Lady Gaga referring to "the gays" as being problematic is bizarre, because she's bisexual herself. We refer to ourselves as "the gays" all the time as a form of reclamation. And honestly because it's hilarious to mock those who use the term in a demeaning way.

I somehow doubt that the people misinterpreting Lolita are doing so unintentionally. The land of child beauty pageants, legally protected child marriage and Hollywood being where so many come from kind of makes it hard to think anything other than them seeing theirselves in the character and intentionally recontextualising it to defend their own proclivities.

Rosenkreutz's point about consumption only really serving as a virtue signal was VERY salient. A lot of the "discourse" surrounding problematic faves is built on a belief that liking a problematic work or figure says something about your own moral character, most often boiling down to an accusation of hypocrisy, that you can't REALLY be committed to a cause you're advocating for if you have a problematic fave that is regressive in that regard. That in order for your points to REALLY be valid, you have to be some kind of social justice ascetic who doesn't really ENJOY anything. This is utter nonsense, since it's impossible for a human being to be 100% morally consistent at all times. In the end, what your problematic faves say about you as a person don't mean much compared to your ACTIONS, and you're not going to fix systemic issues by consuming the right media or having the right parasocial relationships!

I loved this!! Thank you so much for asking me to be a part of it! I absolutely loved hearing from all of these different creators, and it has definitely helped me think more deeply about my own relationship with "problematic" faves.

Old faves becoming problematic is a good thing. It means society still progresses in the right direction.

OHHHhhhhhh, "Death of the Author" is a play on "le Morte d'Arthur" and now I feel silly for not realizing that sooner.

This is fantastic! Loved it hoots.

My father’s favorite song was Never Walk Alone from Carousel. He was a feminist…and believed his daughters, and all women should have the same opportunities as men. In his last years he campaigned for the Democratic Party. I don’t remember talking to him about the musical, but I am pretty sure he would have seen it as an observation of how screwed up society is, rather than an endorsement of abuse/suffering in silence. Mostly I want to say my Dad was awesome and I miss him.

I really enjoyed this video, especially since I'm in my mid 50s. Darned near any fave I have is problematic. What I think has changed in terms of popular discourse is how difficult it has been to enjoy (?) the loose/gray boundaries of cultural goods, and the analysis we use to parse what's happening inside us as we draw closely to things we like. "I was young" does so much heavy lifting for many of us. Sometimes we like ugly art, sometimes we deem ugly art beautiful because we love it, and sometimes we find our ugly selves beautiful because we love something that we recognize. I think this is something human beings do.

Holy crap this was great. My "immediately comes to mind" problematic fave is probably Road to El Dorado, which felt like a boon to my closeted queer kid self when it came out around the time I was debating whether or not to do the same (and didn't.) It was Ali Nahdee, actually, who got me examining it more critically due to its failures where Indigenous representation is concerned--there were some serious rose coloured glasses going on for me. Great to hear her perspective here, too.

The Golden Girls is by far my favorite tv show. For years and years during my many-many frequent sleepless insomniac nights i'd watch any random episode and i'd always feel better after. I've long considered the show to be incredibly progressive for its time, talking about issues like Gay Rights, Drug Addiction, Homelessness, Death of a Loved One, and Aging. It was only after the internet had its "Fat Shaming is bad actually" moment (and the subsequent alt-right backlash), did i realize that The Golden Girls had quite a bit of fat shaming sprinkled in throughout the entire series. A disappointing trend considering how well they handled so many other contentious topics for their era. I can't recall if their was ever even an episode where they critically discussed their own normalized levels of weaponized body shaming (in the same way that Blanche's homophobia towards her brother was shown). Now a days when i rewatch The Golden Girls, when i see an instance of body shaming, bald shaming, wrinkle shaming, or fat shaming i kind of just take a mental note of it. Acknowledge it, and try to remember that those words can have real hurtful consequences towards human beings. "Thank you for being a Friend".

