Okay, so now our boy's wrapped up the election and the U-Haul trucks are already en route to The Chi. I've already said in the past that Black folks might need to grow some thicker skin should Barry gain The Number One Spot, but that was mostly about the sort of ignorant, blatantly racist crap seen during the runup to the election. Now that he's got the gig, part of me wonders if that skin is gonna need to get even thicker, because, let's face it, dude is in a profession that more or less ensures he'll be the butt of jokes for the next 4 years.
It comes with the territory. Carter was belittled as an uncultured peanut farmer. Regan's doddering speech inflections made many wonder if he was prematurely senile. Bush Sr. was a stiff, out of touch geek, and his sidekick Dan Quayle was the village idiot. Bill Clinton was a womanizing fat boy, Al Gore was the smart alec everyone wanted to give a wedgie to in middle school. Dick Cheney has been an evil mastermind whose next angioplasty is on the house. Bush Jr. has just been a walking punchline.
So, where does Obama fall in this continuum of Presidential typecasts? It's hard to say. Calling him a terrorist or elitist is no longer valid. Blatantly racist crap like monkey puppets is off limits and hardly PC. And let's face it, dude just doesn't fill the various stereotypes associated with Black men. Sure, there's the "cool" thing, and he apparently plays a good game of hoops for an old man (so did my Dad), but that's hardly Leno/Letterman fodder.
Some have theorized that the MSM was loathe to "make fun" of Obama during the election season because they didn't want to appear racist. This is comically stoopid: as if agonizing over a man's middle name and his church weren't racist enough. But I suspect the real reason Obama hasn't been picked at more is that he's not really the sorta guy that's easy to pick on. He doesn't really have a funny voice or mannerisms. He hasn't had any fantastic gaffes. He doesn't dress or act particularly funny. Really, except for eating arugula, what else is there for comedians to use?
SNL has struggled with how to use Obama for laughs. Their resident Fauxbama, Fred Armisen, has gotten better since his awful debut last Spring, but all he can really do with the character is emphasize the way he adds a flourish to the end of each sentence. Hardly the stuff laughs are made of. MadTV's Keegan Michael Key looks the part (except for that cheap wig), but doesn't sound like him. Late night and other political shows have been largely lax on Obama jokes, perhaps because they wanted him to win, but prolly more for the reasons I mentioned above. I even heard Jamie Foxx and crew on The FoxxHole the other day complaining that Barack has to "give them something to make jokes about" besides his ears. Basically Obama is so darned cool, there's not really any material. Yet.
One of the very few advantages of being Black is the ability to poke fun at white folks. Some comedians have made profitable careers on this whole "black folks do this, white folks do that" brand of humor.
White comedians? Uh, not so much. My cousin and I used to read those Truly Tasteless Jokes ethnic humor books back in highschool but they were equal opportunity offenders. And year, there's folks like the never-funny Sarah Silverman and the potty mouthed Lisa Lampanelli who tell blatantly racist jokes, but they're really only funny for the extreme shock value. And they're both women. A white guy with this kinda mouth would prolly get his a$$ kicked.
Heck, Obama can't even tell good racist jokes about himself.
Mutt? WTF?!? Not really sure if that's some biracial humor I just don't get or what. Someone break it down for me.
I guess this brings me to my point. Are all jokes about President Obama going to offend black people because they're "black jokes"?
Question: Can black folks take a joke without getting pissed off and calling the NAACP? Is there anything about Obama that makes for good comedic fodder or is dude too cool/plain vanilla?
Is an Obama presidency no laughing matter? [CTV]
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Why Can't Black Folks Take A (Slightly Racist) Joke?!?
Tags Popped: Drive-By Activism, Negro Nonsense, The Negro Prez
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No. We can't take a joke. We've BEEN the joke for hundreds of years.
No one is gonna stop white comics, if they tell tasteless Obama jokes. I suspect that black comics will be the worse offenders.
But, I can tell you categorically, those comics are gonna lose more than 3/4 of their black audience.
See ms. tee's comment.
I was at a comedy show a few years back. A white comedian was going off with some really funny black jokes. I was laughing my a** off. Most of the audience wanted to laugh but remained quiet. The comic said, "hey I watch BET, black comedians say these kind of jokes all the time."
He wasn't lying.
In Randall Kennedy's book nigger he wrote about an incident where a college professor was fired simply for discussing the n-word.
So, no African American can not take a joke, but can lampoon people from different ethnic backgrounds like its cool. BTW, most of the "black people do this, white people do that" material is really old, tired and unimaginative.
Obama. Oh trust me, he's slowly opening himself up for ridicule. Slowly but surely.
