Q About Gymnastics - Gabby Douglas

[JLN]

I saw my grandfather this weekend and he's an Olympic nut. He was telling me that after Gabby Douglas' segment aired, NBC showed a clip of monkeys swinging in the trees. He was very offended by this and thought it was racist.

I find it very hard that any station would do something that stupid, esp during the Olympics. Did this really happen?

[llama]

It sure did. The monkeys were doing gymnastics, actually. You can watch it here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFBHjgpIq7I&feature=player_embedded

(Sorry, don't know how to make it clicky)
I think it is in pretty bad taste and I can't believe it slipped past enough people and no one pulled it or thought about how it might look. I'm sure they probably didn't intend for it to be racist, but it doesn't take a genius to think for a couple seconds about how that might be perceived.

[JLN]

Ugh. I was really hoping it was his senility. How awful of NBC to do that.

[ttt]

Just when you thought NBC's Olympic coverage couldn't possibly suck any more....

[overture]

I saw that and thought the same thing.

[basilosaurus]

Yes, it happened. At least your grandpa noticed and was offended! Way to be a good old guy. He can be spared the death panels.

[summer]

It's not rocket science. When in doubt, don't ever compare Black people to monkeys ever, no matter the intent. It will 99.99% of the time not go your way.

[emilyj]

It sure did. My mouth literally dropped open. NBC, hello? You're on a tape delay. There's no excuse. None.

[copzgirl1171]

I am of the opinion that NBC could fuck up a wet dream featuring Bar Rafaeli

I am so happy I didn't see this. One hate mail to a big corporation is all I can do in one week (this weeks target was Chevy/GM)

[heightsyankee]

Um... I just watched that and I had to laugh at the complete idiocy of the whole thing. WTF NBC? They're making CNN look smrt.

[mx27]

just watched the clip...

yup, bad commercial choice.