Film

Jordan Peele Has The Perfect Response To Get Out’s Golden Globes Controversy

"What are you laughing at?"

by Meg Watson  16 November 2017
Get Out

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Earlier this week it was announced that Jordan Peele’s iconic thriller/horror hit Get Out would be competing as a Comedy at the 2018 Golden Globes. Yep, it’s following in the footsteps of other classic Golden Globes comedies like Ridley Scott’s The Martian, Spike Jonze’s Her, and slapstick TV series Transparent! Lol this awards ceremony is a mess.

This fudging of genres has become a regular — and increasingly controversial — practice over the past few years at the Golden Globes. It’s often seen as a deliberate move by production companies, to place work in categories it has a better chance of winning, and it’s been called out as such. Last year Judd Apatow labelled it a “punk move” amid mass outrage.

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Right on cue, the news about Get Out has provoked an avalanche of criticism. Though there are undoubtedly comedic moments in the film, its serious focus on racism and both physical and psychological violence has many calling bullshit.

More specifically, many fans have questioned the racial context of the film’s reception. Is it just white people who are finding this stuff funny?

Now, Get Out director Jordan Peele has weighed in on the whole thing — in fairly spectacular fashion.

Speaking at an event for the movie today, Peele explained that the move doesn’t totally sit right with him.

“The problem is, it’s not a movie that can really be put into a genre box,” he told Indiewire. “Originally, I set out to make a horror movie. I ended up showing it to people and hearing, you know, it doesn’t even feel like horror. It’s in this thriller world. So it was a social thriller.”

“What the movie is about is not funny. I’ve had many black people come up to me and say, ‘man, this is the movie we’ve been talking about for a while and you did it.’ That’s a very powerful thing. For that to be put in a smaller box than it deserves is where the controversy comes from.”

During the controversy, many others have been quick to point out being labelled as a comedy isn’t an inherently bad thing either. Comedies can be complex and powerful in myriad ways, and to say it is one, isn’t to say it’s not other things too.

Ultimately, Peele said fans can “call it what you want, but the movie is an expression of my truth, my experience, the experiences of a lot of black people, and minorities”.

“The major point to identify here is that we don’t want our truth trivialised. The label of comedy is often a trivial thing. The real question is, what are you laughing at? Are you laughing at the horror, the suffering? Are you disregarding what’s real about this project? That’s why I said, yeah — it’s a documentary.”