Salgado 1

Elias Salgado
AP Language and Composition
Period 2
Positively Funny
Although stereotyping is wrong, it is still used today in a positive, humoristic way. You
may think to yourself, how can something so negative turn into something positive? Well
personally I believe that humor is a power tool that can alleviate the negative thoughts or ideas
on stereotyping. Even today comedians, movies and television shows from all over the world try
to alleviate the pressure of stereotyping. But yet why do we still think its funny? Maybe its
because some of the stereotypes might be true but theyre just over exaggerated and emphasized
to the max.
This weekend I was watching a movie called the End of Watch (Source A) and the movie
is based on two cops that fight crime in the streets on Los Angeles. (If you want to watch it just
letting you know they drop the F-Bomb a lot so just be aware) but anyway the two main
characters are two cops whose names are Brian Taylor and Miguel Zavala. Brian is Caucasian
and Miguel is Mexican American. These two guys are clearly best friends throughout the movie.
During the film Brian is single and is looking for that special girl and his partner Miguel tried to
set him up with someone. But yet this wouldnt be the first time Miguel tries to set him up. In the
past trying to help out Brian with his women problem, it hasnt gone so well. Miguel keeps on
inviting Brian to his nieces quinceneras to find women but they never go right. (A quincenera is
a special birthday celebration when a young Spanish girl turns 15 and enters the new world of
being a young women). So Miguel offers Brian again to go to another quincenera but he refuses
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and then makes fun of the quincenera tradition and also makes fun of Mexican women on how
they talk and how they approach him. Then Miguel makes fun of him for being too boring and
what not so therefore he brings up how Caucasian people love to drink coffee and how they
always drink and talk coffee. Although stereotyping is wrong it can still be considered funny.
During the movie Malibus Most Wanted (Source C) B-Rad who is Caucasian acts like
a gangster when hes really not. His fathers name is Bill Gluckman who is a Jewish senator for
Malibu, California. Bill Gluckman is trying to be reelected fir governor but B-Rad is ruining
his chances of doing so. Since B-Rad acts very gangster, Bill Gluckman campaign team
members decide to hire two guys to take B-Rad through the ghetto to scare him and to scare
scare him white. These two guys that have been hired to scare B-Rad white are named Sean
and PJ who are both young and educated African American males. They know nothing about the
ghetto. But before taking on this mission Sean aka Bloodbath gets quite angry because he
wishes that he wouldnt have to be a thug. He rather play an important role in a movie or play
with characters that arent thugs. Heres an example of stereotyping because Bill Gluckman
campaign team purposely hired two African American male actors to do this job. But yet again
the stereotype ends up creating humor for the viewers and the audience.
I would think almost everyone today have been accused of stereotyping before. I know I
have. I tend to tell the only joke I know by heart to everyone I possibly can. Which is kind of
ironic because its a Mexican joke (If you didnt know Im Mexican as well) but the joke goes
like thisWhat do you call two Mexicans playing basketball? Juan on Juan! For some reason
that joke always gets me, its beyond cheesy. But I realized when I tell that joke Im making fun
of my own culture and the television show Everybody Hates Chris (Source B) does exactly that.
Everybody Hates Chris is a show based on a young African American boy growing up in
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Brooklyn, New York and examples of stereotyping is all around his environment. Also
throughout the sitcome Chris (narrarated by comedian Chris Rock) is often using stereotyping as
humor. While watching a video clip (Racial Profiling) there was a perfect example of
stereotyping. There was a crime scene taking place and the witness is describing to the officer
how the bad guy looked like, the witness said the bad guy was black. Then the officer could
only think of the guy as a black man, with black shoes, with black hair. Its quite obvious that the
police officer was stereotyping the bad guy in the situation to be clearly a black guy.
I guess its tough being an Iranian American part of me thinks I should have a nuclear
program, the other part thinks I cant be trusted with one (Jobrani). Maz Jobrani is an Iranian
American comedian and what he ties to do is to break stereotypes and to bring middle
easterners in a positive light with his stand up. Although he does make fun of his own culture he
tries to alleviate the societal pressure of being Iranian with humor. During his ted talk he
stereotypes his whole story. In a part of his story he mentions that he travels all around the world
with hi stand up. So when hes in a mall in India a random man tries to sell him frozen yogurt by
the gram its like a drug business said Jobrani. But then he asks the man where he got it from
and the Indian man answered Colombia top of the line, good stuff then he tries to make it seem
like its real drugs that the man is selling. But here Max Jobrani uses a simple stereotypical
situation as a joke.
Overall, stereotyping is presented in a negative way at first but yet with the help of humor
stereotyping can be turned into something negative into something positively funny. Without
humor in stereotyping I believe stereotyping would be a bigger problem then is it today. Its
good to see the funny side of this situation.
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Work Cited
Source A End of Watch Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Watch>

Source B "Everybody Hates Chris." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 18
Feb. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Hates_Chris>.

Jobrani, Maz. "Did You Hear the One about the Iranian-American?" TED: Ideas worth
Spreading. Ted.com, Aug. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/maz_jobrani_make_jokes_not_bombs.html>.

Source C Malibus Most Wanted Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 18
Feb. 2013. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malibus_Most_Wanted>






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Work Consulted
End of Watch Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/End_of_Watch> . When watching the End of Watch I believed that
it could help me with this debate on stereotyping. From Brian and Miguel making fun of each
others cultures like when Brian makes fun of the quincenera and the way Spanish girls talk. And
when Miguel makes fun of Brian for being boring and judging that white Caucasian people only
talk about coffee. From this source I learned obviously stereotyping is wrong but yet it can be
used in a proper positive matter.
"Everybody Hates Chris." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody_Hates_Chris>.. When I was looking for a clip on
youtube for stereotyping I thought to myself that this show has plenty of stereotyping. If you
have time I got my information from the clip called everyone hates chris- racial profiling. I
saw this clip on youtube and I honestly thought it was funny but it was also a perfect example I
could use for stereotyping debate.
Jobrani, Maz. "Did You Hear the One about the Iranian-American?" TED: Ideas worth
Spreading. Ted.com, Aug . 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/maz_jobrani_make_jokes_not_bombs.html>. This was my ted talk. I
chose this because it was the funniest ted talk I could find. And it did make me laugh. When we
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were in the computer lab some people were just staring at me like I was some weirdo. But with
this cite I learned and found out that humor can alleviate stereotyping. I thought that if you laugh
at yourself a little it would alleviate the stereotyping.

Malibus Most Wanted Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Feb. 2013. Web. 18 Feb.
2013.< http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malibus_Most_Wanted>. This movie was perfect for
stereotyping. Its about a wana-be Caucasian gangster known as B-Rad who thinks is super
tough but hes really not. He lives in Malibu. Not in the ghetto. His father is a Jewish senator
trying to run for governor but B-Rad is in his way of doing so. So his fathers campaign team
hire two African American males to take this guy into the ghetto but yet those two African
American males dont know nothing about the ghetto. Then both of them get mad because they
dont want to have acting jobs as thugs. They want to play an important role in a movie instead.