Hot take: you don't need to feel guilty if you enjoy something created by a horrible person. Its okay if your fave is problematic. Just pirate whatever they produce. Sometimes the world just spits out disgusting people who are really good at something. It does not reflect on you as a person unless you like them because theyre problematic lol.

Great video! There are a few "autistic" characters that spring to mind now I think about it, with whom I relate & enjoy seeing in the same way people here describe, like, there isn't much out there so any representation of yourself triggers some kind of feelings. Even if it's problematic pseudo-representation that you wish SO much was better.

So so glad we talked about the tumblr history part of this. There is an entire chunk of media analysis done in the last decade (AND conservative backlash to analysis!) That makes no sense at all without being able to discuss the tumblr history. To see where "cancel" went from "black people trying to tell other black people to stop playing r kelly at parties" to "Ben Shapiro whining about how a transphobe was cancelled" requires an interim step where a bunch of white teenagers on tumblr took that word from black people and started using it in places like the blog yfip or also just. When you were no longer friends with another blogger and wanted other people on the platform to stop spreading their posts where you might have to see them. And a lot of us are engaging with Ben like that middle step didn't happen, and i think without discussing the middle step we are doomed to keep repeating the "appropriate AAVE and now white people are using it to offend one another and create entirely new unthoughtful forms of discourse" cycle

speaking of problematic shakespeare, my fav of his is The Taming of the Shrew. its awful, it has awful messaging, but i love the final monologue because it sounds so mocking--to me--of what the rest of the play was saying. i actually love it so much i hate it and have an idea simmering in the back of my mind of a retelling that leans more into what i love about hate-to-love relationships: two strong-headed people in precarious situations finding common ground and helping each other to outwit the society that put them there in the first place.

I mean, I'm a fan of Heinlein (especially Starship Troopers), the Wheel of Time series, and old-school D&D, so it's nice to hear people work through these same issues.

I immediately knew from the second you began your hypothetical that you were talking about Lolita, and I was incredibly pleased when you brought up Jamie Loftus' essential Lolita Podcast. Honestly, Nabokov's work in general is frequently problematic in the original sense precisely because it centres itself on protagonists whose motives are not to be trusted while refusing to offer any sort of pat moral instruction to the audience; sometimes, as with Lolita, this leads people to bring extremely bad and bad-faith interpretations to the table, but that's what makes Nabokov both challenging and rewarding: He leaves it to you to think for yourself and trusts that, as an intelligent good-faith reader, you will come away with a meaningful experience. Which I think is great, but it sucks when a whole lot of people latch onto the surface aspects of his work (and really any work that is sufficiently transgressive) to push some really ugly stuff. Also, 100% agree with Kristoph on how consumption and justice are functionally unconnected. There is an odd tendency particularly in music-listening circles for a certain kind of person to equate the two and righteously condemn those who enjoy art by artists who have said or done reprehensible things regardless of whether they support that artist financially, or for that matter regardless of whether or not they might have directly contrary views to the artist and act on them in the real world, and I honestly find that attitude deeply frustrating. What's more, the Nabokov issue remains in play: Didacticism does not ensure good faith in the interpreter, nor does openness to interpretation inherently ensure bad faith; likewise with art whose source may be, well, questionable at best. It remains, as you point to here, on the conscientious audience to negotiate their own relationship to the work, not for someone else to tell them not to engage at all.

Kubrick is a problematic favorite. Brilliant yes but an abusive motherf-ker. He isn’t as bad as Polanski or Woody Allen (he doesn’t rape children) whose work I now will not watch despite the genius, but I have a problem with the genius excuses the abuse or narcissism. Caravaggio is one of my favorite Renaissance painters, but he was a truly awful person, but 400 years later, the genius is all that remains. It’s a tough call to recognize the greatness without condoning the bad, honestly it comes down to each of us.

