"They're Burying Pokémons" Jibe During Chinese Coronavirus Tribute Causes Uproar In France

The virtue signalling specialists will be all over this.

I'm very offended by this...

Everyone knows the plural form of Pokémon is Pokémon, not "Pokémons".

But seriously, if he's saying offensive things like this in a professional environment, he's probably said worse things in normal everyday life.

Is he sorry he made that comment, or sorry he got caught?

Gotta admit, "I thought the mic was off" doesn't tend to sound like an effective excuse in general. Kinda makes it sound like "I allowed myself a totally inappropriate remark because I was 100% confident I could say it with no consequences at the time". Not the most stellar defendant claim indeed.

What a donk.

I live in France. There's no uproar. Nobody gives a shi t as we're all too occupied with something else to care about some nomark reporter and his daft mouth.

I agree it is an inappropriate comment to had said and the guy shouldn't be making jokes like that at all even if he was off the air, is messed up. But i also think people are exaggerating with the whole "he should loose his job" deal, that seems to extreme in my opinion and given how their are currently far more important issues and higher priorities currently happening, cancel culturing this guy seems quite petty in comparison, not really worth rioting over...

@nhSnork Yeah, that’s pretty much what’s wrong here. He doesn’t see what he said as the problem, he sees it as getting caught.

Imagine doing a report on a the Chinese communist regimes phony memorial for a virus they have and are continuing to cover-up 😂

can someone explain whats bad about the term burying Pokémons other then the plural doesn't need s

@edgedino

He is calling the dead Chinese people (who number in the tens of thousands) "Pokemon", because he is getting his racial caricatures confused. That's the worst part.

More like America is in an uproar over something that's not even happening in our country. Like usual. Do you think other countries care when some nobody reporter makes a crass comment? Only we cry about everything.

@DinnerAndWine Indeed. I can't think of an explanation for his "joke" that doesn't cross into not only insensitive but racist territory. He should at least care to explain what he was thinking otherwise.

I'm very outraged about this thing that did happen. And therefore I am superior.

Your average Nintendo fan.

Yeah...that's pretty disgusting, no matter how you look at it.
On its own, the remark is at least moronic.
Given the circumstances, it's absolutely distasteful.

During a moment of silence, getting your racial stereotypes mixed up and, well, coming from a french host, a country which isn't dealing much better with the crisis at hand.

Think of the Chinese government and its supporters what you want, heck, think of the Chinese what you want, but at least show some respect for the dead...

@Toy_Link I mean most of us make jokes that we wouldn't say to clientele, customers in a staff meeting, ect. This isn't really that big of a deal, just a poor joke said at a very bad moment.

@KingMike I think it's pretty clear it was meant to be a joke. God forbid jokes, in bad taste, or just plain bad, be barred from being inappropriate or racist. This guy is no Dave Chappell and made a dumb mistake. Hopefully, he truly feels dumb and remorseful about it.

Moronic comment from the reporter, but does it really "cause uproar" in France, Damien? Sounds a bit exaggerated.

Edit: Might be a language thing... The Swedish word "uppror" directly translates to "riot", which may not be synonymous with "uproar" in English, though some Swedish translations of "uproar" contains "uppror" as a synonym. So the use of "uproar" might be milder in the English language, but I don't know. Still sounds exaggerated to me.

If it’s not causing an uproar, it should. That was racist plain and simple. He should be fired and fined

If it wasn't meant to be heard by anyone, I find his apology much more acceptable. People say all kinds of messed up things in private.

@dux Fired for being unprofessional I agree with, but being fined on top of that? No, too far.

Wowwwwwww, to be fair, we all say sh*t about other people when we think they cant hear it or arent around to hear it. I would accept his apology and move on.

The world is so sensitive these days.

Reminds me of the police who thought they had turned the body camera off before they beat a person who had already been arrested (Google it yourself). Turns out that that police department had a policy of delaying the deactivation of the body camera by 5 minutes.

I wonder why?

People in positions of power, be it police or the media, are in positions to abuse that power. It makes them feel better than others, above others.

@AlexanderDaniels So now it's "sensitive" to call out someone for being an ignorant racist? Talk about a snowflake!

@Anri02 Bet you 100 dollars right now he is only sorry he got caught. And I bet you 1000 dollars he would never admit that. That's how these people are. You can point out their ignorance and their rudeness and the only embarrassment they feel is for the misjudgment of thinking they could get away with it.

Or you get people Alex here - who think it's overly sensitive to call out someone for being an ignorant fool.

