Comic Relief 2006 - Sarah Silverman
In this video, Sarah Silverman explores and reviews from many racial and ethnic stereotypes She sings lines like I love you more than Jews love money and I love you more than Asians are good at math to draw on an example Silverman articulates that the Jewish people driving German cars is similar to black guys who call niggers When the story cut short deadpan two African-American men, they watch in all seriousness and do not laugh at the comparison; the tension created from the scene is unsettling for a moment, Silverman seems puzzled and frowns sheepishly, until one of the African-American men laughed and, relieved, grows one of them playfully and laughed again two men immediately stop laughing and stare incredibly quietly, nervously trying to laugh at the joke again, but this time, they do not join and continue watching , showing that this is not funny to them to play a joke on racism against their racial group, although it also inhabits the identity of another historically oppressed group, it is Jewish Silverman cut mid-cheek video turning the head to the camera smiling and singing Chachacha.
Using Silverman n-word creates a tense moment.
While many people enjoy the humor of Silverman, it's not for everyone, but stay with me here; Let's unpack this to the extent that people will find funny and based on the YouTube comments at least some people do How should we interpret the comedy Silverman and the role of race and ethnicity in its performance more widely how the race or ethnicity of the actor jokingly say affects our reception of the joke Is it okay for blacks to racial prejudice jokes about African-Americans, or wouldn t that are as discriminatory of them to do there are times when it is acceptable to dominant racial or ethnic groups to make jokes about racial minorities to help us understand how the humor and the way the public receive the humor, we can draw on a number of theories of humor.
First, according to relief theory, we find humor in taboo and naughty thoughts Mulder and Nijolt 2002 The theory of humor is based in Freudian theory that sees taboo topics such as creating a nervousness or psychic energy, which is released by laughing This is especially the case when a person has removed special feelings, which are treated in a comic performance, and relieved laughter in our examples here, the public may to recognize that the stereotypes presented in the Silverman video are taboo or politically incorrect subject, and to the extent they feel uncomfortable that can be aggravated if they partially accept stereotypes, but compress their beliefs, this nervousness can be released through laughter but it suggests that the reason we laugh, but not necessarily why we interpret the joke ie as humorous.
Second, the theory of incongruity posits that people laugh to release physical, mental or emotional stress when there are incongruities to say things that are perceived as out of or inconsistent with the standards social set in this perspective, humor can be considered the release anxiety and tension on the incompatibility between the object that is targeted and how the public expects a different meaning, but given a series of public perceptions possible, audiences can identify various incongruities and experience and humor for different reasons in this case, the analysis hinges on identifying various incongruities, I pursue further.
Third, the theory of the superiority of Charles Gruner still help explain why and how people find some funny jokes about race and other Superiority offensive theory is based on the assumptions we laugh about the misfortunes of others and reflects Mulder our own superiority and Nijolt 2002 3 He argues that every situation has a humorous winner and a loser; incongruity is always present in a humorous situation and humor requires Mulder element of surprise and Nijolt 2002 3 From this perspective, humor is a way to compete with others and the winner is the one who successfully made the pleasure of losing Mulder and Nijolt 2002 3 pictures the bully make jokes about someone else to put them down.
When we integrate the theory of incongruity with the theory of superiority, we could see some troubling consequences of jokes that play on stereotypes In short, the phenomenon of humor requires the participation of at least two parts, an object perhaps incongruous and appreciatively feeling probably higher Lyttle, 2003 this joke is funny for some public because objects mocked by Silverman during execution are blacks, Puerto Ricans, gays and lesbians, and Jewish people in this perspective incongruity could be found in unexpected juxtapositions of different stereotypes, gross simultaneous juxtaposition statements, eg I love you more than dogs love balls, his use of a pejorative racial insults while members this racial group are present and appear physically threatening, and the overall struggle for public inter- pret its political incorrectness, in particular, the story becomes more congruent than the tension of his sense entitlem ent criticize other minority groups oppressed While some public might feel offended, this humor can empower others feel superior because they apparently lack the negative features of stereotyping groups.
As an extension of the theory of the superiority sociologically, we can still pull the maintenance theory of party maintenance theory argues that comedians.
Jokes maintain the established social roles and divisions in a society in which they can strengthen the roles within the family, in a working environment and everywhere there is a group and non-group When ethnic jokes are concerned, pranksters choose very similar to their groups as the target of the joke than focusing on mutual differences and thereby strengthening the divisions established between the two groups and Mulder Nijolt 2002 7.
The humor of Silverman supports this theory when it starts to play in an ethnic stereotype about Jews She sings I love you more than the Jews love money, then branches off into stereotypes increasingly offensive on marginalized races and ethnic backgrounds, and gays and lesbians the public might perceive it as recognizing certain preconceived ideas about their own ethnic groups only to establish that they are very different and separate preconceived cultural meanings attached to other oppressed groups This is accomplished by suggesting that his ethnic group has a sense of superiority based on the class of these other groups.
If we interpret the video Silverman through the lenses of the theory of superiority or maintenance theory, we should be very critical of it as YouTube comments on the video show, many viewers are not Indeed its stereotypes face value and find humor in their If this were the only interpretation, we must criticize Silverman, as an actor white middle class, telling jokes that attract so blatantly on stereotypes about other oppressed racial and ethnic groups of these perspectives, humor reproduces stereotypes and power relations based on many comedians and jokes are based on this same dynamic, they are however not the only interpretations of humor Silverman in this context.
On the contrary, there is also a deeper, more critical incongruity in humor Silverman in this video This incongruity is in how the various racial and ethnic stereotypes objects are positioned relative to each other in a way that challenges actually both stereotypes and using white, middle-class actor the public perceives a supposed ignorance in its use of stereotypes to recognize that juxtaposing them critically, it produces dramatic irony making the public sensitive to racial dilemmas raised in the performance in short, a racial stereotype is like the others; they are gross simplification that can be hurtful, but they affect not all the public in the same manner as shown by the reaction of African Americans in the video or as Louis CK once said, white don t offended by being cookies called here Silverman brings attention to both the inappropriate use of stereotypes, as well as his use of it as a white person.
For viewers that address these subtleties, we can interpret the song as awareness of why it is not good for those who benefit from white privilege or class using racial slurs or making racist comments in introducing men Afro- Americans in the sketch, she holds the mirror to itself and uses the time but full of humor, the time to criticize its own use of stereotypes When the skit ends with a realization that takes the actor has no right to criticize the misfortune of these groups in the first place, the joke is a useful tool to unpack the meaning of the right to this white privilege gives some comedians, including Silverman in this perspective, the tension is resolved only when the public realizes through interaction Silverman with both African American men is that she and her white privilege that should be mocked If we accept this interpretation, we could see his witty humor as exposing his own white privilege.
I leave the reader to determine which of these theories of humor is appropriate to interpret the video of Sarah Silverman, upper middle class white, female, Jewish comedian Again, when looking at YouTube comments for the video, I think we find evidence that viewers draw on all these interpretations and more, but the more general questions about the role of race in humor and quality of this humor, yet does not end there even if we accept his humor as an attempt to expose the white privilege, is it acceptable that uses these blatant racial slurs and derogatory as as noted Jezebel perhaps comedians have actually come from the marginal position to claim to speak of them, or maybe if you need to rely on discordant abominable and offensive words, you're probably not funny anyway.
Elizabeth Dickson is a university student from Ohio Wesleyan, where she double major in psychology and sociology.
Comedy Sarah Silverman cultural transformation or regression, Sarah Silverman, comedy, cultural.