History Main / OnceAcceptableTargets

* A very subtle one from ''TheSimpsons'' which is never given direct reference -- Bart is left-handed, and is a terrifying trouble-maker.

In addition, post-VietnamWar veterans in the United States were derided by war protesters for fighting in the war (although nowhere near as much as manyy of the pro-war people would have you believe), and were shunned by the older generation for "losing" the war. Nowadays, even with the unpopularity of the Iraq War, the American public at large has been consistent with its support and gratitude of combat troops, and most Vietnam veterans are getting the recognition they deserve. The transition to an all-volunteer and high-tech military, with which many people enlist to further their educations, also did away with old presumptions that soldiers weren't all that smart.

* EdgarAllanPoe's story "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" and [[http://www.merrycoz.org/museum/LEFT.HTM this charming little story]] from a 19th-century children's magazine about a careless and stubborn left-handed boy.

When white Europeans carved out worldwide empires in the 15th to 19th centuries, one of their first moves was to colonize Africa. Viewed as heathen savages, indigenous Africans became an acceptable target for slavery and conversion to Christianity. Many were brought to the English, Spanish, French, Dutch, or Portuguese colonies in the Americas to work as slaves alongside a dwindled population of enslaved Natives. After slavery was outlawed throughout the world, and in America after the Civil War, attitudes towards the descendants of these slaves changed little. Due to lack of education and social status, blacks have for a long time been portrayed as either big, dumb brutes or UncleTomfoolery. Today, treatment varies with the setting. If the story is set in DarkestAfrica, the black natives will usually be of the NobleSavage variety. In North America and Europe, a black person is generally portrayed as an ordinary person, albeit somewhat more streetwise than a white person, and with [[BlackDudeDiesFirst somewhat higher mortality]]. There's still the risk of a "gangsta" or JiveTurkey showing up, though. As a PositiveDiscrimination backlash against all this, the MagicalNegro was created, but now he's a cliche, too.

Women have been the most universally oppressed group in the world and throughout history. They were the first sociological minority to have a civil rights movement. In Greek mythology, Pandora opened her eponymous box just to sate her curiosity, and unleashed all the horrors of the world upon mankind. In Japanese mythology, Izanami brought death into the world because her husband Izanagi rejected her after seeing what her stay in Hell had done to her. In Christian mythology, Eve was the one who listened to the snake and then tempted Adam. And there are countless other examples like this from mythology, demonstrating the old-fashioned beliefs that women were [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon powerful but dangerous creatures]] [[HystericalWoman who couldn't control their emotions]], or weak, stupid, barely-human creatures that are [[StayInTheKitchen only good for making]] [[HeirClubForMen (male)]] [[StayInTheKitchen babies.]]

** Worse is the fact that very few Japanese who follow the HipHop subculture have their skin tanned to make themselves "look" black. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qe4AZRkFYE This YouTube video]] proves the point quite well. Needless to say, it sparked a FlameWar among its viewers on whether or not it's promoting modern black stereotypes.

** Worse is the fact that very few Japanese who follow the HipHop subculture have their skin tanned to make themselves appear black. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qe4AZRkFYE This YouTube video]] proves the point quite well. It even provoked a real-life FlameWar among its viewers on whether or not it's promoting black stereotypes.

** Worse is the fact that very few Japanese who follow the HipHop lifestyle have their skin tanned to make themselves appear black. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qe4AZRkFYE This YouTube video]] proves the point quite well.

** Worse is the fact that there are subcutures dedicated to the hip-hop lifestyle. And a few Japanese who follow said subcultures tan their skin to make themselves "look" black. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qe4AZRkFYE This YouTube video]] should prove the point quite well.

* Japan, too. The average Japanese person has had very little interaction with black people, or foreigners in general and tend towards xenophobia. Still, you think they could do a Google search

As far back as recorded history can tell us, the Jews have suffered from negative portrayals in the media; and in particular, Jews have been AcceptableTargets in Christianity for longer than it's been known as Christianity. However, since a lot of screenwriters and pioneering ComicBook authors were Jewish, Jews have pretty much become ordinary people on TV; indeed, [[YouHaveToHaveJews most shows will have at some point have one character revealing their Jewishness]] to show how racially sensitive the writers are. Also, since many comedy writers are Jewish, even non-Jews have become familiar with Jewish culture through TV sitcoms and movies by Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, among many others. These days, Jewish characters are almost guaranteed to be lawyers, doctors, accountants and other educated, white-collar professionals, and "Jewish" almost a tongue-in-cheek synonym for "good at his job". The horrors of [[{{Nazis}} The Holocaust]] also had their influence, to say the least. On the other hand, in the Arab world, Jews are still very much AcceptableTargets, largely thanks to the UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict. ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is taught as fact in Saudi schools.

