Recently in Jokes Category

http://www.hulu.com/watch/141560/saturday-night-live-ruff-rugger-and-roker


This is a clip from Saturday Night Live this past weekend that I think is a funny example of a stereotype consistent vs inconsistent Al Roker. I realize this clip is meant to be funny, but I think it raises a few interesting questions as well: How would a stereotype consistent African American news reporter (doesn't necessarily have to be Al Roker or a weatherman) be received by viewers? Or even just a news reporter that speaks in a way consistent with their ethnicity? I've always noticed with African American news reporters that they tend to display themselves as stereotype inconsistent, but what if they didn't? How would people react? You could even say the same thing about Barack Obama or other highly regarded social figures. How much of a role do you think stereotype inconsistency plays into the acceptance of some minority figures by the white community?

This is a clip from Saturday Night Live this past weekend that I think is a funny example of a stereotype consistent vs inconsistent Al Roker. I realize this clip is meant to be funny, but I think it raises a few interesting questions as well: How would a stereotype consistent African American news reporter (doesn't necessarily have to be Al Roker or a weatherman) be received by viewers? Or even just a news reporter that speaks in a way consistent with their ethnicity? I've always noticed with African American news reporters that they tend to display themselves as stereotype inconsistent, but what if they didn't? How would people react? You could even say the same thing about Barack Obama or other highly regarded social figures. How much of a role do you think stereotype inconsistency plays into the acceptance of some minority figures by the white community?

Paul Mooney is one of the Kings of comedy. He has written stand up comedy for Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Saturday night live and many other venues. He is mainly known for his active stance in confronting racism in America through Stand up Comedy and going on different talk shows to address these issues faced by society today. Paul has a strait forward or blunt approach he takes which makes most White people uncomfortable and upset. There are a lot of good youtube videos that go into greater detail with his views. Do you think by him being direct about these issues help or harm the message he is trying to portray?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/09/howard-stern-gabourey-sid_n_492102.html

Howard Stern unleashed a vicious attack on Gabourey Sidibe on his Sirius satellite show on Monday.

"There's the most enormous, fat black chick I've ever seen. She is enormous. Everyone's pretending she's a part of show business and she's never going to be in another movie," he said. "She should have gotten the Best Actress award because she's never going to have another shot. What movie is she gonna be in?"

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/804/

This is the link to the episode of South Park that Matt Sienkiewicz referred to multiple times in his talk tonight: "What's Under Kyle's Hat?: South Park, Antisemitism, and the Jew Joke in Multicultural America". See my comment on this under the post for this lecture if you're interested in my take on the subject.

This episode could be very offensive to some people, so just a warning. Are there any aspects of this episode (or South Park in general) that seem to cross the line of what is humor and what is wrong? Or does this type of thing seem to be the norm in popular culture today? Are you for or against some sort of regulation on offensive humor in the media? See my comment post for more discussion questions....