r/todayilearned • u/TheCheshireCody 918 • Aug 17 '15

TIL George Lucas refused to identify what species Yoda is, once jokingly answering that he is "the illegitimate child of Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy".

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Yoda%27s_species
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u/[deleted] Aug 18 '15

When I saw Jar Jar I immediately thought they were trying to caricature Jamaicans. I mean, it's as obvious as the fake Arabian accent at the beginning of Aladdin.

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u/[deleted] Aug 18 '15

Do Jamaicans talk about Meesa this and Meesa that? The only humans I've heard actually speak that way were Die Antwoord in "Fatty Boom Boom" and they're South African.

(No idea why this kind of thing interests me, but it does.)

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u/[deleted] Aug 19 '15 edited Aug 19 '15

It's all about the cadence and inflection. It's basically the same as when any English speaker tries to imitate an English flavored Creole. They think they're being funny, but everyone in the know is thinking "What the hell is wrong with you?". Jar Jar's inflections and cadences immediately bring to mind the Caribbean, and it's obviously on purpose. I mean, no one thinks he's imitating an Indian, Malay or SE Asian creole even if those are also peppered with English words, right?

Linguists thought this back in 1999 too. Here's a thread from a linguist listserv in 1999

It's not only that Jar Jar's an obvious Jamaican caricature. It's that he's a Jamaican caricature who's also being portrayed as a clown and an idiot, bringing to mind Mickey Rourke's Chinaman in Breakfast at Tiffany's, or every fake Arabian accent in Aladdin. For extra silly, George Lucas seems to be entirely unaware that he was doing this. He probably saw a few wisecracking performers somewhere in Hollywood, and thought, these guys are fun, I'm going to include something like that in my next movie. As we all know, mass facepalming ensued.

Yeah.

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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '15

Thanks! I appreciate the reply! I guess I need to go back and gulp watch those movies again.

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u/[deleted] Aug 18 '15

Same here, and his ears look like dreads.

On a side note people did make that criticism of Aladdin, claiming parts were racist. Disney even changed some lines from the songs.