The Daily Show Introduces Us to Gitmo
by Racialicious Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie
In this clip from YouTube, we see Gitmo the Puppet’s first appearance, as well as a subsequent appearance. In Gitmo’s first appearance, he’s introduced as a bearded (and presumably Muslim) detainee of Guantanamo Bay with a fakey “Middle Eastern” accent. (He is also an obvious relative of Elmo, for those of you who can’t see the video. – Ed.) Gitmo pleads, “Tell Gitmo’s family Gitmo is aliiiive.”
In the subsequent appearance, Gitmo appears, calling for the execution (and therefore, according to Jon Stewart, martyrdom) of Sheikh Khalid Mohammed and other defendants who admit to planning terrorist activities. When Stewart questions him about his intentions, Gitmo says, “You can’t handle the truth” and then ululates. In retaliation, Stewart “waterboards” him and tells him not to complain or he’ll go back to the “untrained puppy room.” Cut to Gitmo being dragged around by a dog and wailing, “I’m just a cab driverrrrrrr…”
In Gitmo’s third appearance (starting at the 4.10 mark), we see him “inside” his Guantanamo Bay cell, protesting that the “crazy motherf*ckers locked up down here” shouldn’t be given habeas corpus. His former identity as a “cab driver from Karachi” is replaced with a menacing promise that, if freed, he’ll become a terrorist: “Gitmo go free. Gitmo go home, Gitmo go home to Damascus, get back in taxi cab, fill it with C-4, and drive it into east entrance of British embassy! (ululating)”
Never mind that Karachi and Damascus are in two different countries with two different languages and racial demographics. Either way, he’s “just a cab driver.”
The bearded, accented portrait that Gitmo paints is one of cultural shorthand for the term “terrorist”. Gitmo also reduces Guantanamo Bay inmates to a stereotypical job associated with Middle Eastern and South Asian immigrants. Hey, these are people, remember? Some of which have been unjustly and unconstitutionally imprisoned? Some of whom have family that doesn’t know there they are, whether they are dead or alive?
Having a beard and an accent (and driving a taxi, perhaps) is enough to get you profiled, searched, arrested, and incarcerated—is Gitmo making light of that or reinforcing it?
Either way, I don’t find it funny.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
Philly Phil wrote:
not funny at all.
though i think they are using the tale told through Alex Gibney’s documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side”
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 9:53 am ¶
VELMA SABINA!!! wrote:
yeah, HAHAHAHA!!!! SOOOOOO FUNNY.
Not.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:12 am ¶
David wrote:
I concur in that I thought it was a parallel to “Taxi” as well, but at the same time I think it is good to bring up exactly what kind of perceptions the Gitmo character is created from.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:14 am ¶
Medea wrote:
It was not remotely funny. I couldn’t tell whether or not the creators had good intentions.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:24 am ¶
SRS wrote:
I don’t know. I interpreted it as political satire, and thought it made the point that our ideas of who the people detained are and what their lives were like is likely way off base, and that if our version (or at least our president’s version) of who the detainees are were real, they’d be just as ridiculous and one dimensional as Gitmo.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:51 am ¶
christine wrote:
I am not surprised, the Daily Show is a pretty pathetic excuse for a “news” show. Anything to get a laugh, who cares about the story or the message, just make ‘em laugh God dammit!!
I know I am in the minority for my “target demographic”, but I prefer to get my news from a reliable source, and not a spoof news show.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 11:02 am ¶
SarahSimone wrote:
The stereotypical depictions used for Gitmo are definitely not funny. But I think the show is trying to remind us about the errors of racial profiling. Even if the effort is misguided, it seems like the attempt is to remind us that because people look or speak a certain way, they are in danger of being falsely accused and possibly imprisoned. It seems like the position of The Daily Show is that our government’s poor handling of the detainees and of the war on terror, is that we are creating anger and hatred towards America, when there might not have been before. I think there were good intentions here, with a pretty bad outcome.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 11:25 am ¶
Persia wrote:
I haven’t seen Gitmo the puppet yet (and streaming video isn’t happening here), so I can’t comment to that specifically. But I will say that good satire– really good satire– walks a razor’s edge between being funny and deeply offensive. This is not to say that things can’t be offensive and wrong and Just Not On. It *is* to say that satire is always a risk, and sometimes, when you’re attempting satire, you may well go too far. (The cliche example is “A Modest Proposal,” which people really did read as advocating the eating of Scottish children.)
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 11:53 am ¶
Paul wrote:
Modest Proposal is about Irish children, not Scots. The British were in the midst of dealing with the “Irish problem.” They’d long since conquered and colonized the Scots.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 12:39 pm ¶
CVT wrote:
I don’t really care what the proclaimed “intentions” are for this one. Because, no matter the intentions, the humor most Americans are going to get from this is that it’s making fun of “Muslims.” Period. Taking advantage of (possibly) proposed “political satire” to get cheap laughs through stereotypes.