"CP time". That's the only one that I see so far. Of course, I'm not a comedian, so, I don't see what they see. I hope that Black Americana can take it on the chin, but, it's doubtful. Like Ms Tee said - "we've BEEN the joke . . . "
I do get that he is in for a lampooning like he's never seen before. As you said, it comes with the territory. I ain't mad about it. Speaking of ignant, I have, through the years, never laughed so hard at anyone as much as I have about G Dubya "pronounce-iation" of words. I would personally watch Leno and Letterman because they, to me, are pretty mild, not to mention humorous. I'm not all that fond of racially slanted jokes in either direction. Then, again, I'm always "an angry Black man". Peace.
Some of us can take a joke - I think Bill Maher, maybe Jon Stewart will be able to pull it off. They will test the waters and see how it's received.
Sure we've been the joke. But does it make it ok, when we make fun of others? That excuse is old and tired. And as long as we continue to use it, we'll also have that, their better than us mindset.
I remember earlier this year when Chris Rock, of all people, made a joke about Barack and Michelle. He was saying how we don't need a black woman in the white house. Because she'll try to get all of her friends elected into the cabinet.
Everyone went insane and started blasting him. Saying he's no longer relevant and should retire. Utterly stupid, considering he was making a JOKE.
Is all goes back to the same argument of, you can't do what I do. I can use the N word, but you can't. My friends and I greet each other with the B word, but call me that and its on.
I've gotten used to the jokes. If they're funny, they're funny. If they aren't, I simply change the channel.
If we can dish it, we have to be able to take it too.
good pt, ms. tee. that is the difference. but i guess since we've got a black man in office, they will think we have "arrived" and therefore feel free to let loose. i won't be down with that.
but on the flip side, i'm also not real big on black comedians joking about white people. i.e. i boycotted "white chicks" b'c i sure as heck wouldn't think it cool is ashton kucher and his sidekick sis a movie called "black chicks" so i just try to keep it fair.
i'll also point out this major diffence: with prior presidential jokes abt bush and clinton- the basis was their infidelity (clinton) or ignorance, lack of intelligence (bush). they were not RACIALLY based. so there is no reason on earth why the obama jokes should be racial. but the plain fact is, they will be b'c 1) he's black and 2) he's smart as hell so they can't use that, 3) he's a family man with sound morals and 4) he's SOOOO COOOOOOL!!- so they have nothing else to attack him on but race...
Another note: they won't make racial jokes. But they'll do something similiar to Jon Stewart's interview, like how his white side is clashing with his black side jokes.
Or they'll talk about how they'll kool-aid served to foreign visitors. How they favorite meal will be fried chicken and watermelon. Crap similar to that.
They'll also pick on Michelle more, making angry or sister girl black woman jokes.
I'm waiting for it, because im sure it'll be done.
And gosh knows that those jokes are so old and lame.
But as the above poster stated, there's isnt much to talk smack about. They're an amazing couple.
And I'll kick his arse myself if he ever did anything to mess it up. I pray nothing wrong ever happens.
There are ten million people with Al and Jesse on speed-dial, just waiting for the slightest thing.
There's plenty to joke about, but even if I do it I'll get attacked and I'm black.
We all know, that even if you criticize him on policy issues your a racist. If your black, your a sellout. (rolls eyes) You can even show video tape evidence of something and blacks will only beleive what they want to.
Something far worse than the Fairness Doctrine has already been passed and we didnt even know it.
re: serafina's last comment- those ARE racial jokes.
I'm with nikki mo in fl.
Bill Maher had already done a bit on this before the election that Obama hadn't given him any fodder. I think its true that no one has touched him lest they seem racist. But, the claims of terrorist and elitist per New Yorker were more in line with political satire rather than comedy.
And you're right Sarah Silverman and Jimmy Kimmel by extension do absolutely NOTHING for me comedically. I think it does go to show just how much we've messianized this guy.
I mean seriously, black comics have made more fun of Jesus and Martin Luther King than they have of Obama. But then again, for those off you that found yourself in a predominantly black church on Sunday, who got a bigger shout--Jesus or Obama?
it is interest how we can joke about cheney shooting his hunting buddy and the implication is that cheney's aim is laughably poor. however, if cheney were black those same jokes would be filtered through the lens of "all blakc are killers".
I agree with Deedee and Serafina. If we can dish it out we need to take it. Also there'll probably be some jokes made. We'll just have to live with it. Just like Everybody else had to live with it. According to some people and a lot of jokes, Obama is actually the 2nd black president, Clinton was first ;).
If Obama actually had something to make fun of then he wouldn't have gotten elected. As we know, black folks trying to be in positions of power have to be 10 steps ahead of the game.
Maybe while he's in office he'll do something that could possibly be funny but really what is there about him thats funny? Nothing.
