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Black Comedy And Culture

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I believe that comedy can be both universal and cultural, depending on the content of the comedy used. Each cultural group has its own sense of humor. Although comedy is seen as a safe space that sparks conversation about uncomfortable subject matter such as race, it must be approached in a particular fashion. Any humor focused on a cultural identity perpetuates stereotypes of some sort. The white majority usually makes fun of minority groups because of their power advantage. Black media tried to battle the stereotypes by creating positive black media, however black comedies ended up reinforcing negative stereotypes. Even though all racial groups enjoy stereotypical comedy, according to What are you Laughing at? , “White audiences who may have …show more content…

Understanding black humor and empathizing with black humor are extremely different. Black humor is rooted in the institution of slavery. Blacks have been the bud of the white joke for hundreds of years, thus it has been the role that the race has assimilated into. However this doesn’t mean that the race is desensitized to the stereotypical black jokes. I think that everyone has been in the awkward situation where black or ethnic humor has made you feel uncomfortable. I often feel uncomfortable when I am public around a mixed audience and black people use the “N- word”. This word is demeaning negative when it is coming from a white person, however when it’s used playfully by fellow black people it is friendly. Black people always argue that whites shouldn’t use the term, which I agree with but I also agree that the word needs to be eradicated from our vocabulary as a whole. Comedy can be both universal and cultural. Universal comedy is general not suited for a particular ethnic group nor does it make fun of a specific group. Cultural comedy can only be created by and delivered to the people of that same cultural group in order to prevent the cycle of stereotypical

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Humor in the Henhouse In his essay “Chicken in the Henhouse”, Sedaris utilizes various forms of humor to demonstrate that you can’t stereotype an entire group of people and that you shouldn’t judge people. Sedaris argues that stereotypes cause a negative self image and feelings such as guilt despite being innocent of any misdeeds society implicates him in. Serdaris uses humor to make himself more relatable which can be explained through the use of the superiority, incongruity, and relief theories to prove that stereotypes can not define everybody. By practicing humor throughout his essay, the author makes his argument more effective and able to further impact his audience more than it would have without humor.

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133 Words | 1 Pages

The article “South Park and the Carnivalesque” written by Alison Halsall delves into both parody and satire within the context of the program. South Park’s Carnivalesque humor, or carnival laughter “is a method by which popular culture in general, and South Park in particular, provides liberation from constraint” (Halsall 24). South Park makes it a point to use humor that provokes the inherent “dirtiness” that we contain, in an attempt to expose cultural aspects that generally go undiscussed (Halsall 34). Through profanity, South Park brings carnival humor down to the basic grotesque humor that serves to “critique linguistic sanitation” (Halsall 34).

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805 Words | 4 Pages

Alain De Botton claims that the chief aim of humorists is not trying to entertain anybody, but instead to convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly. Alain´s claim is completely absurd and is wrong for many reasons, cartoons, comedians, shows and acts have been around forever if they were meant to cause harm in any way then in this day and age they would be shut down by now. The game show host of home Family Feud, Steve Harvey, is a comedian and would never cause anyone harm. Alain does make a good point however, it is easy to understand why one would think that chief humorists are trying to target a select few either throughout a show or act. Botton is claiming that the chief aim of humorists

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486 Words | 2 Pages

When people tend to make a angrily joke to someone usually people will find that as comedy within the

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1476 Words | 6 Pages

A way to add sarcastic humor to the racial

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Through an extensive reference to recent social history and cultural studies pieces of literature, Eric Lott seeks to examine the role played by the blackface minstrel show during the prevalent political struggles that essentially saw the start of the civil war. In this account, Lott paints an image of the blackface minstrel as a show that primarily appropriated black dialect music and dance. In a similar regard, the show is perceived as one that, at some point applauded the black culture but unfortunately, and in an ironic manner, the show contributed to what was famously known as “blackening of America.” Additionally, through the content of his literary work, and reference to the blackface minstrel, Lott gives a novel interpretation of the very first and popularly renowned form of the 19th-century entertainment (Lott).

