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The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor / Leon Rappoport

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The Case for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor / Leon Rappoport PUNCHLINES This page intentionally left blank PUNCHLINES The Caee for Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor Leon Rappoport Westport, Connecticut PRAEGER London Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Rappoport, Leon. Punchlines : the case for racial, ethnic, and gender humor / Leon Rappoport. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-275-98764-7 (alk. paper) 1. Ethnic wit and humor—History and criticism. 2. Wit and humor—Social aspects. I. Title. PN6149.E83R37 2005 817.009'3552—dc22 2005019267 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2005 by Leon Rappoport All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005019267 ISBN: 0-275-98764-7 First published in 2005 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.praeger.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 987654321 Copyright Acknowledgment Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The author and pub­ lisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledg­ ments in subsequent printings of the book, and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions. To the comedians who run all the risks of trying to he funny; To the scholars of humor who try to explain why it is so important; and to whoever sketched the face of a Zen monk all aglow with pleasure as he exclaimed "Oh joy! To know at last there is no perfect happiness in this life" This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Introduction: The Hazards and Joys of Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Humor xi Why should anyone care about such humor, is it really harmful, and how I came to spend years studying it. 1. The Sword and Shield Metaphor and Other Perspectives 1 Common misperceptions of stereotype humor and a corrective overview. 2. What Makes Us Laugh: Humor Theory and Research from Plato and Aristotle to Sigmund Freud 13 The perennial questions and answers about why we laugh; modern research showing the social, psychological, and physiological benefits of humor. 3. Prejudice, Pride, and Play in Ethnic Comedy 31 Theories, research, and the wide range of positive social functions served by humor within minority groups. 4. The Origins and Psychology of Stereotypes and Slurs 45 Reflections on the unique vocabulary of disparagement, its surprising sources, connections with obscenities, and multiple meanings. viii Contents 5. The Dominant Role of Jews and African Americans: Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and the Culture of Irony 65 The rise of irony in American culture and how the major targets of social prejudice became the major creators of contemporary ironic humor. 6. Jewish and African American Roots Humor: Saving Grace in the Face of Oppression 81 The origins, growth, and characteristic features of traditional Jewish and African American humor. 7. Males versus Females, Gays versus Straights, and the Varieties of Gender Humor 101 Stereotypes reflecting sexual tensions and social power differences; the rise of women comedians and their struggle against sexist prejudice. 8. The "New Breed" of Comedians and Transformation of Ethnicity 119 Disparaging humor is not what it used to be; multicultural awareness and the impact of 9/11; why false stereotypes can be funny. 9. Becoming a Comedian: Ethnicity Helps but Is Not Enough 129 On heredity, patterns of childhood experience, and the benefits of a minority background; learning the craft of comedy is harder than it looks. 10. In Defense of Ethnic Humor and Its Role in Our Multicultural Society 149 Comedy in the face of prejudice is no sin. The funny-serious benefits of laughter amid the endless dilemmas of diversity. Bibliography 163 Index 171 Acknowledgments The origins of this book go back to the time when Kansas State University in­ troduced an undergraduate program of courses in American Ethnic Studies, and I decided to try teaching a class on the psychology of ethnic humor. It became very successful, attracting large numbers of students, and so my pri­ mary debt is to them; their enthusiastic participation showed me that one could open the Pandora s Box of racial, ethnic, and gender comedy, and not only get away clean, but also gain important perspectives on our remarkably diverse society. I am also grateful to my social science colleagues, some of whom were understandably dubious about the scholarly value of the topic yet were willing to trust me with it. There were others, however, such as the cul­ ture historians Joseph Amato and George Kren, the sociologist George Peters, and psychologists Ron Downey and David Summers, who provided immedi­ ate encouragement and helpful suggestions as this book began taking shape. The International Society for Humor Studies and its publications have been an invaluable resource for my research and writing. Special thanks are therefore due to Don and Alleen Nilsen who founded the society, who have nurtured it for the past quarter century, and who themselves have contributed significant research on ethnic humor. Finally, as can be seen in the following pages, although I have drawn upon the work of many other humor scholars and am duly grateful to all of them, it was mainly the pathbreaking writings of Christie Davies that first in­ scribed ethnic humor on my cognitive map. This page intentionally left blank Introduction: The Hazards and Joys of Racial Ethnic, and Gender Humor Humor based on racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes has always been a touchy subject, particularly in our current era of political correctness when even hinting at it can be the kiss of death for any public figure. In colleges and universities, faculty tempted to crack wise at the expense of any national, religious, sexual, or handicapped group risk the loss of their jobs and repu­ tations. As a social psychologist who was first attracted to the field in order to investigate the apparent irrationality of prejudice, I am fully aware of all the good reasons for our present sensitivity to such jokes. Some of my own research on attitudes and social conflict even might have contributed to this sensitivity. On the other hand, at no time in the past have we ever had so much down-and-dirty racial and ethnic humor circulating throughout our society via films, TV comedy concerts, the Internet, and stand-up performers in com­ edy clubs. Even more prevalent are the softer forms on display in popular TV sitcoms, where the presence of one or more Jewish, black, Asian, Hispanic, or gay characters seems to have become mandatory. Although most of these sit­ com characters are presented in a sympathetic fashion—perhaps a bit screwy but usually lovable—the humor they contribute is mainly based on how they either directly represent or contradict familiar stereotypes. So despite con­ cerns about political correctness, it is no exaggeration to suggest that our so­ ciety is awash in racial, ethnic, and gender humor as never before. How did this happen? Is it, as so many ultraconservative commentators seem to enjoy suggesting, simply one more sign, along with sexual promis­ cuity, gay liberation parades, and low math scores in our public schools, that our society as a whole is going to hell? Or is the increasing prevalence of such humor a reaction against our efforts to achieve a politically correct, multi- xii Introduction cultural environment? Sigmund Freud would not be surprised by such a re­ action. His main thesis in Civilization and Its Discontents was that the more we try to repress our primitive impulses, the more likely they are to break out in unexpected ways. Freud's theory of personality relates directly to the child­ ish pleasure many of us get from dirty jokes and insulting comedy routines. But the explanations suggested in this book would not satisfy either conser­ vatives like Rush Limbaugh or theorists like Sigmund Freud. Although my perspective is closer to that of Freud, it draws a good deal from the work of the philosophers who at least since Plato and Aristotle have been struggling to figure out what makes a good joke and why we laugh. It appeals almost as much to sociology, history, and anthropology as to psychology. This ecu­ menical approach probably follows from the fact that I fell into work on stereotype humor by accident. Unlike some scholars who have spent their careers studying humor, I enjoy it but do not have a deep passion for it. In fact, it has been my impres­ sion—with apologies to Kingsley Amis who first turned the phrase—that in­ side many humor scholars there is a stand-up comedian struggling to get out. I am not one of them. I generally do not remember many jokes and hardly ever tell any, and when I do tell them I usually mess up the punch lines (which I personally find quite amusing). So how did I come to write this book? It began when the faculty at my university decided to offer a set of classes under the heading of American Ethnic Studies. My part in this was due to the prominence of social psychology in research on prejudice, and, to the consternation of some of my colleagues, I volunteered to develop a course on ethnic humor. My first class included a diverse group of mainstream whites, several Hispanics, African Americans, and I believe a few Jews and gays (they did not say and I did not ask).
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