Adoptive Parents Call Portal 2 Jokes Offensive to Orphans

[Oly J]

I cannot believe this. Can you actually make humour - proper humour - that does not, somewhere, offend somebody? And why is it that one family, and one orphan, are upset over a few lines of dialogue in a freaking video game? What on earth is going to happen if he sends her to school?

Oh, so I guess Pokemon is 'E' for everybody except people who think that putting animals in cages is cruel. And Minecraft is 'E' for everybody except people who are easily reminded of the suicide bomber that killed their friend/relative/etc. Mario Kart is 'E' for everybody except people who became paraplegics in go-karting accidents.

Come to think of this, how did it even make the news?

lol that's a genuinely funny observation, I'm tempted to steal that for a future stand-up routine

OT: I completely agree, why the hell is this news, the guy was offended but not that much as he still likes the game...why the hell did this get any exposure? I thought the news was meant to report noteworthy things or am I missing the point?

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

I cannot believe this. Can you actually make humour - proper humour - that does not, somewhere, offend somebody? And why is it that one family, and one orphan, are upset over a few lines of dialogue in a freaking video game? What on earth is going to happen if he sends her to school?

Oh, so I guess Pokemon is 'E' for everybody except people who think that putting animals in cages is cruel. And Minecraft is 'E' for everybody except people who are easily reminded of the suicide bomber that killed their friend/relative/etc. Mario Kart is 'E' for everybody except people who became paraplegics in go-karting accidents.

Come to think of this, how did it even make the news?

That's a very good point. I guess when we say 'everybody' we really mean 'practically everybody'. Then again, you can't really account for individual peoples' sensitivity.

 

[Nightvalien]

in b4 fat people get insulted, and hobos, and astronauts and cave johnson and normal people.

 

[Nightvalien]

Need better parenting there, maybe she need more testing.

 

[hyperdrachen]

GlaDoS digging at the character about being adopted and in turn her implication that that was a bad thing, is a characterization of how cruel GlaDoS is. That's not really the same thing as a game making fun of orphans. A person unable see the difference probably shouldn't be playing these games. I can certainly see where a young enough child could misinterpret the first person taunts from glados as being directed at them specifically. I wonder how the parents in question feel about the systematic persecution of homosexuals, and cruelty that their children, adopted or otherwise, experience from the evil little trolls they go to school with. Just trying to put the "meanie in the TV" thing in perspective.

 

[Tsaba]

I have some news for that guy.
it's rated T for Teen you moron, not E for everyone now get over it.

 

[Amphoteric]

Glados defends Adopted children. Did he not play the game?

 

[Char-Nobyl]

Neal Stapel and his 10-year-old adopted daughter were happily solving puzzles and screwing with physics in Portal 2 when it happened. Out of the blue, the sentient computers in the game began belittling the protagonist for being fat, stupid, and adopted. Stapel told his local news channel, WBTV [http://www.wbtv.com/story/14662694/tonight-at-5-video-game-taunts-adopted-children], that this was "literally the worst thing I could have probably heard."

This man strikes me as the sort who doesn't actually know what "literally" means.

Stapel said that while he and his wife had never hidden from his Chinese daughter Zoey the fact that she was adopted, it had never come up, and they were waiting for her to be ready to talk about it. Having the subject aired out in the open by a videogame was jarring, to say the least. "It throws the question, the most ultimate question that that child is ever gonna have for you and it just throws it right in your living room," he said. "It says it's rated 'E' for everybody and I'm thinking maybe it's rated 'E' for everybody except for orphans."

...wait, that's the problem? You're upset because your Chinese daughter happened to realize that her white parents aren't her biological parents? And this upsets you because...a video game mentioned adoption?

Stapel is aware that it isn't really going to rile up most people who play the game, saying "If you're not an adoptive parent it's probably not that big a deal to you." He also said that he and his daughter actually really liked the game and will continue playing it, making sure to avoid the part they take offense to.

Hey, Mr. Stapel, how about you get yourself a nice, tall glass of shutthefuckup? Maybe then you can stop assuming that because other people aren't infuriated by an out-of-context joke, it must be because they 'just don't get it.'

Know what's also offensive taken out of context? The only character with a UK accent being a complete and utter moron. You probably don't care about that, though. You're too busy with your daughter suddenly becoming aware of the bloody obvious.

WBTV claims to have attempted to contact Valve for a statement, but the company has not yet said anything on the matter.

I expect, and hope, for their statement to be nothing but laughter.

 

[Weaver]

IMO I thought the jokes were funny because the robot is acting so juvinile. Furthermore it has conceptions of parenting despite being unable to reproduce and lastly, it's conceptions (that adoption is terirble) are challenged by the social norm of contemporary society that it's fine to be adopted.

 

[Sodoff]

.. How did this get ANY media attention AT ALL?

WTF?

( including the article here)

*Waarblgaarbl*
Soo much rage.

I mean who thought, "oh yea this is an interesting story, better get it on TV"

and after that " hey .. This is an interesting story lets put up a short article about it"

This is a father.. who played a videogame with his daugther, and then they became upset about a joke.. Which then led to a TV interview AND coverage on the Escapist?

What. The. Fuck?

 

[TheEnglishman]

And you know what, as a fat and ugly person, I also take offence to it!

But seriously, whatever, games and movie's throw out insults all the time, just don't take them personally.

 

[TJF588]

*reads OP*
*reads some comments*
Man, posters are trigger-happy. Shame, though, that the OP (or, rather, that the quotes in the OP) don't mention another character calling the offender out on the matter, though there is acknowledgement of the response, which I'd forgotten. Probably due to the muddling accent.

 

[CleverNickname]

When someone first asked me how I liked Portal 2 I said "It's awesome, unless you're adopted."

I can see how adoptees and adoptive parents can be taken aback by the incessant orphan-jokes. They do kinda come out of nowhere (though there were 1 or 2 in Portal1) and are really mean. I'm all for thicker skins, and mean jokes are hilarious, but they do cross a line. People are allowed to take offense and not find it amusing at all. That is also a part of comedy.

When I was laughing my ass off at "Your birth parents do not love you, please hang up" (it's my favourite line in the whole game) I also thought "Wow, someone's gotta hate that". The fact it pisses someone off makes it more enjoyable.

And really, they should be offended. Someone's got to, because it sure as hell isn't me.

...

but yeah, doesn't deserve to be News. In other news, water may be wet.

 

[Tyzamar]

The very moment I got to this point in Portal 2 I KNEW that someone was going to make a fucking stink about the whole adopted thing.

 

[KarmicToast]

LMAO local TV channel attempts to get Valve to comment officially on adoption jokes. Good luck with that!

Also "Mom" take a breather. "It was literally the worst thing I could imagine hearing." Really? I can think of about 1,000,000 things slightly worse then a character who is clearly written to be immature and a villain making a stereotypical joke in a video game about different colored goo that makes you bounce

 

[danhere]

Literally, probably, maybe, perhaps.

 

[Iron Criterion]

GROW THE FUCK UP!!!

Sorry but I'm so mother fucking sick of these mother fuckers constantly going out of their way to get offended by every little mother fucking thing.

Fuck me sideways ,running down a hill, with a dynamite dildo, with the fuse lit!

I am so damned sick of whiny butthurt idiots!

Mind you don't offend those that fuck their mothers.