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1. CaptainFlashheart - Member

   Racism or humour?

   From the comments section;
   

   Why do television advertisers think it's OK to parody eastern European pronunciation?

   Because it's funny. Simples!
   

   and

   Meerkats speak Meerkat.: unintelligible though it may be to the English. They take great delight in sitting up straight in the company of cameras and opening their eyes really wide in order to amuse those who operate the cameras and keep their minds away from understanding their language and learning their secrets. They are expert in saying Maaa-ket like the English and find it extremely amusing.

   Their accents are very distinct from those of the Eastern Europeans though they do profess profound respect for them.

   and

   It's a f***ing talking meerkat.

   This article is beyond parody
   

   

   Posted 2 years ago #
2. scaredypants - Member

   I always thought it was a shit effort at south african accent

   Posted 2 years ago #
3. timraven - Member

   He really does need to get laid.

   Posted 2 years ago #
4. Tijuana Taxi - Member

   Don't know why they needed that Meerkat, must be plenty of unemployed English mammals to do the work

   Yeah i know they don't work all the hours god sent and want more than minimum wage, next thing there will be shops selling Meerkat food

   Where will it all end

   Posted 2 years ago #
5. JxL - Member

   I'm Eastern European and do not feel offended by the adverts, don't see the whats the big deal about it.

   Posted 2 years ago #
6. Drac - Moderator

   So Rudeboy is writing for the Guardian now.

   Posted 2 years ago #
7. zaskar - Inactive

   http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/

   Posted 2 years ago #
8. jon1973 - Member

   Racism? since when was Eastern Europe a race?

   Posted 2 years ago #
9. roundwheels - Member

   every body is to easily offended these days and that makes you a racist. personally get a grip if that's all you have to be concerned about in your life there's not much going on

   Posted 2 years ago #
10. pacemaker - Member

    What a to**er.
    The meerkat is a legend, and also a stroke of genius from some brightspark advertising exec!

    Posted 2 years ago #
11. BrokenCollarBones - Member

    brilliant adverts, love em.

    Posted 2 years ago #
12. falkirk-mark - Member

    Next they will be wanting to ban the gollywog from Robertsons jam

    Posted 2 years ago #
13. coffeeking - Member

    They really need to get a grip. If the way I said something in Latvian sounded funny I'd be fine with them parodying that - knock themselves out, we all need things to chuckle at.

    Posted 2 years ago #
14. BigDummy - Member

    It had never occurred to me that the Meerkat was Latvian.

    Posted 2 years ago #
15. Stoner - Member

    has TJ been moon-lighting for the Guardian?

    

    Posted 2 years ago #
16. CaptainFlashheart - Member

    Stoner, I'm most disappointed that TJ's not read this yet! Right up his alley, I'd say!

    Might need to try a different fly, this bright sunlight is playing havoc with the shadows on the water!

    Posted 2 years ago #
17. Stoner - Member

    greenwells glory

    Posted 2 years ago #
18. thisisnotaspoon - Member

    I actualy thought he was Georgian, does that make me racist for not knowing he was genericly eastern european?

    Handddddddddsssssssssss freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee :0 :) :)

    Posted 2 years ago #
19. clubber - Member

    To my mind, racism (though clearly it's not really racism they're alleging but rather discrimination of some sort...) is negative stereotyping isn't it? If I said all black people were really clever and much better at singing than white people, would that be racism? Not to my mind though I suppose you could argue that it's highlighting differences which could be perceived as negative if you were a sensitive soul.

    Anyway, the Meerkat adverts don't seem negative to me and being a half-frenchie, I thought about whether I'd still think the same if the meerkat had a French accent and no, I still don't think it's negative.

    YMMV

    Posted 2 years ago #
20. monkeychild - Member

    God bless the Guardian!

    Posted 2 years ago #
21. thisisnotaspoon - Member

    no, discrimination would be saying "we dont insure Eastern Europeans because they talk like Meerkats", which would also be racist, as I quote (unfortunatley form wikipedia).......

    "According to the United Nations conventions, there is no distinction between the term racial discrimination and ethnic discrimination.
    "

    Unless you realy want to get into the pedantics of where the words come form racism is a prefectly good word to use to describe the feelings of certain people towards eastern europeans. Because if you wanted to be realy pedantic you could say Nigger is in fact a perfectly acceptable way to address anyone from the Niger Delata?

