California Depicted Negatively on Screen

Stereotypes Bias  
Table Of Contents

Conservative Trope Examples

  • Tropic Thunder (2008) | Hollywood Depicted Negatively
    British director Damien Cockburn makes several mistakes costing the studio a lot of money upon which studio boss Les Grossman says to him, "This is all your fault, you limey f*ck!
    Staff Aside
    The entire movie is a satire on the film industry, but this is not one of those moments. They are making fun of directors sometimes going over budget and getting into squabbles with studio execs. And they chose a British director as their foil as, apparently, it's funnier for a foreign director to screw things up than an American. And you can call him limey too for added laughs. It is all genuinely very funny as is the entire movie which is super hilarious. But they are still using the British as a butt of one of their jokes here.
  • Thank You for Smoking (2005) | Hollywood Depicted Negatively
    Hollywood power broker Jeff Megall (Rob Lowe) and his assistant Jack (Adam Brody) are satirized as overly eccentric with a video of a great white shark eating a seal in the lobby and a carefully taken care of Japanese zen garden.
  • Ocean's Twelve (2004)
    Topher Grace playing Topher Grace yells out, "Jesus Christ, are you people retarded? It says Do Not Disturb!" when Rusty knocks on his hotel room door. He trashed his room and talks erratically, "I'm sorry. Russ, look, I know this is your joint. I just... there's this girl. I love her, man. I love her, but she is driving me crazy! I can't sleep. I can't work. I quit the show. I totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie. I mean, it's like..."
    Staff Aside
    This is over the top self-deprecating satire about Hollywood actors, but not everyone will realize it. And humor and satire is a great way to subconsciously promote negative beliefs about actors, Hollywood and young people. And do not overlook the fact they picked a young actor over an older one for this role. That was purposeful as false negative stereotypes about young people are easy go-tos for laughs so it would not have been as funny as an older actor.
  • Die Hard (1988)
    After landing at the airport, John McClane sees a woman in all white spandex pants jump up into the arms of her love overly excited and turns his head back to the camera and mutters sardonically, “California.”
  • Die Hard (1988)
    John McClane says “Jesus….f#cking California” when a male reveler wishes him Merry Christmas and kisses him on the back of the cheek at the Christmas Eve party at Nakatomi tower.

How Trope is Biased

Stereotypes

  • Hollywood uses false stereotypes about California as sources of conflict of humor

Conservative Biases

  • California is a strong blue state and a frequent target of Republican propaganda meant to falsely make the state look bad