As long as I'm fancasting anyway, #JessicaWilliamsForDailyShow!
[music]
Happy Wednesday, PaulTalkers! I hope you'll
forgive me for looking like this. This is
my version of having no makeup on, which is
to say I haven't shaved my face and scalp.
So, I just feel like a hippie!
Monday night, as it was approaching midnight,
I was just not going to sleep, as usual, and
all of a sudden, twitter exploded with news
that Sony was going to allow Marvel to use
Spider-Man! Spider-Man was going to appear
in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film first
and then appear in a Sony film after that,
under like a teamwork thing with Marvel Studios.
I got ridiculously excited because when I
was a kid, Spider-Man was my favorite hero.
And for the longest time, he stayed my favorite
hero. So, when the first Spider-Man movie
came out, so long ago in the early 2000s with
Toby McGuire, I was really excited to see
what they could do.
And it was, it was good.
And then Andrew Garfield came in for a reboot,
not very long after that. And his version
of Peter Parker was more confident than I
liked, frankly. I don't think Peter Parker
should be that confident.
That reboot movie was a good movie. And then
the second movie was not.
And since the Marvel press release didn't
mention Andrew Garfield, there's a lot of
very strong speculation that there'll be a
brand new person cast in that role.
And here's where I might make some nerds'
brains blow up:
Spider-Man is not inherently a white guy!
Fight me, nerds!
One of the reasons why I liked Spider-Man
so much was because, I, an Asian-American
kid could identify with him. When he put on
his mask and was swinging from building to
building throughout New York, you couldn't
tell who he was inside that costume. Hell,
he could've had a binder on and had breasts,
nobody could tell because it was a completely
covering costume! And that was excellent!
The identity of Spider-Man was irrelevant
to the awesomeness of the superhero of Spider-Man.
It was about trying to do your best, having
a really good heart, and spider powers. Ish.
Here are the core components of the Spider-Man
story: A kid loses their parents. The kid
has to live with their aunt and uncle, one
of whom was a really strong parental figure
with really great advice and wisdom that they
impart upon this kid. And the kid grows up
in some part of New York where they are not
particularly wealthy. And when this kid gets
those spider powers, they first thing they
do is try to figure out how to make some money
off of that. And then when they go off to
make money with their spider powers, they
look the other way as a crime happens, and
because of that, their strong parental figure,
that gave them all the great guidance, dies.
And then that kid decides that that's never
going to happen again. That they are always
going to make the right decision, the good
decision so that nobody else has to die like
their beloved strong parental figure.
Ethnicity doesn't come into play in any of
that. Gender doesn't come into play in any
of that. Heck, even sexual orientation doesn't
come into play in any of those core aspects
of the Spider-Man origin story.
Back when Stan Lee created Spidey, he created
the alter-ego of Peter Parker specifically
to be someone who got beat up in their real
life. So that kid was a nerdy, sciencey, skinny
kid with glasses.
Fast forward to 2015 and skinny, nerdy white
guys with glasses are kind of ruling everything
right now. It doesn't make sense to make that
the alter-ego of Spider-Man any more.
It would make tons more sense for Spider-Man
to be some kid of color. It could be a girl,
it could be a boy. It could be a gay kid,
it could be a trans kid. These are the kids
who, today, are bullied very destructively.
Basically any type of person who is not a
straight white guy gets picked on more than
straight white guys.
Now, there are going to be plenty of nerds
who can't get past the fact that there is
a story in place. But it's a fiction. Literally
everything in a fiction can be changed; there
are no restrictions against that because they
are fictions!
If Marvel and Sony want to stick with the
name of Peter Parker just because it's a recognizable
name, and it seems like they do from that
press release, that's fine. Still doesn't
have to be a white guy.
#DonaldGloverForSpiderMan
I'd really like a Spider-Gwen movie, too.
And a Miles Morales movie.
So there's my controversial stance, nerds!
Peter Parker doesn't have to be a white guy,
and in fact, shouldn't be.
Now, maybe you don't care about comic book
heroes and that's fine. But what you should
care about is representation and diversity
in all forms of stories. You should still
be petitioning for a not-white-guy to play
this character.
What do you think? Do you agree with me, do
you disagree with me? Give me all of your
arguments below, but be forewarned: if your
argument consists of racism, I will be blocking
you and banning you from my channel.
It's nice to talk about something that's not
quite so serious for once. It's been a while
since I've done that, I think.
In my last video, I asked, "What is it that
makes you go check out another youtube channel?"
And one of the responses I got was something
along the lines of "well, if I got to actually
see a little clip of what they do on that
channel, I might check them out." So, let's
do that now.
This is Karen Talk's being very funny doing
impressions in her latest video.
"I've been working on some impressions."
"No, thank you."
"Ha ha, ha ha, oh, boy! It's your old pal,
Mickey!"
"Decent at best."
"Oh, boy!"
"Are you done?"
I'll also link to her in the description below.
This is the part where youtube vloggers tend
to tell you to like and subscribe, and I would
appreciate it if you did those things, especially
if you have not subscribed yet. But actually,
it might be better if you share this on twitter
or facebook or tumblr, because that might
get me to the eyes of more people who don't
know who I am. And if I can get up to 5000
subscribers on this channel, then that would
get me into the New York YouTube Space, which
would be really cool.
And now it's the end of the video. As always,
thanks for watching and tomorrow will be even
better!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community
