Mar 21, 2006

Natalie Raps

Funniest thing I've seen in a long time. Miss Natalie Portman says it all in her rap vid for SNL.

posted by BURNTRAMEN at 2:14 PM

1 comment:

the purexj said...

from poplicks.com (also with interesting comments that i didn't past)

XJ

IRONIC WHITENESS = THAT HOTNESS

don't battle natalie

Any minute now, one of your friends will likely send you an email or IM message, directing you to check out Natalie Portman's fake rap skit on SNL last night (that is, until NBC serves youtube.com with another cease and desist). It's produced by the same folks (namely, Andy Samberg, aka Dan Savage's wanna-be love toy) who brought us the now-infamous "Lazy Sunday."

Given that I stopped watching SNL with any regularity years ago, I don't know how many times Samberg and company have recycled their own successful formula from "Lazy Sunday" but this Portman skit pretty much relies on the exact same elements, namely that it's funny to see innocuous white people rapping like Ice Cube circa 1990 (though Portman perhaps channels more of Heather B's flow, combined with B.O.S.S.'s lyrical content).

I'll admit: like "Lazy Sunday," this has some very funny moments (but it'd be much funnier if "Lazy Sunday" never existed). However, I'm ambivalent as to how these skits use hip-hop as the go-to trope for white people to parody themselves since, even though it's their whiteness that's the butt of the joke, they're using a flattened caricature of black masculinity to achieve it. Mind you, the whole mock-gangsta pose has a tradition in hip-hop though not as a means of self-ridicule, but rather, cultural criticism against gangsterism to begin with.

It's not like I find the Portman skit offensive but it's not doing hip-hop any favors. Then again, if someone wants to retort, "yeah, but 'Laffy Taffy's' not a great look either," I got no defense for that either.

Let's just hope Samberg doesn't rely on rap parodies (or lettuce-eating) as his surefire humor strategy.
--Oliver

2:37 PM

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