Seeing red
It is unlikely that The Homestar Runner would regard it as insulting to call the alien a Communist, as the perceived 1930's setting of the cartoon makes it incongruous with the general American resentment of Communism which began in the Cold War after World War II.
From: 4 branches
Posted on: 14:56, 20 November 2006 (UTC)
Arguments for:
Arguments against:
- TBC were probably not thinking that deep when they made the cartoon, and it seems The Homestar Runner did mean it as an insult because he called The Alien a "Communist fool" rather than just a "Communist".
- There are some problems with this fact, in that the term Communist could in fact have been an insult before the Cold War, as asserted in the aforementioned discussion.
Additional comments:
- See the discussion here for some background.
- One possibility might be a revision asserting rather that The Homestar Runner's remarks are more in line with the Cold War Era than the 30s, without saying they are incongruous.
- I admit I didn't consider this until I read the item above. On the other hand, could the Old-Timey cartoon have been from the 40s? I didn't notice a "date" on it.
- I'm in favor of a revision. I agree that the fact above is untenable, but I think the possible anachronism is worth noting. If I'm not mistaken, there's at least one similar notation (about the Prohibition) in the Ballad of the Sneak article.
- I think altogether the fact is not really true, because there were other times before then that Americans had fears of communism, most notably the Red Scare of 1919-1920. Granted, they may not have been as notable after that, but they still existed. Besides, I would figure that around the time that the Old-Timey cartoons are set in, Stalin would have begun his purges and such.
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