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So my favorite television show of all time is probably The Cosby Show. And after all of the allegations against Bill Cosby, I have to admit it’s kind of hard to watch, especially certain episodes.
T1J explores when and why we separate art from the artist, discussing cases like Bill Cosby, R. Kelly, Eminem, and Louis C.K.
Key Takeaways
- Separating art from the artist is complex and depends on the nature of the artist's behavior and its reflection in their work.
- Artistic expression often involves exploring dark or offensive ideas without implying the artist endorses them.
- When art directly mirrors harmful real-life actions, it becomes difficult to separate the creator from their creation.
- Personal misconduct by artists can taint the reception of their work, especially if the work seems to justify or reflect that behavior.
- Fans must navigate their own boundaries in supporting art created by problematic figures.
Summary
- T1J reflects on his conflicted feelings about enjoying The Cosby Show after Bill Cosby's allegations.
- He contrasts this with his inability to listen to R. Kelly due to serious accusations against him.
- The video discusses the importance of separating an artist's personal behavior from their creative work.
- Examples include Michael Haneke's film 'Funny Games' and Taylor Swift's personal songwriting.
- T1J analyzes Eminem's song 'Kim' as a blurred line between art and reality due to its personal nature.
- Louis C.K.'s comedy is examined as art that directly reflects and potentially excuses his real-life misconduct.
- R. Kelly's inappropriate relationship with Aaliyah and the implications of his songwriting are highlighted.
- The video touches on Quentin Tarantino's frequent use of the N-word and how that affects perception of his work.
- T1J concludes that art inspired by real-life harmful behavior is harder to separate from the artist.
- The video also briefly mentions political topics unrelated to the main theme towards the end.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Bill Cosby
- 00:51R. Kelly and Personal Boundaries
- 01:14The Challenge of Separating Art from Artist
- 02:02Artistic Expression and Dark Ideas
- 03:19Eminem's 'Kim' and Blurred Lines
- 04:22Louis C.K. and Comedy Reflecting Reality
- 05:05R. Kelly's Relationship with Aaliyah and Song Analysis
- 06:19Quentin Tarantino and Artistic Controversies
- 06:57Conclusion: When Art Reflects Real-Life Behavior
- 08:00Brief Political Commentary and Closing
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
CLAIRE: Well, now it certainly is nice to see them work things out for themselves.
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CLIFF: They haven't worked anything out for themselves, it's my barbecue sauce. But at the end of the day, I’m still okay with calling it my favorite show.
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The shitty behavior of this individual, for me, doesn’t diminish the brilliant work done by the many people who worked on this great show.
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On the other hand, I pretty much can’t listen to R. Kelly anymore, and if you don’t know the deal with R. Kelly, basically it’s been known for kind of a long time that he probably has pedophilic tendencies, and failing that, all of the accusations against him involve him abusing his status to take
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advantage of young women in general. Although, like Bill Cosby and many other people who are accused of sexual misconduct, he’s managed to evade any legal consequences.
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But I used to be a pretty big fan of R. Kelly. I mean, Ignition Remix kind of goes hard, you have to admit.
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But there’s only so long you can ignore stuff like this. And this seems like an inconsistency; in one case I’m able to separate a person from their work, but in the other case I’m not.
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So that made me sit down and really think about why that is. Hi, I’m T1J.
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VOICE: Follow me! So recently a lot of formerly beloved figures in media and entertainment have been accused of some pretty fucked up things.
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And this has been difficult for those of us who were fans of the work these people put out.
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It’s rough when it’s someone you like. Like when Bill O’Reilly lost his job at Fox because of multiple sexual harassment cases, I was like, “Makes sense, fuck that guy.” But I think we’ve all learned a lesson about deifying celebrities.
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Just because you make stuff that people like doesn’t mean you’re an awesome person. Now, like I said before, the creator of something you love being awful doesn’t magically make that thing not good anymore.
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There is definitely some separation between the artist and their art. But it kind of feels... dirty to support the creations of a person that you know is a creep.
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Now in general, it’s important to keep some detachment between an artist and their work.
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This allows for creative expression of ideas and depictions that the person probably wouldn’t normally express.
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For example, the movie Funny Games is basically just 100 minutes of meaningless violence from which there is no real closure or resolution.
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But it would probably be wrong to accuse writer/director Michael Haneke of being in support of meaningless violence.
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He was using his art to express an idea about violence. Taylor Swift writes a lot of songs where she complains about her past relationships.
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A lot of them. And maybe this means she’s just a vindictive emotional basket case, but probably she’s just a normal human being with feelings who has chosen a creative—and lucrative—outlet to express those feelings.
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So in general I would actually argue that it’s usually not a good idea to judge someone based on their creative work.
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I mean, feel free to criticize the actual creation if you hate it. But creative people need space to use their art to express sometimes dark and offensive ideas, without being accused of being evil people.
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We all have dark thoughts from time to time, the difference is, artists sometimes want to express those ideas in a safe and creative way.
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However, sometimes the disparity between the art and the artist gets a little blurry. In the song “Kim,” rapper Eminem fantasizes about brutally murdering his ex-wife, named Kim.
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Now it’s unlikely Eminem actually planned to murder Kim, but the song is called “Kim,” it’s a song about a real person.
