5TH Cell: Scribblenauts' scandalous-looking 'sambo' item is a misunderstanding
by JC Fletcher 
{ Sep 16th 2009 at 10:30PM } 
Reader Zachary spotted a rather unfortunate term in Scribblenauts entirely by accident: "sambo," which summons ... a watermelon. We thought there was no way 5TH Cell would intentionally hide racist, or even racially charged, imagery in its game, so we contacted creative director Jeremiah Slaczka to figure out what happened.It turns out that like Zachary's discovery, the item was an unfortunate accident. Slaczka explained to Joystiq that "sambo" is used in the game as an alternate term for "fig leaf gourd," an ingredient in the Ecuadorian dish fanesca. "Sambo" is the local term for the gourd. As for the watermelon-like appearance? "We reuse art," he said. "Fig leaf gourd looks a lot like a watermelon. It's just an alternative name in a giant list of tens of thousands of names."
Slaczka noted, offering evidence to the contrary of calls of racism, that many of the human characters in the game, including the fireman, winemaker, and dancer, manifest as black, as does "Brandon," the in-game representation of a 5TH Cell "wordsmith" (one of the employees tasked with finding words for the database), who is of course black in real life. He also mentioned Isaiah, a major character in the developer's last game Lock's Quest.
We must admit, a random, potentially slightly embarrassing art/word pairing in the game seems a lot more likely to us than endemic racism expressed through antiquated epithets. Slaczka told us he didn't even know "sambo" (the slur, not the gourd) until tonight.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
PersianSpice @ Sep 16th 2009 10:39PM
Gotta admit - that's a pretty damn funny mix-up.
Sly (PSN: SniperChameleon) @ Sep 16th 2009 10:44PM
yeah, it's pretty funny, no offense.
SpyderTaco (PSN: Ar4chNova89) @ Sep 16th 2009 10:35PM
This reminds me of the lyrics that got LBP delayed.
Only a matter of time before someone files a lawsuit. Sigh.
ShadowflareXIII @ Sep 17th 2009 8:39AM
Ok really...
People are trying way to damn hard if they pulled the race card on this...
time @ Sep 16th 2009 10:34PM
Never heard of "sambo" before this article.
Slaziman @ Sep 16th 2009 10:39PM
Same, people just want to find racism everywhere it seems.
Sly (PSN: SniperChameleon) @ Sep 16th 2009 10:41PM
yeah, same.
Special Agent Steve @ Sep 16th 2009 10:46PM
Me as well. Who knew that everyone with a slight lisp were insulting an entire race when they said "Rambo".
giantenemycrab @ Sep 16th 2009 10:46PM
me neither. I don't think I intend on finding out, either.
Premature ejaculation man @ Sep 16th 2009 10:48PM
I've never heard a lisp that replaces "R"'s with "S"'s.
Tysannosausus Sex
WINterfang @ Sep 16th 2009 10:48PM
my old account get banned because of that word, I used it as a joke on a resident evil article replacing zombie ( because it rhymes) but it not only people get really offended, but I had to explain the joke afterwards so it was just a complete misfire.
Special Agent Steve @ Sep 16th 2009 11:06PM
Scooby Dooby Doo. He has a lisp where he replaces R's with S's. WHY CAN'T IT BE HE OTHER WAY AROUND?
Shaggy=Raggy.
Sly (PSN: SniperChameleon) @ Sep 16th 2009 11:17PM
oh, winter, that's what you got banned for? i remember the day but i didn't know what word you said...
WINterfang @ Sep 16th 2009 11:20PM
Yep man it sucks, I end up buying Resident Evil 5 after that interestingly enough and end up really liking the game.
Kadamon @ Sep 17th 2009 12:46AM
Before today, I'd never heard of the term before either...I first read about it on Kotaku earlier...but I didn't pay it any heed.
T @ Sep 17th 2009 1:03AM
Same here. In the course of trying to stomp out racism...those pointing this out have done nothing more than teach everybody a brand new derrogatory term.
Racism is kept alive and well by those most actively seaking to stop it.
Ridgecity @ Sep 17th 2009 1:55AM
Is there a way we can get an american wordlist for all the racist terms you guys use?
The other day someone called me a "beaner", I tought they talking about the collectable toys from the 90s, so I hugged them white gangstas.
Markusdragon @ Sep 17th 2009 6:42AM
Beaner's a racial slur? I thought it was a type of wooly hat o_O.
bm @ Sep 17th 2009 8:25AM
I agree with ridgecity. You americans never cease to baffle me with how you can dig out racism everywhere you look. We need some reference.
