Ice T Smashing A Laptop Reminds Us That Racism Is Weird
This video (after the jump) is from June, but it started circulating this weekend when Waxy linked to it. Now, to a normal human being, this video seems fairly straight-forward. An aging hip hop artist who has traded in his street credibility and his convincingly "gangster" image for a comfortable recurring role on a mainstream police procedural (AS THE POLICE!), and who struggles, one imagines, with a life of constant compromise between the hard-fought persona of his youth that got him to where he is today, and the inevitable comfort and warm fat of moneyed celebrity, destroys a laptop with a hammer. Pretty tough! You can picture him in the breakfast nook with his porn star wife, pushing the food that their personal chef prepared for them around on the plate ("I didn't like cantaloupe until I was in my 40s!" -- Ice T) and wondering what to do with this old laptop, and Ice T decides to get his video camera because for the narcissist there is no moment not worth capturing, and so there you go.
But people besides normal human beings also watched this. So, for example, the YouTube comments are filled with long-winded angry threads between Apple and PC fans, debating the individual merits of the computers, as if this has anything to even do with that, and also it is 2009 and we can probably move on, no? But sure, right, to be expected. And then there are the racists.
Hahaha. WHAT? Racism is so weird. Whether or not Ice T is smart is certainly a topic up for debate, but shoe-horning in a comment about a black person being an ape because he smashed a $3,000 computer is some pretty dedicated racism. I mean, half of the videos on YouTube are people destroying stuff. When it comes to demolishing junk on tape, we get real United Colors of Benetton. And obviously, my favorite part is when he returns to the thread to BACK UP HIS RACISM with some information about COMPUTER REPAIR.
This is also a classic.
Ha! Right!
To be fair to the honorable YouTube commenters community, there are more than 500 comments on the video, and although people call him gay and retarded, not one person refers to Ice T as a "gay retard." Baby YouTube is all grown up*!
*Not!
Posted by Gabe at 1:15 PM in Oh, Yuck!
Tags: Apple | Ice-T | Racism | YouTube Commenters
I bet if a black man was elected president, there'd be all sorts of idiots running around saying he was a Muslim terrorist, or wasn't actually born in America, or other crazy shit, regardless of what he was actually doing.
Wouldn't that be hilarious?
Score = 14
no, no, no. if a black man is ever elected president, it would mean that racism was forever and truly over in america, despite any and all proof of the contrary, because that's how democracy works.
right?
Score = 10
Nice counterpoint.
Let's have a beer summit, and discuss our differences.
Score = 10
only if our third wheel can be RNC chairman michael steele.
Score = 3
I thought one of the advantages of being rich is that you can destroy a laptop every day and not think twice about it.
Score = 6
Youtube IS FUCKIN like /b/ with SCREEN NAMES so THAT SHIT has to be toned DOWN (A little). READING THE comments on that crap is LIKE watching A SLOW MOVING trainwreck, but BEING UNABLE TO look away or do anything. SERIOUSLY, does ANYONE else scroll through and read SOME OF THAT shit with their MOUTHS open, not knowing WHAT TO even think?
Ugh, WHAT A fuckin mess us HUMANS ARE.
Score = 1
Wow! Did you and AmPat switch accounts for the day? Or are you just trying out the EMPHASIS?
Score = 3
I am so bored that I actually thought "what if I type like An American Patriot? Will people think he fucked up and switched accounts or something?" and then tried it. But, after hitting submit, I realized how fucking stupid it is, and I am sorry Patriot for messing with you! I WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN!
Also, typing like that is a chore. I don't know how you MANAGE TO randomly HIT CAPS all the time. It'd drive me crazy.
Score = 4
WOW more people SHOULD TALK like THIS! C'mon Y'ALL!
Score = 5
I agree what happened, to this site?!
I remember before when you guys Gabe used to write about The Adventures of Pluto nash (http://videogum.com/) which was funny to watch because eddie Murphy was shitty in it. And also CRASH (http://www.google.com/search?q=crash&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) which was also funny because I didn’t really get that movie, what the fuck was going on?!
But now you gabe, are being an asshole. I have always sometimes checked Video Gum, but now gabe, you are being mean.
