Imagine an app that depicted a greedy Jew stealing money from a group of children for Yom Kippur.
Or an African American eating watermelon while he robbed a grocery store for Martin Luther King Day.
Or a Hispanic clambering over the border fence pursued by immigration police for Cinco de Mayo.
Outrageous right?
Then why is it so okay to feature the Leprechaun Drunkard in the app displayed above?
In "St Patrick's Day: Drunk Lep" a falling-down drunk leprechaun named Shamus McDerp “drinks too much booze.”
The trick to this wonderful game is to keep Shamus upright as long as you can. The more he drinks, the more your phone tilts, the harder it is to keep him up straight.
He is loaded, pissed, scuttered, out of his mind, elephants.
Hilarious.
What bothers me most is that Shamus is a cartoon character and lots of kids will download this app.
This may well be their first introduction to “Irish culture” and what we Irish represent in America.
They will see a funny little green man fall over from being drunk and everyone will laugh.
To those of you who say it is a harmless piece of fun, I’d say 'Do you really want kids growing up with this insane view of the drunken Irish, reinforcing stereotypes that have been used over centuries to denigrate us?'
The developer goes by the name Ye Olde Cat. Here is his/her Facebook page. I suggest you let him/her know what you really think of Shamus the “hilarious” drunk leprechaun.
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