In this clip from For What It’s Worth, Dave Chappelle discusses stereotypes in what different races and ethnicities eat and drink. Moreover, in discussing his own race, Chappelle embraces and appropriates the stereotypes of African Americans and their food.
After questioning why anyone would ever make fun of someone for liking chicken and watermelon, Chappelle goes on to say that no one can make fun of white people’s food because no one really knows what white people like to eat; apparently we have been good at keeping that shit a secret. Chappelle, however, claims that he has been doing independent research and has found out what white people love: grape juice.
At this point, Chappelle does not really elaborate on white people’s love for grape juice, but rather, states that a lot of black people have not had the privilege of knowing about grape juice, but instead, are quite familiar with grape drink. The difference, according to Chappelle, is that drink does not have any vitamins, which has no effect on black people’s love for their drink. In fact, Chappelle makes up a hypothetical situation in which a white guy asks his black friend if he would care for some grape juice, which leads to the black guy saying “I want some grape drink, baby”.
Chappelle furthers his argument that black people love their drink by reminiscing about a Sunny-D commercial. In this commercial, all the kids jump for joy as they find out that there is some Sunny-D in the fridge, but Chappelle claims there is one black kid in the background licking his lips who whispers “I want that purple stuff”.
This clip is not only hilarious, but also is interesting as Chappelle is able to create laughs with out having to explain anything to the crowd. Further, the underlying point of the drink bit is that drink is much cheaper than juice, but Chappelle does not explain this, rather, it appears that he and the crowd have a mutual understanding about drink. While some may look at drink as inferior to juice, Chappelle appropriates and makes fun of grape drink’s deliciousness, which only has three ingredients: sugar, water, and purple.
In this clip from “Never Scared”, Chris Rock uses different functions of humor to discuss the inconsistencies in how the United States deals with illegal drugs compared to prescription drugs in an entertaining fashion.
Rock starts off by debating the validity of the government’s justification for outlawing drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. While not a direct quote from any government official, Rock states that these drugs are illegal because the government is trying to protect our society. However, Rock shoots down this reasoning as he points out that one can buy a gun at Wal-Mart. As Rock uses a hasty generalization by saying that “the government doesn’t give a fuck about your safety”, the crowd still reacts in agreement as they can relate to this inconsistency.
Much of this piece is revolved around Rock establishing common ground with his audience so they can identify with each other. A perfect example of this occurs when Rock talks about the absurdity of prescription drug commercials. As Rock points out their vagueness and irrelevant imagery, the crowd can relate as these commercials are prevalent. Moreover, as we discussed in class, much to Lynne Cheney’s dismay, television commercials are frequently a common knowledge in our society, opposed to theater and literature.
Although Rock does not say this explicitly, he implies that it is all a matter of money, and that the government wants us hooked on their drugs, and if they were the best at making the “bad” drugs, they would want us to be hooked on them, too. To make his point, Rock uses incongruity to imagine how the economy would incorporate marijuana and cocaine into our society: Weedbucks, McCoco’s, and Cracky Cremes. Rock uses identification once again here as he talks about how good Crispy Cremes doughnuts are-- no one would be surprised if they found out they were made with crack.
This is an interesting clip as Rock’s references to Wal-Mart, prescription drugs, and Crispy Cremes clearly illustrate Ted Cohen’s theory that many jokes are conditional; “they will only work on condition that the audience has both the knowledge and information processing ability to understand them”. While one may still find Rock funny by other intangibles such as his delivery, or seeing truth in what he is saying, the cultural references that Rock makes help create laughs.
