Laughing at the contradictions of our times: Racial Issues in Stand-up Comedy

One could say racial issues are always a tough topic to bring up. Well except, in comedy. You've got so many great stand-up comedians who simply bring people to tears with their exaggerated stories, Chris Rock for one was so successful he had a TV show that was based around an autobiography of his childhood. In the same way, even Chef Eddie Huang has a hit family sitcom centred on his "Fresh off the Boat" Asian American family and constant jokes about their interactions with the white people of Orlando, Florida.

But have you realised a common recurring theme here? For real, you've got Black comics pulling the White people are crazy routine, Asian comics always telling Asian jokes but white comics never seem to really discuss race that much at all during their routines. Is it a form of double standardisation, and how does people of colour making fun of other races seem to be appropriate? There seems to be some borderline between what is racist and what isn't, but it clearly is not defined.

Perhaps the United States (let's be real here, all of us are slaves to American dominated entertainment) needs these comics for progressive reasons. Dave Chappelle is simply a legend when it comes to stand-up. Although it seems like this is just for shiggles, he is able to attack African American stereotypes and the entire ridiculousness of racial stereotyping by using humour to embody the very thing that he is against. In a famous skit, he portrays a crack-cocaine addicted junkie trying to give a talk to some students at school but instead teaches them how to get drugs. In a long term, this type of comedy socially criticises and makes viewers think about racial relationships.

On the other hand, what if this is done wrong and has the opposite effect. Bill Cosby, although not known for his good reputation nowadays, is a strong advocate against the use of the n-word in any context. His clean sense of humour is not entirely focused on race, yet he is consider a classic African American comedian with his roots in stand-up. With others such as Chris Rock, their overly focused humour on Black stereotypes is sometimes considered to be over the top and is actually treated as racist. His recent monologue at the Oscars sparked controversy as he made jokes about lynching, rape and child labour after bringing some little Asian kids on the stage.

I for one, find Jeff Dunham's ventriloquist humour crude and offensive, there does not seem to be any other reason for his comedy other than to make his puppets shout out that they're going to explode themselves every minute or so.

Russell Peters know what he's doing. Although making fun of every single race possible and mocking the n-word at certain instances. However, would he be funny if he did not make racial jokes?

There seems to be an existing racial hierarchy in the stand-up world and it leaves white comedians off limits of some jokes. If they were to for instance imitate a foreign accent incorrectly, it would be deemed as racist and comics of ethnic are somehow pressured to make race-related material.