Inappropriate and unacceptable, but this obsession with calling for people to be fired over every offense needs to stop. People make mistakes, they learn, they grow, they improve. Let’s move on — isn’t there so much more in the world to worry about?

@Heavyarms55 How is this racist?

@Trajan You've never had the displeasure of running into those people who think all of Asia is the same, have you? That's a common trope I've seen Japan and China and all of Asia lumped together and Pokemon being a well known "Asia" thing - I assumed that's why he mentioned it. I don't see any other reason for the comment.

@Heavyarms55 I still dont see anything racist there. If you aren't into video games you probably wouldn't know if Pokemon is Japanese.

@Trajan My 80 year old grandmother who is very much not into video games or anything of the sort knew that. But okay. I'll concede it's possible.

Personal experience though makes me seriously doubt it. Most people from what I've seen see Kanji or even Korean characters and just write it all off as Chinese - no matter what it actually is.

But I'll give you that it is possible that he didn't mean it with racist intent, and it was just innocent ignorance. That only makes it slightly less rude though - he still deliberately interrupted a moment of silence being taken for the dead and his apology still sounds more like "Sorry I let myself get caught".

Though I admit, my close experience and affection for Japan and Asia in general probably makes me more defensive toward perceived slights.

@Heavyarms55 Just depends man. My 82 year old grandmother probably couldn't identify a single video game character.

Of course he isnt sorry. Why would he be sorry due to online outrage? He got caught and he's going through the motions required to end online controversy. He make a joke. So what.

For all the trolls who (very knowingly) pretend this is no big deal:

When your time with the virus comes - if you should pass away, literally expiring because you cannot breathe, I guess it will be OK to say that nature has taken out the trash.

@Trajan You're right, an 82 year could easily be forgiven for having no idea about that sort of thing. This man is a professional working in the media and Pokemon is quite literally the largest media franchise on Earth, spanning games, movies, "cartoons", books, comics, toys, music, festivals, electronics etc etc and has been a major global phenomenon for more than 20 years and worth literally billions of dollars. But maybe, somehow, this professional reporter didn't know any of that. I give you that it's not impossible. I just find it extremely hard to believe.

In the end, it doesn't matter - he made a crass, unprofessional and ignorant joke. I don't think one offense worthy of being fired. But I don't agree with this idea that he shouldn't be called out on it either.

I think that when you're in a position of authority, like that of a politician or a reporter, you should be held to a higher professional standard. Sadly, I'm in a minority these days. People seem to really get on board with the "hell yeah, he was rude, so what, good for him" attitude.

Pokemon sells a lot, but real knowledge of it only really applies to those who were kids in the 90s and beyond. Its sales don't imply large culture, as we know people who have thousands of dollars in the series through cards, games, toys, etc. It's a media franchise for children, unless he has kids that are into it (which isn't as big as you think, and assuming he pays attention to it), or he was a kid back then, its very possible he has no idea. I don't know a thing about Disney for example.

In the end, the mistake he made was failing to realize his mic was hot.

This guy is a known racist pos.

@Anri02
Sorry he got caught off course.

The cancel culture vultures will be all over this. Yes it may have been an ill thought comment considering the scenario. Just say he's an idiot and move on with your lives

@dux Get a life, then maybe you wouldn't concern yourself so much with other peoples. He apologised and realised he made a mistake.He should lose his job? I forgot,people aren't allowed to make errors of judgement anymore right? Social media generation are a bunch of absolutes. Guess you've never made a mistake though eh?

Haha, that's a wonderful hattrick,

Xenophobic, situationally insensitive, and even ignorant in regards to what he's joking about!

I have said much worse things during more inappropriate times. So has most people I know. Thankfully, I have grown up in an environment where such things are not what defines a human, but it is possible to give constructive feedback on it instead. It is horrendously destructive to scream and demand his firing for something so human. It demands coming to his defense, in stead of simply agreeing that yes, this was a bad thing to say, and then moving along.

The joke came to his mind very quickly in a way it wouldn't if it was concerning the honoring of deceased white french people because he, like many others subconsciously/consciously do not recognise the humanity of people whose ethnicity differs from theirs, and therefore, you can publicly mock them and think it will be embraced.

Just take them to a Pokecentre, they'll be fine

@echoplex

But Chinese people don't eat sushi, they eat bats apparently

Inappropriate in the sense of making light of the tragic loss of life? Absolutely.

Racist?

Probably a bit. Who the hell cares??
Does this idiot’s words or actions impact anything? Is his stupidity so important to anyone? No. So stop crying about it. Boohoo, someone said something you don’t like. That’s 99.999% of life, children. Learn to deal with it.