Should black folk get thicker skin? Yes, to some extent. The reality is that there are some jokes that are told in mixed company and some jokes that should never be. I squirm in my seat when I'm in a room with a bunch of white folks who're watching Katt Williams. But hell, I squirm like that if I'm watching him with my parents (who by the way love him).
Whenever I hear white comedians doing jokes about people of color its never about the comedian its about the reaction of the crowd. It's like they're laughing "at" the race and not "with" it. As in we can all make fun of ourselves. Its more of a vicious agreement with all their bigoted beliefs.
But the ultimate problem with us "just taking it" is that folks get a little too comfortable in their jokey-jokes and then you gotta bust them in their mouths for some crazy shiz that they thought was permissable. Kinda like this whole phenomenon of white youths calling one another and their black friends nigga. Sure we started that mess but now we can't stop it.
We can be open to the jokes but we really gotta be careful about what gets said because we may be allowing folks to open a door to some shit we don't want open forever.
We should not be exempt from the jokes because of Obama. Prior presidents have endured it. What's interesting to me is that jokes about First Ladies has not been as prevalent, but Michelle had so many jokes made about her prior to her elevation. There will be more but we won't all see the humor.
It was Malia Obama who has given the biggest indicator of what will be easy to make fun of about Obama--when she said she had to tell her dad that "You don't really shake kids' hands when you meet them." From this and other visible tendencies he has, I imagine it would be easy to mold a caricature of a super-formal, professorial-to-the-point-of absurdity sage whose attempt at a "Yo' mama" dis would be spoken in legal-ese.
But hell, even that could also "backfire" on comedians, in that it could potentially do more to highlight the absurdity of people around Obama than Obama himself. And they'd be back to square one.
I think the racial jokes comedians use are EXTREMELY Funny. Dave Chappelle is funny as hell and Chris Rock is funny as hell. Both of their routines are loaded with white people do X and black people do why. Dave Chappelles piece about white people drink "grape juice" and black people drink "grape drink" was one of his best pieces.
"Grape Drink is a different formula. Sugar, Water, and purple"
If Saturday Night Live gets the right person to play Barack, ratings will shoot through the roof. A few weeks ago, SNL put on the Barack Obama variety show. Fast forward to the 2:40 mark and listen to Keenan as Rev. Right singing "White Devils be Crazy!" That is funny.
http://www.veoh.com/videos/v16360898NM7fKrPW
i agree with marbles. most comedians will hone in on the fact that obama is that oh so perfect guy you make fun of even though you're secretly jealous.
You know what it is? Obama is the closest we've ever gotten to having a President who actually talks straight. Sure, he's a policy wonk who uses "big words" (Why that...that..ELITIST!!!), but I think what many people are responding to is that more than any other recent D.C. bigwig, he comes closest to cutting through the bulls*** and actually talking to us like adults. He's not the 100% article (for that look up "Gravel, Mike", "Kucinich, Dennis" and "Paul, Ron"), but he's as close a mainstream candidate can be.
And I think comedians have a hard time dealing with that. If there's no bulls***, where's the humor?
They'll figure him out eventually.
I think that it will be tougher to make jokes about Obama based on race because he doesn't fit the stereotypical ideas that Americans have about Black people. For those of us who've gone overseas, we know that people around the world often get their information about Black America from television and movies. These stereotypes are the same ones mined by comics who do race-based humor. It's boring! I love Chris Rock's intelligence. His brutal honesty is what makes him funny, not a lazy reliance on stereotypes. Even Dave Chappelle has said that white people laughing too hard at his comedy has made him think twice about mining stereotypes for humor.
As for Obama, I think it's going to take a while. He's been largely gaffe-free, and he's got the "golden child" shield of being a history-maker kind of protecting him, at least for a while. I think that the writers at the Daily Show and Colbert Report will have to shift their focus, since Bush's foibles were their bread and butter, but they're smart guys. They'll figure something out.
@cjames
Well, yeah, racial jokes are funny--only from black comedians.
I can't help but cringe, along with most other black folks when we hear the same joke, delivered with the same style from a white comedian. CLEARLY, the world was NOT laughing when Don Imus made his comments nor when Michael Richards decided to talk about "niggers." It's all about considering the source. We most certainly can dish it, but by in large we can't take it.
For instance, my mother really wanted to laugh when she saw Darrell Hammond do a spot on blackface impersonation of Jesse Jackson during the 2000 Election debacle and it was HILLLARIOUS! But she didn't want to laugh because it was black face and they were lampooning a revered black man in her eyes.
But if Chris Rock or Eddie Murphy had done it, well, no problem.
No. As ms tee sez;
We can't take a joke.
Fascinating to hear the consensus here. If you read the comments on Fox's site after an article about Obama you'll see there's nothing funny about race relations in America today. Not only is the wound not healed but it's still bleeding.