Were once interchangeably used (particularly in Russia) as an insult to someone's parentage (i.e., "Your father was a drunk Finn/Pole who beat your mother."). As there used to be few immigrants from those ethnic groups, and are rather quiet today, they are still occasionally derided against by [[NWordPrivileges those of either heritage]]. Poles have also had a long history of jokes about their supposed lack of intelligence, most of which have migrated to [[BlondeJoke blondes]].

The US has a strong Protestant tradition, from the Mayflower onwards, and for much of American history Catholics were a small minority which was viewed with great suspicion. It didn't help, either, that most American Catholics were either Irish (see above) or natives of non-English speaking European countries, tossing xenophobia into the mix. Anti-Catholic sentiment peaked in the 19th century, when it was widely believed in many Protestant circles, and claimed in many pamphlets and "true confession" novels, that the Catholic church was a secretive Satanic cabal which practiced human sacrifice and was plotting to destroy American democracy. These sentiments have waned enough over the years that John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was able to narrowly win the 1960 presidential election, for John Kerry to come within a hair's breadth of doing the same in 2004, and for Joe Biden to be elected vice president in 2008, not to mention 6 of the current 9 Supreme Court justices, but even today there are a few holdouts convinced that the Church of Rome is evil. Creator/JackChick is probably the best known, but recent pedophilia-and-coverup scandals have pushed the Catholic church back towards an AcceptableTarget in some eyes.

* American Catholics were mistrusted partly because they were seen as having allegiance to a foreign power (the Vatican); Kennedy had to assure people that as President he would not be taking his marching orders from the Pope. Today, the North American lay Catholic population is notorious for ignoring Papal directives such as ones against birth control and gay rights when they seem to ignore basic humanity and common sense.

Once invariably portrayed as [[ASinisterClue evil]], careless, misguided, or any combination of the

Once invariably portrayed as [[ASinisterClue evil]], careless, misguided, or any combination of the three.
* Of course, this one [[http://www.cracked.com/article_18404_6-shockingly-evil-things-babies-are-capable-of_p2.html may be justified]].

The US has a strong Protestant tradition, from the Mayflower onwards, and for much of American history Catholics were a small minority which was viewed with great suspicion. It didn't help, either, that most American Catholics were either Irish (see above) or natives of non-English speaking European countries, tossing xenophobia into the mix. Anti-Catholic sentiment peaked in the 19th century, when it was widely believed in many Protestant circles, and claimed in many pamphlets and "true confession" novels, that the Catholic church was a secretive Satanic cabal which practiced human sacrifice and was plotting to destroy American democracy. These sentiments have waned enough over the years that John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was able to narrowly win the 1960 presidential election, for John Kerry to come within a hair's breadth of doing the same in 2004, and for Joe Biden to be elected vice president in 2008, not to mention 6 of the current 9 Supreme Court justices, but even today there are a few holdouts convinced that the Church of Rome is evil. Creator/JackChick is probably the best known, but recent pedophilia-and-coverup scandals have pushed the Catholic church back towards an AcceptableTarget in some eyes. However, this typically does not apply to the North American lay Catholic population, who now are notorious for ignoring Papal directives when such as against birth control and gay rights when they seem to ignore basic humanity and common sense.

* American Catholics were mistrusted partly because they were seen as having allegiance to a foreign power (the Vatican); Kennedy had to assure people that as President he would not be taking his marching orders from the Pope.

The US has a strong Protestant tradition, from the Mayflower onwards, and for much of American history Catholics were a small minority which was viewed with great suspicion. It didn't help, either, that most American Catholics were either Irish (see above) or natives of non-English speaking European countries, tossing xenophobia into the mix. Anti-Catholic sentiment peaked in the 19th century, when it was widely believed in many Protestant circles, and claimed in many pamphlets and "true confession" novels, that the Catholic church was a secretive Satanic cabal which practiced human sacrifice and was plotting to destroy American democracy. These sentiments have waned enough over the years that John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, was able to narrowly win the 1960 presidential election, for John Kerry to come within a hair's breadth of doing the same in 2004, and for Joe Biden to be elected vice president in 2008, not to mention 6 of the current 9 Supreme Court justices, but even today there are a few holdouts convinced that the Church of Rome is evil. Creator/JackChick is probably the best known, but recent pedophilia-and-coverup scandals have pushed the Catholic church back towards an AcceptableTarget in some eyes.