    Posted 2 years ago #
22. corroded - Member

    Suspect this is more to do with SEO than racist meerkats. The Guardian is adept at posting laughable, contentious content that gets people to link to it and generates a huge number of comments (mostly deriding the article). So, they would have noticed that there are probably lots of google searches for the meerkat ad, the internet meme du jour - hence article about meerkat ad with Guardian spin. They'll do this for anything from Kerry Katona and Top Gear to Israel in the quest for eyeballs.
    Of course, the flipside of increasing traffic in this way is that sends the paper into a death spiral towards the bottom of the barrel.

    Posted 2 years ago #
23. clubber - Member

    If Wikipedia says racism encompasses ethnic discrimination then it's clearly correct and I've learnt something new today!

    I still don't think it's racist though.

    Posted 2 years ago #
24. porterclough - Member

    Don't know what the Eastern European thing is about, Alexandr and Sergei are comedy characters which are clearly meant to be Russian:

    http://www.comparethemeerkat.com/meet-team

    Has the Guardian become a parody of itself yet?

    Posted 2 years ago #
25. trailmonkey - Member

    Quite insulting, offensive and clearly racist.

    Should be removed imho.

    Posted 2 years ago #
26. iDave - Member

    isn't racism like art?

    if the artist calls it art, it's art - it just may not be a viable source of income

    if someone feels offended, then they're offended - they don't need the majority to agree or understand

    i suspect giving the little shits west african accents would have been even less PC, hence johnny foreigner meerkat becomes russian

    and maybe the 'joke' wouldn't work with a different accent

    Posted 2 years ago #
27. RepacK - Member

    Lets just ban all jokes huh? 'Cos quite clearly its impossible to crack a funny w/o having something/someone as the target..What a load of b8llox..Hessian shirts & birchings all round! Oh no hang on I may have just insulted someone, somewhere!

    Posted 2 years ago #
28. anagallis_arvensis - Member

    If people find it offensive who the **** are we to tell them they are wrong?

    Posted 2 years ago #
29. willard - Member

    We really should ban jokes. The Telegraph is reporting that humour is an act of aggression.

    Posted 2 years ago #
30. JxL - Member

    I don't understand that it is (my guessing) a middle class, white, british journalist that is talking about foreign people (such as I) should take offense for the adverts?

    If I see some eastern europeans going on a strike or protesting against it - then maybe do something about it.

    No respect for the Guardian, glad I canceled the subscription months ago

    Posted 2 years ago #
31. BigDummy - Member

    Part of me is vaguely embarrassed that I didn't realise the meerkat were racially offensive (I may have been reading the Grauniad for too long ). I just saw the advert and thought the meerkat was awesome and someone had produced the funniest off the wall commercial I'd seen since the Cadbury's gorilla. I hadn't placed where he was supposed to be from or what ethnic group he was parodying at all. I assumed he was a meerkat, who had been given a strange comedy accent simply so they could use the device of supposed and to me unlikely confusion between "market" and "meerkat". I clearly don't know enough eastern europeans well enough to have picked this difficulty up...

    If it is racially offensive then I venture to suggest that the offence is or should be pretty mild.

    Posted 2 years ago #
32. TandemJeremy - Member

    CaptainFlashheart - Member

    Stoner, I'm most disappointed that TJ's not read this yet! Right up his alley, I'd say!

    Might need to try a different fly, this bright sunlight is playing havoc with the shadows on the water!

    Whaddya want me to say?

    Rather amusing not racist but possibly mildly xenophobic. Rather low on the list of things to get ones undergarments in a fankle over

    Posted 2 years ago #
33. Smee - Blocked

    First sentence = first blatant lie. No chance that bloke has a girlfriend.

    Posted 2 years ago #
34. porterclough - Member

    As a northerner, I'm offended by "Churchill" the dog and his comedy northern accent. Also the Admiral add is clearly offensive to senior naval officers. And as for the Martians in the Smash adverts from the 70s... well clearly that's why aliens haven't yet made contact, they're just embarrassed about out xenophobic attitudes to alien robots that like instant mashed potato.

    Posted 2 years ago #
35. kimbers - Member

    surely the only way to find out if this is racist or even offensive is to ask an eatern european?

    ok so anyone have an eastern european handy?

    i thought not
    thats coz youre all white middle class western european racists

    Posted 2 years ago #

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