ETHNIC HUMOR See also

1
ETHNIC HUMORSee also African American
EnglishCultural Diversity Indian- American
HumorJewish Humorand Spanish-American
Contrasts

• by Don L. F. Nilsen
• and Alleen Pace Nilsen

2
ETHNIC HUMOR AS SWORD OR SHIELD

• Depending on its context, humor can be offensive
  (aimed at ridicule of an ethnic group),
• Or it can be defensive (aimed at protecting a
  group from ridicule),
• Or it can be both at the same time.
• (Rappoport 2)

3
ETHNIC STEREOTYPES

• HEAVEN is the place where the cooks are French,
  the police are English, the mechanics are German,
  the lovers are Italian, and everything is
  organized by the Swiss.
• HELL is where the cooks are English, the police
  are German, the mechanics are French, the lovers
  are Swiss, and everything is organized by the
  Italians.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 162)

4

• Many jokes contain ethnic stereotypes.
• Christie Davies says, To become angry about such
  jokes and to seek to censor them because they
  impinge on sensitive issues is about as sensible
  as smashing a thermometer because it reveals how
  hot it is.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 116)

5
ETHNIC VS. POLITICAL JOKES

• Alan Dundes says that Americans have more ethnic
  than political jokes because America has a free
  press where politicians and politics are
  lambasted on a daily basis.
• Americans therefore have little need for oral
  political jokes.
• But because people are often uncomfortable
  discussing such subjects as sexuality or racism,
  these tend to become the hidden subjects of joke
  cycles.
• (Nilsen Nilsen)

6
INSIDERS VS. OUTSIDERS

• Why arent Jews concerned about the abortion
  controversy?
• Because they dont consider a fetus viable until
  after it graduates from medical school.

7

• If the tellers or listeners of this joke are
  gentiles, it may be anti-semitic, criticizing
  Jews as being overly ambitious and arrogant.
• But if the tellers or listeners are Jews, it may
  be an expression of Jewish pride and the
  extraordinarily high standards of child rearing.
• (Rappoport 2)

8

• When a group member tells an ethnic or religious
  joke, it opens the door for inner-group
  communication and invites group members to
  examine their attitudes and behavior.
• But if outsiders tell the same joke, the effect
  is the opposite, because the outsider focuses on
  the groups most obvious characteristics and
  implies that these characteristics belong to
  everyone in the group.
• Because outsiders have little power to bring
  about internal change, the effect is to
  stereotype the group, and this lessens the
  chances for change.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 117)

9
JOKE TARGETS

• Americans consider Poles, Italians, and
  Portuguese stupid, and Jews, Scots, New
  Englanders and Iowans as canny.
• Canadians consider Newfies as stupid and Jews,
  Scots and Nova Scotians as canny.
• Mexicans consider people from Yucatan as stupid
  and people from Monterey as canny.
• Nigerians consider Hausas as stupid and the Ibos
  as canny.
• The English, Welsh and French consider the Irish,
  Belgians and Swiss as stupid, and the Scots and
  Jews as canny.
• (Davies 8)

10
M.I.C.H.

• Robert Priest, a psychologist at West Point
  Military Academy, has proposed what he calls the
  MICH Theory of Moderate Intergroup Conflict
  Humor.
• He says that people will not use humor with each
  other unless there is some kind of tension or
  strong feeling.
• However, when feelings go beyond the moderate
  level then humor exacerbates, rather than helps a
  negative situation.
• Therefore, the most amusing jokes are usually
  found in the middle ranges, because this is where
  the hostility does not overpower the humor.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 116, 293)

11
LARRY MINTZS STAGES OF ETHNIC HUMOR

• Critical Humor Targeting the Ethnic Group (e.g.
  Harpo Marx)
• Self-Deprecatory Humor about the Ethnic Group
  (e.g. Chico Marx)
• Realistic Humor Accepting Integration (e.g.
  Groucho Marx)
• Critical Humor Targeting Mainstream Culture (e.g.
  Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks)
• (Boskin and Dorinson 167)
• (Nilsen Nilsen 116)

12
RADIO ETHNICITY

• During the golden age of radio, ethnic voices
  were fun to hear.
• One radio which ran during the 1940s was entitled
  Allens Alley, and featured Fred Allen.
• There was a loudmouth Irishman named Ajax
  Cassidy, a farmer named Titus Moody, and a
  pompous Southerner named Senator Beauregard
  Claghorn, whose signature line was thats a
  joke, son!

13

• Kenny Delmar modeled the Claghorn character after
  a Texas rancher who had given Delmar a ride in
  his Model-T ford.
• Even today there is a Warner Brothers cartoon
  character by the name of Foghorn Leghorn who is
  modeled after Beauregard Claghorn.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 102)

14
TARGETS OF ETHNIC HUMOR

• The most common targets of ethnic humor, live on
  the geographical, economic, or linguistic edge of
  the society or culture where the jokes are told,
  live in small communities, or rural areas on the
  periphery of a nation, are immigrants
  concentrated in blue-collar occupations. There
  is no evidence that the targets are stupid, but
  they occupy stupid locations.
• (Davies 10)

15
AFRICAN-AMERICAN ETHNICITY

• See PowerPoint on African-American Humor.

16
CHINESE ETHNICITY

• Chinese writer Frank Chin has criticized Maxine
  Hong Kingston for Woman Warrior, Amy Tan for The
  Joy Luck Club, and David Henry Hwang for his
  plays F.O.B., and M. Butterfly.
• He accuses these writers of boldly faking
  Chinese fairy tales and childhood literature.

