comedians, bloggers, and others.
“The Sopranos” was particularly adept at critiquing anti-defamation protests by the national organizations, often before they had time to do so.
The agita du jour [5] is about the fourth season of “Jersey Shore” being filmed in Italy, a country whose lecherous 74-year-old Prime Minister could easily serve as the MTV reality show’s thematic godfather. (The self-proclaimed, Italian-American spokespeople are silent about the embarrassment that is Berlusconi [6].) In a nanosecond comes a hilarious take from Taiwan, a video animation with the increasingly de rigueur joke that is anti-defamation outrage.
Italian Americans know how to twirl spaghetti! Che vergogna, Sofia!
TAGS
anti-defamation [7] Berlusconi [8] humor [9] irony [10] Jersey Shore [11] media [12] Sofia Coppola [13] The Sopranos [14]