What I think will happen is Obama's humor will show more. He'll break the ice and set the tone for the press and Colbert etc. He represents that outermost frontier of race relations. Whites and blacks need someone they trust to lead the way.
There will be stumbles, no doubt, but he'll do it.
AB, when you do your "One Year Later" retrospective on Jan. 20, 2010, I hope you revisit this topic. It will be interesting to see how it all evolves.
Perhaps the best presidential impersonator/comedian in recent memory was Dana Carvey doing George H.W. Bush on SNL. But if you look at some of those earlier episodes, you'll see that Carvey was light-years away from the "Nah ghanna duit...Wouldn't be prudent" complete with the mismatched hand gestures that eventually became Carvey's signature bit.
I can see the SNL types having fun with Obama's perceived formality and seriousness in the most inopportune times, like reading the girls their bedtime story (Think Jesse Jackson reading Green Eggs and Ham.)
I can also see them going after Obama by proxy. Ie, Obama might not be offering up a lot of material, but Joe Biden and some of the more firery cabinet members, or even Michelle, certainly might.
@ Uppity-
You are right for the most part. Unfortunately. I think there will always be this double standard. In a utopia type world whites would have just as much leeway to mock Obama as he is bi-racial. But in the real world anything whites say that isn't complimentary will probably be perceived as racist; demeaning, etc.
@cinco
Well, thankfully he cracked opened the door and peered out on the porch where race had been banging and knocking and ringing the doorbell incessantly when he referred to himself as a mutt.
I missed SNL this last week, but at least there's something that they can use to talk about him and the dog and Nancy Reagan holding a seance!!
@uppity
Now that was FUNNY on SNL. I laughed my ASS OFF. I had to go and look that sketch up on the net. It's still Funny. And that guy who does the impressions of John madden on Frank TV, he does an impersonation of Charles Barkely. FUNNY as hell.
@ CJames
That comic would be Frank Caliendo. His Charles Barkley is PERFECT. If any white guy could get away with black face and be funny it's him.
"TURRIBLE!"
EG
@cjames, that grape drank bit was hilarious! Surely he will make some gaffes that will be fodder for comedians...but ms.tee makes a good point. It will be interesting to see how black folk react when the jokes start being made.
For my money, the funniest comics are insightful without being stupidly mean. The latter is too easy. We all learned that humor in junior high. Even white comedians will be okay if they stick to the former.
...and echo what many here have said: the most spoofable aspects of Obama don't have much (if anything) to do with his race.
Lastly, I'll be really p*ssed at anyone who takes a cheap shot at Michelle.
I think it's funny as hell listening to all you guys talk about whether or not it'll be possible to make jokes about him.
Give it a few months. He's not Black Jesus, people... by March, people will be used to the idea of him being President, and the gloves will slowly start to come off. By Christmas it's open season.
Has anyone heard of the Feiler Faster theory? It won't take long before 1st Black President becomes 1st Term President, and it'll be business as usual for comedians.
It's hard to say what the humor will be, because it is hard to use sterotypes with [against] someone who doesn't fit into a neat little [previously used and/or familiar] category. Actually, any typically used "American/USA" category won't really apply very well. Barack Obama is just more complex and diverse than most Americans. Of course, I don't mean that we aren't all complex as individual persons. It's just that Pres-elect Obama is pretty darn unique to most if not all of us Americans. And even "globally", people who are in the very top most political positions are usually mainly representative of one group of the society (or are categorized as such, because of their language, their parents, their schooling, their neighborhood, their experiences, their travels, their cultural heritage, their mentors, etc). And now it's usually the group that is in the majority population-wise.
This may have also contributed to this messiah image - he is like this "Dawn of a new era Global-like-citizen" - whatever that is. I think some people are frightened of him for that reason - "we" haven't been able to pigeon-hole him and that feels "weird". We are just having to accept that there are some people who are a confluence of many things. And in his case I have to use the old saying...The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And we just have to get to know him as an individual - imagine that.
As a commentor said above, "folks get a little too comfortable in their jokey-jokes" - Well, I agree and I guess we just have to keep that in mind. And as adults and citizens - "enjoy life, have fun, but do the right thing"
missy: just want to say -- so well said. Great post.
When Clinton took office, I created a photo of Air Force One on cinder blocks in front of the White House. He’s from Arkansas. Get it?
Y’all ain ‘t getting me caught up in this.
Egyptions are Africans, and they enslaved some of my ancestors, Jews.
My grandfather was full-blooded Cherokee, and my grandmother was Jewish, and they lived in the backwoods of Alabama. My father is so confused, he’s Baptist. My mother is black and white. You should see her try to dance at the COGIC conventions.
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