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For those of you who don't get the poorly written title of the thread, this is about ERB, more commonly known as Epic Rap Battles Of History, and unfortunately, it's also not about how good I think their overall content is.

 

No, instead I'm going to talk about how Nicepeter and EpicLloyd, the creators of ERB, are apparently taking it upon themselves to use their content to push stupid agendas instead of just making it entertaining.

 

To further explain, here's a battle that ERB did not too long ago: Thomas Jefferson vs. Frederick Douglass.

 

 

And here's a battle they uploaded today: Bruce Banner vs. Bruce Jenner.

 

 

You see a theme here? The battles were clearly decided as who would win during the writing process, instead of normally leaving it up to the viewer to decide. Douglass was outing Jefferson as a racist and Jenner was made to look "stunning and brave" by completely owning Bruce Banner/The Hulk (a complete waste of a character(s) for a rap battle, btw). Oh sure, the "You Decide" screen still plays, but that might as well say "We Decided, and these people win. Don't agree? Congrats then, you're racist and/or transphobic. Eat shit."

 

Now, I don't want to completely trash ERB for what they did for the sake of finding some kind of light at the end of this very dark and offensive tunnel. At the very least, I can say that they had good intentions in mind. The Jefferson/Douglass battle was obviously uploaded due to Independence Day coming up soon, and the Banner/Jenner battle could easily be linked to the recent Orlando shooting, and ERB even managed to get a real-life transgender rapper, No Shame, to play Caitlin Jenner.

 

But even after all that, the bottom line is that they let bias get in the way of their creativity and it severely hurt their content as a whole. And no, I'm not racist and I'm not transphobic. Thomas Jefferson wasn't racist and did the best he could do for our nation at the time and Caitlin Jenner is... an attention-seeker. And she killed someone. Those are the only views I hold regarding these two battles and they have nothing to do with the color of one's skin nor their sexuality, but rather the presentation of the battles and the character of those who created them and the people who they are centered around. ERB, I love your content, but this has to stop right the Hell now.

 

Side note: if you want a deeper analysis of just how biased the Jefferson/Douglass battle is, as well as a take on what the battle would be like if it wasn't completely written in Douglass's favor, check out this awesome analysis video by YouTube rapper Matt4yo (who I expect to make a video addressing the Banner/Jenner video as well):

 

Edited by Firaga Sensei

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Comedians giving commentary on social issues that they perceive is nothing new, and in fact is probably one of the main pillars in today's comedy, since the issues we see are ripe for critique, satire, and caustic commentary. It's why The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were renowned as being funny and socially relevant. Not to mention that the idea of "winning" in this context is without any real reward to begin with, so its not like anything has actually been lost.

 

The argument against really seems to be a matter of "They have an opinion and are asserting it." 

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Comedians giving commentary on social issues that they perceive is nothing new, and in fact is probably one of the main pillars in today's comedy, since the issues we see are ripe for critique, satire, and caustic commentary. It's why The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were renowned as being funny and socially relevant. Not to mention that the idea of "winning" in this context is without any real reward to begin with, so its not like anything has actually been lost.

 

The argument against really seems to be a matter of "They have an opinion and are asserting it." The argument against really seems to be a matter of "They have an opinion and are asserting it." 

 

First off, I don't care how this relates to comedy, because ERB chose to make it about social politics and not comedy, something the examples you listed don't do because their main goal is satire and not so much political standing, whereas ERB isn't about social politics and instead about comedy and lyrical skill.

 

Second: even in the past they've done battles where it can be seen where there might be an obvious winner in the eyes of the majority, the battles were still structured so that each character got their bars in. The audience decision on who won was all that really mattered. With the two battles above (which I assume you didn't even watch), this is not the case. Their art is completely ransacked by personal views.

 

Thirdly: No, actually, the argument is that "They're biased and are forcing it into their content instead of being fair and rational like the majority of their content usually is".

