Like most people, I have my limits. Actually, I have a pretty high tolerance for tastelessness. It’s a necessity in a world like this, where tastelessness increasingly goes beyond the pale. But even I am not above finding something like this so tasteless and offensive that I can only shake my head:
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – A Carnival float with a pile of model dead bodies commemorating the Holocaust is causing unease before the lavish parades in Rio de Janeiro this weekend.
The Viradouro samba organization, or school, plans to feature the grim display when it marches in the Sambadrome parade strip on Sunday, despite objections from a local Jewish group.
Oh. My. God.
Not surprisingly, Jews and Jewish organizations in Brazil are outraged. I wonder why. There will only be half-naked women dancing about but a huge crowd of partying people seeing this display. In defense of this float I found the most amazingly disconnected statement I can ever recall seeing:
Viradouro insisted its Holocaust float is not meant to offend anyone.
“The float is extremely respectful, it’s a warning, it’s something shocking that we don’t want to happen ever again,” said Paulo Barros, Viradouro’s artistic director.
Viradouro’s parade theme is “Shockers” and it includes floats depicting the shock of birth, the shock of horror and the shock of cold.
Barrossaid the Holocaust float would be the only one without dancers on top.
“If we had people dancing on top of dead bodies that would indeed be disrespectful,” he told Reuters.
Well, as long as there are no half-naked dancers dancing on the dead bodies, it’s OK then.
