Description
Book SynopsisWhen wielded by the white majority, ethnic humor can be used to ridicule and demean marginalized groups. In the hands of ethnic minorities themselves, ethnic humor can work as a site of community building and resistance. David Gillota explores the ways in which contemporary comic works both reflect and participate in national conversations about race and ethnicity.
Trade Review“A valuable addition to the field,
Ethnic Humor in Multiethnic America makes a fresh and compelling argument with fascinating readings of many performers and comic routines in stand-up, film, and television.” -- Joyce Antler * Brandeis University *
"A fascinating comparative study of contemporary ethnic humor in popular culture, illuminating the truth that ethnic groups are made and unmade not in isolation, but in dynamic relation to each other." -- Michele Elam * author of The Souls of Mixed Folk: Race, Politics, and Aesthetics in the New Millennium *
"Using comic performance—stand-up, situation comedy, animated television series, and children's films—Gillota looks at the impact of diversity on humor. Recommended."
* Choice *
"Gillota’s work is an important contribution to a growing body of scholarship on the serious business of comedy. His work makes a strong case as to why it is necessary to analyze a particular society’s humor if one seeks to understand its values and the ways in which its history continues to shape its culture today." * Journal of American Ethnic History *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction: The Boundaries of American Ethnic Humor
1. "Just Us": African American Humor in Multiethnic America
2. The New Jewish Blackface: Ethnic Anxiety in Contemporary Jewish Humor
3. "Cracker, Please!": Toward a White Ethnic Humor
4. Imagining Diversity: Corporate Multiculturalism in the Children's Film and the Situation Comedy
5. Comedy with Borders?: Toward a Multiethnic Humor
Notes
Index
