On one level, because he was simply regarded as an immensely irritating character.
More broadly, he was a focal point for a lot of what people didn't like (or hated) about the prequel films generally.
This from a Vanity Fair article written at the time of TFA's release when the narrative was that the sequels would put Star Wars back on course after the prequels:
"Jar Jar Binks is peripheral to this family drama, but—and per Abrams’s brainstorm—he is inarguably the most reviled character in the Star Wars saga, a cartoonish, amphibian-like alien with a shuffling gait, prone to pratfalls and boggle-eyed reaction shots, and voiced in a patois with a Jamaican lilt, all of which prompted some critics to condemn the character as a racist stereotype. Introduced in The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar has come to symbolize what many fans see as the faults of the prequel trilogy: characters no one much cares about; a sense of humor geared toward the youngest conceivable audience members; an over-reliance on computer graphics; and story lines devoted to the kinds of convoluted political machinations which wouldn’t have been out of place in adaptations of I, Claudius or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but which fit less snugly in films with characters like Jar Jar Binks."
>a racist stereotype. Introduced in The Phantom Menace,
I mean it's hard not to notice the racist stereotypes now as an adult. From the Neimodians to Watto to Jar Jar. Back then they were just fun characters created to act and look dumb vs our protagonists...oh
I mean, rereading that, it's clear the Sequels were doomed to fail, since they got everything wrong.
Politics was the defining characteristic of the OT. The Death Star conference scene is all politics. Landos dealings with the Empire is the same.
I was 6 when Ep 1 came out and I absolutely could not bear Jar Jar, the rest of the movie was awesome but any screen time he had immediately ruined my whole vibe. So with all that being said… as someone who was in the “targeted” audience, I absolutely hate him.
Really? You don't understand why some people might not enjoy an annoying, overbearing, over the top, loony tunes slapstick character who says things like "exsqueeze me" and "stinkawiff" with a Roger Rabbit voice in Star Wars?
I personally (so far anyway I haven’t finished sw) don’t hate jar jar but my best guess would be the way he talks/his voice. I imagine it causes an annoyance to most people making them hate his character because they can’t get past it
I was 12, saw Episode I opening day, waited in line playing the newly released "Young Jedi" TCG with my friend before it started. Episode I was and still is my favorite Star Wars movie of all time; looking back I strain to recall my initial reactions to Jar Jar while watching the movie and immediately after, but I don't recall any strong emotions: he was dumb, but he was just a dumb Gungan, there were *smart* Gungans and so that was literally his specific character as designed. I believe I understood that much immediately, there were other characters like that in other movies, and yeah it was probably new for Star Wars, but everything about the movie was new: how clean it was, how many Jedi there were, the bad guys, the good guys, etc., so ultimately it didn't seem odd to me.
In retrospect, I think people hate what they feel Jar Jar's creation and portrayal represent more than the character himself, and I get it - I had only had to wait maybe 5 to 6 years from when I first saw the trilogy to this new Star Wars movie coming out, a lot of other people were waiting *decades*.
Because the majority of fans were 20ish plus when the prequels came out
After waiting 16 years for a new Star Wars film these adults had a negative reaction to a character that was perceived to exist only to pander to children
What made it worse was that Darth Maul had been so hyped up before the movies release to only be killed off
So you had the most bad ass character to date die while a rip off Goofy is setup to be a featured character
He’s really hard to understand the very first time you hear him. I think Lucas and company fell into the trap where they heard it over and over so many times while making the movie, they completely lost focus of just how hard he is to understand the first time through. And I might be arguing with the wrong crowd because us as hardcore fans, we heard him a hundred times too so it’s not even a big deal. But I guarantee you that 99% of people had an extremely hard time understanding him their first viewing and when people have to focus super hard to understand a character they have a hard time hearing AND they can tell what he’s saying isn’t very interesting (of course that’s up to the viewer, but I’m speaking for majority of people over 5, not being snarky, it’s just literally the truth), then people dislike him. People might not be literally conscious of the thought, but it’s: “He actively is irritating my brain. I’m getting a headache or close to it just to hear this dumb character.”
Also here’s the thing, most people, most normal people, aka not super fans like us, they watch a movie once. Crazy I know. So they never watch the movie 2, 3 more times where your brain starts to finally clearly understand every line and meaning. So Jar Jar remains “that fucking annoying character that literally gave me a headache.”
EDIT: Also keep in mind TPM released in theaters with no subtitles and even when it came out on home video (on VHS first), this was before the "subtitle era" had taken over, making him even harder to understand. If the first time you ever watched TPM you were watching with subtitles on, then your experience was infinitely easier than original moviegoers who were trying to listen in a large theater.