The Baron @ Sep 17th 2009 8:40AM
Nah, that's a beanie.
Ashkental @ Sep 17th 2009 8:55AM
You've never heard of sambo?
RACIST!
Ryan @ Sep 17th 2009 9:08AM
I actually really liked the book Little Black Sambo as a kid.
MemphisNET @ Sep 17th 2009 9:17AM
A new word for the knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers to use on Xbox Live.
Geist @ Sep 17th 2009 9:23AM
Damnit people a woolie hat is called a TOQUE. A little hat with one of those little propellers on the top of it is a BEANIE. Get your terms straight.
Also a beaner is a racial slur for a person from Mexico, I think, if stand-up comedians can be trusted (never trust the stand-up comedians, never.)
Troy Powers (PSN: TroyPowers) @ Sep 17th 2009 9:53AM
Well, I'm black. I'm very familiar with the term "sambo." And to say that it's an accident that the word conjures up something that looks exactly like a watermelon sounds like some bullshit to me.
For anyone who actually do know the term (I guess you'd have to be a bit older. I'm 32), this is pretty insulting. And for publishers/developers to say, "Hey, we knew this was a word for an ingredient in some obscure Equadorian dish, but we didn't know it was a racial slur here in America..." I'm just not buying it. Call it what it is. Somebody thought they'd slip it in as a joke and nobody would find out (Hot coffee, anyone?).
I'm not easily offended, but I find this pretty offensive. I think it's something they need to fix.
Jimbotron @ Sep 17th 2009 10:04AM
Go read the article about this on Kotaku. It's much more in depth and explanatory than this article.
I never heard of sambo before. Perhaps Little Black Sambo is/was a popular story in American literature, but I don't remember reading it in Canada. Bottom line, some people are looking for any reason to be offended and any chance to call someone else a racist to make themselves feel morally superior.
Troy Powers (PSN: TroyPowers) @ Sep 17th 2009 10:15AM
I don't think people are LOOKING for racism on this one. I think if you're familiar with the word, the racism is as plain as day. It's one thing to say, "I never heard the term 'Sambo' before today, so I don't see the racism." But, I assure you that to anyone who knows the history of the word, this is incredible that it made it into the game.
I'll be the first to admit that lots of racism is just people looking for it. Like the whole thing with Sony mentioning spam from Ugandan (or whatever) people was nothing for people to get upset about. Mainly because that's something that really happens. But, just because you don't KNOW something is racist, doesn't make it any less racist to those who do know.
And, believe me, older black people know this term well. People from the civil rights era, know EXACTLY what Sambo is and represents. If my mother heard there was a game where writing the word "Sambo" conjured up a watermelon, she would lose her shit. Hopefully, the publisher jumps on this before NAACP types catch wind of it. It's a potential shit storm.
Troy Powers (PSN: TroyPowers) @ Sep 17th 2009 10:22AM
Bottom line: Do a google image search for "Sambo" and tell me how many images of an Equadorian fig you get as compared to racially charged depictions of black people.
Michael T [Planeteer | Power of Mr. T] @ Sep 17th 2009 11:19AM
I have to side with Troy on this one. I'm 30, white, and I've lived the vast majority of my life in South Carolina and Texas. Maybe it's just a regional thing common to former Confederate slave states, but it baffles me that more Americans wouldn't know this term. Any brief perusal of the imagery of the portrayal of black people from Reconstruction through the civil rights movement of the 1960s will reveal an abundance of disgustingly racist bullshit.
"Sambo" in the US was frequently used to portray an image of happy-go-lucky "darkys" just LOVING their plantation existence. See also Disney's "Song of the South."
For example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambo_(racial_term)
Or (related): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface
CyberKnight @ Sep 17th 2009 12:14PM
Yep, never heard of it before now. Googled it, and the first thing that came up was "Sambo (Russian: самбо—also called Sombo or Cambo and sometimes written in all-caps) is a relatively modern martial art, combat sport and self-defense system ..."
Actually, the first thing I thought of was a misspelling of "sampo", which I only know from its part in the film "The Day The Earth Froze", featured on MST3k.
...so, of course, now I want to know if "sampo" is in there, and if it dispenses salt and gold. :)
Aaron @ Sep 17th 2009 4:48PM
Yeah the first image I saw was
http://kombatarts.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/sambo.jpg
Maybe it's cuz I'm gay....
No Kill Tayler @ Sep 16th 2009 10:35PM
Who had the idea of trying this?
