rone415 wrote:I would think so. I think everyone has a little in them honestly.
Just because he's a comedian doesn't give him an excuse. I really don't follow the comedian scene but how often do you see a comedian imitating an African American? Why don't you see it more?
Dave Chapelle imitates black people more often than he does white people. Do you really think Tron and Tyronne Biggums are anything but racial parodies of black people?
Pretty much the most successful comedian hitting the mainstream these days is Frank Catalano, and he does a pretty outstanding Charles Barkley impersenation as part of his everyday act. He doesn't tap dance around Barkley's blackness - recently did the impression for a national TV commercial complete with the makeup formerly known as blackface . . . I'm sure there was some angst in the Standards and Practices meeting about the makeup, but they went with it, becaue the guy is damn funny.
From the non-celebrity angle: Ralphie May does his entire act as a "wigger." That and being enormously fat are his entire act.
Howard Stern has been boldly mocking black stereotypes, idiosyncracies and examples of ignorance (along with everyone elses) since the early 80's. It hasn't hurt his ability to be well received.
Pretty much each and every white comedian to cross the stage on Russ Simmons HBO comedy show over the years has gone right for the racial jugular and pulled it off. The producers wouldn't have put them on the show if they didn't have the goods to entertain.
Robin Williams and Billy Crystal have been doing black parodies for decades with little resistance or hubub. The dudes are HOF funny so people laugh. Billy Crystal's Sammie Davis Jr. is an immortal piece of american comedy (again celebrity material). But, they also have done plenty of just plain 'ol black jokes.
Mel Brooks was never afraid to go for the black joke. Thank god!
Lenny Bruce was doing it back when the only black people at his shows were working in the kitchen or playing in the band. Business came to a standsitll while he was doing a black riffs because the whole staff would stop to hear him tell jokes about (and more importantly FOR them.) He pulled no punches.
It's a lot less of a taboo than you are perceiving.
Firs, people with fringe views are never going to be happy so it's hard to consider them in this kind of conversation. There was a very recent time where everyone were much more sensitive about this stuff, but oddly that coincided with a lot more unfunny dudes in mainsteam media (network/sitcom TV) doing crappy material
utilizing rather than making fun of simplistic stereotypes. If you're going to do edgy subjects like racial parodies is that #1 you have to have the chops to pull it off. #2 you had better know (and on some level love) your subject matter. Familiarity and affection is key to humor. You want to entertain your audience, not offend them. If you don't have affection for your subject matter, nor the familiarity to KNOW what is truly funny about them, you're heading down the wrong path. At this point in time (among reasonable people) the Taboo is about being
not funny.
In this day and age it's mostly a talent/quality of material issue, but intentions do come into play. Are you trying to include the object of the joke in the laughter payoff? Are you trying to entertain everyone or just everyone BUT who you're making fun of? I think it's pretty obvious that Chapelle wants white people lauging with him(there ain't that much money to be made just entertaining black people.) The intentions part is a fine line, and largely in the eye of the beholder, but as a rule, the people who are legitimately funny have not seemed to have had much trouble entertaining any audience with whatever subject matter they choose.
The onion has a pretty good track record on being entertaining and I don't think their goal was to make everyone but chinese people laugh at the chinese.
Yao.
