The University of Maine DigitalCommons@UMaine Honors College 5-2012 How Does Context Shape Comedy as a Successful Social Criticism as Demonstrated by Eddie Murphy’s SNL Sketch “White Like Me?” Abigail Jones Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors Part of the Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons Recommended Citation Jones, Abigail, "How Does Context Shape Comedy as a Successful Social Criticism as Demonstrated by Eddie Murphy’s SNL Sketch “White Like Me?”" (2012). Honors College. 58. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/honors/58 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. HOW DOES CONTEXT SHAPE COMEDY AS A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL CRITICISM AS DEMONSTRATED BY EDDIE MURPHY’S SNL SKETCH “WHITE LIKE ME?” by Abigail Jones A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for a Degree with Honors (Communications) The Honors College University of Maine May 2012 Advisory Committee: Nathan E. Stormer, Professor of Communication, Advisor Kristin M. Langellier, Professor of Communication Sandra Hardy, Associate Professor of Theater Mimi Killinger, Honors College Rezendes Preceptor for the Arts Adam Kuykendall, Marketing Manager for the School of Performing Arts Abstract This thesis explores the theory of comedy as social criticism through an interpretive investigation. For comedy to be a potent criticism it is important for the audience to understand the context surrounding the sketch. Without understanding the context the sketch still has the ability to be humorous, but the critique is harder to acknowledge. “White Like Me” as performed by Eddie Murphy on Saturday Night Live will be used as an example for understanding the social criticisms presented in the sketch. This will be descriptively analyzed by dissecting the three major jokes shown and then, to conclude the thesis, there will be a discussion of the dangers of not understanding context in comedy. Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................1 Method ........................................................................................................................6 Comedy as a Social Criticism .......................................................................................7 Defining Social Criticism .............................................................................................7 Defining Context..........................................................................................................8 Chapter 2: Over Explaining Comedy (Until There is None Left) .................................... 13 Tragedy vs. Comedy .................................................................................................. 14 The Comedic Triangle................................................................................................ 15 Context ...................................................................................................................... 25 Social Criticism ......................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 3: “White Like Me” .......................................................................................... 33 Chapter 4: The Results of Comedic Social Criticism ...................................................... 42 African American Comedy......................................................................................... 44 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 47 References ..................................................................................................................... 50 Author’s Bibliography ................................................................................................... 53 iii Chapter 1: Introduction How does context shape comedy as a successful social criticism as demonstrated by Eddie Murphy’s SNL sketch “White Like Me?” This thesis argues that for comedy to be a social criticism it must rely on context to form a successful critique. Comedy is an ambiguous art form based on double meanings and irony, and to be able to recognize those underlying implications the context of the situation must be understood. In the theory of comedy, there is a gap in the research regarding the necessity of context. Much of the literature I read on the subject included an explanation of how comedy is created and how performance and timing is used in a sketch. What the theories lack is the attention to the use of context and to the importance of modern culture. I will focus on the importance of contemporary culture in comedy and support my argument through analysis of an example of comedy as social criticism. The sketch I have chosen for my comedic analysis is Eddie Murphy’s Saturday Night Live sketch “White Like Me.” In the beginning of the sketch Murphy breaks the fourth wall and talks to the audience about the racial problems of 1980’s America. To see if the rumors are true about the split Americas, Murphy goes undercover as a white man to see if he is treated differently. As he goes through the transformation from black to white, Murphy learns how to act as a white man by studying Dynasty and Hallmark cards. He concludes that to be a white man he must enunciate his syllables and walk as though he is clenching his butt cheeks. The next scene shows Murphy walking around the corner with white skin and clenched cheeks. His first stop is a convenience store 1 where he buys a newspaper. His encounter with the cashier concludes with Murphy leaving with a free newspaper because he is white. Murphy then proceeds with his journey through white America on a public bus. The bus is filled with white people and one African American man. Once the African American man leaves the bus, the white citizens begin to party. Waitresses pull off their clothing to reveal work uniforms and start serving drinks. Couples start dancing and people start mingling. Murphy has never seen this before because he has always been on the opposite side of white privileged society. Murphy does not realize the divide was such a problem. Finally, he decides to test the differences between the races one last time; he applies for a loan. He goes in to the bank under the alias of Mr. White, and he has no collateral and no identification. The banker who started assessing the application was African American. He began to deny him the loan when his white boss walked in and sent the banker on a break. Afterward, the boss takes out a suitcase of money and tells Murphy that he does not need to pay the bank back. The sketch concludes with Murphy telling the audience to be careful when they meet a white person because he or she might be an African American in disguise, and the camera scans a make-up room filled with African Americans getting transformed. What drew my attention to the sketch “White Like Me,” compared to the other comedic sketches in SNL, was its humorous but critical view on racism in America. The issue of race in America has historically been a sensitive topic. The sketch still holds significance because of the ongoing struggle between the different races. When I was younger I remember watching this sketch and thinking it was quite funny because Eddie Murphy dressed up and acted like a white man, which was the opposite of his usual 2 characters. I did not realize the message Murphy was trying to send about the racism in the United States. Yet, seeing the sketch now I realize how much social criticism is projected through this sketch. I have come to understand the historical significance and the potent issues this sketch is presenting. Yet, without this knowledge, I would still perceive the sketch as funny because of the contradictions it introduces. Without the knowledge of the context surrounding the sketch, the sketch loses its ability to criticize society. This sketch is a great example to use in my thesis because it shows the importance of context for comedy to enact social criticism. I was particularly interested in the sketches of Saturday Night Live (SNL) because of their intimate closeness with the audience and the current culture. SNL is truly live, which makes the show unique compared to all other comedy shows in this era. SNL has the ability to receive live reactions from the audience and to incorporate highly current events within its comedy, such as Tina Fey imitating Sarah Palin during the 2008 elections. One of the reasons why those sketches are so popular is because the audience is able to watch the news and literally that night see a parody of that day’s events on SNL. The audience reaction to the contemporary material is useful in determining what topics are considered comedic. SNL has survived 36 years of television, and throughout those years the comedy has reflected national crises and attitudes of the times. The start of SNL was attributed to Johnny Carson’s want for more vacation time. Before the creation of SNL, the network NBC was showing reruns of Johnny Carson on Saturday nights to fill in the empty time-slot. Carson complained that he wanted those reruns to be played during the week so he did not have to work as much. So NBC put out