In class we discussed the most recent controversy surrounding the television show 30 Rock and the use of blackface. In the clip, which we watched in class, Jon Hamm blackens his face and wears a curly wig during a flashback to television of the past within the imagination of Kenneth the page:
This clip was a part of a special live episode of the show and as soon as it aired people reacted immediately to the sketch. Some of the negative response to Hamm's performance came instantaneously on twitter and other forms of social media. Many found the visual, regardless of the context, to be an offensive and irredeemably racist act on the part of the show.
Meanwhile others, deemed the sketch to be an exception to the generally accepted rule that blackface is an unpopular choice outside openly racist circles. Supporters of Hamm and the sketch argued that because the use of blackface in the show was a multilayered joke, attempting to comment on the pervasiveness of racism in television both in the past and today rather than mocking the historical injustices experienced by black americans, it was hilarious rather than upsetting.
Regardless of the relative merits of this positive reaction to Alfie and Abner, the entire debacle can be complicated when it is considered that this was not 30 Rock's first use of blackface. In fact, the show had one of the regular characters, Jenna Maroney, "black up" twice before.
One of the times, was during a Christmas episode in which the character and her significant other are dressing up for a theme party:
The decision to show a character in blackface here is entirely different from the Alfie and Abner example. While the Jon Hamm sketch was dripping with social commentary, this second example has a far less convoluted punch line-- the character herself. The joke is intended to be funny because she is a ridiculous (and terrible) person who often engages in offensive and socially unacceptable behavior. Therefore the fact that she is in blackface is meant to shock the audience and affirm their belief in the negativity of the act.
But does that make it okay? Is there a line between racist project and humorous racial commentary? And if so, where might each of these examples fall?
1 comment:
In season 3, episode 2 (Believe in the Stars) Jenna Maroney is seen in blackface and Tracey Jordan is in whiteface. This act resulted after both were arguing over who has it harder: black men or women.
The below conversation occurred after Jenna and Tracy brought up their lawsuit to Liz.
Liz: He thinks he can take advantage of you because you're a women.
Jenna: Men think they can get away with anything. It's like when Adrien Brody kissed Halle Berry at the Oscars
Liz: No one has it harder today in this country than women.
In a following scene, Jenna and Tracy are asked to talk to a mediator and the Oscars example is brought up in a different context by Tracy.
Jenna: (we're here) Because Tracy thinks he can treat me unfairly because I'm a women.
Tracy: What? We are here because white folks think they can do whatever the want to black folk. It's like when Adrien Brody kissed Halle Berry at the Oscars.
They then go on to list the difficulties both women and black men have. They then decide that the only way to settle this argument is to switch roles. In this instance, the episode highlights the various groups that struggle versus making the blackface/whiteface scene a big deal. The writers of the show always have crafty ways of addressing larger issues and, like Emma says, use multilayered jokes that they assume that their target audience enjoy and take with a grain of salt.
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