YFIP was somewhat akin to places like KiwiFarms, where they claim they’re “just observing” but they end up saying way more than the “nothing” they claim to say

My problematic fave of media, for decades at this point, is Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. I can't say much about the book that it's based on, mostly because I've only read it once and then have never read it again. The musical though? The musical I know inside and out, top to bottom, sideways and all ways. Phantom was the musical that got me into theatre, and into musical theatre, and I love the costumes, the sets, the pacing. I love that when the casts jive, the really, really jive, and it's a beautifully tragic story of a man looking for love and never truly finding it. What he does find, the crux of the musical in it's closing moments, is forgiveness, and how that forgiveness can free you... HOWEVER, I also realize that the Phantom is an older man preying on a younger woman's trust, and that power dynamic is scary and downright predatory. The Comte doesn't care about her well-being either, she's just a prize to be won from the big bad. The Phantom character at the time could be considered one of the biggest self inserts of the writer towards someone in their life. Lloyd Webber was married to the original Christine, Sarah Brightman, at that point, and there's a lot of sexually charged moment in the stage show that reflects this passion. The passion evolves to the point of obsession, and how precariously it places the person of obsession in question. Christine's friend and the Ballet mistress are the only two that believe her, and the misogyny that comes from none of the men really, truly believing Christine's in danger is horrifying in this day and age. The stage play, and the novel it's based on, tries to reward the tragic, put upon musical genius and his obsession. And, let's not even get to the whitewashing of the character of the Persian, a knowing individual that helps those that hunt down the Phantom by giving them advice to 'keep your hand at the level of your eyes', dare you find yourself in the Phantom's lasso traps. Lindsay Ellis has actually done some great work on Phantom on the Opera, and I would highly suggest you watch her videos, as she can articulate the points I made above way better than I ever could.

I just found out hoots is problematic :(

So much appreciation for this essay and your entire channel!! As a supplemental resource, I want to recommend episode 40 of The Feminist Present podcast where they speak with the person who started the "Your Fave is Problematic" blog, Liat Kaplan, who gives integral context and reflections on the origin of the blog and how she feels about its legacy now.

Whenever I critique a text’s more problematic elements, there will always be people who assume that means I’m saying they can’t enjoy the text anymore. In my opinion, critiquing a problematic text is the only way I feel ethical enjoying it. Like, I feel like it’s much more useful to point out where the bad tropes are so we’re more aware of them and less likely to be negatively impacted by them. Then we can just have fun with the rest of the stuff

as someone who STILL frequently googles "[celebrity name]+your fave is problematic" I've never clicked on anything faster. and as a soprano whose LIFETIME achievement was as soloist in You'll Never Walk Alone, I'll probably watch it a few times through for the algo 😅 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

1:10:30 "Art that is more inclusive is more interesting." Excellent topic, questions, conversation, and editing, Hoots! 👏 I agree with the idea that we need to learn from problems in media (a reflection of our society), instead of completely censoring them. Media literacy can be improved by disclaimers and using critical (that is analytical) lenses to engage with media on a regular basis throughout life. To use a nature metaphor: I can't avoid or identify poison oak, or treat a rash from accidentally putting my foot in it, if I haven't been taught what it looks like or why it can hurt me.

At @49:00 your build up to "Lolita" had me onto my Charles Bukowski problematic fandom. He was such an irascible man of degradations. His poetry caught me in the first years of my sobriety. I read and thought about him the last year I was quite active seeking ways to be wasted in 1999. My March 2000 sobriety, age 38, began an education I have maintained. Buk gave me a weirdly aspirational lifestyle in poems. His biography set me to imagining a life where there was just enough money to f off the system. But, his misogyny is/was apparent. It was a thorn in the lifestyle of not giving a damn about whatever! Plus, I have always given a damn. And I've never read "Atlas Shrugged". Largely because my high school years were trauma and ended my Junior year. Then later, it wasn't required reading in any courses I took in college. I didn't have it on my radar until I knew how much vitriolic disdain I hold for Libertarian ideals. To me, there's not enough grey area of overlap into my sense of humanity which redeems Libertarianism. Not an iota! I hold a vitriolic response to Libertarians as I do to Republicans, racists, bigots and fascists. Well, that seems a wild tangent from Bukowski. Forgive my wandering mind, or don't. I have parts of me that take a lot of effort to understand and therefore care about. Meaning you don't know me, and why should you?! Now I dug up sadness, and don't have an ending.