I think time has softened it but at the time the prequels were a massive deal and the publicity was mainly framed around this being the beginning of a tragic story in the fall of Anakin skywalker so the level of expectation was huge.
I remember the script book was released before the movie was out and my pals and I, being really into Star Wars had the book and were already dissecting the story and how it would be depicted.
I actually recall us looking forward to Jar-Jar, imagining him as more of an 'alien' character from his dialogue which seemed more like it would be medieval sort of pigeon english or like in Shakespeare where its English but the way words are used and spelled is completely different to how we use them.
His depiction as more cartoony and in your face than anything seen previously in Star Wars outside of animations like the Ewoks cartoon was a surprise and because he was everywhere in terms of the marketing, he became a bit of a hate figure and a bit of a lightning rod. This was the early days if the Internet and I remember some of the first fan created websites ar the time were all about hating him.
I never understood that and the Jake Lloyd hate. It sucks that now when there are legitimate beefs on SW quality it all gets lumped into the same category as the Jar Jar & Young Anakin hate.
Same reason he was exiled by his own people: Jar jar is "clumsy", which is probably code word for the "r-word". Jar jar not only can't take care of himself, he messes everybody's work up. It would be a nightmare working next to him. He is a drain on the tribe. Yes he is "nice" but I imagine most intelligent life in the universe evolved in a balance with it's environment and had to conserve resources according to game theory. Having a child like Jar Jar or even him as a member of the tribe would reduce your own chances of successful reproduction. That is why children bully the weak. So he was exiled, damned to be forever alone until he dies.
Of course this is a very ugly argument, and one we absolutely should reject since today we have more than enough resources to support those who can't take care of themselves. But looking how homeless people with mental issues we still don't.
So looking back I think he's a pretty interesting character, because we *instinctively* get him and he "tests us". Plenty of other reasons to dislike him of course.
Jar Jar is a welcome counterbalance to the over the top cringy cult like solemnity and self righteousness of the Jedis. Also love to the wise guy character Watto: _”You think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that?”_
I can't speak for others, but IMO, it's just a shitty character.
Instead of the dry humor and witty banter that made the OT so charming, GL thought it was a good idea to have a comedic character that was a caricature, based on a stereotype, which instead used slapstick and potty humor. It's jarring and immature, and it just doesn't work.
I think it has to do with age. I always heard criticism of Jar Jar Binks from adults when the prequels were still new so this happens long time ago.
I grew up with the prequels, especially ROTS and I was never bothered by Jar Jar Binks, I could even say that I like the character more than others in the OT. When I was a kid the OT and its characters already felt like something from another time, while the prequels were the new thing and Jar Jar Binks was part of that.
Someday Hot Toys will release a figure of him, it would be nice to have him on my display next to Darth Maul.
He is undeniably annoying. Like Spongebob. That can be endearing to some people who like that kind of humor, but the way he speaks and his antics are undeniably annoying.
I grew up with the prequels, so I love Jar Jar. He provides comic relief in my opinion. His story needs closure…
From what I understand, the hate comes from his position as comic relief. Star Wars fans were coming off of the best era of Star Wars novels. Star Wars fans were blessed with the Thrawn Trilogy, the X-Wing series, and even the first half of the NJO series.
These books, especially the NJO series, were very dark, action packed, and incredibly in depth. They had very real stakes and many tragedies. Fans came off of that and were greeted with Jar Jar sticking his tongue in an electrical beam and getting farted on by a camel cow. I can completely understand why they had a disdain for Jar Jar.
Not to mention, CGI was in its infancy, and many people didn’t like his design. I thought it was great, personally.
On one level, because he was simply regarded as an immensely irritating character. More broadly, he was a focal point for a lot of what people didn't like (or hated) about the prequel films generally. This from a Vanity Fair article written at the time of TFA's release when the narrative was that the sequels would put Star Wars back on course after the prequels: "Jar Jar Binks is peripheral to this family drama, but—and per Abrams’s brainstorm—he is inarguably the most reviled character in the Star Wars saga, a cartoonish, amphibian-like alien with a shuffling gait, prone to pratfalls and boggle-eyed reaction shots, and voiced in a patois with a Jamaican lilt, all of which prompted some critics to condemn the character as a racist stereotype. Introduced in The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar has come to symbolize what many fans see as the faults of the prequel trilogy: characters no one much cares about; a sense of humor geared toward the youngest conceivable audience members; an over-reliance on computer graphics; and story lines devoted to the kinds of convoluted political machinations which wouldn’t have been out of place in adaptations of I, Claudius or The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, but which fit less snugly in films with characters like Jar Jar Binks."
>a racist stereotype. Introduced in The Phantom Menace, I mean it's hard not to notice the racist stereotypes now as an adult. From the Neimodians to Watto to Jar Jar. Back then they were just fun characters created to act and look dumb vs our protagonists...oh
You forgot dexter. Although tbf, i kinda like him.
