Commit to User Library.Uns.Ac.Id Digilib.Uns.Ac.Id CHAPTER I
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Research Background
Racism has been giving much dark memories to American multicultural
society. There are always new kind of racial issues emerged in US from time to
time. Since Black people is a race which has the strongest bound (slavery to be
more specific) with US, thus tends to face the biggest racial issues compared to
any other races such as Asian, Hispanic, Indian, and so on. Regarding the
existences of Black racial stereotype and race relationship issues, it shows that US
society is considered as treating white people better than Black people in almost
every aspect of life. It can be in the workplace, public space, healthcare service,
education, and so on. As time goes by, people start using the issues of Black racial
stereotypes and race relationship as a material to mock one another. They use it as
a joke in order to sound “funny” rather than to offense in public (Pérez, 2013).
Facilitated by the emergence of standup comedy1which cannot be separated from
the development of Minstrel Show2, the issue of Black racial stereotypes and race
relationship used within racist jokes are eventually becoming widely spread in
US.
1 Standup comedy describes an encounter between a single, standing performer behaving comically and/or talking funny things directly to an audience, unsupported by very much in the way of costume, prop, setting, or dramatic vehicle (Mintz, 1985). 2 It is also called Minstrelsy, it is an American theatrical form that using racial stereotypes to perform comic action. The performance is about a combination of singing, dancing, Negro dialect speaking, and instrumental music playedcommit on the banjo, to user violin, bone castanet, and tambourine (Koenig, 1994) acted by non-Black performers in Black face to represent Black person.
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First of all, it all began with Minstrel Show extended itself by mocking
abolition, suffrage, political corruption, city life, country life and westward
expansion (Jefferson, 1993). These innovations was related to US society’s
restlessness at that time: there were opposition between the industrial north with
its wage labor and the agrarian south with its slave labor, economic fluctuation
which sent women into workplace and jobless men back to the home, immigrants
who were disturbed by longtime inhabitants considered themselves as the “real”
Americans, and how woman fought their suffrage. Since the audiences were
mostly working-class men, these comedic themes were intentionally chosen so
that it is easy for them to relate the show to what happen in their daily life.
Furthermore, the idea of Black people that Blackface performer was
presented is based on Black people they watch in the plantation. Eric Lott (1993)
in his book Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and American Working Class
stated that Black performance exercised by Blackface performer was precisely
“performative,” a cultural invention, it is not an authentic essence installed in
Black bodies, and for better or worse it was often a product of self-
commodification (1993). As Minstrel Show became popular, it spread through
new media (radio, television airwaves, and theatre) in which an image of distorted
features and cultures of Black people (looks, language, dance, and character) were
presented (Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype, 2017). Moreover,
Chinua Achebe3 explains that stereotype is considered as “to simplify,” the image
of lazy, ignorant, superstitious, hypersexual, and likely to do thievery and
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cowardice are generally labeled to Black people. Thus, Minstrel Show has a big
part in pervasively shaping stereotypes of Black people which has big effects to
US Society until today (Blackface: The Birth of An American Stereotype, 2017).
As a result, one of those big effects is the use of Black racial stereotypes and race
relationship in Standup Comedy.
Meanwhile, Cramer (2015) has stated that a standup comedy has three
conventions, those are: 1) warming up the crowd, 2) identify with the crowd, and
3) Make everything seems real. Warming up the crowd takes place at the
beginning of the standup comedy. It usually involves interaction with the
audience. Meanwhile, identifying with the crowd gives the audience a context to
the audience about what the standup comedian4 would talk about. That particular
context later on connects the comedian and the audience to have similar
references in understanding the jokes, so basically that particular context helps the
comedian when to throw the jokes and help the audience where to laugh at. Last,
make everything seem real is the key in convincing the audience about the
comedian’s materials. It is important to convince the audience that the jokes are
real in order to help them feel the comedy. Relating to what American people did
in Minstrel Show, those conventions function to ridicule the explorations of race
and ethnicity, utterances of taboo languages, and confessions involving an
unusually intimate relationship (Daube, 2009) of which happen to the working
class audience’s everyday life.
4 This term later on will be shortened intocommit comedian to useri.e. person who performs standup comedy to make it more practical.