I did not expect a musical based on Ferenc Molnár’s book to be the centrepiece of a video essay on problematic faves, but here I go with my assumptions! Turns out, I can now be everyone’s fave problematic Hungarian for never having read Liliom in the first place. 😢

Another fantastic video. Personally, in the wake of the cancelling of creators I still respect, I've definitely changed how I look at "problematic" art. I'm less sympathetic to the idea of "this is bad so we must abolish it".

I was recently re-watching the show Roseanne for the first time in a long time after I had came across her current stick of going all in on the "groomer" grift in that stand up special she was in. That was a show I used to watch a lot in my adolescence cause it was just so real in its depiction of working class families, feminist ideals, and being an early example of gay representation. There were a lot of incredible moments that I thought we could learn from and adapt into the current context of what's going on in the real world now, like scenes from the end of the first season where her and her co-workers all quit in protest after a new boss comes in to make their lives harder. Or a few seasons later when she and her family had another snooty boss home for dinner and for her husband to help him with a school project too, only for him to fire her in front of them, and the entire family deservedly roasted him on his way out, including the husband destroying his project they had completed (the boss was also young, which I liked because that meant he could learn early on the hard way that you don't get to get away with fucking over someone's family). Stuff like that really stick out as peak moments from it. But as you get into it, you realize that the namesake in the show is a far cry from who she is now. That first season of the reboot put a lot of her current behavior into perspective when her character was written to be a Trump voter during the 2016 election, even though that was handled really well in showing a realistic perspective of why someone might have voted for him. Now that she's all in on the anti-trans groomer panic, it makes you wonder how much of the entire show is a grift and how much is authentic. That's the real slap in the face I've received. But even show, I think regardless we can still learn from when Roseanne was at it's peak and create our own stories with them, or apply them to real world situations as stuff like unions are becoming more popular and inevitable. I know I did with my co-workers recently when we all got our racist lead to quit a few weeks back by going to HR after she got all power trippy and did nothing when another lead from a different crew was allowed to scream and cuss at us. None of us were having that, so we all decided to rat on our leads and bosses, and they got punished for not listening to us. While it was an entire collective shift that took action, it reminded me of that one scene from Roseanne I mentioned, where I was able to learn from a moment of television an apply it to a real life environment for the better of myself and all my co-workers. Experiences like this is why I think it's important to remember our problematic faves. We can critique how the piece of media is, or the people involved with it are, and we definitely should. But we have them as our faves because they have something that resonated with us in some way despite the stuff that hasn't aged well. Cause the stuff we resonated with helps make us who are. We don't need be putting problematic shows or people on a pedestal anymore, but we can remember the things that can help us be good people and look for those same qualities in something else that doesn't contribute to any harmful rhetoric.

I like so many things that are problematic that I hardly know where to start. To me it's about recognizing what I like about it while being aware of how that can be either problematic without question or interpreted in a way that makes it problematic. What I find annoying is the holier-than-thou attitude that's dismissive about anything and everything problematic as if it didn't have any appealing qualities to begin with. And that annoyance could be problematic in and of itself. Even though I don't fully buy into "death of the author" interpretations I can block out pretty horrible shit that authors (as in whoever made something, not specifically writers) have done when the art is compelling to me and not everyone can do that - which is not a deficiency in any way, just a difference. Still annoys me. It gets a bit harder when it's not about who made it but about what they made. For one, if the author was racist, a sex offender or whatever else it stands to reason that it informed their perspective when they created something even if it's not obvious on the surface. And with art that wears its problems on its sleeve... Well, it can be complicated and revealing. I can still have fun with an old James Bond movie when it's imperialist, not so much when sexual assault is depicted as acceptable. It can be interesting to see where my emotional connection to a topic is and examine why that might be.