* ''BerserkAbridged'' plays much of the original series for humor, but it doesn't really play Guts' RapeAsBackstory for laughs (it's at most, understated BlackComedy), and for this reason, the creator gave the series a happy ending, as there really wasn't a way to make the show's actual ending funny.

Women have been the most universally oppressed group in the world and throughout history. They were the first sociological minority to have a civil rights movement. In Greek mythology, Pandora opened her eponymous box just to sate her curiosity, and unleashed all the horrors of the world upon mankind. In Japanese mythology, Izanami brought death into the world because her husband Izanagi rejected her after seeing what her stay in Hell had done to her (though in her defense, that ''was'' a dick move). In Christian mythology, Eve was the one who listened to the snake and then tempted Adam. And there are countless other examples like this from mythology, demonstrating the old-fashioned beliefs that women were [[NoGuyWantsAnAmazon powerful but dangerous creatures]] [[HystericalWoman who couldn't control their emotions]], or weak, stupid, barely-human creatures that are [[StayInTheKitchen only good for making]] [[HeirClubForMen (male)]] [[StayInTheKitchen babies.]]

Until fairly recently, in the western world, [[AllGaysArePedophiles gay men were considered the same as pedophiles]], and lesbians were viewed as either evil (sometimes oddly asexual) succubi who [[LesbianVampire tempt pure women away]] from their [[{{EntitledToHaveYou}} God-given]] duty to be sexually available to men, or man-hating raging feminists who would enjoy nothing more than severing a man's genitalia and set them on fire, if they were even acknowledged to exist at all. Changing times have resulted in more out-and-out gay people in media. [[NoBisexuals Don't expect to see any bisexuals, though]], unless EveryoneIsBi.

Until fairly recently, in the western world, [[AllGaysArePedophiles gay men were considered the same as pedophiles]], and lesbians were viewed as evil (sometimes oddly asexual) succubi who [[LesbianVampire tempt pure women away]] from their [[{{EntitledToHaveYou}} God-given]] duty to be sexually available to men, if they were even acknowledged to exist at all. Changing times have resulted in more out-and-out gay people in media. [[NoBisexuals Don't expect to see any bisexuals, though]], unless EveryoneIsBi.

* In Ireland, the Catholic Church is very much an AcceptableTarget, mainly due to the abuse scandals. One example is an episode of a political show made by the state broadcaster, RTÉ, based on a priest who had received allegations of child abuse. The show concluded that the priest was indeed a pedophile; turns out that the priest was completely innocent. Despite the director of the BBC stepping down in the wake of a similar scandal concerning Jimmy Savile, RTÉ's director-general is still firmly in place.

Pretty much everyone who is not English, French, or German. Unless they invaded your country, then they were fair game as well. (In other words, unless you're from England or France!)

Pretty much everyone who is not English, French, or German. Unless they invaded your country, then they were fair game as well. (In other words, unless you're from England, or France!)

Pretty much everyone who is not English, French, or German. Unless they invaded your country, then they were fair game as well. (In other words, you're from England, France or Germany!)

Pretty much everyone who is not English, French, or German. Unless they invaded your country, then they were fair game as well.

* Japan, too. Though to be fair, the average Japanese person has had very little interaction with black people, or foreigners in general and tend towards xenophobia. Still, you think they could do a Google search

Some of these targets are no longer popular. In some cases, [[DecadeDissonance tinerdsmes have changed]], and what was funny in 1935 simply is not funny now. More importantly perhaps, changed economic and political circumstances have transformed some previously-despised target groups into valuable demographics that it is unwise to antagonise. Some feel, particularly those who would prefer to go on picking on these OnceAcceptableTargets, that these changes can be "blamed" on PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad. BlackComedy will laugh at OnceAcceptableTargets as much as possible with the express purpose of causing a hostile reaction.

Nowadays, of course, it is much more feasible to make a lucrative career out of such a thing, even if the actor never becomes wildly successful. As such, it is less likely for a parent to discourage their child from following this path. Certain stereotypes persist, such as the vapid self-absorbed millionaire and the limousine liberal[[note]]Based on the perception of Hollywood as heavily biased to the political left, this slur is pointed at those who talk about trendy causes, while living a lavish lifestyle and seemingly doing nothing to actually help[[/note]], but an individual can easily shake these off through his or her actions. Of course, between the popularity of celebrity culture and the way politics (both governmental and [[AwardSnub within the acting world]]) enters into it, [[TakeThat some might argue]] that people still disparage actors (or should), but for a different reason. Regardless, it is mostly a DiscreditedTrope.