Culture critic Christopher John Farley mocks 'Accidental Racist' song: Obviously an epic fail

Christopher John Farley, senior editor of the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog, mocked the new country song "Accidental Racist" on CNN Tuesday, saying it was "obviously an epic fail."

The song by Brad Paisley and LL Cool J was intended to be a frank discussion of race relations in the United States between a "proud" Southern white man and an African American from New York. Many people, however, got the impression that the two singers were condoning revisionist history regarding slavery and segregation.

CNN host Jake Tapper said the song was "one bong hit away from being a South Park parody."

"Maybe a half bong hit," Farley replied. "People were talking about it saying what is going on here? I think part of the problem is, one, it's bad musically. This music is bad. The lyrics are also quite bad. The themes are bad. So it's a total strikeout on almost every single aspect of a song you would judge it by it seems to have failed."

He admitted both Paisley and LL Cool J were talented artists who should be respected for their work. But this work in particular deserved no such respect.

"If you are going to address the issue of American slavery you have to have new ideas," Farley explained. "Saying something and this is a paraphrase of what L.L. Cool J. Says in the song, saying things like if you don't judge me for my gold chains, I'll forget about the iron chains. That's ridiculous."

"I don't want anyone forgetting about the iron chains and about the middle passage and American slavery. These are things we can't put aside and that no rap, hip hop, country collaboration can tell us to put aside. So it's a quite ridiculous song and really surprising that L.L. Cool J would be involved in putting it out."

Watch video, courtesy of CNN, below: