1. C OMEDY : W HERE ARE THE B OUNDARIES B ETWEEN S UBVERSION AND S ELLING O UT ? By Stephanie Seebaran and Joanne Leung

2. O UTLINE Introduction Comedy Then Dick Gregory Comedy Now Dave Chappelle Sarah Silverman Russell Peters Dichotomies in Comedy Laughing with vs. Laughing at Social Commentary vs. Ideological Representation Responsibility: Comedian vs. Audience Offensiveness vs. Inoffensiveness Movies: Rush Hour 2 Study Harold and Kumar vs. Rush Hour 2 Conclusions

3. I NTRODUCTION Subversion or selling out?: Does it have to be one or the other? Maybe it is not that simple: dichotomies Context of Comedy

4. C OMEDY T HEN … D ICK G REGORY One of the first popular black comics to appeal to both black and white audiences. Laughing about inequalities Challenging the status quo Activism in comedy/comedy in activism Current issues he tackles: Clip

5. C OMEDY N OW … D AVE C HAPPELLE Controversial Critical statements about racism Subverting the norm Reparations sketch clip. calling attention to racial injustices Using the word “Niggar”. “Niggar” family clip – context Clayton Bigsby clip – social construction of race Chappelle’s comedy allows a diverse audience to engage with traditionally stereotypical behavior “guilt-free” (Acham, 2007, p. 330).

6. C OMEDY N OW … D AVE C HAPPELLE “To be a black comedian necessitates a level of political awareness” (Acham, 2007, p. 327). Chappelle began to see problematic reactions to his comedy. Oprah clip Inside the Actor’s Studio clips Alternative voice rather than “replication of the status quo” (Acham, p. 336).

7. C OMEDY N OW … S ARAH S ILVERMAN Controversial comedy Joking relations Silverman as Chappelle Controversies On Conan O’Brian – racial slur Interview On Politically Incorrect – ridicule transcript

8. Transcript from Politically Incorrect on August 22, 2001. Maher: That's implying that some joke would be of such good satire that she could have said "chink." Aoki: What she could have said -- what she could have said? She could have said, "I hate Chinese people. I love Chinese people." Would have gone, "Okay, funny joke, ha-ha." And that would have been over with. Silverman: That's not the point of the joke. Aoki: The point is you used a slur that you thought you could get away with on national television. Silverman: That's actually not true. I used to say it was nigger, and I have said that on Conan the last time. Silverman: That's true. Racism is so --exists, you know, and it's not gonna go away. Aoki: It does? Silverman: It's not gonna go away through censorship. Especially censorship with comics. Aoki: So we should just keep bad jokes and offend people over and over again. Silverman: You're a douchebag, man. C OMEDY N OW … S ARAH S ILVERMAN

9. C OMEDY N OW … R USSELL P ETERS Importance of context Personal perspective Parent-friendly portrayal of stereotypes “There’s no culture that’s spared” (Winks, as cited in Eustace) Berg: He’s not racist because he is not white. Making his race salient through comedy Clip: Difference between racism (against South Asians) in Canada and racism in LA

10. D ISCUSSION How can each of these comedians be seen as subverting racial issues in their comedy? How can they be seen as “selling out” by reinforcing racist stereotypes?

11. D ICHOTOMIES IN C OMEDY Audience laughing at racial differences LAUGHING WITHLAUGHING AT Dichotomies used to determine the extent to which comedy is subversive or selling out. Audience laughing with the comedian about race

12. D ICHOTOMIES IN C OMEDY Jokes about racism Audience interprets the meaning behind the words (Jenkins) A component of the politics of representation (Park et al.) Racist jokes Audience interprets the actual words used (Jenkins) Reflecting existing social relations (Park et al.) SOCIAL COMMENTARY IDEOLOGICAL REPRODUCTION

13. D ICHOTOMIES IN C OMEDY Social responsibility (Acham) Work to “get” the joke (Wright) RESPONSIBILITY OF THE COMEDIAN RESPONSIBILITY OF THE AUDIENCE

14. D ICHOTOMIES IN C OMEDY May indicate comedy is subversive (Park) “Necessary condition for the naturalization of racial differences” (Park, et al. p. 173) OFFENSIVENESSINOFFENSIVENESS

15. C OMEDY N OW … M OVIES Rush Hour 2 study (Park, Gabbadon & Chernin, 2006) Naturalizing beliefs in racial differences. Textual devices used to justify the acceptability of racial stereotyping: Minority status of characters Racial jokes about every race Relevance of racial stereotypes to the plot Characters’ perceptions of the remarks Another way of looking at it: Does this promotion the acceptability of stereotypes, disrupt the racial status quo by portraying positive representations?

16. R USH H OUR 2 VS. H AROLD AND K UMAR Can these dichotomies objectively define the differences between comedy that is “selling out” and comedies that subvert racism? Why or why not? Based on these clips and the dichotomies we presented, how are the portrayals of minorities in each of the movies different? How are they the same? Why do audiences use the textual devices to interpret “offensive” narratives and characters as humourous?

17. C ONCLUSIONS There are no definitive ways in which we can decide whether comedy is subversive or selling out because it is interpretive. Both the comedian (actors, writers, producers, etc) and the audience must work to subvert dominant racial ideologies. Comedian (actors, writers, producers, etc) – working through encoding. Audience – working through decoding.