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That’s her real name. And it was well known by that point that the two were having relationship problems.
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You know, it’s one thing for Taylor Swift to vaguely reference real situations as a form of expression.
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But actually calling real people out and mentioning real situations really blurs the line between art and reality.
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Like if I were Kim or someone who cared about Kim around that time, I think I’d be justified in being a little concerned.
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At the end of the day, I think it’s pretty obvious that the song was just a way for Eminem to express his anger and frustration in a creative way.
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And most critics call “Kim” one of Eminem’s best songs because of its visceral quality and its clever tightrope walk of the line between fact and fiction.
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But sometimes art does get a little “too real.” And I think that is the key for me.
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Comedian Louis C.K. finally confirmed the rumors of his sexual misconduct recently, and beyond the fact that what he did was disgusting, the most disturbing part to me is that his stand-up act and his television show constantly made references to his own sexual perversion,
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but it was played up for laughs. He was known as a socially aware comedian because he often acknowledged the harassment and oppression that marginalized groups, including women, face.
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And he would often use himself as a stand-in for the creepy guys that women deal with, as part of his comedy routines.
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But now we know, it wasn’t a stand-in. He IS that creepy guy that women deal with.
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So it’s almost like he was trying to use his comedy to justify his shitty personal behavior to himself, and or even worse to us.
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Like in this case, the art and the artist are the same, and it’s pretty much not possible to separate the two things.
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And going back to R. Kelly, it’s a similar situation. You may know that R. Kelly illegally married singer Aaliyah when she was 15 years old, and he was 27.
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And even though no one knew this until the story hit the news, many former friends and members of his entourage suspected that he was having an inappropriate relationship with her.
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A few months before that, Aaliyah released her debut album called Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, and the primary producer and writer of that album was R. Kelly.
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Now the title, Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, could reference the fact that Aaliyah was this young girl breaking into the industry and could stand with the grown-ups even though she was just fifteen.
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However, there’s a song on the album, also called “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number,” in which Aaliyah sings about wanting a relationship with an older man.
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This song was written by R. Kelly. So if you didn’t catch all that, R. Kelly, a grown man who was probably having an inappropriate relationship with a teenage girl, wrote a song for that little girl to sing about how it’s okay for grown men to be in relationships with little girls.
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If that doesn’t eradicate the line between art and artist, I don’t know what does.
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And these kinds of accusations have been made against R. Kelly pretty much his entire career, sometimes very credibly.
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For example, did you know that the police literally found child pornography in his home, but had to throw out the case due to a judge invalidating the search warrant?
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So it’s really hard for me to hear R. Kelly sing about putting his key in somebody's ignition, and not think he’s talking about a teenage girl.
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Kinda ruins the whole thing, you know. R. Kelly actually calls himself "The Pied Piper of R&B." R. KELLY: Yeah, it's the Pied Piper of R&B, y’all.
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Do you know the story of the Pied Piper? Like, do you know what that character did?
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I think R. Kelly is trolling us. Now because these types of things happen, sometimes we can’t help but be a little suspicious when artists create things that cause you to raise your eyebrow a little bit.
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Like I’m a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino, but a lot of people have criticized him for how much he makes the characters in his movies say the N word.
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Which is quite a bit, to be fair. He even seems to frequently find ways to make himself say it in his movies.
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So it’s like, what is this dude's obsession with the N word? And it makes you scratch your he—
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I got my eye on you Quentin! So honestly after all this nonsense, I’m actually MORE likely to separate art from artist.
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Because it seems like you never know who’s gonna turn out to be an awful creep.
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And I can’t just have everything I love be constantly ruined for me. It’s like, I’ll take that cool stuff that you made, but other than that, go away, I don’t know you.
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But when those creations seem to be directly informed or inspired by real life sh**ty behavior, it becomes a lot harder for me to let that go.
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DAS JUS ME DOE. What do you think? Thank you for watching my video. Let’s check the voicemail.
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So I think I’ve made my feelings on Trump very clear in my videos and on social media.
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But I think Roy Moore is worse than Trump. He’s a relentless theocratic extremist with zero respect for democracy and the constitution.
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He doesn’t even pretend to give a sh*t about the things our country stands for.
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And also apparently he’s a pedophile? Despite all that, he’s still the frontrunner for becoming Alabama’s next senator.
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But his democratic opponent Doug Jones is closer than anyone has been to defeating a Republican in an Alabama Senate race in 30 years.
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And the last Democrat we elected, Richard Shelby, switched to the Republican Party halfway through his second term.
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So yeah, Doug Jones winning would be pretty extraordinary for Alabama. Now Jones is a pretty standard, mainstream Democrat.
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He’s not some kind of revolutionary progressive. But for Alabama, having a left leaning Senator would be a big deal even if his opposition wasn’t so objectionable.
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So I’m not like super hype on Doug Jones, but he’s fine. Of the two choices he's clearly, easily the better choice.
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And his opponent is a disgusting person with abhorrent beliefs. So I’m gonna enthusiastically vote for Doug Jones and encourage my peers to do the same.
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Topics:art vs artistBill CosbyR. KellyEminem Kim songLouis C.K. misconductcreative expressioncelebrity scandalsQuentin Tarantinomedia ethicsT1J