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Nowadays, there are many comedians who have particular comedic
themes— inherited from the tradition of Minstrel Show—use the issues of Black
racial stereotype and race relationship in their performance. Chris Rock, who is an
influential African American comedian, is no exception. Christopher Julius Rock
th III, or known as Chris Rock, was born on February 17 , 1965 in Andrews, South
Carolina. Chris Rock has been doing standup comedy for many times, including
Bring the Pain in 1996, Bigger & Blacker in 1999, Never Scared in 2004, and Kill
the Messenger in 2008. Since he was experiencing racism when he was still a kid,
most of his standup comedies are about observation on racism and black racial
stereotypes. In addition, Chris Rock also played on several TV shows and movies
such as In Living Color (1993), The Chris Rock Show (1997), Everybody Hates
Chris (2005), Madagascar 1, Escape 2 Africa, and 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
(205, 2008, & 2012). Chris Rock has obtained many awards during his
appearance as a comedian, actor, and producer such as three Grammy Awards as
Best Comedy Album in 1997, 1999, and 2005, two Emmy Awards for Outstanding
Writing for a Variety or Music Program in 1997 and 1999.
With respect to Chris Rock’s biography, this research chooses the
transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never Scared as source of
data. In Never Scared, Chris Rock explores the gap between social groups in
making profit in US. Moreover, he also discusses about how slavery has happened
long time ago still has effects on US daily life. Regarding the title of his standup
comedy, Chris Rock puts Never Scared to signify that Black people are ready to
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fight back racism by mentioning racial issues he has encountered in his daily
activity.
Regarding the issue of Black racial stereotypes and race relationship used
in comedy, this research finds some previous researches on this topic. Those
previous researches are categorized into two categories, pros in using race-related
jokes and cons in using race-related jokes. Pro race-related jokes researches
discuss how the genre of comedy privileges a reading of racial stereotypes as
harmless, despite the potential negative consequences of such representations
(Park, Nadine, & Ariel, 2006). They find that race can be used to entertain people
when it is mixed with comedy and movie making. Agree or not, Bowes (1990)
and King (2002) have mutual statement that stereotypes are important in comedy
because not only do they help to maintain quick recognizable character types but
such character uniqueness and stereotype-based jokes also constitute a source of
humor (cited in Park et al., 2006). As it is clearly explained, one advantage of
race-related jokes is that it can be positive for entertainment purposes such as in
movies, TV shows, talk shows, and so on. Moreover, Stereotyping, as the main
point of race-related jokes, emerges in various contexts to serve particular
functions necessitated by those contexts (Hilton & von Hipel, 1996).
For instance, there is a research conducted by Ji Hoon Park, Nadine G.
Gabbadon & Ariel R. Chernin (2006) about how the ideological implications of
racial stereotypes in comedy through a textual and audience analysis of the movie
entitled Rush Hour 2. Involving focus group interviews with Black, White, and commit to user
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Asian participants, the research analyzes whether or not the participants are
offended through the movie.
As a result, the majority of focus group participants did not get offended of
the racial humor mentioned in the movie since it is in the form of comedy which
should not be taken seriously. However, considering how humor could easily be
absorbed in people’s mind due to its nuance of entertainment played gradually in
the media, it is unfortunate that the use Black racial stereotype and race
relationship issues in comedy might also influence people’s mind as well through
standup comedy.
On the other hand, Cons race-related jokes researchers state that the links
between humor and hatred is a topic which is often ignored by researchers of
prejudice (Billig, 2001). They find that there is connection between hatred and
humor by using race-related jokes as disguise. In addition, Sartre (1948) has
added cons in using race-related jokes by suggesting in Portrait of the Anti-Semite
that bigots take pleasure in “the joy of hating” as it is found in the standup
comedy (cited in Billig, 2001). Moreover, the downside of race-related jokes
shows that humor can be delivered with additional extreme racist bigotry to make
the humor easily be laughed at. Since Davies (1990) has argued that the structure
and content of a joke should not be taken as necessarily reflecting the joke-teller’s
state of mind (cited in Billig, 2001), people tend to hide behind the phrase “it is
just a joke.” Furthermore, Billig (1999) has assumed that the excuse of “only” or
“just” in joking are often used in rhetorical defense against an accusation of
something bad i.e. being racist (cited in Billig, 2001). Although racist comedians commit to user
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obviously deny the fact that they are racist, the denial qualifies the category racist:
they do not deny that they are racists, merely that they are real racists (Billig,
2001).
For example, there is a research conducted by Michael Billig (2001) about
how humor and hatred link each other. Michael Billig has examined three sites
which provide racist jokes and promote links with Ku Klux Klan groups.