@DinnerAndWine But they do slaughter 20 million dogs and 4 million cats every year for meat—animals raised in hellish conditions. Not to mention the Chinese government’s approval of using bear bile to treat Coronavirus— a ‘traditional’ chinese medicine treatment with zero evidence for effectiveness, and which causes the captive bears huge pain and distress from its extraction. And that’s just the tip of a very bloody terrible iceberg.

Don’t try to pretend that China is some kind of victim of misrepresentation. Infected wild animals might not be served in every household in China, but it’s certainly no myth.

@johnvboy Indeed you were.
Why is it that those who complain about such things, are the first to signal their own virtues?

@StevenG,

Don't be such a fool fella, the way the world has gone is just crazy, you wan't to go against real issues, I will stand with you and fight them, but sometimes it's just a joke pure and simple, may not be in the best taste, but a joke at the end of the day.

@Trajan,

Of course most people will not see it as racist, but the moral majority will always see racist things in everything, no matter how big or small.

@johnvboy Don't confuse your 10% Twitter outage culture with the majority. That is one of the reasons Trump won 16.

But your argument is flawed in assuming that the majority means it is correct.

@Trajan,

True, the masses look beyond petty outrage, and look to things that matter to them, of course the left will always call people that voted for him names, because they just can't help themselves, but for god's sake I hope they continue to do it, helps the over side no end.

@johnvboy the unwashed horde will continue their temper tantrums. Ultimately nothing will change. But I'm glad they focus their energy on trivial non-issues.

We need more context. Honestly, it's kind of funny. But without knowing what was said before, it's just a random, almost meaningless comment.

@HappyMaskedGuy

No clue why you tagged me in response, as I sh** on China in every single one of my comments on this article 😂

@DinnerAndWine Christ, I thought you were being ironic on the bat soup. My mistake.

Tasteless to say for sure, but to be fair I’m not gonna dig into this for the context

@johnvboy that’s because it’s an underlying problem thats baked into society, and not always intentional or implied or obvious.

Lol this is a good comment section to confirm who on this site is a racist. It’s like the story about removing the stereotypical Native American imagery from smash all over again

@Crockin,

So you are implying anyone who does not agree with political correctness, or takes the left to account a little, is racist, and by the not implied or obvious comment, not aware of it.

@johnvboy no

@Crockin,

Wasn't having a go at you by the way, but my main issue with political correctness is it worries far too much about the perception of things, rater than it's real world effectiveness, they go for easy targets while leaving real injustice alone.

My other gripe has always been Unconscious Bias, as it sounds great as a concept, but in reality it's saying people are being prejudiced without being aware of it, as I have said I will stand alongside anyone and complain about actual discrimination to any group of people, but if I am being asked to evaluate a prejudice, that the proposed offender is not even consciously aware they have committed, then it can't be clear either way, and therefore can't be substantiated, put it this way, it would be very tough to prove or disprove in a court of law, as an example.

yesh, this guy didn't get any part of this right

it's pokemon, not pokemons

chinese are not japanese

even using "pokemon" to refer to japanese people is still wrong, not just because of the half-assed racism but also due to various pokemon & locations in pokemon not even being japanese based.

hell, the kalos region was based on france

Why are people so stupid? Why would you say that even if you thought the mic was off? As if the victims and their families are just playing a game. Yet if someone in his family died from COVID19 I am sure he would demand respect. I hate people.

Great Meteor 2020 please.

@johnvboy It wasn't a joke. It was you trying to virtue signal how "bad" you are. We call kids like you pizza cutters. All edge, no point.

@StevenG,

You seem to have missed the point totally, as I said it is always the virtue signaling brigade that have the issues, by the way who are the "we" that you are talking about, I thought it was just you I was responding to, by the way loved the pizza cutter refrence, it was just so cool.

By the way it was a joke, it may have been in poor taste, but still a joke all the same, unless of course you mean my initial comment, which was not a joke, these snowflakes need to be stopped, you do come across as one, which is why you seem so upset.

@johnvboy You are still virtue signaling as much as anyone else. I am laughing at you, snowflake. Your very first comment was you virtue signaling to other losers that you're not on the right side of probably any issue.
Your kind does love projecting, though. Got any other little details about yourself you care to share?

The we is adults, grownups. You know the people who pay your bills.

@StevenG,

The way you comment does not suggest you are an adult, nice try snowflake.

@PlayedNSlayed great that you're so privileged that racism doesn't matter to you. racism is not a joke, it's a crime and yes he should be fired.

@Tourtus In my country, racism is a crime punishable by hefty fines. That's how he should be treated.

Pretty tasteless!