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You can’t say bomb on a plane, and you can’t make fun of minorities on television. Well, one of those taboos is being broken just about every night.
“Remarkable people, the Blacks,” Alec Baldwin says on an episode of “30 Rock” on NBC. “Musical, very athletic, but not very good swimmers, and again, I’m talking about the family.”
That mischievous use of the surname Black to make a joke about stereotypes was very similar to a conceit woven into the entire sixth season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Larry David and his wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), take in an African-American family left homeless by Hurricane Edna. Their guests’ surname is Black, which amuses only Larry. “That’s like if my last name was Jew,” Larry says as the Blacks stare at him blankly. “Like Larry Jew.”
The great thing about comedy is that it’s the great democratizer, the great equalizer, the great destructor of ego and vanity (unlike tragedy, that is its opposite). Of course, everybody and subcultural group has something you can’t make fun of, but I think it’s a sign of health in our culture that we can expose the racial wound to the healing fresh air of good comedy.
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A matter of life
Don’t let Night Train read this one either.
You can’t say bomb on a plane, and you can’t make fun of minorities on television. Well, one of those taboos is being broken just about every night.
Who’s saying “bomb” on a plane every night? Because nobody is making fun of minorities on TV every night. As the article makes clear, they’re making fun of white people, and their “lame” and “uncomfortable” interactions with minorities. That’s nothing like making fun of minorities.
I have always been a huge fan of comedy. The more outrageous it is, the more I like it. So my tastes lean toward shows like “South Park” and “Drawn Together” and “Family Guy”. I am not so uptight that I can’t laugh at jokes even about my own “tribe”. I definitely think people should lighten up.
However, I will admit to some qualms about humor in general. Mainly I don’t want people to be hurt, ridiculed, or stereotyped. I also don’t want people to use humor as an excuse to justify real discrimination against other people. I also worry that it causes some people, mainly young people, to not have empathy for others.
So, it’s a double edged sword for me.
“Larry Jew”. That’s funny.
My wife has a Korean friend with the unfortunate name of “Hung Joo”. We call her “Hamas Lady” for fun.
30 Rock has been brilliant this season, and has done probably the best even-handed treatment of race that I’ve seen on TV in a long time. Stuff like Chappelle’s Show and Mind of Mencia long ago stopped being encisive (if Mencia ever was) and began pandering to the very sterotypes they intended to lampoon.
“Look how Greenzo is testing… all the demographics love him … colored people, broads, fairies, Commies … gosh, we gotta update these forms.” Alec Baldwin is the glue that holds all this good writing up.
“Look how Greenzo is testing… all the demographics love him … colored people, broads, fairies, Commies … gosh, we gotta update these forms.”
That’s hilarious, Rob. I watched that show one time and wasn’t impressed. Maybe I’ll have to revisit it. That joke reminds me of a Simpson’s episode where Smithers is helping Montgomery Burns update his stock portfolio. A running gag is that Burns is about 150 years old, and one of the stocks he owned was Confederated Slave Holdings. I cracked up at that one.
But again, the Greenzo joke isn’t making fun of minorities. It’s making fun of white people and their attitudes toward minorities.
white people making fun of white people is funny.
Black people making fun of white, hispanic, or Asian people is funny.
Hispanic people making fun of black, white, or Asian people is funny.
White people making fun of anyone else other than other whites is racist.
unless you’re a member of the liberal elite
(Larry David, Baldwin, Hillary, etc.)
Rob - Alec Baldwin is comedic gold. I had no idea he could be that funny.
While 30 Rock has been good this year, I prefer last year’s episodes to the current season (so far).
I think Baldwin’s jokes are more oriented towards corporate America, vice race relations. The running gag where he’s trying to get GE brands in to the show is priceless.
“Hung Joo” is an unfortunate name for a woman. A man could have some fun with that one.
I feel so “out of it” - I’ve never seen “30 Rock”. In fact, I haven’t probably seen 90% of the shows on network TV. The last time I saw an episode of “Grey’s Anatomy” it was on a Sunday night (I only saw it once). Somebody laughed at me the other day when I told them that.
I’m with Anlir
Hard to beat SP, FG and DT when it comes to comedy and satire. Sadly they are pretty filthy too.
I first thought this post would be about Dave Chappelle’s show. Though I haven’t seen it since the first season, I remember it having quite a bit of genuinely funny race-driven material. One sketch in particular that I remember had Chappelle playing a blind black man who thought he was white and was a passionate, outspoken member of a white supremacist group.
Although I’d previously seen only one episode of 30 Rock, a few weeks ago I watched a mini-marathon of about 7 episodes within the span of a day or two. It almost instantly became my favorite comedy currently on TV. Although Liz Lemon is the straight-played catalyst for the comedy, most of it comes out in the other characters, and Baldwin’s character is just priceless for so many reasons.