No need to adjust your monitors, folks. You didn’t just misread it as KMK (although a videogame boss being a member of the Kottonmouth Kings would, quite literally, rock). The acronym in that title is indeed accurate.
Picture some of your favourite final battles in iconic, family-friendly gaming franchises. Chucking Bowser into mines. Bashing Eggman out of whatever absurdly designed mech he’s opted for on that occasion. Running Ganon through with the Master Sword (in a perfectly G-rated manner, of course). These are just a few that likely spring to mind; but what probably doesn’t spring to mind, if you aren’t nuts, would be a far-right, hate-speech-spewing, racially aggravated bigot. Nonetheless, that’s precisely the finale the developers of the third ToeJam and Earl title had in mind during the game’s production, and it’s only the last minute intervention of market forces that averted that decision.
Though it beggars belief, Kotaku reports that the plan was borne of creator Greg Johnson’s mixed-race heritage, and of his desire to tackle the issue of racial tension in a comedic, cartoonishly exaggerated way that would be digestible for younger audiences. After all, what better way to educate children in matters of prejudice than by having them utterly eviscerate a caricature of a guffawing Klansman? Well, better-funded schools, I’d say, but since we ain’t getting that anytime soon, I guess it falls as ever to videogames to do the job. Here’s what Johnson had to say in the report, quoting from an interview:
“We created a game that was very heartfelt for me, being half-black and half-white, and one of my missions is to bring cultural diversity to our industry, to young people, through games. And there’s no question at all that it’s a risk. It’s just an opportunity for people to become self-righteous and jump up and down, and it’s one of those hot buttons. And ToeJam and Earl and Latisha, there’s no question that they’re black — urban black, yo, what’s up. That’s what they’re all about.” It all makes sense now – that unmistakable 90s ‘street’ stench about the whole TJ&E series.
He continues: “and SEGA was willing to go for it and they said, ‘OK, we get that, it’s a good message. We know it’s risky and people might see it as an opportunity, but we’re going to stand behind it.’ So I love that. But that one, the [final boss], sort of went just a little too far over the line for them. When I was doing it, it was actually an accident. We had done a bunch of designs for the [boss], and the artist had done this unintentionally. I looked at it and said, ‘Wow, that’s funny. That looks like a Ku Klux Klan hat.’ And then I thought about it for a second and I said, ‘Well hey, what better villain for these black characters who are spreading the funk than the love and this kind of oblique reference?’ Because it wasn’t [obvious] — it was open to interpretation.”
The most prevalent ‘interpretation’, that of a KKK member, was quickly latched onto by gaming media who received early review copies, and their responses gave SEGA cold feet. Soon, what could have been a bold step in the direction of promoting racial equality in games had the kibosh put on it, and the boss sunk into urban legend – until now. As the report states, Twitch streamer Sebmal “has been obsessed with this piece of trivia for almost a decade, and spent yesterday evening exploring two pre-release builds of the alien duo’s third outing to capture footage of the KKK boss in all his racist glory.” Said find is below:
This is certainly an intriguing discovery, and makes one wonder just how far the imagery and allegory could have been taken had the team’s ideas been allowed to continue.
Perhaps, if we ever get a proper ToeJam and Earl continuation, we can have them beating up cops? Exclusively racist ones, of course. Most cops are pretty chill – they just want their doughnuts. See, the stereotypes go both ways, SEGA! Let Greg have his visual metaphors!
Are you amused by this discovery? Would you have wanted to fight this boss? Let us know!
Via, Kotaku.