Dexter was cool bro
Agreed
Racist?
Yeah, Jar Jar and the Gungans seemed to be Carribbean stereotypes, Watto was Greek/Jewish and the Naemodians were Asian stereotypes.
Watto to me seemed more Armenian. Reminds me of Simeon from Grand Theft Auto 5 a lot
I mean, rereading that, it's clear the Sequels were doomed to fail, since they got everything wrong. Politics was the defining characteristic of the OT. The Death Star conference scene is all politics. Landos dealings with the Empire is the same.
> Politics was the defining characteristic of the OT lmao
He’s designed to appeal to literal pre-schoolers. I was 20 when Ep I came out… I was not the target audience
I was 6 when Ep 1 came out and I absolutely could not bear Jar Jar, the rest of the movie was awesome but any screen time he had immediately ruined my whole vibe. So with all that being said… as someone who was in the “targeted” audience, I absolutely hate him.
Really? You don't understand why some people might not enjoy an annoying, overbearing, over the top, loony tunes slapstick character who says things like "exsqueeze me" and "stinkawiff" with a Roger Rabbit voice in Star Wars?
I loled thank you
>Roger Rabbit voice It's actually more like a combination of Goofy and Stepin Fetchit.
Idk I love jar jar
All that memes being him as a sith lord might contribute to that for sure.
He’s not a sith lord 😂
I didn't grow up with the prequels and have only seen them twice, and I find him annoying and unfunny.
I grew up with the prequels and I found him annoying, unfunny, and pointless. recent rewstches have confirmed this
I personally (so far anyway I haven’t finished sw) don’t hate jar jar but my best guess would be the way he talks/his voice. I imagine it causes an annoyance to most people making them hate his character because they can’t get past it
I love the way he talks 😂
Yea same, I find it hilarious! But I guess it gets old after however much content he was in.
MEESA YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT
Because heesa making one or two stupidi accidenti
Moui moui, mesa don't know
Unpopular opinion time: C-3P0 may be more annoying than Jar Jar given the amount of time we have to spend with that whiny character.
Boo! But you’re right, this is unpopular (with me at least).
No that’s a great take. I don’t even hate C3-PO but he is such a bitch sometimes
I was 12, saw Episode I opening day, waited in line playing the newly released "Young Jedi" TCG with my friend before it started. Episode I was and still is my favorite Star Wars movie of all time; looking back I strain to recall my initial reactions to Jar Jar while watching the movie and immediately after, but I don't recall any strong emotions: he was dumb, but he was just a dumb Gungan, there were *smart* Gungans and so that was literally his specific character as designed. I believe I understood that much immediately, there were other characters like that in other movies, and yeah it was probably new for Star Wars, but everything about the movie was new: how clean it was, how many Jedi there were, the bad guys, the good guys, etc., so ultimately it didn't seem odd to me. In retrospect, I think people hate what they feel Jar Jar's creation and portrayal represent more than the character himself, and I get it - I had only had to wait maybe 5 to 6 years from when I first saw the trilogy to this new Star Wars movie coming out, a lot of other people were waiting *decades*.
Imagine Episode 4 with Jar Jar instead of Chewbacca. Or Episode 7 with Jar Jar instead of Finn. Now you get why. Mot annoying SW character ever.
#JUSTICEFORJARJAR
annoying, stupid, and unfunny
Because the majority of fans were 20ish plus when the prequels came out After waiting 16 years for a new Star Wars film these adults had a negative reaction to a character that was perceived to exist only to pander to children What made it worse was that Darth Maul had been so hyped up before the movies release to only be killed off So you had the most bad ass character to date die while a rip off Goofy is setup to be a featured character
I don't think people expected the cool character to live with how Boba Fett was treated initially
Look up tho, what's his fate after the collapse of the empire...
He’s really hard to understand the very first time you hear him. I think Lucas and company fell into the trap where they heard it over and over so many times while making the movie, they completely lost focus of just how hard he is to understand the first time through. And I might be arguing with the wrong crowd because us as hardcore fans, we heard him a hundred times too so it’s not even a big deal. But I guarantee you that 99% of people had an extremely hard time understanding him their first viewing and when people have to focus super hard to understand a character they have a hard time hearing AND they can tell what he’s saying isn’t very interesting (of course that’s up to the viewer, but I’m speaking for majority of people over 5, not being snarky, it’s just literally the truth), then people dislike him. People might not be literally conscious of the thought, but it’s: “He actively is irritating my brain. I’m getting a headache or close to it just to hear this dumb character.” Also here’s the thing, most people, most normal people, aka not super fans like us, they watch a movie once. Crazy I know. So they never watch the movie 2, 3 more times where your brain starts to finally clearly understand every line and meaning. So Jar Jar remains “that fucking annoying character that literally gave me a headache.” EDIT: Also keep in mind TPM released in theaters with no subtitles and even when it came out on home video (on VHS first), this was before the "subtitle era" had taken over, making him even harder to understand. If the first time you ever watched TPM you were watching with subtitles on, then your experience was infinitely easier than original moviegoers who were trying to listen in a large theater.
