Discussion History DownerEnding / Music

The example here about Michael Jackson\\\'s music video for \\\"Black or white\\\" goes like this: \\\"Once outside, the leopard transforms into Michael Jackson and begins to compulsively perform a dance that becomes more and more unnerving as it goes along, with a great deal of crotch-grabbing. Suddenly he begins smashing a car, shop windows, etc., screaming all the while. As this orgy of godlike destruction concludes, Michael\\\'s screams are mixed with the roars of his leopard alter ego. He finally rips off half his clothes and collapses into the rain-slicked street, whereupon he transforms back into the leopard, snarls, and stalks away. And then in a particularly egregious case of Mood Whiplash, the scene cuts to an animated living room, where it is revealed that Bart Simpson has been watching the entire time. His father bursts in and orders Bart to turn off the TV, prompting Bart to retort with one of his trademark wisecracks. Needless to say, this video left many in its television audience confused, traumatized, and angered. Jackson was forced to issue a public apology for the incident and the video was recut so that it ended just before the \\\"black leopard\\\" sequence. Later, the full-length version reappeared with CGI effects superimposing racist graffiti on the objects he smashed to provide justification for his rage.\\\"

This might be a weird sequence, it might even qualify as a Big-lipped Alligator Moment, but how is it a Downer Ending? MJ showed plenty of anger, but there was nothing really sad about it. And really, wouldn\\\'t the light-hearted short sequence with Bart and Homer be the real ending anyway?

The example here about Michael Jackson\\\'s music video for \\\"Black or white\\\" goes like this: \\\"Once outside, the leopard transforms into Michael Jackson and begins to compulsively perform a dance that becomes more and more unnerving as it goes along, with a great deal of crotch-grabbing. Suddenly he begins smashing a car, shop windows, etc., screaming all the while. As this orgy of godlike destruction concludes, Michael\\\'s screams are mixed with the roars of his leopard alter ego. He finally rips off half his clothes and collapses into the rain-slicked street, whereupon he transforms back into the leopard, snarls, and stalks away. And then in a particularly egregious case of Mood Whiplash, the scene cuts to an animated living room, where it is revealed that Bart Simpson has been watching the entire time. His father bursts in and orders Bart to turn off the TV, prompting Bart to retort with one of his trademark wisecracks. Needless to say, this video left many in its television audience confused, traumatized, and angered. Jackson was forced to issue a public apology for the incident and the video was recut so that it ended just before the \\\"black leopard\\\" sequence. Later, the full-length version reappeared with CGI effects superimposing racist graffiti on the objects he smashed to provide justification for his rage.\\\"

This might be a weird sequence, even a big-lipped aligator moment, but how is it a Downer Ending? MJ showed plenty of anger, but there was nothing really sad about it. And really, wouldn\\\'t the short sequence with Bart and Homer be the ending anyway?

One example goes like this: \\\"A particularly notorious example was Michael Jackson\\\'s music video/short film \\\"Black or White\\\", based on the hit single of the same name. It was shown on three basic cable channels simultaneously one night in the fall of 1991, so it was guaranteed to garner a huge audience with many children watching. The video, which included (among other things) African tribesmen, fur-capped Russian dancers, the Statue of Liberty, and Macaulay Culkin performing a rap, seemingly concluded with a young black woman (who, in montage, had just been transformed into a variety of different people of various skin colors and body types, as well as of both sexes) miming to the end of the song. But then the camera cuts away to reveal that the girl is actually an actress in the studio where the video is being filmed, and pans away until it is following a black leopard as it stalks its way out of the studio and into the dark and rainy night. Once outside, the leopard transforms into Michael Jackson and begins to compulsively perform a dance that becomes more and more unnerving as it goes along, with a great deal of crotch-grabbing. Suddenly he begins smashing a car, shop windows, etc., screaming all the while. As this orgy of godlike destruction concludes, Michael\\\'s screams are mixed with the roars of his leopard alter ego. He finally rips off half his clothes and collapses into the rain-slicked street, whereupon he transforms back into the leopard, snarls, and stalks away. And then in a particularly egregious case of Mood Whiplash, the scene cuts to an animated living room, where it is revealed that Bart Simpson has been watching the entire time. His father bursts in and orders Bart to turn off the TV, prompting Bart to retort with one of his trademark wisecracks. Needless to say, this video left many in its television audience confused, traumatized, and angered. Jackson was forced to issue a public apology for the incident and the video was recut so that it ended just before the \\\"black leopard\\\" sequence. Later, the full-length version reappeared with CGI effects superimposing racist graffiti on the objects he smashed to provide justification for his rage.\\\"

This might be a weird sequence, but how is it a Downer Ending? There was nothing really sad about it...