It gives me the same feeling the second Harold and Kumar movie did – people aren’t laughing at the racist humor because it shows “how absurd it all is,” but rather because they think racist jokes are funny. And then, of course, people (like me) that get offended by that just “can’t take a joke.”
Intentions mean nothing if your intentions are open to WIDE interpretation.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 12:49 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
I see what you’re saying about good intentions but bad outcome, and that’s very possible.
I think I snapped when Gitmo blamed “Snuf al-Upagus” (an Arabized form of Snufalupagus) for ratting him out or some such thing. The cab driver comments and Arabizing Snufalupagus were just too far for my taste.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 12:49 pm ¶
Dorian wrote:
Nicely put CVT.
Eh, for me, the Daily Show already lost its humor when the old correspondents left. Stewart is rather poor by himself, and this shows it.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 1:33 pm ¶
Marge Twain wrote:
TDS always assumes a white male audience. Their writing staff is %100 white men. As one of their writers put it “we’re 50% male and 50% not female[and 100% race-neutral!]”
I used to like it but now rarely find it funny anymore. Either it’s gotten more juvenile or I’m getting older. Coverage of anything in the neighborhood of Damascus or Karachi is just milking laughs with ignorance.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 1:34 pm ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
They have never got away with this if it was targeted at any other ethnic/racial or religious grouping.
Not only is it insulting, it is not even educated. Arabising “Snuf al-Upagus” just doesnt work. The idiots who did this arent even aware this is no “p” sound in Arabic?
Not only insulting, low brow insulting at that.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 2:07 pm ¶
Marge Twain wrote:
Abu- I’m with you on the low-brow, uneducated critique. However, I’ve seen enough of the show to see them rudely stereotype other groups. Let’s refrain from that “last acceptable predjudice” canard, please. I know others, including Wendi, have asked this of you before.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 2:25 pm ¶
Abu Sinan wrote:
Marge,
Point taken. I guess we should maybe talk about levels of acceptance rather than saying “last acceptable prejudice”. The “green horde” or “Islamic menace” has replaced the “red scare” or the “yellow horde” mentality.
If they wanted to stereotype they ought to cover all of the Muslims that I work with. All scientists and engineers, they came here from places like India, Africa, the Middle East and Asia because we just dont produce enough engineers and people good enough with math.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 2:32 pm ¶
Persia wrote:
Paul, thanks, I’d misremembered.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 3:13 pm ¶
Kirk Van Irvin wrote:
God, some people obviously don’t have anything else to do . For those of you who pertains to, get over your selves! First of all, the Daily Show is NOT a news show : Jon Stewart himself came and said that after finding out that people saying they were getting their news from the show. It is a satirical comedy show!
And second, If you watch the show at all, you would know that they were being faciecious to make a point about the circumstances of people being sent to Guantanamo. the puppet was made purposely stereotypical and over the top ON PURPOSE to make that point .
Mod Note – Kirk, you don’t have to agree with everything posted here, but being obnoxious is a quick way to find yourself banned. Phrases like “Get over yourselves” and “some people obviously don’t have anything else to do” generally start fights, and I’m not having that. Furthermore, many of us are frequent watchers of the Daily Show/Corbert Report – doesn’t mean that everything they do is gold, or immune from critique. – LDP
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 5:34 pm ¶
Dorian wrote:
Marge,
You got it. I remember one stint where Stewart exclaimed “Do they even have baseball in China?” Yes Jon. They do.
At least with the Colbert Report, Steven has interviewed people from a wider demographic (Heck he even did a dance-off with RAIN!).
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 6:29 pm ¶
soreal678 wrote:
i thought the whole series of sketches were funny.
you guys can’t take everything on “The Daily Show” or especially Comedy Central as something meant to be serious. C’mon! It’s supposed to be political satire.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 8:05 pm ¶
Ratrace wrote:
I am not surprised, the Daily Show is a pretty pathetic excuse for a “news” show.
…but I prefer to get my news from a reliable source, and not a spoof news show.
Well, Christine, you presented and answered your own conundrum. The Daily Show has never claimed to be a news show and Jon Stewart has repeatedly made that point. It is, however, one of the few media sources that has consistently gone after the current asministration for their excesses. I think they did that pretty well with Gitmo.
Iwent away from the skit feeling like they were talking about the idea of illegal detention, water-boarding as torture, and racial profiling as being wrong. The message was very well presented in my opinion.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 8:20 pm ¶
Kirk Van Irvin wrote:
Latoya, I apologize. I did not intend to spin anybody up. I will try to be more tactful in whatI say in the future.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 8:33 pm ¶
Torontonian wrote:
How are waterboarding and drowning noises funny? It’s funny to the audience because they know that they (non-Muslim whites) won’t be sent to Gitmo for no reason.