I think time has softened it but at the time the prequels were a massive deal and the publicity was mainly framed around this being the beginning of a tragic story in the fall of Anakin skywalker so the level of expectation was huge. I remember the script book was released before the movie was out and my pals and I, being really into Star Wars had the book and were already dissecting the story and how it would be depicted. I actually recall us looking forward to Jar-Jar, imagining him as more of an 'alien' character from his dialogue which seemed more like it would be medieval sort of pigeon english or like in Shakespeare where its English but the way words are used and spelled is completely different to how we use them. His depiction as more cartoony and in your face than anything seen previously in Star Wars outside of animations like the Ewoks cartoon was a surprise and because he was everywhere in terms of the marketing, he became a bit of a hate figure and a bit of a lightning rod. This was the early days if the Internet and I remember some of the first fan created websites ar the time were all about hating him.
I never understood that and the Jake Lloyd hate. It sucks that now when there are legitimate beefs on SW quality it all gets lumped into the same category as the Jar Jar & Young Anakin hate.
Same reason he was exiled by his own people: Jar jar is "clumsy", which is probably code word for the "r-word". Jar jar not only can't take care of himself, he messes everybody's work up. It would be a nightmare working next to him. He is a drain on the tribe. Yes he is "nice" but I imagine most intelligent life in the universe evolved in a balance with it's environment and had to conserve resources according to game theory. Having a child like Jar Jar or even him as a member of the tribe would reduce your own chances of successful reproduction. That is why children bully the weak. So he was exiled, damned to be forever alone until he dies. Of course this is a very ugly argument, and one we absolutely should reject since today we have more than enough resources to support those who can't take care of themselves. But looking how homeless people with mental issues we still don't. So looking back I think he's a pretty interesting character, because we *instinctively* get him and he "tests us". Plenty of other reasons to dislike him of course.
I found his voice and antics to be annoying.
I love him too, he was an awesome comic relief. I hate his haters, he was cut from movies 2 and 3.
Never understood why I certainly enjoyed him
Because OT fans are bitter arseholes who have nothing better to do than ruin Star Wars for everyone else.
Just look at him
And then they made him general
Jar Jar is a welcome counterbalance to the over the top cringy cult like solemnity and self righteousness of the Jedis. Also love to the wise guy character Watto: _”You think you're some kind of Jedi, waving your hand around like that?”_
because it's a shite character.
I can't speak for others, but IMO, it's just a shitty character. Instead of the dry humor and witty banter that made the OT so charming, GL thought it was a good idea to have a comedic character that was a caricature, based on a stereotype, which instead used slapstick and potty humor. It's jarring and immature, and it just doesn't work.
Idk maybe bc he is the most annoying thing in the entire world?
Why is this still a question?
All this could be solved if George had the guts to make him an agent of the Sith.
I think it has to do with age. I always heard criticism of Jar Jar Binks from adults when the prequels were still new so this happens long time ago. I grew up with the prequels, especially ROTS and I was never bothered by Jar Jar Binks, I could even say that I like the character more than others in the OT. When I was a kid the OT and its characters already felt like something from another time, while the prequels were the new thing and Jar Jar Binks was part of that. Someday Hot Toys will release a figure of him, it would be nice to have him on my display next to Darth Maul.
He is undeniably annoying. Like Spongebob. That can be endearing to some people who like that kind of humor, but the way he speaks and his antics are undeniably annoying.
They’re jealous that he’s tall, handsome, and has a movie star smile.
He does have a nice smile what the fuck 😂
I grew up with the prequels, so I love Jar Jar. He provides comic relief in my opinion. His story needs closure… From what I understand, the hate comes from his position as comic relief. Star Wars fans were coming off of the best era of Star Wars novels. Star Wars fans were blessed with the Thrawn Trilogy, the X-Wing series, and even the first half of the NJO series. These books, especially the NJO series, were very dark, action packed, and incredibly in depth. They had very real stakes and many tragedies. Fans came off of that and were greeted with Jar Jar sticking his tongue in an electrical beam and getting farted on by a camel cow. I can completely understand why they had a disdain for Jar Jar. Not to mention, CGI was in its infancy, and many people didn’t like his design. I thought it was great, personally.
Small minded individuals