"Sambo" isn't even in most peoples vocab.
briankun @ Sep 16th 2009 11:32PM
I find it hard to disagree with your notion that most people are too illiterate and uneducated in our history to know about Little Black Sambo,
Sad :(
Freedom Town @ Sep 16th 2009 11:46PM
Awww, look who can Wiki....
You could round up a test group of extremely "educated" and "literate" people....and I bet the % that knew the story of ' Little Black Sambo' would be less then 25%.
BananaBoat @ Sep 16th 2009 11:48PM
The only place I've ever heard the word used is in old movies. I don't think anyone under the age of 50 has actually heard the word spoken aloud.
freaparn @ Sep 16th 2009 11:51PM
Pretty easy to understand how it happened, the first thing anyone seems to do when they get their hands on the game is to try out all the dirty/offensive words they can think of to see what it spawns. As for most people not having any damn idea what this particular term means... well, at the rate we're aggressively white-washing history (no pun intended) of anything remotely controversial or interesting, it's hardly surprising.
At this rate, in half a century or so people are going to consider the 20th century to be an intensely boring period of time where nothing remotely noteworthy occurred. But hey, at least no one will be offended by that!
Shagittarius @ Sep 17th 2009 12:08AM
"I find it hard to disagree with your notion that most people are too illiterate and uneducated in our history to know about Little Black Sambo"
Too illiterate to read a children's book published and distributed at a wanna be Denny's restaurant?
Read "Jack of Tales" if you want to see what happened to Sambo.
Taijo @ Sep 17th 2009 1:22PM
@briankun: OUR history? sigh, americans... look at a world map. Its bigger than you think.
CubeGuy @ Sep 18th 2009 2:20AM
@Taijo: Americans? Sigh, other countries... Look at a dictionary. Tell me where the word "our" means American.
In fact, why do you assume that briankun is American in the first place? I'm all for downvoting him for being rather ignorant, but you just jumped to a rather stupid conclusion yourself.
If I were to say "our planet" do you honestly think I'm talking about how America owns the bloody earth? Grow up.
ugg.tryptophan @ Sep 18th 2009 3:57AM
yeah that term is only known throughout the black community, and its kind of taboo. sambo doesnt even eat watermelon in the infamous book in the first place, dont know where that connection came from...
Taijo @ Sep 18th 2009 11:30AM
@CubeGuy: please tell me in what other country that little sambo thing is supposedly part of the culture.
Your telling me to grow up for making the assumption that someone is american because he said "our history" when speaking about something only americans know what the hell it is? Grow some wits.
And no, the expression "our planet" obviously wouldnt make me think that. I dont understand why you think it would, I dont understand where you got that idea from, and I dont understand what it has to do with briankun saying "our history" when speaking about an american culture thingy. Again, grow some wits before you reply.
todzilla @ Sep 16th 2009 10:36PM
did Jimmy Carter write this article? now watermelons are considered racist?
Vidikron @ Sep 16th 2009 10:41PM
No, but they are often used in stereotypical representations. So the unfortunate tie to "Sambo", which is used as a racial slur by some people, creates a potentially embarassing situation for 5th Cell.
Sly (PSN: SniperChameleon) @ Sep 16th 2009 10:42PM
nope, but it's arbitrarily associated with black people, just like fried chicken and kool aid. guess what? i like all three of those things, and i'm not black. how does that work?!
Alton Brown [ XBL: LordToastington, Soon-To-Be-PSN: OrIsItAltonBrown] @ Sep 16th 2009 10:53PM
I fucking love fried chicken and kool-aid.
Douche Bigalow @ Sep 16th 2009 11:03PM
It works because watermelons, fried chicken, and Kool-Ade are predominantly Southern delicacies. Since the South has pretty much always had the larger black population, it became intertwined with racial stereotypes.
shouryuuken @ Sep 16th 2009 11:20PM
@bigalow:its also because fried chicken, watermelon, and kool aid are cheap. but yeah, the southern thing is also correct.. i mean i live in texas and a great deal of my non-black friends like all that crap, so its lost on me lol. im black, and i dont really care for watermelons or kool aid.
Sly (PSN: SniperChameleon) @ Sep 16th 2009 11:18PM
i also live in alabama. hmm...
AvA (ice~) @ Sep 17th 2009 12:30AM
@alton brown
that was the first time I literally grabbed my computer, and started laughing hysterically. I'm gonna have to thank you. :P
Ridgecity @ Sep 17th 2009 2:01AM
watermelons are f*cking tasty, if racist folks don't like it, it's probably because you can't catch it with a gun.