Demanding to fulfill the aspect of promoting itself as a humor website and
identifying itself as having KKK sympathies, Michael Billig had Nigger Jokes
KKK provided by whitesonly.net, Nigger Jokes provided by whitesonly.net,
Nigger Joke Central provided by whitecentral.com. Moreover, the analysis
emphasizes the importance of marking the purpose of the text i.e. the three sites
which presents and justifies the humor. As a result, it turns out that the extreme
racist humor of the KKK is not just a joke for laugh. In fact, the racist humor
indicates an extreme language leading to enjoyment of the sites maker. At the end,
it is concluded that there are integral links between extreme hatred of racial issue
and dehumanizing, violent humor in a race-related jokes. It is obvious that some
previous researchers have big concern on the connection between hatred and
comedy. At the end, despite the controversy about the use of Black racial
stereotype and race relationship issues, this research attempts to explore the use of
Black racial stereotype and race relationship issues in the transcript of Chris
Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never Scared.
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B. Scope of Research
This research is under American Studies. This research specifically
discusses a type of jokes which American comedians often used as materials for
their performance in standup comedy i.e. race-related jokes. Furthermore, this
research will focus on the transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled
Never Scared to examine the issues of Black racial stereotype and race
relationship used in it.
C. Research Question
This research is expected to answers this question:
1. How are the issues of Black racial stereotype and race relationship being used
in the transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never Scared?
D. Research Objective
The objectives of this research are:
1. To determine how the issues of Black racial stereotype and race relationship
are being used in the transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never
Scared.
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E. Research Benefits
Hopefully, this research encourages people to be more critical about what
happen in their surroundings. Furthermore, people are expected to be more aware
in receiving information, especially in the form of entertainment which often
manipulates people’s way of thinking (Wangsadijaya, 2015). Also, this research is
expected to give the readers view on how American comedian deals with the issue
surround them, especially about race.
Moreover, this research may useful for those who always search for new
knowledge especially for:
1. Students of English Department
This research will provide additional information about critical humor
studies in term of standup comedy under the context of American multicultural
society.
2. Other researchers
This research provides information and references to get to know more
about the issues of Black racial stereotype and race relationship used in the
transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never Scared. Hopefully,
this research will trigger further discussion about racial issues in the context of
American multicultural society.
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F. Research Methodology
1. Type of Research
This research belongs to descriptive qualitative research. As a
descriptive research, Rakhmat (2004) has explained that a descriptive research
only analyses phenomenon and event. Meanwhile, as a qualitative research, it
is a research without neither undergoing calculation nor statistic procedure
(cited in Juilita, 2010). In summary, qualitative research is employed to gain
deeper comprehension about the issues happened in US society (Imaniar,
2014).
2. Source of Data and Data
There are two kind of data used in this research, those data are primary
data and secondary data. The primary data is the transcript of Chris Rock’s
standup comedy entitled Never Scared which is in the form of words and
sentences related to the topic of the research. Meanwhile, the secondary data of
this research is the video of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never
Scared. The secondary data is in the form of Chris Rock’s intonation, Chris
Rock’s facial expression, and audiences’ laughter. This secondary data are
needed to provide the need of video aspect in analyzing the data to understand
the context of the jokes more deeply.
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3. Technique of Collecting and Analyzing Data
Firstly, the transcript was read and examined several times to get
absolute understanding of the issues of Black racial stereotype and race
relationship brought by Chris Rock in the transcript of his standup comedy
entitled Never Scared. Secondly, some utterances Chris Rock said during his
stand up related to the research questions are quoted. This second step involves
Purposive Sampling (also known as Judgmental Sampling). To quote Neuman
(2014), “Purposive Sampling is a nonrandom sample in which the researcher
uses a wide range of methods to locate all possible cases of a highly specific
and difficult to reach population.” Therefore, Purposive Sampling identifies
Chris Rock’s jokes signifying the issues of Black racial stereotype and race
relationship delivered in the transcript of his standup comedy entitled Never
Scared.
After that, the data are analyzed using Arthur Asa Berger’s techniques
of comedy which is going at this order:
a. Preparing the materials for analysis i.e. the transcript of Chris Rock’s
standup comedy entitled Never Scared.
b. Identifying the issues of Black racial stereotype and race relationship in the
transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy entitled Never Scared obtained
from those materials.
c. Analyzing the obtained data based on Arthur Asa Berger’s techniques of
comedy in figuring how the issues of Black racial stereotype and race commit to user
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relationship are being used in the transcript of Chris Rock’s standup comedy
entitled Never Scared, especially in using the techniques of Absurdity,
Analogy, Comparison, Ignorance, Theme/ Variation, Definition,
Exaggeration, Insults, Irony, Ridicule, Sarcasm, Satire, Impersonation,
Mimicry, and Stereotype.
d. Considering Chris Rock’s intonation, Chris Rock’s facial expression, and
audiences’ laughter obtained from the video of Chris Rock’s standup
comedy entitled Never Scared in analyzing the obtained data to understand
the context of the jokes more deeply.
e. Interpreting the obtained data to conclude a result.
f. Drawing the conclusion of this research after the questions of this research
is answered.
