Our first entry harkens back to the days of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! is a game that many of my generation remember fondly for its simple-yet-addictive gameplay, its notorious difficulty at higher levels, and most of all, its colorfully racist characters. Of them all, one stands out above the rest, a boxer whose stereotype was so blatant that he had to be toned down in the transition from the arcades to the home console. Meet Soda Popinski.
Soda Popinski, a champion boxer from Moscow, U.S.S.R. boasted a 33-2 record, with 24 wins by K.O. He was 35 years and 237 pounds of pure Soviet muscle (and moustache). Soda had a habit of drinking bottle upon bottle of soda (hence his name), even sipping during his fights to power up. But Soda Popinski had a secret. That wasn't his real name, and that wasn't soda. His real, original name? Vodka Drunkenski.
That's right, folks. That bottle labeled "POP" was falsely identified. That's vodka. He is drunk. He is Russian. Because, didn't you know?, all Russians are drunks. I will say, to his credit, Vodka is a high-functioning alcoholic. He's only lost twice (before Little Mac came along, of course) in his boxing career, which is pretty good for a guy who downs vodka like water, especially in the middle of matches!
So here's to you, Vodka Drunkenski, A.K.A. Soda Popinski. You introduced a whole generation of kids to the "Russians are drunks" stereotype through punches, blocks, and star uppercuts. And you fit in just fine here, because your shorts are quite short, and parts of Russia do indeed fall well below freezing.
I WANT YOUR INPUT!! Please submit suggestions for future entries in this series! I've got a few ideas, but I want even more. Email me or comment and let me know who YOU think deserves to immortalized for perpetuating stereotypes about various races and nationalities!
2 comments:
Write something about how they make all the female video game characters unrealistically endowed and how it, along with women's magazines, Barbie, and the fashion industry collude to make women feel ugly and self-loathing.
Hey Mike here, you could probably just go the distance and bring up the naked indian woman in Custer's Revenge, that was pretty offensive at the time and still is the most hilariously dumb thing ever.
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