the time they parodied that homophobic cowboy on The Daily Show last year ... Boy, did they make the latter look like a fool, too. I'm sorry I didn't TiVo that and save it for posterity. It was some truly funny business. And better than anything anyone currently at SNL could write in their wildest dreams.
I think I saw that one, Barb! Was it an older guy, maybe 70ish, who objected to a gay rodeo? And the Daily Show reporter was playing along, and ridiculing the gay rodeoer for only being able to stay on the bull for 8 seconds, and then (long pause) the old guy had to grudgingly admit that was pretty good?
Which brings us back to the larger question: Why is it the Daily Show can be funny for an entire half hour, four days a week, while SNL can't manage to be funny for even ONE half hour, ONCE a week?
I guess I'm finding myself wondering whether any humor based on a stereotype ever really destroys that stereotype, or just ends up reinforcing it? Or maybe it only works when a character who clearly believes in the stereotype is made to look like a fool, like Archie Bunker?
Well, Sarah Silverman's comic persona is sort of an edgier, 21st-century version of Archie Bunker. As is the character of Michael on The Office. (And I suppose Borat? I haven't seen that movie.) Maybe they don't demolish stereotypes, but they sure make them look foolish.
But the OTHER kind, the stereotype reinforcing kind, does something else I was thinking about this morning. (While riding my stationary bike! You're not the only one who comes up with good ideas while away from the computer, Jeff!
) I watch both "My Name is Earl" and "The Office" with my sons, who are 10 and 12. When the stereotype-reinforcing gay characters on Earl come on, one thing that makes me uncomfortable is the worry that my sons will get the idea that that's what being gay is. Whereas in episodes of The Office dealing with gayness and homophobia, the gay coworker Oscar is normal and sensible, whereas Michael, with his font of ridiculous prejudices and stereotypes, is the one who looks silly and wrong. The stereotypER is the object of humor rather than the stereotypEE.
You can imagine which message I'd rather see my sponge-like sons absorbing, which character I'd rather see them laughing at. Neither show changed MY views, and perhaps neither would change the views of a committed bigot. But for a 10-year-old, still figuring out how this stuff goes, it could make a difference.
UPDATE: Oops, sorry Scott, your post came in while I was writing this, so I'll just post it and shut up.
Let's see, um ... you know you're a Brokeaholic when you can spend days debating back and forth about the political effects of gay characters on sitcoms? Well, no, I guess one doesn't NECESSARILY lead to the other ...