I’m amazed that Harry Potter didn’t get mentioned

I see your "Gone With the Wind" and I will raise you *Tintin in Congo*

The Pickle Rick episode first came on April Fools Day while I was at an anime con. Imagine that guy screaming Pickle Rick, times 1000, for like two days straight. 🙄

I watched the '97 version of Lolita with my high-school friends, we were a bunch of misanthropes and only watched the film because we were told not to by all decent folk. I was the only one to go on to read the novel, and it really expanded my mind. Though it was something I was afraid to bring up with my pre-tertiary Creative Writing English teacher (I don't know what you might call it but it is one of the English studies you take to prepare for University). I blew her away with my unreliable narration with a short story in my folio, which went over the heads of external assessors, landing me a middling grade and ending my dalliance with writing. My problem child (to take a phrase from Hoffman) is none other than the Holy Bible. My Wife and I were raised good little Christians, but both came to fairly different conclusions, which are the same destination. Personally, I think Julian Jaynes is onto something about why we have religion, and whilst my wife might agree with me, we still have Theological debates regularly. The reason is that I was raised a Pentecostal, and she was raised Anglican. To paraphrase Catch 22 and tailor it to our situation, our fundamental issue is this: The God I don't believe in is a Pentecostal God, where as the God she doesn't believe in is the God of the Church of England. How absurd. Great vid-essay. Bis bis!!

I did not expect to hear the words гражданская оборона in this video but here you are

I'm so happy to see more videos from creators I like being edited by Babila, he has such a creative editing style and it's lovely to see it spread :3

i agree with zoe bee (edit: and carene rose mekertichyan!) - all your faves are problematic. no one is perfect and everyone is flawed, and most celebrities/writers/directors have so much more power over our culture and over other people than most of us. everyone's mileage varies over what they can overlook when consuming art or supporting a celebrity, and that's okay. i think it is just important to be AWARE of their problematic behavior/beliefs and to not assume they can do no wrong also really enjoyed kristoph's discussion of the soviet punk band. there are a LOT of really really problematic things within the punk scene that no one ever talks about - i feel like a lot of ppl put punk on a pedestal and ignore all the misogyny and racism because "nazi punks fuck off." as if hating nazi absolves someone of all their shitty beliefs/behavior. there's also a lot of punk music that is like offensive on purpose to make you think about your own beliefs critically but in kind of an edgy south park way - that's my favorite kind because part of me still has the humor of a 12 year old in 2009

Lovecraft made his own cat problematic.

Thoroughly enjoyed this! I knew you were talking about Lolita in the hypothetical, and then I got even more excited when you mentioned Jamie Loftus' Lolita Podcast! It's one of my favorite pieces of media ever, and I STILL need to read the actual book!

I read this as “your face is problematic” I was thinking someone really confrontational for no reason

It's different if your fave is dead or alive really. Lovecraft or Rudyard Kipling were products of their time, long dead, so it doesn't have the same impact on me, as Stephen King or Marilyn Manson. These are really heartbreaking for me 😅. And finding out that Sonsombre's band leader is an active member of a white nationalism hate group... Well, I can't listen anymore to someone who would gladly hatecrime me! I am this dude's nightmare (multiracial, trans, pansexual...). Same with Harry Potter. I tend to be way more affected if the problematic person has views against people like me than other stuff. Like I'm directly targeted.

WHOMST AMONG US doesn't stan a problematic Queen

I like the takeaway that going into problematic media unprepared and without the right media literacy skills or the right context is more dangerous than the existence of media like that could really ever be. And that better media literacy and better social awareness don't just blunt the edge of problematic media, it also helps people navigate the real world better, more aware of narratives that may be used to control them, and helps people have compassion and understanding towards people who aren't them and have different circumstances. My need to never, ever have to see certain pieces of extremely ableist media ever again doesn't mean that someone who doesn't have that response would be as harmed by them as I was, even enjoy them and find their own value in them, but being able to understand why someone has a powerful negative reaction to a piece of media helps build compassion and understanding.

