Jar Jar Binks- Why is he so hated?

If there was no Jar Jar, there would not be the funniest robot chicken skit EVER

 

I'm 14, so seeing The Phantom Menace as a child, I will admit to liking Jar Jar. He was a funny character, aimed at children. Star Wars is for everyone, so I can see why this would make some fans angry. I read a article a few days ago, I can't think of the name but i'll post it here later, about how Ahmed Best was everyone's favorite during filming and was surprised when the character got so much hate. It's noteworthy to think that while he was considered the worst Star Wars character, everyone on set loved him.

 

Jar Jar is basically a Disney animal sidekick.

 

So disney already destroyed Star Wars with TPM...

 

From a certain point of view!

 

I don’t think that people really liked Jar Jar’s silly and comedic personality and style. A humor that people were used to was like from Han solo, so they weren’t used to Jar Jar. Also some thought he didn’t fit well in the story as a funny character and making him a “jokester” was irrelevant or a bad idea. This is only what I think.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 7, 2020, Original Post Date: Aug 7, 2020 ---

People still forget how TPM was a kids movie so Jar Jar was meant of younger audiences. I think this is what George said.

 

I remember walking out of the theater after TPM and thinking “why George, why???”

 

Haha

 

He is a literal physical copy of Buster Keaton's physical comedies.

No. Seriously. Literal physical copy.

Oh...and Harold Lloyd. Totally spaced that credit.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Haha lol

 

I was always pretty indifferent about Jar Jar. He’s annoying, sure, but fairly harmless. I don’t much like TPM in general anyways, so it never really bothered me that there’s no tangible point to the character even being in the film. Just one more criticism on the already absurdly humungous heap. That was until I read the synopsis of the revised rough draft of ‘The Beginning’. Then my opinion found its way snuggly to the bottom of a public urinal.

Turns out, originally there was a point to the character - and a d@mn good one too. But it was entirely and tragically abandoned.

You see, in the rough draft there was a defined subplot where a racially motivated divide existed between the Naboo and the Gungans. The sophisticated and cultured Naboo considered themselves superior to the savage and graceless Gungans who, in turn, resented the Naboo for their pronounced bigotry. They lived as divorced societies in a pseudo-parallel to the misguided ‘separate-but-equal’ doctrine. It was a classism allegory.

The schism between these two groups was epitomized within the narrative by Padmé, the Naboo, and Jar Jar, the Gungan. Their journey together in the story follows the path of tolerance and understanding as the outwardly prejudicial Padmé gradually learns to accept and appreciate the Jar Jar character (not presented as a clumsy babbling twit BTW) - grasping that her personal biases were wrongheaded. This culminates with her, being revealed as Queen Amidala (the Naboo leader), humbling herself before Boss Nass (the Gungan leader) and pleading contritely for a coalition. An actual f**king character arc!!!

Suddenly it makes sense why Binks is in the d@mn movie. It makes sense why he went along on that fieldtrip to Mos Espa: the shiny racist creeps didn’t want him on their shiny racist ship! He was intended to be an emblem for the morality of the tale - a representation for erroneous and irrational ‘othering’, concluding with the two feuding sides finding a legitimate accord.

At some point this storyline just evaporates and Jar Jar is reduced to the status of barely functional buffoon while the only hint at derisiveness is now solely with the Gungans: “Wesa no like da Naboo. Da Naboo tink day so smarty. Day tink day brains so big...Wesa no carrrre-nn about da Naboo.” - depicting them as inferior fearing troglodytes. Horrible.

What’s so bad about Jar Jar? That. That’s what’s so bad.

 

Huh.
That's how I understood the subplot that's in the film anyway.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

And I think that may be the precise reason why I never had much of a problem with the character. He is so strange and over-the-top that I find him to be one of the boldest choices ever made in SW, for good or ill. But he is memorable. As a collector, I would much prefer a nice Jar Jar figure in Hasbro's Vintage Collection or Black Series to yet another Clone Trooper. It's the difference between owning and wearing the occasional hot pink t-shirt vs. owning and wearing only beige clothes. A statement - not for use all the time - but something with personality.

 

Except there’s no actual overt racist gesture from Padmé (or any other Naboo) toward Jar Jar. There are subtle nods. Like all the human characters on the Naboo starship being in the cockpit, while Jar Jar is by himself in a hold with a bunch of droids (the second class citizens of the galaxy). He’s treated like steerage on the Titanic. But it’s Obi-Wan who insists on him being there, not the Naboo – to “keep out of trouble”.

In fact, when Padmé first encounters this lone Gungan, she’s strikingly gracious to him. She’s directly engaging. Weirdly, she’s way more compassionate toward him than the bloody Jedi: the guardians of peace and justice.

The divide is presented as one-sided. It seems as though the Gungans only separate themselves because they think the Naboo think they’re better. But there’s no real outward materialization that supports that outlook. They’re just unfoundedly xenophobic, which is the opposite of the intended message.

Jar Jar never becomes that silver-bullet agent that untangles anyone’s ignorant preconceptions. He’s just a hapless nitwit that everyone tolerates along the way. ‘Tolerating people that are different than you, no matter how insufferable’ isn’t a bad message, but a far cry from what was possible with that setup.

 

*shrug* I gathered that from the dialogue that the general Naboo were snooty prudes, but that Padme was bringing change...ish.

King: Wesa no like da Naboo. Da Naboo tink day so smarty. Day tink day brains so big.

...

JarJar: Gungans no dyin' without a fight. Wesa warriors. Wesa got a grand army. Dat's why you no liken us, mesa tinks.