Also, the video ends at 4:11.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 9:11 pm ¶
Torontonian wrote:
Oh sorry, I didn’t see the second link in the post. Anyway, Comedy Central seems to block video access from non-U.S. locations.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 9:14 pm ¶
Slush wrote:
Huh. The Daily Show often treads on my nerves for many of the reasons stated above, but this episode did not. I guess I thought it walked the right side of satire and was making a clear point about the idiocy of the situation and the administration’s stance on it. (I thought the Gitmo puppet was cute and sympathetic.)
Also, I didn’t think Gitmo had an “immigrant” accent so much as a “muppet” accent. And I think you could argue that portraying Guantanamo detainees as muppets shows a willingness to offer them a lot of credibility in American culture. Maybe that’s not true, but I think of muppets as generally being very appealing to people.
But I see how it could be offensive, especially if you are an immigrant or otherwise deal with people criticizing your English on a regular basis.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:04 pm ¶
Liz wrote:
Jon Stewart has become an awful warmup act for the main event: Colbert.
Now Stephen’s arm around the black guy photos and “I don’t see race; people tell me I’m white” schtick is good political satire because it challenges whites to consider their own their own role in racial hierarchies. Stewart is plain not-funny and not-smart.
P.S. Did anyone catch stephen’s interview with Lou Dobbs in Spanish? That was hilarious…. but racist? I couldn’t decide.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:08 pm ¶
Korolev wrote:
The whole “Gitmo” bit was rather painful to watch. Does the Daily Show have some sort of product placement agreement with the makers of Elmo Dolls?
I’m a bit afraid for the Daily Show – I think they’re running out of ideas. The show still makes me laugh, but not nearly as much as it used to. Jon Stewart is pretty much carrying the show as it is, and apart from John Hodgman, I don’t care for the new cast which has replaced all the old talent.
Is Gitmo stereotypical? Yes. Yes very much so. However, this is supposed to be a gimmicky thing they throw out there (as in – the audience is supposed to say “awww, isn’t Elmo cute with a beard?”). It’s not supposed to be deep.
They go for the stereotype because it’s easy, it’s fast, and they don’t have to explain anything, because everyone knows the stereotype. It’s not exactly right of them to do it, but they can’t go into 30 minutes of exposition to try to explain the complexities and characteristics of an Elmo Doll with a beard. He’s just there for cheap laughs.
Again, not saying it’s right to do it. Not saying it’s exactly evil either. I seriously don’t think this is going to influence anyone to be racist, especially those who watch the Daily Show (come on, 99% of the Daily Show audience are left-wing or left-leaning, and that includes myself).
In regards to whole “Having a beard and an accent (and driving a taxi, perhaps) is enough to get you profiled, searched, arrested, and incarcerated—is Gitmo making light of that or reinforcing it?” – I think he is trying to show how insane the the world has become, by using humor. I mean, if the US had tried this 10 years ago, it wouldn’t have flown. No one would have put up with it. People thought this sort of thing was impossible. Of course, anyone who studies history realizes that “democracy-gone-bad” happens all the time, and the US has repeatedly incarcerated people based on race in the past. But I’d wager that most US citizens never thought this could happen. The Daily Show is trying to use humor to highlight the absurdity of the situation.
Just as Catch-22 used humor to poke fun at the military system, and it deals with things like officer-abuse, death, and other things which are not funny in the real world, the Daily Show is trying to use humor.
Personally, I think the greatest flaw of the Character Gitmo is the fact that it’s just not funny. Every time he comes on, I barely laugh or smile. He’s just not a funny character.
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:26 pm ¶
Doug wrote:
I think you’re all missing the point. They where making fun of the U.S. government. My turkish girlfriend was in tears the whole time. Jon Stewart and TDS rip on everyone. It’s there job and I’m glad they do it.
” A comedians job is to find the line and cross it” – George Carlin
Posted 09 Jul 2008 at 10:45 pm ¶
AC wrote:
It was an interesting piece of over the top satire the first time I saw it. The second and subsequent appearances have gotten less and less funny and more offensive to me personally. Having said that, like any halfway decent satire, several TDS schticks over the years have offended me.
In the end, TDS amuses me more often than it offends me and even when offended I appreciate being forced to re-examine my own views on the offending issue. That’s all I can ask of any political satire.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 12:32 am ¶
g wrote:
People are so missing the point. A beard, an accent and an informer looking for a payday is all it takes to get someone profiled and thrown in a secret prison.
You should be offended. You should be angry… at the united states goverenment. Not the daily show. Don’t shoot the messenger, heed the message.
