14 Naturalizing Racial Differences Through Comedy: Asian, Black, and White Views on Racial Stereotypes in Rush Hour 2 (2006)

This essay will ask you to consider the ways in which comedy uses stereotypes about race and ethnicity to produce humor and whether that humor is potentially dangerous or problematic in its portrayal of racial stereotypes. As we know, humor is very social in the ways it works to create bonds between people who share it and the ways it can be used to ridicule and exclude those who don’t. You’ve probably all heard someone talk about the difference between laughing with someone and laughing at someone. That difference can be very important but also very difficult to identify when it comes to racial humor. This essay asks the question: how do we identify the difference between humor that critiques racist stereotypes and humor that reinforces racist stereotypes? To answer that question, it examines the role that stereotypes play in the film Rush Hour 2. Through their analysis of the movie, and some audience responses, the authors question whether humor that is based in racial stereotypes challenges those stereotypes or reinforces them.

This essay is available on E-Reserve through the TCC Library.