 

Look, I'll break it down for you. Take the first battle: Jefferson/Douglass had both characters spit a verse, but right after Douglass was done with his verse, which was completely centered around racial politics and not a true reflection of the real-life person, and with Jefferson's next verse, he completely stopped trying to make his own argument and instead was reduced to apologizing on his end to make peace with Douglass before eventually letting Douglass having the last word and rendering Jefferson as the designated loser. You would think that for a series called "Epic Rap Battles of History", the "history" part would at least be respected in this sort of thing since it does actually deal with historical and political issues, but apparently, ERB didn't do their research and stuck with playing with the race card instead.

 

As for the second battle, it barely was even a battle. Once they pulled the Bruce Jenner "transforming" into Caitlin Jenner gag and had Caitlin as the main opponent for Hulk, the battle was set completely in Jenner's favor. Hulk did not have half as much time as Jenner had to rap, which allowed the transgender character to win and, when bringing the subtext to the forefront, letting the LGBT community as a whole have a win as well. The problem with this is that they used Caitlin Jenner as a figurehead for this agenda, someone who in reality is retroactively negative for the image of said community, but more importantly as a whole pushed the sort of PC stigma regarding the community and other related groups that is currently plaguing the U.S.. So not only where they biased, but they screwed up in sending a biased message too. 

 

You see what I mean? Regardless of what Nicepeter and EpicLloyd think, their content is supposed to be open-ended. These battles were not.

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the examples you listed don't do because their main goal is satire and not so much political standing,

 

 

Yes, Jon Stewart's run as host of The Daily Show is renowned for not taking political stands.

 

 

 

 Their art is completely ransacked by personal views.

 

 

No, actually, the argument is that "They're biased and are forcing it into their content instead of being fair and rational like the majority of their content usually is".

 

 

Regardless of what Nicepeter and EpicLloyd think, their content is supposed to be open-ended. 

 

I think the last quote points out where the disconnect here is. The creators chose to do something that they believed in and took a definite stand on an issue, expressing a solid opinion on it, rather than do what someone else thinks they ought to do by leaving their feeling ambiguous. The mismatch of Bruce Banner to Bruce Jenner might be a bit of a stretch as far as finding someone to place in accord with making a case for the LGBT community (it seems fueled primarily by the desire to use the same name twice rather than any actual conflict between characters), but I don't think it's wrong for them to let people know where they stand on the subject. 

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I think the last quote points out where the disconnect here is. The creators chose to do something that they believed in and took a definite stand on an issue, expressing a solid opinion on it, rather than do what someone else thinks they ought to do by leaving their feeling ambiguous. The mismatch of Bruce Banner to Bruce Jenner might be a bit of a stretch as far as finding someone to place in accord with making a case for the LGBT community (it seems fueled primarily by the desire to use the same name twice rather than any actual conflict between characters), but I don't think it's wrong for them to let people know where they stand on the subject. 

 

You're not getting what I'm saying. Whatever they think is irrelevant, it's how it affects the content.

 

Both of these battles were not created for entertainment purposes, they were created as soapboxes. Their rap battles aren't soapboxes. They are battles. Contests between two individuals with two different backgrounds, personalities, or whatever, but still hold a common similarity between them which makes them eligible to see what would happen if they were to clash. And in that same vein, their verses are written accordingly to their likeness in the sense that they can each propose their side of the argument as fairly as possible. These battles had one side be decided the victor before the battle even ended and before the audience even had a chance to digest both of their flows and decide for themselves. It was more predetermined than pro-wrestling is.

 

And you know, I already mentioned how in the past, ERB made similar battles where they basically just used them to rip on celebrities like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, or even Skrillex.. but at least then, they didn't completely sabotage said celebrities by having their fictional interpretations get completely dumped on in their respective battles. Some even have the underlying subtext of the ridicule being made as pure teasing as well seeing as Skrillex especially was in on the joke and even helped them do the battle live in concert at one point. But these battles? No subtext, no harmless teasing, nothing of the sort whatsoever. 

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This seems obvious, but why not stop watching it if it bothers you?

 

Because that philosophy is asinine in my eyes and I want ERB to keep making good content instead of doing what they did with the mentioned videos.

Edited by Firaga Sensei

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