Michael Tuesdays & Thursdays was a brilliant Canadian sitcom, but it didn't find its audience and lasted one season. I just watched it in November and died, it was so good. (It's online at the CBC, but only in Canada.) It's about a guy with an anxiety disorder, and his relationship with his therapist. At work our anxiety dude has an asshole coworker. He's East Indian. But the reason he's funny is that you recognize him as The Office Asshat. Yes he has an accent, so when he comes and says "I've got the chit chats!" it's probably funnier; but it'd be funny without too.
Their boss is also East Indian, and in a wheelchair. He's a funny character. But funny because he's interesting--soft spoken, gentlemanly, whirring around the office in his electric wheelchair. He's filmed in a funny way.
The East Indianness of these two characters isn't ignored, they aren't whitewashed. But while they're more interesting because of it, they aren't funny because of it.
Here's another great example. You only need to watch 30 seconds to get the joke.
What's funny here isn't Peele's "flaming" performance, it's the juxtaposition between Peele's excitement about getting married, and Key's terror. Homosexuality is key to the joke, but anyone can relate to why it's funny.
I'm not saying humor that makes fun of people isn't ever funny. Some of the best humor in the world is insult humor. But when you're combining that with jokes about "the other" then you'd better be damned clever and damned funny. That takes Dave Chappelle brains, not Jeff Dunham. Most of the time immigrant/gay humor goes for the easy (read "lame") laugh.
More on this tomorrow.
2 comments:
I love how the "straight" guy in the couple just wanders off at the end. Very funny.
You are so right. I never have understood the whole "color-blindness" that the PC crowd pushes. I have friends down here who are very black; how could I not notice they are black? That would be silly. And I am very white, not just in color but in perspective. I have to ask questions. It's good to recognize everyone's difference and accept it. It's okay to key humor to those differences, as long as it isn't malicious; make the humor inclusive rather than exclusive.
I look forward to tomorrow's post.
I'm reading this at work so I can't watch the video.
I used to dislike will and grace because the humor was always seated in stereotypical gay humor. I don't think that is funny or helpful to society at large.
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