What's Racist About a Talking Goat?

In a piece at CNN, contributor L.Z. Granderson checks in on the kerfuffle over the pulled Mountain Dew ad, calling it a sad day when the policing of comedy gets to the point where we can't laugh at a talking goat.

(CNN) — I went online this morning to see the Mountain Dew ad — the one some are calling the most racist in history — expecting to see some really offensive stuff. Instead, I saw some really silly stuff.

The goat's funny.

The names of some of the black men in the lineup are hilarious.

The premise: ridiculous.

And I would think that's the point of a commercial with a talking goat. It's meant to be ridiculous and not taken seriously. It's comedy of the absurd, along the lines of Del Shores' "Sordid Lives," Jerry Seinfeld's parents on "Seinfeld" or "Dude, Where's My Car?"

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Does it play on stereotypical imagery?

Yes, and because of that, I can see how some could be a bit put off by a police lineup featuring all black men before a frightened white woman. But come on, one of the suspects' names is "Beyonte."

The circumstances surrounding the scene in the commercial are so outrageously over the top, I found myself snickering more than anything. Similar to the way I snickered during a skit featuring Dave Chappelle, who was making fun of racism with the creation of his character Clayton Bigsby, a blind white supremacist in the South.

And he's black.

Read L.Z. Granderson's entire piece at CNN.

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