Oh, Plerr*
Ling-Ling find the best shampoo, as well as worst lingual enemy
Racist humor seems to be making quite a comeback. I have to confess that I enjoyed Chapelle’s show. And currently, I really do enjoy The Boondocks (animated series), Drawn Together, and Mind of Mencia. The shows are really funny but they definitely have a racist element to them. I wonder when this became hip again? Or even acceptable, with the PC police that own the networks.
The Boondocks, Chapelle and Mencia are done by minorities, which may explain letting some of that stuff slide. Not sure who does Drawn Together. Wednesday’s episode of Drawn Together was particularly racist with all the Asians getting their eyes widened. But it was hysterical. The Boondocks racist humor seems to be particularly offensive, as illustrated by the bit on A Nigga Moment.
Maybe, as a culture, we’re getting over some of this PC business. Or at least the 18-24 year old demographic targeted by Comedy Central and Adult Swim is. There is hope for the future of humor.
Update: *And if you don’t get the joke, you should watch Drawn Together.
Update 2: Maybe, like South Park, it’s OK because two of these shows are cartoons?
December 9th, 2005 at 10:40 am
The last few weeks of South Park and Drawn Together have been a cultural one-two punch. Clara and Foxxy’s treehouse moment a couple weeks back was hilarious.
December 9th, 2005 at 1:19 pm
Haven’t watched Drawn Together, but in the cases of South Park and Chappelle’s Show, I think the biggest thing is that the racist humor is generally making fun of racism itself. In other words, it’s not glorifying racism, it’s usually ridiculing it.
Now in Mencia’s case, it’s a bit different. I think he gets away with it primarily because he’s a minority himself, he picks on himself as much as others, and he’s on basic cable. But a lot of his stuff is borderline.
That said, the “pocket Asian” for math tests was hysterical.
December 9th, 2005 at 1:49 pm
I think it has to do with rebellion. Before, to be rebellious you had to tell jokes about sex or use language. Not so much now, because people are in a way numb.
But race, that can still jar a nerve. And nobody except the PC police likes PC, so when Mencia says “Wetback,” or Drawn Together stereotypes Asians with Ling Ling or Blacks with Foxxy, it’s about rebellion.
It’s a big FU to the sensitivity police.
December 10th, 2005 at 11:51 pm
I have a conspiracy theory on Chappelle. I wonder how much of the black racist humor Chappelle and other black writers wrote. iirc, the “co-writer” is a jewish white guy. I’ve seen quite a few interviews where Chappelle gives credit to a racist segment to his co-writer. Hence, my conspiracy theory: I theorize that The Chappelle show was created to give cover to racist jokes.
But hey, it’s just a theory.
December 12th, 2005 at 7:54 pm
I think Carlos Mencia explained it best. “Friends f*ck with each other. If we can’t make fun of each other, then we aren’t friends.” Racism is pretty much gone. What we have left is poking fun at racial differences, and it is simply poking fun, not an attempt to hurt someone using those differences.
It is like you noticed — it is just humor, not mean humor. The only times I’ve been uncomfortable with any of these was when Carlos started seeming mean when he was giving the finger to the white guy in his audience. It didn’t seem like he thought of that guy as his friend.
On the other hand, when Dave said, “It seems like me and Dave are the only guys who think it is funny to shoot a slavemaster” he wasn’t the only one. I was laughing my ass off. I could watch that all day long.