Question by Nightvision: Example of television satire that offended people?
What are examples of television satire that ended up offending people and causing a backlash? Similar to the New Yorker Obama thing that happened. It can be anything from “Family Guy” to “South Park” to “Colbert Report”. Anything in modern U.S. television satire that offended people.
Thanks!
Best answer:
Answer by formerflyer
I am guessing you are younger. Back in the 70s the program “All In The Family” managed to offend almost everyone.
However, here is a specific example of a Saturday Night Live commercial parody which went bad. This happened at least 20 years ago. SNL ran a parody of a slot car set commercial. Their slot car set was called Meat Wagon and featured slot cars crashing and bursting into flames and then the Meat Wagon (ambulance) racing to the scene. It was absurd but some people believed it to be an actual commercial and someone wrote a letter to Ann Landers (advice columnist) complaining about this horrible race car set. Poor Ann did not know it was a parody either and quickly condemned the non existant product. Another commercial from years ago featured someone eating a candy bar and then talking about how good it was…while their mouth was obviously full. It just made most people want to vomit. It did not sell a lot of candy bars and did not last long. I think that was a Snickers bar but I am not certain.
And finally, a series of commercials for Longine watches in which a woman is showing her friend a beautiful watch her husband had given her as a present. The woman’s friend comments how nice the watch is and the woman with the watch says “Well, I was really hoping for a Longine.” Comedians had a great time with that one. The basic reaction was, this woman’s husband bought her a nice watch and all she could do was complain about it. The word the comedians used to describe the woman was not nice and it rhymed with witch. Made the Longine Watch company seem like a bunch of arrogant insensitive status seeking snobs.
Kind of a long answer but I am guessing you wanted specifics. Well, there you go.
Add your own answer in the comments!