I joined the live feed right when Sondheim showed up on screen and I started sweating. Great video hoots!!

“We are all somebody’s problematic fave.”

Your videos are fantastic- thanks for uploading and collaborating with so many other great creators!

I can't think of anything intelligent to say, so I'll just say thank you for putting together this amazing discussion, and thank you to all your collaborators for taking the time to enhance the project!

didn't expect to hear about гражданская оборона in this video 😳 tbf the band had other problematic aspects aside from the nazbol stuff, but they didnt stop it from being one of the most iconic russian punk bands overall this is a very good video! you had made a great exploration of such a complex theme

I'm barely into the video and all I can think about is how much I love The Smiths and how utterly toxic Morrissey is. Any time a fandom has to mourn and reckon with loving something made by a terrible person... I'm like I feel you. Because of Morrissey.

Seeing Phantom at 12: OMG so romantic! Seeing Phantom now: YIKES so much wrong here. Mildly embarrassed that my 1st theater crush was a murdery stalker & kidnapper. TBF he's shown as a romantic lead, just sOoOo iN LoVe he had do some bad things, poor fella. Plus I was naïve. Wish I could talk with "tween me" about healthy relationships vs 🚩🚩 - while agreeing those songs are bangers. Thanks for such a nuanced, thought-provoking vid on this!

Theres something that really unsettles me about movies, music writing and such being permanently erased. Maybe keep certain things away from children and emphasize the importance of viewing them through critical eyes. Im not sure what exactly the thing is that makes me uneasy about it is but some things that come to mind is that; -at the end of the day, the people or person in charge of who choses what is erased is a fallible human with thier own uncomplete views. - it feels similar to the hiding of information. -it hides concrete examples of the reality of the (often terrible) ways humans used to think. -i just feel icky about things being hidden. From book bannings to the fact that search engines can conveniently show a very limited number of search results rather than all of them. -im vaguely aware that this my view on this isn't one that has research behind it, and that there are probably flaws and exceptions to be considered but im not sure on the specifics.

"I don't want to use up all of your recording time, you can-" immediately moves on to the next segment

20:10: "Have you ever seen [3rd Rock from the Sun]? It's an old sitcom..." Damn, Mandy out here making me feel super old right now, I watched that as new episodes were being made.

As always, this was a joy to watch (sorry for watching it earlier on the television while I sewed and coming back to comment later). I especially enjoyed the discussion of Lolita, a book I've wrestled with for years.

i think about this vid a lot when i think of the messy things i love. thanks for making it and keeping me thinking and caring.

29:45 Thank you for saying this. I grew up watching my father being emotionally abused by my mother, and it was traumatizing. There also seems to be plenty of domestic violence among same-sex couples. All domestic abuse is terrible.

That was a really great video, when i saw the list of interviewees i did get a little worried it was going to be a bit too moist, but it turned out to be perfectly baked.

holy fkn shit…..this video was INCREDIBLE!!! I’m obsessed and think you’re a lovely and super skilled researcher and essayist, wow!! Great job:)

My problematic fave is Zack Snyder's Watchmen. He fundamentally misunderstood the source material, and glorified what the book mocked, especially when it comes to Rorschach. The way he sexualises sexual violence is just grotesque, and the way he sexualises violence itself is uncomfortable. But you know what? Apart from that, it's a fantastic adaption. The direction is great, the cast is great, the soundtrack is great, and the ending is better. And that's a hill I'll die on. The Watchmaker sequence is just beautiful and melancholy and well edited, and the editing overall is pretty tight for a nearly four hour film. It shows an overall love for the original, even if it is at times a misguided love, and is executed with enough style and flair and competency that it just works for me. I understand all the criticisms more than anyone, but I still think it does enough to count among the best adaptions I can think of.