17

• Kingston responded, Sociologists have criticized
  me for not knowing myths and for distorting
  them.
• In China, pirates illegally translate her books
  for publication in Taiwan and China.
• These pirates correct her myths, and revise
  them to make them conform to traditional Chinese
  versions.
• They dont understand that myths have to change,
  be useful or be forgotten.
• Like the people who carry them across oceans,
  the myths become American.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 117)

18
GERMAN ETHNICITY

• Between 1931 and 1936 The Jack Pearl Show was on
  radio. Baron von Munchausen was the central
  figure in a running skit.
• The Baron spoke with a strong German accent that
  contrasted with the ordinary language of Charlie.

19

• BARON Und dere in frundt off me wuz a green
  elephant.
• SHARLIE Now wait a minute, Baron do you mean
  to tell me you actuallyl saw a green elephant?
• BARON (with great indignation) Vas you dere,
  Sharlie?
• (Nilsen Nilsen 102)

20
INDIAN ETHNICITY

• See PowerPoint on Indian Humor.

21
IRISH ETHNICITY

• Since Irish humor developed out of the oral
  tradition (the telling of jokes and stories in
  Irish pubs), it is very epiphenal in nature.
• Like Jewish humor, Irish humor developed out of
  pain and tragedy that resulted in a diaspora.

22

• Irish humor, like Jewish humor, contains much
  wordplay, and like Jewish humor, much of Irish
  wordplay is bilingual and/or bicultural, relating
  to both the Gaelic/Celtic and to the English
  language and culture.
• Many Irish, like many Jews, are trying to
  reestablish their roots, and it is the humor in
  Irish written and oral literature that is helping
  them to do so.
• (Nilsen Humor in Irish Literature xv)

23
ITALIAN ETHNICITY

• In the late 1970s, comedian Don Novello spoke
  with an Italian accent and dressed in clerical
  garb when doing comedy skits about Father Guido
  Sarducci.
• He was a hit on Saturday Night Live and on The
  Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, but when he went
  to the Vatican to pose for publicity photos he
  was arrested for impersonating a priest.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 115)

24
JEWISH ETHNICITY

• See PowerPoint on Jewish Humor.

25
RUSSIAN ETHNICITY

• Russian immigrant Yakov Smirnoff entertained
  Americans through the cold war and beyond with
  such jokes as,
• I have a Russian Express Card. It says, Dont
  Leave Home! and
• One of the biggest differences between America
  and Russia is that in America you can always find
  a party, but in Russia, the party always finds
  you.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 115)

26
SCANDINAVIAN ETHNICITY

• Garrison Keillor exploits Scandinavian
  stereotypes in his Lake Wobegon.
• Swedish flu is the usual flu with chills, fever,
  diarrhea, vomiting, achiness, but its
  accompanied by an overpowering urge to put things
  in order.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 116)

27
SCOTTISH HUMOR

• Whats the difference between a poor Scotsman, a
  rich Scotsman and an old Scotsman?
• A poor Scotsman has a can o pee under the bed.
• A rich scotsman has a canopy over the bed.
• And an old Scotsman can na pee at all.

28
SPANISH-AMERICAN ETHNICITY

• See PowerPoint on Spanish-American Humor.

29
CONCLUSION

• We must keep some basic principles in mind as we
  look at ethnic humor
• Someone elses ethnic identification does not
  seem as important as does our own.
• The appreciation of ethnic humor correlates with
  how much we know about, and identify with, the
  joke target.

30

• !
• Humor is a tool that can be used either for
  building up or tearing down relationships.
• A joke told by a member of the targeted group is
  quite different from the same joke when it is
  told by an outsider.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 118)

31

• !!
• We must also be aware that ethnic humor now has
  an edge it didnt used to have. Toward the end
  of his career, Groucho Marx began to worry about
  some of the most talented comedians he knew who
  would soon be out of work because dialect humor
  was falling out of fashion.

32

• !!!
• The inscrutable Charlie Chans pidgin English
  disappeared from the airwaves and so did Tontos
  manly grunting.
• Children no longer read El Gordo comic strips,
  and both Beulah and Amos n Andy disappeared.
• In 1970, Bill Dana gave up telling jokes through
  the voice of his popular Jose Jimenez character,
  and Frito-Lay discontinued its Frito Bandito
  commercials.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 103)

33

• Web Site
• Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor.
  http//www.greenwood.com/catalog/OXHUMOR.aspx

34

• References 1
• Belois, Nathan. The Evolution and Function of
  Ethnic Humor. Tempe, AZ ASU LIN 515 Research
  Paper, May 1, 2006.
• Boskin, Joseph, ed. The Humor Prism in
  Twentieth-Century America Detroit, MI Wayne
  State University Press, 1997.
• Boskin, Joseph, and Joseph Dorinson. Racial and
  Ethnic Humor (Mintz 163-193).
• Davies, Christie. Ethnic Humor around the World
  A Comparative Analysis. Bloomington, IN Indiana
  Univ Press, 1990.
• Dundes, Alan. Cracking Jokes Studies of Sick
  Humor Cycles and Stereotypes. Berkeley, CA Ten
  Speed Press, 1987.

35

• References 2
• Mintz, Lawrence E. ed. Humor in America A
  Research Guide to Genres and Topics. Westport,
  CT Greenwood Press, 1988.
• Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen.
  Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor.
  Westport, CT Greenwood, 2000.
• Nilsen, Don L. F. Humor in Irish Literature A
  Reference Guide. Westport, CT Greenwood Press,
  1996.
• Rappoport, Leon. Punchlines The Case for Racial,
  Ethnic, and Gender Humor. Westport, CT Prager,
  2005.
• Rogin, Michael. Blackface, White Noise Jewish
  Immigrants in the Hollywood Melting Pot Berkeley,
  CA University of California Press, 1996.
• Winokur, Mark. American Laughter Immigrants,
  Ethnicity, and 1930s Hollywood Film Comedy New
  York, NY St. Martins Press, 1996.