...

Obi: Do you think they were taken to the camps?
Captain: More likely they were wiped out. (said smuggly)
JarJar: Mesa no tink so!

...

Decoy Padme: We have searched you out because we wish to form an alliance. ...
Real Padme: Although we do not always agree, you honor, our two great societies have always live in peace...etc...out fate is in your hands.

King: HA! Yousa no tinken yousa greater den da Gungans? Mesa lika dis! Maybe wesa bein friends.​

Now, I'm not saying it's a super strong narrative in there full with character arcs, but to be frankly honest, there's no character arcs in The Phantom Menace anywhere so...meh.
But yeah, I always inferred from the dialogue that the Naboo were snub nosed prudes to the Gungans historically speaking because the alternative is that I infer that the Gungan's are just simply crazy, and while simple in expression and awkward, I didn't gather insanity since they were capable of developing a society far more advanced than Ewoks by a long shot.

Again, I'm not saying it's a strong thread. I just didn't think it was a super big point. I understood their contention towards each other easily enough, but I just took it as a narrative excuse to just get them to have a sudden force availability at the end that wasn't available before. I didn't get any grand message about how everyone should love each other in spite of our differences. Well...no more than Star Wars normally conveys that message, that is.

But yeah, the basic sketch of that sociopolitical relationship did come off to me that way - that the Naboo had a history of snubbing their noses at the Gungans who in turn cut off the Naboo from pride. In fact, the Naboo came off to me as generally condescending, expectant, entitled, and prude to everyone. Their queen just rolls through barely seeing any point to talk to anyone, and barely sees any toleration for inter-galactic politics. I mean...I get the urgency of her situation, but dang man...anyone in here think it's just a bit psychotic for any nation on this planet alone to expect a turn around to an answer on a trade relations nightmare with a response of physical military force in less than a day? That's the notion here. She barely shows up, barely talks to anyone, and punches out as soon as things don't go quickly enough to her liking.

It's not like there's no other royalty around the galaxy in that senate.

But, yeah...no, regarding the push of the message of one-love type stuff...nah. Didn't get some super good message out of it, if that's what you mean. I just meant that I gathered the sociopolitical relationship and history.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Sure, on a surface level, it’s fairly rote. Two societies, more alike than either will admit, at odds with one another over petty differences, having to come together to face a greater threat, because they’re stronger together than apart. ‘Blah blah, symbiont circle, blah - just add water!’

What I’m more speaking to is the Jar Jar character’s specific capacity in that design. How he is (in the original concept anyway) positioned to be an active agent in repairing that split. By simply being who he is and disproving the expectations and prejudices lobbed against his kind, he broadens others’ narrow scopes. He acts as ambassador and is the catalyst for that change. When the two groups are awkwardly fondling that silly beachball at the end, that’s Jar Jar’s win. He made that happen. He brought those two sides together. He’s the hero of his personal journey and, in a way, the story itself.

In the final version though, the guy is largely superfluous. Mostly just comic relief. He’s there to say things funny and step in poop. It’s such a bizarre disconnect. Now everyone is immediately dismissive of him. Not just the Naboo. Hell, even the Gungans hate that Gungan and, oddly, they’re justified. He really is an inadvertent menace to their society. He doesn’t convert any hearts and minds. He doesn’t enrich anyone’s world view. He’s just a fart smelling plot director. He tells us where the Gungans are and then delights us with his pratfalls.

It’s the wasted potential that deflates me. It’s all right there. George put it there. It’s in the DNA, but there's barely any follow-through. Meh, que sera sera.

 

I understand both points being made on JarJar here. I think the issue is, Star Wars is a movie aimed at families. And the PT, IMO, was aimed at a younger audience than I think the OT was. And if those undertones are what Lucas wanted from JarJar and the Gungans, then he needed to either commit to them or remove them not leaving them in there for people who will do deep reads of the film or watch it 10 times to find.

It's a wonderful idea, most of Lucas' are, but it isn't executed particularly well.

 

I think the reason JarJar is so hated is that his one guy who invites you out for beers and then forgets his wallet. Then when the tab is due he just sit there staring at you. He is always like 20 bucks short until pay day and promises to hit you back. Then you and your new girl are out on a first date and he spots you in the crowd comes over and sits down for 30 mins telling stories about the good old days. Yeah mez alittle brokes til payza day cans you helps a guyz out? Youza knowz iza good for itz.

 

Oh, yeah, in terms of Jarmesa I fully agree it doesn't translate at all. He comes off as straight up just the village idiot reject who's been kicked out because he's just too much of an idiot and hazard - like Clouseau.

The problem is, however, and this is where Lucas went off course, by the way.
Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, and Sellers...clowns they may have been of physical comedy and idiocy, the one thing they all have in common that makes their physical humor work is that they don't behave as an idiot, but instead as a victim of circumstance, and the film doesn't treat them as an idiot.

All of their characters were articulately capable people who weren't bumbling around and fumbling with their own language on a constant basis. They weren't silly in presentation.
They were played straight to the bone - all of them.
That's what makes them all work even today after generations have passed. Straight played characters walking straight into incredibly stupid situations is still a fundamental category of comedy.

And that's where he went wrong. By making him silly and seemingly stupid as well as a victim of circumstance, it made Jar Jar come off more like Christopher Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber.

Cheers,
Jayson

 

Heartily agree. Which is ironic when you consider all the failed imitators that came out in the wake of Star Wars – trying to capitalize on its popularity, but not fully grasping why it was popular to begin with.

Wait, what? I haven't seen that movie since 1994. Was Doc Brown in that?