What Are We Gonna Do With All This Trash?: Sociological Stuff

May 20, 2009

Sociological Stuff

First of all, who the fuck is Asher Roth? (I'm sooooo behind the times, I guess)

Second of all, when does ironic racial humor cross the line and actually become racist bullshit?

Third of all, why is ironic racial humor a realm that is inhabited solely by white people (am I missing something here)? My guess is that minorities know all too well the sting of actual racism (and the discrimination that stems from it) and therefore just won't go there.

Please read this blog post about Amy Sedaris and just try to come to her defense without feeling at least a lil bit guilty. Maybe my memory is really shitty, but I don't remember Strangers With Candy being anything like this. "Ching-chong"? Really? The fuck?!?

7 comments:

Mike said...: Finally, something to fight about!

I'd like to answer your three questions and avoid addressing Ms. Sedaris directly, except to say that there's jokes that are racist and there's jokes about racism, and based on her body of work, I trust Ms. Sedaris knows the difference. With that solved, on to your questions!

1. Asher Roth is the Jason Mraz of novelty white rap -- a clean cut, inoffensive tyke who makes clean cut, inoffensive rap songs about having good times with friends. Biggest accomplishment to date: rhyming Allen Iverson with Hakeem Olajuwon. Theyz called mic skillzz.

2. The difference, I believe, is intent. If the point of your joke is to demean or point out the inferiority of a race or group, then yeah, you're Larry the Cable Guy. But if your joke points out the failure/ridiculousness of certain kinds of prejudice or bigotry, then you're simply making fun of racists/racism.

3. Jerry Minor, Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, and a host of unknown men and women we haven't seen perform. There. See how easy it is to debunk a theory when it's based on a generalization.

So, let's end this with a joke.

What do you call a black doctor?

A doctor, you racist!; 11:44 AM
Scrap Heap Pete said...: Firstly, best lines from the Jay Smooth clip: "Oh God..respecting each other's humanity is such a pain in the ass" and "Can't you all just lighten up so I don't have to respect you anymore?"

But back to the issue at hand:
I'm not saying that Amy Sedaris is a racist, but the content of that book definitely appears to be. I think the issue is that we give certain messengers passes when it comes to this stuff. Say, for instance, the author of this book was Pat Buchannan or Bill O'Reilly, we would have no trouble calling them or the content racist. But because a cute comedienne is the author, we kinda look the other way.

And you're right with regards to intent. But I guess my feeling is that bigotry is already so obviously ridiculous and illogical, that any effort (no matter how innocent) to emphasize this, to some extent, winds up legitimizing it.

I think this is why Dave Chappelle turned down millions of $$$ and walked away from his highly successful Comedy Central show--He started to realize that people just weren't getting it and they started to get a little too comfortable (i.e. white people freely using the 'N' word).

Also, a lot of people claim that there's a double standard when it comes to minorities making fun of white people whereas white people can't make fun of minorities. But when you look at the racial hierarchy or America, it becomes pretty clear why one of these is more ok than the other (see Chevy Chase's and Richard Pryor's famous honky-n****r SNL sketch).; 6:59 PM
Mike said...: Good points, all of them. But I take issue with the idea that it's because Ms. Sedaris is a "cute comedienne" that she can get away racist content. I think a person's body of work determines how much slack they're given. You cited Pat Buchannan and Bill O'Reilly: they have a history of negative comments and attitudes towards minorities, so anything they say at this point is seen through that prism of historical antagonism. But through her work with Second City, her TV shows, and her books, Ms. Sedaris has established herself as a satirist. That is what I think gives her leeway on this. But mostly, I think any humor that's removed from its context loses its humor and its intended meaning. This is why inside jokes, when explained to others outside the joke, are never funny. Her book does appear racist-y, but without knowing what preceded those pages and without knowing what she was attempting to convey, I think it's difficult to judge.; 9:10 PM
Scrap Heap Pete said...: True. Context means a lot. And it's always hard to obtain after the fact. And you're right, I think I went a little extreme with the Buchannan & O'Reilly analogy. What I was trying to say is that we, in general, give entertainers (and in particular, comedians) more leeway for racial humor than we do to regular people who make poor attempts at racial humor. Maybe. I'm confusing myself now.

I was hoping that our minority contributors would offer their 2 cents, but I guess they're too busy formulating mathematical equations, engineering stuff, and answering Dell's customer service calls to know that we're even talking about them. Wait, was that irony, racism, or a feeble attempt to spur action? What were we talking about again?...; 9:29 PM
Mike said...: Oooooh, snap!

I think we should start a vlog, like Jay Smooth, except it would be you under the moniker Pete Scrap. It could be a weekly show where you talk about whatever (politics, racism, good recent records/movies) or we can, say, follow you in a supermarket as you talk about CAFTA's affect on the price of your kumquat.

What do you think?; 2:24 PM
Scrap Heap Pete said...: Sure, but just one question:

What kind of mask would I be wearing?; 4:32 PM
Mike said...: Of course, you would wear the mask from Scream.; 2:18 PM

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A History Of Trash

Trash, at first, was a pretty cool guy. You know, he’d come over with some beers, and you’d hang out and have a couple of laughs. Maybe Trash brought some weed with him, and you guys tried to sync up Dark Side Of The Moon with The Wizard Of Oz until you remembered you lost your VHS copy of that movie sometime in college and that you fucking hate Pink Floyd. Good times were had, nonetheless.

But then, you don’t know what changed, but Trash started to overstay his welcome. He’d just linger for hours, never taking the hint you wanted him to leave, no matter how many times you yawned obnoxiously or mentioned how early you had to get up tomorrow. Trash just didn’t get it. You were getting older. You didn’t have the time anymore to stay up until 3 a.m. to talk about the Port season of “The Wire” or how much you miss Jawbox. Eventually, you just stopped taking Trash’s phone calls and no longer replied to his group e-mails about sneaking into abandoned mental hospitals.

Last time you saw Trash, he was smoking alone outside a local dive bar, looking down at his decaying and mismatched shoes. You hoped he had been doing well. You hoped he had not been hurt by the disintegration of your friendship. And if he had, you wanted to comfort him. You wanted to tell him that even though people move on with their lives, it doesn’t mean they stop caring. You wanted him to see in your eyes a sincere appreciation for the time you shared, because all the relationships in our lives help make us who we are, and even if you weren’t the best of friends anymore, you wanted him to know that there would always be a piece of Trash in your heart.

But instead, you looked away and crossed the street. You were with your new girlfriend, and you really didn’t want to have to explain Trash to her. She’d never understand.