G.I. Joe Was Not Just a Toy
posted in Culture, History, Military |G.I. Joe's face came from a true American hero, Sgt. Mitchell Paige. Paige won the Medal of Honor for his actions on Guadalcanal, 65 years ago this week.
When Hasbro asked to use his likeness, his only condition was that G.I. Joe must always remain a United States Marine. Hollywood wants to make a live-action movie based on G.I. Joe, but they don't think it will sell well overseas, so they're going to call him "Action Man."
Making him a metrosexual isn't enough; apparently red-blooded American fighting men frighten overseas moviegoers, too…
"G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer."
Well, thank goodness the villain — no need to offend anyone by making our villains Arabs, Muslims, or foreign dictators of any stripe these days, though apparently Presbyterians who talk like Scottie on "Star Trek" are still OK — is a double-crossing arms dealer. Otherwise one might be tempted to conclude the geniuses at Paramount believe arms dealing itself is evil.
Read the whole story, by Vin Suprynowicz, at the Las Vegas Review Journal.
