Given the recent tragedies that have gripped Apple’s manufacturing arm with the Foxconn riots that have left at least ten individuals dead the week after the iPhone 5 launch, this parody commercial for an “18% rustier, 20% thinner” iShiv designed to “revolutuonize factory riots” by Conan O’Brien is undeniably in bad taste. Whether it’s offensively bad taste or hilariously bad taste is ultimately a matter of opinion.
Personally, I hate to admit it, but I laughed, then felt really terrible about having laughed. What’s happening at Foxconn is no joke, but at the same time, it’s the job of a comedian to push the standards of taste and to riff upon tragedy for a laugh, thus putting that tragedy into deeper relief. What do you think?
Via: iDownloadBlog
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
12 responses to “Did Conan O’Brien Go Too Far With This iShiv Commercial? [Video]”
Poor taste, but it is comical. Expected from a late night show like Conan.
Yes, he did go too far. So far that the video isn’t available in my country. Le Canada.
too soon!
Funny
oh cmon! that was fun
No
Not funny at all.
1/4 funny. 3/4 gone too far. While it’s funny to mock Apple, it’s not funny to threaten the workers’ lives with a shiv to work harder. They work tooth and nail to build these devices for the customers.
dumb, but shouldn’t be offensive or “too far”
Yes, it’s funny. No, it’s not too far. Keep crying, bleeding hearts.
Funnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
I love Apple products and I have a sick sense of humor but this wasn’t that funny really. I presume this is US prime time so…
I think it’s good to publicise this though as Apple will hate the bad publicity and hopefully try harder to address the workers grievances.