The word has lost all meaning

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 3rd, 2009

This article, which appeared on USA Today’s website, may be a watershed moment in the evolution of the English language.

And it may also be a historical chapter in policing standup comedy.

USAT’s Ann Oldenburg says, in the headline, “Tiger Woods may be going through serious personal drama, but the jokes about him are flying.” There follows a list of jokes (and a list of lists of jokes).

A third of the way down the list, Oldenburg says:

— George Lopez and Wanda Sykes have both made the same racist joke about Tiger’s crash.

And the words “the same racist joke” are a link. Click on that link and you’re taken to something called LiveJournal, “a free service for all your journaling and blogging needs.” The posting is anonymous and it repeats the charge of racism.

It gets weirder.

The LiveJournal thing is just a complete lifting of a posting on Gawker.tv, by Mike Byhof. In it, Byhoff juxtaposes clips of Lopez and Sykes telling a similar Tiger Woods joke on their respective late-night talk shows.

A third clip, of Joe Koy doing the same joke on Chelsea Lately, with a “Ching-Chong Chinaman imitation” (Byhoff’s description, not ours), is also included.

The clips are prefaced by this bit of tut-tutting:

George Lopez and Wanda Sykes are both minority comedians hosting new late night shows. They both promised to bring something new to late night. Looks like all they’re doing is recycling each other’s tired, old, racist jokes.

Tiger Woods is half black and half Asian. Blacks are obviously criminals, and Asians obviously can’t drive cars. Hearing just one late night host make this joke is one time too many.

Thank you, Mike Byhoff! You have saved the world! The planet is once again safe for good comedy. And you have also struck a blow against “racism!”

Look, Dude: Late-night talk show hosts have an eye-popping need for material. Their writers must come up with hundreds of usable jokes in a given week. And they come up with thousands– many hundreds of which are not usable.

These jokes we see here are but a fraction of their output.

Are these three similar? No one disputes this.

Are they obvious? Yes. Are they indicative of some sort of laziness on the part of Lopez or Sykes? No.

We hasten to point out that all three jokes got a huge response from the audience. And that is the object of the game.

Are all the jokes that Sykes or Lopez might spit out on a particular evening as obvious or as simple as this one? No.

Further, the videos do not demonstrate that the comedians in question are “recycling each other’s tired, old, racist jokes.” Quite the contrary. What we have here might be a recycling of old premises, but not old jokes– the incident was only a day or two old by the time the jokes were told, so no one could honestly say– even in the age of the WWW and instant communication– that they’re “old.”

Are the premises tired? Tough call. But, as we said before, the jokes got a response. So, obviously, the premise was either new (or sturdy enough) to trigger a mirthful response from those who heard them.

Finally: Are the jokes racist? This might be the least defensible of Byhoff’s prissy tirade.

We’re utterly mystified as to his contention that the jokes somehow imply that Woods (and, by implication, all black people) are “obviouisly criminals.”

What is implied is not criminality, but that African Americans favor fancy, expensive rims/wheels and that African-Americans buy Cadillacs in disproportionately high numbers. And what is also implied is that Asians are bad drivers. In the grand scheme of things, neither of these “stereotypes,” though they may be clichéd, come anywhere near being vicious or hate-filled.

So, through overuse, folks like Byhoff and Oldenburg and the anonymous LiveJournal blogger have effectively stripped the word “racist” (and with it the concept of racism) of all of its meaning.

And, judging from the comments on Gawker.tv, they’ve managed to make all comedians look bad.

Job well done, all of you.

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