G. Theoretical Approach
In the beginning, old analysis of American Studies used myth and symbol
as an approach in its discussion. To quote Henry Nash Smith’s Virgin Land,
Kuklick (1972) wrote that myth and symbol are collective representations rather
than the work of a single mind. However, the debate between pros racist jokes and
cons racist jokes proves that there is no longer one myth and symbol uniting
American multicultural society as a collective representations related to racism.
As have been discussed, it comes to the time where American multicultural
society is no longer able to shape one single myth and symbol of racist jokes of
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5 which it represents the plurality of rhetoric .Thus, American Culture Studies was
established in order to acknowledge that American does not one come in a
monolithic culture. In fact, American comes in many cultures with each own
characteristics (Wise, 1979).
Therefore, this research cannot be established to any single academic
discipline for American multicultural phenomenon is something that is fluid. Yet,
rather having any academic discipline, this research comes under American
Cultural Studies characteristic as it uses varieties perspective from several
academic disciplines known as Interdisciplinary Approach. What is more, Gene
Wise (1979) also stated that one of American Culture Studies characteristic is
explaining the particular sub-culture. It goes without saying that standup comedy
community as an American popular culture artifact can be considered as that
particular sub-culture.
Pursuing it further, this research undergoes an analysis based on Arthur
Asa Berger’s techniques of comedy. Arthur Asa Berger in his book entitled The
Art of Comedy Writing proposes 45 techniques to write a decent joke that
laughable by people. Arthur Asa Berger divides those techniques into four
categories: involving Logic (Absurdity, Accident, Analogy, Catalogue,
Coincidence, Comparison, Disappointment, Ignorance, Mistakes, Repetition,
Reversal, Rigidity, Theme/Variation, Unmasking), involving Language (Allusion,
Bombast, Definition, Exaggeration, Facetiousness, Insults, Infantilism, Irony,
Misunderstanding, Over literalness, Puns, Repartee, Ridicule, Sarcasm, Satire)
5 According to Literary Devices (2013), it commitis an art ofto discourse user which studies various methods to please and convince particular audiences. Therefore, it is not neutral.
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involving Identity (Before/After, Burlesque, Caricature, Eccentricity,
Embarrassment, Exposure, Grotesque, Imitation, Impersonation, Mimicry,
Parody, Scale, Stereotype), and involving Action (Chase, Slapstick, Speed).
Meanwhile, in the book entitled The Psychology of Stereotyping¸ David J.
Schneider (2005) puts his own definition of stereotypes as “qualities perceived to
be associated with particular groups or categories people.” Therefore, it goes
without saying that as race is considered as the element of groups or categories
people, understanding the basic idea of stereotypes is needed in this research.
Since stereotypes justifies a person to have characteristics and abilities exactly
like people in a group where that person belong, it gives Chris Rock the abilities
to respond quickly to situation he have had experience before involving particular
group of people and to make generalization on particular group of people
(McLeod S. A, 2015). Thus, that action results what it is called as in group and
out group. The social group where Chris Rock belongs to is his in group, it is a
source of his pride and self-esteem that shapes who he is as it is seen in the reality
(Tajfel and John, 1979). In order to increase the reputation of his group, Chris
Rock enhances the status of his group using Black racial stereotypes applied in his
standup comedies. In Addition, Chris Rock also takes advantage of how the
outside of his group treating his group using Black racial stereotypes to
intentionally giving bad images to the out group, so that his group is able to
increase its status in the society.
Moreover, since Chris Rock’s standup comedies is mostly talking about
cultural context, the data is analyzed using socio-cultural approach. This approach commit to user
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is important to correlate the representation of Black racial stereotype and race
relationship issues that Chris Rock brings to his standup comedies with the real
condition of US society (Imaniar, 2014).
H. Thesis Organization
This thesis is divided into several chapters. Those chapters are Chapters I,
Chapter II, Chapter III, and Chapter IV. Chapter I explain about Research
Background, Previous Research, Scope of Research, Research Question, Research
Objective, Research Benefits, Research Methodology, Theoretical Approach, and
Thesis Organization. Chapter II explains about Literature Review, Chapter III
explains about Analysis. The last is Chapter IV which explains about Conclusion
and Recommendation.
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