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 By Jack Lepiarz Oct. 11, 2006 I know that this is a little late, but I'd like to share an interesting observation I recently had regarding the new season of "Survivor." You know, the one where they split up the four teams based on their ethnicity? This came about about five minutes ago. I had just finished watching the Daily Show and the Colbert Report, and on comes Carlos Mencia on the show "Mind of Mencia." Now, I've watched the show several times before today, and I'm quite familiar with Mencia's style of comedy--that is, incessantly joking about racial stereotypes in a desperate attempt to re-create the success of "Chappelle's Show." After about three minutes of watching Carlos Mencia, I found that the sheer quantity of bad racial jokes was starting to annoy me, and so I turned it off. But then I got to thinking: Why is it that no one cares if Carlos Mencia does everything in his power to reinforce racial stereotypes, but there's a huge media uproar if Mark Burnett decides to make a show that simply pits teams of similar racial origin against one another? Where's the justice in that? Some may argue that it's okay in Mencia's case, because he makes jokes about race, and it's simply to lighten the mood and make people ease up about race. That's fine, there are two fundamental problems with Mencia's case. First, it's not all about comedy. It's about Comedy Central wanting to make money. Think about it: Dave Chappelle quits "Chappelle's Show," a show that largely poked fun at racial stereotypes (hosted by a black man), and not 6 months later, its replaced by "Mind of Mencia," a show hosted by a hispanic man who tries to poke fun at racial stereotypes. Think about it. Secondly, the jokes on "Mind of Mencia" go too far. A minor racial joke for shock value here and there is fine, but all that Carlos Mencia does is call himself a "beaner" and work to reinforce every single stereotype. He even had a sketch called "The Racial Olympics," which pitted various ethnicities against each in competitions that (big surprise) dealt with each race's stereotype. If nobody cares about that, then why do they care about Mark Burnett having four racial teams compete against each other? This nation has an obsession with race. There is no better way to describe it than an all-out obsession. People will play the race card in places where it has no relevance ("Chappelle's Show" actually did a skit dealing with that issue). At the same time, however, people seem to have no qualms about ignoring blatant racism for fear of being branded a racist themselves. That's not right. Making jokes about race is all right as long as it doesn't go overboard. But when you find yourself making the same recycled jokes for every punch line, then you're going overboard, and it's time to take another look at your show, and see if you're really presenting the point that you'd like to make. Carlos Mencia's constant reinforcing of racial stereotypes is doing nothing than making each culture seem more different, which is the opposite of what he should be doing. Dave Chappelle made jokes about stereotypes that made fun of them. Carlos Mencia makes jokes about stereotypes that only make them seem even more valid. And that is wack, dawg. ------------ About the author: Jack Lepiarz is an 18-year-old college student at Emerson College in Boston. He also co-hosts the Katherine and Jack Show on UthTV.com and has been performing various circus talents for the past several years. Though often described as stubborn and egotistical, he tries to keep an open mind and treat others the way he would like to be treated. Email: Jackwuzhere42@aol.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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