Everyone is pop-o-matic, because its fun getting into trouble

as a Richard Wagner stan, I have needed a video like this to unpack the simultaneous facts that I found incredible queer liberation in the characters like Lohengrin and Brünhilde while also grappling with the fact that Mime and Alberich existed side by side with these characters as antisemitic stereotypes. Thank you THANK YOU for this video essay.

Omg the Lolita movies yes. It was the 1997 one I watched after reading the book and I kept thinking "Oh yeah this is a really interesting adaption for film. Film's a visual medium so you can't use the same techniques. If it showed what was really happening it would be so obvious that he's a predator. So this is *his* visual narrative and at some point we're going to cut to a 'reality' shot. Dolores body language is going to not be seductive but uncomfortable that sort of thing right?" Aaaaand then the scene never came and it took me like 19 showers to feel normal again.

perfect timing as brittany broski- someone i used to like- doubled down on her support for problematic celebrities as well as her use of aave and minimizing it to “internet slang”

At this point the term problematic is thrown around so much, it’s almost lost meaning. Especially when you consider all the things being called problematic because the people doing it are not astute enough to realize they have missed the point of the thing they’re criticizing, or don’t understand it all all. So for me problematic has become subjective, and I assume people are adults and have the right to like what they like without any input from me, I also assume people are smart enough to know if something they like might be deemed problematic by the current society so that we can talk about it without me having to tell them every few minutes that it, or it’s creator is considered problematic.

Extremely entertaining and very informative and many more adjectives. Loved it, Hoots off to you!

Side thought: One of my genuine pet peeves is when people use "problematic" as a frankly-cowardly euphemism for "evil," "bigoted," or "bad." My feeling is that it should be reserved for morally-grey, mixed, complex, and nuanced people and things, and not for things and people the speaker has already decidedly are mostly-or-entirely-bad---for example, it would be absolutely laughable to call Hitler "problematic!" I wish more people were willing to just openly own their feelings and convictions in this regard, because I get tired of people using the word "problematic" in a way that suggests an awareness and appreciation for nuance or complexity, and then operate as if the thing or person in question is cut-and-dry and black-and-white.

My parents did the same thing for the Disney Channel! I watched nearly all of Don Blum's reprotoire in the early 90s with ZERO context along with a bunch of random shit, lol.

Glad to have the opportunity to expose more people to one of the most obscure bands I've ever listened to. Even if they had their whole *nazbol* moment. (Not to downplay the problematic since that's the appeal of the video but at some point the frontman did end up distancing from the nazbols and got into "eco-anarchism" instead...which I can only pray doesn't mean an-prim stuff)

this was so good hoots!!

I keep forgetting which one/whatever they're talking about when it jumps to the next person.

Always happy when a lil hoot video drops.😊

This is incredible. Randomly watched your Harry Potter video after the mighty algorithm suggested it and I cannot believe I haven't come across your or the othersl people in the video before. Great stuff. Thank you!

1:13:55 - I was wondering if that moment would come. :) And Zoe's "oh no!" was priceless. :) Nice exploration, hoots!

I came in with no context, being bewildered why youtube was suggesting this video. I left with s lot to think about. Thanks for the work.

I recall sharing stories about people in my disabled community with my now ex. Only to have him use it as an opportunity to drudge up their short comings. Just so he could show off. Really in hindsight it was part of how he used to abuse me. Since he was connected to a lot of the goings on in charitable organisations, local government etc. Also very much the using charity to buy his way into heaven type. Since he himself was self-centered, and quite bigoted.

Omfg Loleetah is my favorite fashion style and now the word is banned on like every website and it's KILLING ME

Your singing is so beyond beautiful.

18:12 so glad you kept that flub in, makes me giggle every time

As a musical theatre professional thank you for mentioning SHOWBOAT 🥵🥵🥵❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Sailor Moon is NOT problematic, you take that back.

