On Standup Comics and Race

Truthiness Comments Off on On Standup Comics and Race

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition.- Abraham Lincoln

Let us talk about Race, Just like we did before.

How acceptable is it to tell a stereotype joke if you are from that stereotype? and dO you have to tell a stereotype joke? We ask this because there are many comics out there in the world today and i like a great many of them.  Comics tend to pull from real life of course.

Take for instance the great black comics:  Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, all tell jokes from their experience and about being black. Yet, when i watch a comedy show and a black *relatively no name* comic comes on, i honestly don’t know what’s going to come out of his mouth, same with a white comic.  All [American] white people (if we may use that certainly gouache phrase), do not tell “trailer Trash jokes.” However…, when an Asian comic comes out, we can pretty much guess it’s about speaking bad and weird sayings with bad language translation.

The question is why is this so?  Arguable, does one have to tell a ethnic stereotype joke to be famous if you are not white? Gallagher speaks about political absurdity, and Sienfield speaks about life’s absurdity, yet famous “other” comics are usually famous for being Jewish, or their ethnicity or even, their accent.

We leave you there, pondering.

OceansOfThought @ July 24, 2008