My White Friend Chip

In a turn from the last two blogs, this one is a non-political video focused around the stereotypes that we talked about in class. Stereotypes are common in American society and while some of them are portrayed in negative ways, Dave Chappelle jokes about them. It is clearly a joke because of how ridiculous his examples are.

First, his friend is named Chip. This in itself is almost a "very white name" if such a name exists, so that makes it funny to begin with. I don't think anyone would likely be offended by that. Then Dave Chappelle talks about the relationship that white people have with police versus black people. While I'm aware that in the practical world, there probably is some discrimination about the police against black people, Dave Chappelle pokes fun at this stereotype. The joking nature comes in the fact that since white people are well...white, they can basically get away with anything. It is completely unrealistic for a police officer to let a drunk driver go based on their race and any nonsense they use to get out of an arrest. However, I do think this is completely hilarious because instead of playing directly on the stereotype, he plays on the reverse of what the stereotype means. He says that since police focus upon black people that then this means that white people are out of the focus of police. For these reasons it is a very effective joke and statement on opinions that people may believe.

Dave Chappelle doesn't just make fun of this stereotype. His comedic style is almost based on stereotypes. Stereotypes are strong for comedians to poke fun at because these stereotypes are well known. When people are with groups of friends, their jokes are based on stories that we have with those people. However, with a random person we don't have these stories with them so the comedians are able to play on something that we all know, and thus have a connection with an audience of random people.