Taco Grande

[algonacchick]

Never mind, I found it.

Anyway, I think I'll have huevos rancheros again today. Sad they didn't make Al's list of yummy Mexican dishes.

[anthontherun]

And that's all I have to say about that. (Right album, wrong song, but w/e)

"Taco Grande" is on Off the Deep End; "Gump" is on Bad Hair Day.

[algonacchick]

Oops. I need to listen to more of Al's older CDs. I haven't in a while.

[Killingsworth]

I agree that implying this song is racist is a bit of a stretch and while the article isn't all that well written, I think this board as a whole may be missing something that I only bring up now as I haven't seen it mentioned here yet. The author does open each list item with a description of what sets each comedian apart from the hacks out there and seems to be well aware of each ones' body of work. I don't think this author means to trash any of their work outside of the one joke/song/routine that they mentioned. The author is simply stating that each comedian they mentioned is normally very skilled and creative but even they can come up with something that is accidentally "ignorant" every so often. Some passages of the article seems to have been written from a place of love for comedy rather than in a tone of whiny, pedantic fault-finding. This author could be a fan of Al and all the others mentioned aside from one particular piece of theirs that they simply can't defend. They don't mean to trash Al as an artist, just Taco Grande for some reason.

[algonacchick]

I get what you're saying, Casey, but the author was also cited for being over-sensitive, and I agree. Yes, he did say that, for the most part, he liked Al's body of work; he was just wrong in saying that this song is "accidentally racist", as he termed it. He's also wrong about the whole song being rapped in Spanglish. The only Spanglish is Cheech Marin's part, although there are a few words I do recognize thrown in there. I dunno, he seemed a little nit-picky to me.

[anthontherun]

I agree that implying this song is racist is a bit of a stretch and while the article isn't all that well written, I think this board as a whole may be missing something that I only bring up now as I haven't seen it mentioned here yet. The author does open each list item with a description of what sets each comedian apart from the hacks out there and seems to be well aware of each ones' body of work. I don't think this author means to trash any of their work outside of the one joke/song/routine that they mentioned. The author is simply stating that each comedian they mentioned is normally very skilled and creative but even they can come up with something that is accidentally "ignorant" every so often. Some passages of the article seems to have been written from a place of love for comedy rather than in a tone of whiny, pedantic fault-finding. This author could be a fan of Al and all the others mentioned aside from one particular piece of theirs that they simply can't defend. They don't mean to trash Al as an artist, just Taco Grande for some reason.

The author certainly demonstrates an appreciation for all five comedians on the list, but he also comes across as not really understanding what each of these jokes is trying to say (minus maybe the Carlin one, which isn't so much a joke as poor research). Part of that is the inherent problem that analyzing humor almost always results in neutering the meaning or finding something to complain about, but a lot of it is the author's holier-than-thou sense of political correctness combined with an inability to understand irony. I mean, I think even at face value, you have to really stretch to find something offensive about "Taco Grande." It's about a guy who likes Mexican food. The Bill Hicks entry is even worse. "[H]e spends five minutes whining about being stuck in the Friendzone. I'm not exaggerating in the least." That's like saying Citizen Kane is about a dude running a newspaper.

[mrmeadows]

I always figured that the song's narrator was a white guy who just really dug Mexican food. I think this is because of the line "they sure don't make it like this in Ohio", which kind of implies the guy is from middle-America. (I.e. caucasian)

But the article is just a dumb click-magnet, so they had to write about something to justify the headline premise. Most of these entries are reaches, as anth suggests above. I guess it's cool to pick on Al now that he just had his big #1 album and all. Fine. But the song isn't racist, or even all that culturally insensitive. The guy singing likes Mexican food. Period. Algona actually makes a good point that if anything is offensive it's the Gerardo song it's based on!

PS: I'm Hispanic on my mom's side, and the song never bothered me.

[LaikaComeHome]

I love this song! Admittedly his voice sounds kind of sexy when it gets all deep when he says the refrain....

[BeJimmieHourL]

people just dont want to work. and mostly hire kids that dont know smurf and are lazy as hell.
and yes taco bell here is nasty. so is there limited partner KFC