Unlike michelle obama, I’m STILL waiting to be proud of my country for the first time in my adult life.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 4:33 am ¶
ding wrote:
for me, this was one of those instances where intent and impact were waay on opposite sides of the street.
i totally get what Gitmo is shooting for; it’s not hard to see the desire to do some political satire. but it was clumsy and not skillful – the fact that it ended up reinforcing really negative racial stereotypes demonstrates the satire misfired.
not well done at all, Daily Show.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 11:36 am ¶
Marge Twain wrote:
To all the folks who want to do the rest of us a favor by letting us know it’s just a comedy show:
Noone tunes in to Comedy Central actually confused about what type of show it is, okay? People do watch the show for news because what they offer is a roundup of the day’s stories from other tv news channels with a humorous spin. Jon Stewart claims it’s not a news show whenever he wants to wiggle out of any criticism. Though noone has ever tried to hold TDS to the same standards as CNN, JS is no Andrew Dice Clay or George Carlin. He’s often earnest, sometimes sarcastic, not always distinguishable from Keith Olberman. He’s #8 on the U.K. Telegraph’s list of the top 50 American political pundits:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/1919961/The-most-influential-US-political-pundits-10-1.html
The satire on the show is performed by the special correspondents and with the occasional puppet skit. Comedy can walk a line of controversy without alienating various groups that are already marginalized. It doesn’t have to be by white guys for white guys like everything else on tv while pretending to stick it to the man.
@Korolev-Left wing does not =enlightened or in any way non-racist. It just means self-congratulatory. Not saying that about you in particular, but I think folks on the left can be major racism deniers while feeling smug telling themselves conservatives are the real bad guys.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 2:03 pm ¶
Gothic Guera wrote:
Ok the Daily show and The Colbert Report air on Comdey Central which gave us SOUTH PARK! to quote Jon stewart(he was saying this to Tuker Carlson) “You’re on CNN! The show(daily show) that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls! What is wrong with you?” By the way the show did a segment on John Mcain butt and chocking the chicken. I think we should protest that!
Thety adimtts they are immature. Trust me they are poking fun of the Govt. treatment of its as torture, and racial profiling. It pokes fun at its self that they had few black correpondents(and female and any other POC)
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 3:52 pm ¶
Annie wrote:
I have to be one of the defenders of TDS… as previous commentators have pointed out the point of Gitmo was to be stereotypical as a criticism of racial profiling and the costs of it. Also TDS is not a news show but comedic political satire on Comedy Central.
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 8:37 pm ¶
randy corey trevor wrote:
i loved gitmo. maybe just because i once loved elmo….
the whole bit is shameless and controversial….the thing about the daily show is it really is exactly what is it; a show on the comedy network. there’s no secret propaganda message.
in fairness, there are sometimes fantastic interviews at the end of the show, but that’s all you should take seriously.
(…i find stewart’s intervews have been better than colbert’s recently…but i once thought vice-versa. i do think that has something to do with reading into these shows too seriously. it’s too exhausting )
a lot of us have had a bit of fun sorting out the truth from the lies. we have had a hard time NOT reading into every little thing that comes our way. but what stewart/colbert are doing is strictly comedy; whether political, religious, or muppet.
please forgive my grammar
Posted 10 Jul 2008 at 11:00 pm ¶
Dorian wrote:
I think most of us are aware that it’s satire.
Posted 11 Jul 2008 at 12:12 am ¶
Slush wrote:
@marge twain
Exactly! Well said.
Being a comedian doesn’t negate your social impact, or put you beyond criticism. There’s bad, sloppy, racist comedy, and there’s clever satire and sarcastic comedy. Stewart has done some of both.
And has been alluded to, most of the time Stewart fails to acknowledge that there are people of races or genders other than his. So I don’t think he gets that much street cred to slide on when he does something over the edge.
Posted 11 Jul 2008 at 7:29 am ¶
Colette wrote:
Hi. I don’t have much to add to this discussion, which I think has been interesting and important. I’ve watched TDS for years and understand that it’s a comedy show. (I also agree that Colbert is often more funny though.) I’ve been generally uncomfortable with how TDS seems to repeat the same stereotypes and disinformation about Arab and/or Muslim societies, like lumping different cultures together or talking about Muslims always being at war with one another. I’m a black american, and this kind of stuff has stood out to me in watching TDS lately. I’ve been curious if anyone else had the same thoughts.
Posted 11 Jul 2008 at 8:15 pm ¶
Marge Twain wrote:
Colette, I agree absolutely. We can recognize that it’s a comedy show and enjoy watching it sometimes and also not give it a pass on racism/ being made by white writers for a white audience.
Posted 12 Jul 2008 at 6:20 pm ¶
tekanji wrote:
Throwing my vote in with “not funny”.
Aside from the fact that it’s blatantly racist and offensive (who is Jon trying to mock, anyway?), it drags on for way too long. Even if it had started out funny, it would have ceased being so after about 30 seconds at most.
Posted 14 Jul 2008 at 2:32 am ¶