Humor%20and%20Anthropology/%20Ethnic%20Humor

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Humor and Anthropology/Ethnic Humor

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

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Humor is Everywhere

• Anthropologist Mahadev Apte has observed that
• Not only does humor occur in all human cultures,
  it also pervades all aspects of human behavior,
  thinking, and sociocultural reality. It occurs
  in an infinite variety of forms and modalities.

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Both Folklorists and Anthropologists Study Humor

• Folklorist Elliott Oring has observed that
• Anthropology focuses on the concept of culture
  whereas folklore emphasizes the notion of
  tradition.
• Folklorists confront and study humor because a
  number of the traditions they studytales, songs,
  proverbsare humorous.
• In fact, jokes and other forms of humorous
  expression have come to be recognized as the
  pre-eminent form of folkloric expression in
  contemporary urban society.

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Kan Ghu Ru We dont understand!Some
anthropological findings are funny only in
retrospect because when cultures first interact,
there are bound to be mistakes .
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One of the earliest and most famous mistakes was
when Christopher Columbus named Native Americans
Indians because he thought he had come to India.
These two photos illustrate one of many cultural
differences even 500 years later.
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As the world becomes smaller through technology
and travel, such mistakes are less common as
ordinary people make efforts to learn about other
cultures. Here a girl in one of our classes
tries on an Afghan chaderi (a burka) and then
folds it back when getting reading to serve
Afghan food
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In another example of cultural differences, when
the ISHS humor conferences are held in the United
States, we use the smiley face on the left, but
when in 2012 it was held in Poland, the
organizers used a face like the right one.
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Common Ethnic Metaphors Based on the Colors of
RED, YELLOW, and BROWN.

• In Asian Am. communities, the most common slurs
  are not such terms as Chink or Jap, but
  FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) or white-washed,
  meaning too assimilated.
• Kids who do not assimilate drive cars dubbed as
  Rice Rockets, and their pastimes and clothes
  are likely to be Asian.

• A Twinkie is a person yellow on the outside,
  white on the inside.
• Native Americans call other Indians Apples if
  they are red on the outside but white on the
  inside.
• African Americans call other Blacks Oreos if
  they judge them to be brown on the outside but
  white on the inside.

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Harold and Kumar Portray Ethnic Stereotypes

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vy_NOc6yH5JY

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Further Complications Connected to Chinese
Ethnicity

• Chinese writer Frank Chin 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 accused these writers of boldly faking
  Chinese fairy tales and childhood literature.
• Kingston responded, Sociologists have criticized
  me for not knowing myths and for distorting
  them.

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• Kingston has explained that 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.

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Christie Davies has made a chart showing the
joking targets in 28 different countries.
However, the ones given below are the most
recognizable

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

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Chinese Stereotypes

• MARGARET CHO TALKS ABOUT RACE
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vkc6mLwOa2Ig
• JO KOY Chinese People
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vGw_3O4f5smo

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Davies also says that

• 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.
  They live in small communities, or rural areas on
  the periphery of a nation, and are immigrants
  concentrated in blue-collar occupations. There
  is no evidence that the targets are stupid, but
  they occupy stupid locations.

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• Also, the marginalized groups learn about the
  mainstream groups, but the mainstream groups
  remain ignorant of the marginalized groups.
• The joke tellers identify with the target groups
  by seeing them as comically stupid versions of
  themselves.
• The best joking relationship between two groups
  is when the groups exhibit both attachment and
  separation, along with social conjunction and
  social disjunction.

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IS ETHNIC HUMOR A SWORD OR A SHIELD

• Depending on its context, humor can be offensive
  (aimed at ridiculing a group different from the
  joke tellers).
• But humor can also be defensive (aimed at
  protecting a group from ridicule).
• Or it can be both at the same time.

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An INSIDERS-vs.-OUTSIDERSExample

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

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EXPLANATION

• 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.

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• 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.

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White-People Stereotypes

• DAVE CHAPELLE White People
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v6uvg-ug9CvE

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Legal Issues

• An Arizona Republic headline (7-26-2012) read
  Arpaio assistant takes heat at trial. Sheriff
  Joe Arpaio and his deputies were being tried in
  Federal Court for discrimination against
  Hispanics and for inaccurate or false
  interpretations of federal immigration law.
• Sgt. Brett Palmer admitted forwarding racially
  insensitive e-mails to other deputies and members
  of the human-smuggling unit. One was a cartoon
  of a Hispanic man passed out near a bottle of
  tequila with the caption Mexican Yoga.
• Pratt said he regretted sending the e-mails,
  but he considered them to be jokes (our
  underlining).

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An Old, More Generalized, Joke Based on 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.
• What are some differences between this joke and
  the ones the Deputy Sheriff sent out?

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What to do about such jokes?

• Christie Davies says, that 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.

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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.

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Most of the Success Is in the Telling

• Most good joke-tellers do not memorize jokes.
• They simply remember the punch-line, the theme of
  the joke and possibly a couple of particularly
  clever lines.
• And then they RE-INVENT the story by putting in
  local color and adapting it to something that has
  recently happened. Arizonas congressman, Morris
  Udall, was a master at this kind of adaptation.

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Robert Priests M.I.C.H. Theory

• A psychologist at West Point Military Academy
  proposed 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.

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Univ. of Maryland Scholar Larry Mintz has
described stages that immigrants go through as
they adapt to the majority culture.

• Critical humor targeting their own ethnic group
  (e.g. Harpo Marx)
• Self-deprecatory humor including themselves in
  the targeted ethnic group (e.g. Chico Marx)
• Realistic humor as part of accepting integration
  (e.g. Groucho Marx)
• Critical humor targeting mainstream culture (e.g.
  Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Mel Brooks)

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RADIO ETHNICITY

• During the golden age of radio, ethnic voices
  were especially important in helping listeners
  know who was speaking.
• One radio show which ran during the 1940s was
  named 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!

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• The writer of the show, 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.

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Basic Principles to Keep in Mind 1. Someones
elses ethnicity does not seem nearly as
important as our own.

• Most people are happy to develop their ethnic
  awareness through their stomachs.
• The appreciation of ethnic humor correlates with
  how much we know about, and identify with, the
  joke target

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4. Even within the United States we have
cultural differences as shown on this
decorative map at a U.S. Egg restaurant where
the egg shells are decorated with
stereotypical images of different parts of the
country.

1. Humor is a tool that can be used either for
   building up or tearing down relationships.
2. Today, people are more sensitive when they hear
   jokes, and tellers need to be aware that a
   particular joke can travel much further than the
   immediate environment.

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• Toward the end of his career, Groucho Marx
  worried about talented comedians who would soon
  be out of work because dialect humor was out of
  fashion.
• Charlie Chans pidgin English disappeared from
  the airwaves and so did Tontos manly grunting.
• Children no longer read El Gordo comic strips and
  both Beaulah and Amos n Andy are gone.
• Bill Dana gave up telling jokes through the voice
  of his popular Jose Jimenez character and
  Frito-lay discontinued its Frito Bandito
  commercials.

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• Larry Wilde, a professional comedian who came to
  our humor conferences said that jokes are 25
  funnier if they are tied to an ethnic group.
• He claimed this made them more specific and
  therefore funnier, but he got lots of
  disagreement.
• Today, what techniques, besides making characters
  come from different ethnic groups do script
  writers use to help people distinguish between
  particular characters as on Sesame Street or in
  cartoons?