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87 Words | 1 Pages

America is one of the most diverse nations in the world. It is a melting pot of cultures, which has made it a great nation. This variety of cultures has helped impact and build America into the great nation we are today. One of the cultures that has influenced America is the Black Culture. This particular culture is known for their evolution of music and fashion and also their trendsetting skills in hair and dance.

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932 Words | 4 Pages

Normally people's first reaction is to freeze up. People think nothing they do or say will change the offender's behavior. However, if someone does not speak up these slurs and jokes can poison the atmosphere. If the atmosphere is poisoned people will begin to accept the slurs and jokes.

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756 Words | 4 Pages

** Australian comedy interprets us Australians in a way that isn’t true, and is quite offensive. For Aussies to be watching this comedy makes us laugh because it’s funny to think that people actually believe this is how we behave, and carry ourselves. Resulting in Australians to be just a joke, not everyone takes us seriously. This can be very bad in some circumstances.

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992 Words | 4 Pages

In the television show, South Park, issues fear of people from other countries, race, and social changes in reaction to multiculturalism in a small town of South Park, Colorado as a comedy. Under the humor in the television show, South Park, the concept of race is portrayed in America that Americans hate and stereotype minority due to the fear of losing their livelihood and socioeconomic status. Today, many Americans fear that minority groups will cause their socioeconomic benefits to decline, rather than their culture, stereotypes, and xenophobia as a defense mechanism. In the television show, South Park, have numerous characters that voice their hate and stereotypical notions about minority racial groups which illustrates the idea that racism

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1000 Words | 4 Pages

Consequently, people would think about the next generation and believe in equality for every races and skin colors. In Hollywood, movie directors and writers should remove stereotypes, ensure justify for the minority, and teach the younger about equality. 
 Last but not least, the director hurt minority audiences because of the movie they make. Economically, using racial stereotypes in the film helps increase the views and profit.

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1257 Words | 6 Pages

When we start naming and group each other , we might take as a joke, but we are racially discriminating one another race. A person offending or joking of an race does not try to know the person as a human being. They go off what they have heard or seen on television that 's why I believe the media has two sides. In this year 's election one of the

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1720 Words | 7 Pages

One of the most valuable aspects of personality is humor – we value one’s sense of humor and make friends often based on finding certain things funny. But how and why do we consider things to be funny at all? Human beings have strived to uncover fundamental truths about human nature for centuries – even millennia – but humor itself is still yet to be pinpointed. Henri Bergson is only one of many who has attempted this feat, and his essay Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic from 1911 breaks down comedy into what he believes to be its essential forms and origins. While Bergson makes many valid points, Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times that was brought to screens only twenty years later seems to contradict many of Bergson’s theories, while Bergson seems to contradict even himself over the course of his essay.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

Humor is something that is constantly evolving, century to century. When looking at things that society considered hilarious in the 1920’s versus what people of today’s society consider hilarious, the difference is almost insane. A much smaller example of comical evolution is simply looking at what we found funny as a child and comparing that to what we find funny at whatever age we are now. I mean, when I was a little girl I absolutely loved dad jokes. To this day I still enjoy a good cheesy dad joke, but that being said they are no longer something to make laugh so hard I pee my pants.

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817 Words | 4 Pages

Many audiences of stand up comedy enjoy hearing their favorite comedian entertain them. But what would one think when a comedian cracks a joke about a sensitive topic, for example, a tragedy that affected hundreds of people. Some may argue that, comedians are not supposed to overstep the boundary of controversial jokes. These controversial jokes are linked with political correctness—which is used to describe language, policies, and measures that are taken to avoid offense to certain groups of people. Comedians are not compelled to restrain from controversial topics due to the topic not being sugar-coated, the higher level of contemplation that the joke can reach, and the job of the comedian—to make the current issue manageable.

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