When we watched “The Gang Gets Racist” on It's Always Sunday in Philadelphia, it made me think about episodes dealing with race in television comedies where the cast is not too diverse in racial makeup. In what I assume is a similarly targeted demographic, I compared this episode to what I have seen of The League in its current season. I have only seen the first six episodes of the second season, so my ideas could change as a result, but this is what I have noticed so far.
The main characters in The League, Pete, Kevin, Ruxin, Andre, Taco, and Katie are all white. The one character across both seasons that has a more unique ethnic background is Sofia, Ruxin's wife; I am not sure where her family origins are supposed to be in the show, but the actress herself is of Puerto Rican descent. Her character is minor and not developed much throughout the series, though.
So, in general, there is not much diversity in the show. And, to me, it is strange when an episode like “The White Knuckler” comes about in that context. A brief summary is that Andre, a plastic surgeon, tries to make a business deal with another plastic surgeon, who is black. Towards the end of the episode, Andre holds a celebration as their partnership is about the begin. He writes something to the effect of “Whites Only” on a poster that people look at before entering the party, which is supposed to signify the color of dress attire, but Andre realizes his mistake when his friends point it out. Later on, Taco starts to sing a song in front of the audience, a good portion of whom are black, about his “naginata”, which without this audience understanding it refers to a martial arts weapon, sounds like he is using a racial slur in the context of his lyrics. The other plastic surgeon ends the business deal with Andre as a result. Those are just a couple of the stand out parts that dealt with race in the episode.
I am not sure what to think about this comedy dealing with race considering there is not much diversity on the show itself. I just thought it was interesting that the episode might come off differently if there were more positive representations of people of different ethnic backgrounds in the rest of the series. Because it does not, I think that episode gives off a little more of an uncomfortable vibe as a result.
3 comments:
I think it's interesting that the racial humor in "The Gang
Gets Racist" and "The White Knuckler" are very similar.
They both deal with white people becoming very awkward and dealing uncomfortably with race issues and people of other races. The humor for the audience comes from the fact that the main characters are 'accidentally' making racial faux pas and the uncomfortable results that follow.
There are multiple ways to interpret these jokes. The writers could just be going for the awkward situations= comedy formula. There is also the meaner interpretation that it is a way of making racial and stereotypical jokes that could be offensive, but are hidden by the character making the joke being ignorant. It cold also be a writer's plea that nobody is racist anymore, it is just perceptions of racism get overblown out of proportion.
These multiple interpretations could all be wrong or all be right, and just proves the polysemic nature of television
I think both Danny and Jamie bring up interesting points about how all-white casts take on race issues.
Both of the shows are on FX, which has come to be known as a channel that pushes boundaries. As a viewer of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, I believe the show's intent is to be social (and sometimes political) commentary. It satirizes stigmatic issues such as child abuse, abortion, and foreign affairs.
I think Danny's point is somewhat valid-- that this show may serve as "a writer's plea that nobody is racist any more." I have seen and read various interviews with the creators of this show, and they seem very intelligent and hold the opinion that racism is extremely stupid.
While I think some people appreciate the thoughtfulness with which the program creates these commentaries, I don't feel that most of the audience actually thinks about meaning of the jokes within the context of society.
For example, an episode entitled, "Charlie Gets Molested," is meant to highlight the ridiculousness of false child molestation charges. Yet like Danny brought up, I think that the audience is laughing at the "awkward situations" the characters put themselves into, which in this case is Charlie having to lie to his whole family and say that he was molested.
I think what a show like this (and really any satirical work) comes down to is presenting funny material over thoughtful material. Like we know from reading about Dave Chappelle, sometimes this line can get blurred and what we intend to as thoughtful commentaries only serve to reinforce harmful prejudices.
Let's say that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia actually does make people think about racism. Nonetheless, the show's ending joke is that Dennis has involuntarily had sex with two gay men. On the one hand, the episode is supposed to poke fun at racism, but reinforces ideas about gay sex being undesirable. To me, there is not much commentary here other than "karma's a bitch."
It's tempting to judge this show by its actions and not its words--the central and almost all of the peripheral cast is white. However, in the show's defense, I know that the creators were friends trying to start their own show and went on to cast themselves as the main characters. Furthermore, in my own experience as a stand-up comic and improviser, most of the other comedy actors I know are white males in their 20s and 30s, so the show could possibly just be representative of the available talent.
This issue is tough to resolve at best, but I do think it's good to have a discourse about a disconnect between the show's intentions and the audience's perceptions of the show.
I didn't see Jamie's comment before I also posted about that Chappelle article -- great minds...
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