This was incredible! I'd love if you or someone could link the creators and external media mentioned so more folks can easily follow/find them ❤

May I add my own problematic fave? Led Zeppelin

!!! I'm so happy to hear you talk about Lolita here!! You get it!! Yes! Thank you!

I think a big part of a work of a philologist or anybody who sincerely engages with a piece of media is to rescue it, not condemn it. There is very little learning in saying that Ayn Rand had funny ideas about how society works and what people should be like and say that nobody ever should read her books because of it. On some level I do agree with Rita Felsky that critical theory is too negative in its approaches and we should read restoratively, which is in no way a carte blanche for anything. We can learn from (and even enjoy, even though in the field of literary analysis I think enjoyment is a scarce currency) the problematic, accept it, and find value in the work regardless.

Absolutely fantastic video essay. Can't wait to see what you do next.

Is there even such a thing as an unproblematic fav? And if so, what would that even look like?

Barely into the video, but that "OHHHHHHHH-" "Klahoma." edit made me proper belly laugh. xD

this was a great subject with a well executed video.

Fuck yeah I've been looking forward to a hoots video, the Seinfeld one gave me lots of hope for your channel

The Fifth Element is one of my favorite movies, 'cept I can't watch it without thinking about how Luc Besson impregnated a 15yrold.

Hearing Zoe Bee saying that Lovecrart is a problematic fave is fairly surprising. Nothing wrong with enjoying his work seperated from who he was of course, and I adore cosmic horror. I just think his is kinda... bad? I had hyped up Call of Cthuhlu and his other works from references in media, and cosmic horror as a whole is so endlessly facinating as it takes psychological horror into a far more real and proximal terror. The idea of "touching something Real" still fills my heart with an icy dread as it places us and our reality as only a shadow of what is truly out there, of something more real than we can ever be. And so of course I jumped at the chance when i found out how to pirate his works. ...and god they were just, bad? Like I seriously thought they sucked. The plot was incoherent and meandering but not in a way that furthered the themes of the listlessness of losing your sense of meaning just in a way that was plain boring? I saw something recently which was saying there is an effect that seinfield seems really unoriginal because everything used it as a basis or somesuch, but this was almost like finding the original model of a piece of equipment or machinery like an old car that inspired ones you've adored throughout your life and then going "fuck they really improved on this basic model huh, it really is bare-goddamn-boned." Like I respect the fact that he opened so many eyes to the idea of cosmic horror, but only as a stepping stone, it has been done way way better since then

I actually really like this video. I actually have been liking your content a lot but i was still surprised by how much more thoughtful and introspective this video is than I thought it would be. Unfortunately there's a few "breadtubers" who treat this sort of thing like a lunch table, where if you like something they think is bad they basically say "you can't sit with us". I appreciate you not doing that, while still not pretending that there's nothing wrong with a lot of these celebrities and their behaviors.

My biggest problematic fave is the Stargate franchise. It’s such a fun sci fi action adventure franchise but it’s US Military propaganda.

I hate that people view call outs not as an oppurtunity for themselves or their faves to improve but as an attack.

34:18 "He's dead now. But he was alive." Brilliant. Say no more, you nailed it. A masterpiece of perception that one. Would've been something if he were a zombie all along, though. Jeez ...

Great video, Hoots!

I was just thinking about this concept while listening to The Queen is Dead by The Smiths this morning. Love that band.

Informative video. You bought a question that warrants thought it was whether a production is worth be reproduced in the future? For me I fall on 2 opinions one was is to insure the wronged/harmed party is being aided. 2) can problematic art be engaged in new critical way. I’m mostly looking into the theater space. As Black man who recent starting to watch older movies from the 60,50,30s I find myself watching critically & often seeing how good the movies may be becuz of certain character types/stereotypes it often undercuts the themes.

As always, I am reminded why you are a criminally under-subbed channel. (Also, loved your cameo on TLC's vid!)

omg the one other grazhdanskaya oborona fan here! nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard it mentioned!!! great music