Tuesday, July 01, 2003
Reality Check
My roommate and I were watching a standup comedian on BET just now and she said something we started laughing at. For the most part, her routine was right in line with what you'd expect from BET - crude ghetto humor dressed up as "keeping it real" - and when she started in on white TV shows, I rolled my eyes and got ready to go upstairs. Here we go again, Friends this, Fraser that, I thought. Once you see a few acts on BET, you've seen them all.
But then, bam, out of nowhere, funniness. "I don't understand the concept of Survivor. You want a hard life? Go live in the projects!" That's so true! I'd love to see that. We started laughing at the idea of plopping down a team of game show contestants into the poverty-stricken parts of our own backyards, making them compete for food stamps and wait in huge lines for menial jobs.
Disclaimer: my roommate and I both know of what we speak and are allowed ghetto jokes. We grew up going to junior high and high school in southeast San Diego; he lived near and went to
Crawford, I got bussed in to
Gompers. I'm not sure I've completely dropped the chip on my shoulder about hearing ghetto jokes from rich kids, but I've also lost my taste for hearing it from people trying to glorify and perpetuate it. I think I've just lost my taste for it altogether.