ethnic comedy essays

ethnic comedy essays Comedy is a social activity, which services social conflict and social control. It has the ability to unify or disintegrate social groups. It can release tensions, anxieties and provide a non-violent outlet for dissent. No single theory can explain what humor is or how it works. Comedians are privileged to be in a position to disregard societies boundaries and challenge its conventions and taboos. They step out of the audiences comfort zones often bordering on tastelessness, and the audience finds this funny. We feel there is great humor that can result from pointing out our cultural and historical differences and often others misfortunes. In todays times the general consensus is that this can be done without demeaning any one group of people. Ethnic humor while not always accepted as being politically correct has long been a part of comedy tradition. As with any comedy the basis of ethnic comedy is to identify and ridicule the shortcomings of human nature. Comedians who perform ethnic comedy are rarely poking fun at anothers culture their source material is taken from their own background. One basic reason for this is they are familiar with the territory. Take any specific event and the comedic possibilities of that event, it could be the Country Music Awards, the Arias or a Council meeting, in coming up with comedy in those settings you are bound to come up with stereotypical jokes about each of them. Its only normal, people laugh at what they know. Ethnic humor echos the concerns and feelings of a particular group, these can be concerns that are common to all groups although the expression may be different. It has been said that this type of comedy is used as a means of facing fear, dread and anguish while affirming the self and its absurd aspirations. It reveals that the stereotypes, emanating from the larger society, are not only understood by the ethnic group, ...