For those who unaware, James Gunn has been fired by Disney due to some tweets he made a decade ago. In the tweets, Mr. Gunn made some jokes about rape and molestation.

What do you guys think about this?

Personally, I think this is ridiculous. They were JOKES. Offensive and disgusting, sure, but JOKES none-the-less. This is craziness. I've got a pretty dark sense of humor myself. Am I gonna get my job taken away from me? What the Hell is going on?

Zack

Political correctness gone mad. Ten year old tweets dug up by somebody else. And obviously Disney covering its arse amidst the prevailing #metoo culture.

'Ridiculous' is one of my favourite words lately. I find reasons to use it more and more. Here it's on point.

From what I understand there were some pedophilia jokes too. And, Disney is at its core a family brand with huge emphasis on KIDS.  They can not have something like this tainting their brand no matter how ridiculous it seems. So, I kind of understand where this is coming from.

Hey Pia, I respect your opinion. My issue is, those tweets were a decade old. Why wasn't there a background check on Mr. Gunn by Disney? And again, they were JOKES. Robert Downey Jr has a far more troubled past, yet he's one of the poster children for Marvel. I just don't see how someone can be fired for something like that. It's insane to me.

Zack

The lesson that no one seems to learn - don't press send.

Quoted from Zack My issue is, those tweets were a decade old. Why wasn't there a background check on Mr. Gunn by Disney? And again, they were JOKES. Zack

You're missing my point. First of all I did not say I agreed. I said I can kind of understand it. The HUGE thing you're missing here is the recurring tweets about underaged boys in sexual situations. That is a no no for a company who's know for Mickey Mouse around the world. I kind of understand a business who's known for family friendly fair and kids stuff will have to disassociate themselves from someone who makes pedophile jokes. Even if a long time ago. It doesn't matter if thousands of people are disappointed a certain director will not be directing a certain film.

Me? I've been a Gunn fan since the old Troma days.  :)

I understand what you're saying, Pia. And I suppose you are right. I'm just frustrated with all this 2018 outrage culture BS. I'm amazed that Disney is only now taking action. Didn't they at least look at some of his earlier work? What about his series "PG Porn"? That wasn't family friendly at all.

And I also understand that he made a lot of pedophile jokes. I get it. It looks bad.

I too am a fan of Gunn. :) Here's hoping he lands on his feet. Seems like a really nice guy.

Zack

In this specific case, I can see Pia's point. It's Disney which is super PC.

That said, I think Hollywood has gone a little mad. It's got to be impossible to write comedy these days. You can't joke around about anything. There's a million rules that you have to follow now. Peter Sellers' "The Party" could have never existed in 2018.

There's a Feminist writer who blogs for the Blacklist. She wrote an article not long ago about how 70-something percent of amateur scripts had violence against women and basically that it was outrageous and it needed to stop. And I was reading it and pulling out my hair like "Yeah, but ZERO percent of those scripts ENDORSE violence against women". Every story has an antagonist and antagonists do horrible things to motivate our heroes. You might as well make a blog post: "98 percent of amateur scripts had murder and murder is bad and this trend needs to stop."

Anyways, I'm ranting a bit. But my point is that apparently this guy who got fired was joking. Like, I've joked about priests molesting little boys around my friends and I'm not a bad person. I don't ENDORSE rape because I've joked about it. Then Disney takes a total Judge Dredd response to it and ruins the guys life. "Ten years ago, you made a joke  about child molestation....you're sentenced to: being tarred and feathered in the media and having your career ruined."

I hope this doesn't make me sound like a MAGA Trump maniac or something. I'm actually left wing. I just think "far left" are as crazy as the "far right" and it's making things difficult as a story teller.

Quoted from RJP Anyways, I'm ranting a bit. But my point is that apparently this guy who got fired was joking. Like, I've joked about priests molesting little boys around my friends and I'm not a bad person. I don't ENDORSE rape because I've joked about it. Then Disney takes a total Judge Dredd response to it and ruins the guys life. "Ten years ago, you made a joke  about child molestation....you're sentenced to: being tarred and feathered in the media and having your career ruined."

I couldn't agree with you more. I constantly make offensive jokes to my friends. I say some pretty twisted stuff. Like joking about wearing hookers scalps. Doesn't mean I actually do it. I wrote a script about child molestation. Does that mean that one day, that specific script will be used against me?

Zack

Just for info:

Here's a run of the questionable tweets.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxhOT3WfO44

My thoughts:

Stupid offensive stuff.

I have no idea if he should have been fired. I do believe that Disney had every right to. They employ people based on their standards, not mine and at the end of the day they are making a decision based on economics, not on values. If they thought that keeping Gunn would help their bottom line - they'd keep em.

Not saying anyone here, but too often those who rail against political correctness only do so when it rubs their values the wrong way. e.g., The same person who rails against a network for firing Roseanne will be the same person wanting NFL Players fired because they kneel when the anthem is played.  The same person who wants to ban Dick Cheney from speaking on campus would welcome Jane Fonda.

It's tedious.

Bottom-line - digital lasts forever. You best be comfortable with anything you decide to put in that format.

Quoted from eldave1 Just for info: Here's a run of the questionable tweets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxhOT3WfO44 My thoughts: Stupid offensive stuff. I have no idea if he should have been fired. I do believe that Disney had every right to. They employ people based on their standards, not mine and at the end of the day they are making a decision based on economics, not on values. If they thought that keeping Gunn would help their bottom line - they'd keep em. Not saying anyone here, but too often those who rail against political correctness only do so when it rubs their values the wrong way. e.g., The same person who rails against a network for firing Roseanne will be the same person wanting NFL Players fired because they kneel when the anthem is played.  The same person who wants to ban Dick Cheney from speaking on campus would welcome Jane Fonda. It's tedious. Bottom-line - digital lasts forever. You best be comfortable with anything you decide to put in that format.

Yeah, lol I can totally see why Disney has stopped working with him. I still don't think he's a bad person or anything. I've had friends who have the same twisted sense of humour and I know they're not evil.

Not too bright though if you have ambitions to work with certain groups. Like you said, digital lasts forever.

Quoted from RJP Yeah, lol I can totally see why Disney has stopped working with him. I still don't think he's a bad person or anything. I've had friends who have the same twisted sense of humour and I know they're not evil. Not too bright though if you have ambitions to work with certain groups. Like you said, digital lasts forever.

Yep - you'd think folks would go through their feeds and delete that stuff BEFORE someone else finds it.

Phew! Thank God for delete. I almost sent what I just wrote.

Quoted from eldave1 The lesson that no one seems to learn - don't press send.

Well, it looks like your advice was really popular. Just look at ALL the people not responding!

I definitely see how a particular studio would want to sever itself from people who've crossed certain red lines, though I'd hope those standards would be applied consistently. There are real abuses that have gone on in the industry, and some people really do deserve to lose their livelihood.

My concern is with continued consolidation in the industry, each studio is accumulating many unrelated red lines that each fall short of deserving career death... but in the aggregate may cause just that.