Black Comedy And Culture

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

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