I don't think it is rite to call ice t him an ape, just because he can't fix his computer you are racist. also you should not say faggot.
Score = -15
Good comment. Very coherent.
Score = 7
Is this guy serious?
Score = 2
If we down-vote him, we are just giving him what he wants.
Score = 4
And, like Brad Pitt in Seven, I will be more than happy to oblige.
Oops, SPOILER ALERT.
Score = 6
It is as if Ice T smashed your brain with the same hammer.
Score = 4
don't be a dick, just because not all my of grammar was right doe'snt mean you shud ignore my point
Score = -6
YES, IT does.
Score = 8
God damn it. Is this just Passerby who is just buenosueno (or LINDSAY?!) What is going on around here?! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!!!!
Score = 1
I DUNNO but the TROLLS are SURGING must have RSS tabs OR WHATEVER linked TO TRUEBLOOD AND Ice T. I mean DOESN'T EVERYBODY have that?
Score = 4
haha i don't even know what an rss tab is! so what's that say
i also don't know what a troll is, but I was just checking and found something offensive. so i thought i'd call out. maybe gabe was joking but that's not funny
Score = -1
Buddy, it was me last week, and now you? Come on! The best way to deal with them is to just ignore them. Let's all paint, exercise and ignore trolls. No e-breakdowns today. Just say, 'Fuck you, let's just luge' and the time-space continuum will be restored.
Score = 4
It's slightly sweet, in an incredibly twisted way, that us Videogummers immediately assume that a troll must just be another troll going by a different name. Like, we think that there can't possibly more than one or two of these kinds of people in the world. I love it. Except that a good 30 seconds of reading YouTube comments will prove that we are horribly, disastrously wrong about this.
Score = 2
hmm, I didn't read it as Gabe saying Ice T was an ape... Wasn't that just the Youtube commenter? Or am I going crazy and/ or do I need new glasses...
Score = 0
If you ever catch yourself thinking "God, I am so sick of having this stupid soul. How do I get rid of it?", then reading YouTube comments for more than 5 minutes is the answer for you! (Barring the actual invention of this painless soul extraction process, of course)
Score = 3
no, no, no. long ago i discovered the worst place on the internet: it's the rants and raves section of new orleans' craigslist. seriously. that is where i go when i am feeling way too happy and positive about the world i live in. it has, by far, the craziest and most racist statements in all the interwebs. i'd link, but i'm already sad enough about the world today to even risk opening it- merely entering it is sort of like when they open the arc of the covenant in indiana jones.
Score = 4
Yes! Reading that forum (why do I read that forum??) sends me into a spiral of despair. I kind of thought maybe that was how all rants and raves forums are for other cities...no? Is it just us? Well shit.
Score = 1
much like other horrible and dark thing that set new orleans apart from the rest of the developed world (our crime rate, our high school graduation rate, our infants being bitten to death by rats rate), i think our rants and raves section is unique. i feel like most of the other ones i've been on are mostly porny and pervvy.
Score = 0
I'm looking forward to the day that a Mac takes apart Ice-T.
Score = 4
*of my
Happy now?!
Score = -4
*Office Space reference*
Score = 1
Ice T going to the mac store with that busted computer reminds me so much of that thing your boyfriend did with the pennies when his car was impounded.
Score = 4
A racist comment on an Ice-T YouTube video is far too meta to take seriously. Also, at this point, I think it would me more noteworthy if you could find a YouTube video without a comment consisting of nothing but the word "faggot" in all caps.
Score = 1
Ice-T = King Kong
Mac = Ann Darrow
youtube = progress?
Score = 0
Ice T once came to my university, because, you know, education.
Anyway, he gave us a lengthy prepared speech, most of which was far less interesting than I'd hoped. But it did have one memorable highlight: "You know, I know a lot about freedom of speech and human rights. Like, you have a right to say, 'Ice T, you a dumb n*gga.' That's cool. But I, as that dumb n*gga, have a right to jack you in the face for saying that."
I believe he collected his Nobel Prize later that evening.
Score = 7
You should have seen when he used to do this to his Texas Instruments TI-99.
Score = 2
Well, 'to shoe-horn' is now my new favorite verb. What a nice image and properly used!
Score = -1