Rock Band 2 allows Anti-Deaf language in Song

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fearywings

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For the most part, I have only viewed this website. I love reading comments and thoughts about Deaf Culture and while I am hearing, my life's path is deeply steeped in Deaf Culture.

Recently, my husband and I purchased the Special Edition Rock Band 2 game for the Xbox 360. As I have no rhythm, I sing. We unlocked a song the other day called Pinball Wizard by The Who.

I was immediately apalled by the language that Harmonix let slip in this song. The catch phrase (not necessarily the chorus) is: That deaf, dumb and blind kid Sure plays a mean pinball

This is rediculous that Harmonix, the makers of the game, let this derogitory phrase slip. They remove all other curse words from their songs and but this is allowed to stay.

I have emailed them twice about it, demanding a way to remove the song from my playlist, or to send me an update with the word "dumb" removed and have not heard anything back.

I am incense at this blatent set back in Deaf progression. It may have been ok back when the song was written, but now it is most certainly NOT ok.

Please assist me in voices your concerns for this disgusting phrase and email Harmonix as well. One voice may not be enough, but many cannot be ignored.
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Thank you!
 
You must be an idiot.

That is lyrics from the rock opera "Tommy."
 
Why would I be an idiot when the lyrics are displayed on the TV for me to READ! It has nothing to do with what was popular in the 70s. Its about what is current now! And as much as this "opera" may have been influential and part of the top 500 albums of all time, but this particular song reaches more youth than that album ever will these days. Most kids who play Rock Band have never heard of The Who until the song is unlocked.

Thank you for not supporting me and being negative about my beliefs. I am not bashing The Who for the song, I am Bashing Harmonix for keeping the word "Dumb" in the game.
 
Shadow said:
You must be an idiot.

That is lyrics from the rock opera "Tommy."
Click to expand...

Remember, forum rule said no insulting or bashing.

For this post, I don't own Rock Band 2 then can't make comment here.
 
fearywings said:
Why would I be an idiot when the lyrics are displayed on the TV for me to READ! It has nothing to do with what was popular in the 70s. Its about what is current now! And as much as this "opera" may have been influential and part of the top 500 albums of all time, but this particular song reaches more youth than that album ever will these days. Most kids who play Rock Band have never heard of The Who until the song is unlocked.

Thank you for not supporting me and being negative about my beliefs. I am not bashing The Who for the song, I am Bashing Harmonix for keeping the word "Dumb" in the game.
Click to expand...

But you are only looking at the sentence. You missed the point of the song. If you take out dumb in the song, it doesn't have as much as an effect in the song for the musical play Tommy. That's like telling the stepsisters in Cinderella to not use the words "You poor stupid girl" because it may be offensive to those who don't have much money and have low intelligence. So now you have the "mean" stepsisters being weirdly nice to Cinderella! It would totally ruin the story!

Don't ask me why I thought of Cinderella... just popped in my head.
 
I can see where you are coming from.

I can say that I have seen Tommy, and personally it made me sick. That does not mean that people that have already seen it have to hate it too.

But in all honesty, this is a new time. Sesame Street got rid of Cookie Monster because he inspired childhood obeisity. They got rid of Oscar the Grouch because he was "bi-polar". They recognize that the general public is changing and they accomedated for the current political and social climate.

If I were at a Deaf function in a Hearing setting and I heard someone say "Deaf and Dumb", I would not stand for it. This is my personal opinion. Some others may agree with me and others may not. But recognizing this game as a conduit for children is a start in the right direction.

If they added a song that had the "N-word" in it, but the general consensus was that it was ok because the song as a whole was good, someone would still be offended. This is not literature where one can sit and ponder the language used and its authors ultimate meaning. This is a game where people sings the lyrics over and over again and then it becomes commonplace. People get "used to it". They dont see a problem with it, and that is my problem.

But in all honesty, I can see where you are coming from.
 
That line was actually a compliment... kinda like saying he was surprised that a deaf, dumb, & blind kid could play a pinball game so well.
 
fearywings said:
Why would I be an idiot when the lyrics are displayed on the TV for me to READ! It has nothing to do with what was popular in the 70s. Its about what is current now! And as much as this "opera" may have been influential and part of the top 500 albums of all time, but this particular song reaches more youth than that album ever will these days. Most kids who play Rock Band have never heard of The Who until the song is unlocked.

Thank you for not supporting me and being negative about my beliefs. I am not bashing The Who for the song, I am Bashing Harmonix for keeping the word "Dumb" in the game.
Click to expand...
If you expect Harmonix to not keep the word in the game, then you would be expecting them to not have the song at all.

Besides, if that word was removed from the game... then Harmonix would expect a lawsuit for that because the song isn't what it was before.

If you don't like the song, you can always not play that saw again in the future. It's your game and you control what's played on there. I do that with CDs. If there's a song I am bored of or don't like, I simply skip it.

If I copied the CD to iTunes, I can simply delete that one particular song and the rest is fine. :thumb:
 
The wording maybe a little out of date, but the song is a celebration of what was achieved by 'Tommy'.

It's inspired many young people to play pinball and even had a machine based on the show. I have one at my place and it's played everyday - it would be impossible to remove that word from the software, so perhaps we should ban the Tommy pinball machine?

I also organise pinball events (in the UK) and EVERY TIME I get interviewed on TV or radio that song gets played - it's more of a bane to pinball people than it is to anyone else believe me! (Having said that, I still love it!)

I have deaf friends and there are deaf people that come to pinball events and I've never heard anyone complain before.

The song still generates a HUGE amount of royalties for the air-time it receives, and you think they should bleep out the word on radio too?

Never gonna happen.
 
I don't see what the big deal is here. It's a song about *pinball*, not bashing people who can't talk/are stupid, are blind, or are deaf. Move along people.
 
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