Seriously, no more whining from white comedians--or white people--about not being able to make fun of black people. What these guys really want is the right to make fun of black people--and suck at doing it. There's only one rule when it comes to black jokes, and it's the same as all jokes--Be Funny. See below please.
The Great Schlep from The Great Schlep on Vimeo.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Silverman is only intermittently funny, but this one nails it.
Thanks. I needed a good laugh this afternoon and my half Jewish wife (and my kids' Jewish grandma) will love it.
This is very funny. Track suits! Bling! Yo to Oy! Sarah Silverman can get away with this because she is stereotyping two ethnic groups, one of which is her own. Also because people who are likely to be offended already have learned to stay away from her.
Eh, the black jokes were the least funny part about the whole thing. And I LOVE black jokes!
A black guy goes to a black psychiatrist. Black guy says "No one ever talks to me." Black psychiatrist says "Next!"
This wasn't funny, and I'm Jewish so I should've enjoyed it.
That was pretty funny, but more due to Silverman's personality than the inherent humor of the jokes.
Oh Shani, come on, the part about "you both have friends who are dying" was hilarious.
Jesus Is Magic. Rent it tonight. Outside of Rock she is the most fearless stand-ups working today.
TNC's "be funny" exception reminds me of something I heard Damon Waynes say in an interview. At his house the rule is that if it's funny you don't get in trouble. Hit your sister on the head with a Tonka truck - not funny, go to your room. Put Saran Wrap on the toilet so she pees on herself - funny, have some cake.
Unfunny.
They should not try and convince their elders to vote Obama. They should teach them how to produce a ballot correctly. That'll do.
That was eh. Amusing but not funny. Racial jokes are funny to me when they come right up against the line between comedy and bigotry and maybe step just slightly over it.
I think the purpose of the video pasted below is to show that George Carlin's act is inappropriate, but I think its pretty damn funny (its actually much funnier without Pryor's take on the use of the N word, but this is the only video I could find of the joke).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZCS5I80X-8&feature=related
I am Jewish and I approve the funny.
Now I wish my Jewish grandparents weren't so liberal so I'd have someone to convince!
That sucked. Just because Silverman thinks she's funny doesn't mean she's funny. It's the same as John McCain calling himself a maverick. He's not. If you want to see black humor go find Chris Rock's video on You Tube about black people. That's funny.
This was pretty funny and I am not a fan.
Very few comedians can use profanity and be funny. She was amusing, but not hilarious.
The butt of the joke isn't really black people or jewish grandmothers, it's Sarah Silverman. She's parodying her own (put-on?) callous insensitivity.
I think if the sketch wasn't part of a Democratic GOTV campaign, the more conservative leaning commenters would like it more.
My Jewish nana's in a High Park retirement home. Last I heard she was trying to convince the three McCain voters out of 400 residents.
Thanks for posting this, TNC. Silverman wears thin after a while, but this is comedic gold.
But I don't think it's simply a question of whether the jokes are funny. Too often, what passes for 'black jokes' among white comedians are bigoted thoughts, crudely expressed. That is, they use the social dispensation given to comics to give voice to the suppressed prejudices of their audience. They vent their frustration or their hatred, and the audience laughs along, partly in bigotry, partly in relief at having it in the open, and partly in astonishment that anyone dared to say it. Some of their jokes are funny, some are not, but the humor tends to be a thin veneer over the bitterness.
Silverman is different, at least in this clip. She reminds me of Dave Chappelle. It's a little uncomfortable, and you're not quite sure who's being mocked. Old Jews, for harboring prejudices? Silverman herself, for crossing the line? The audience, for laughing at it? What's lacking is any sense of malice. Perhaps that's because it's impossible to imagine Silverman repressing anything - the girl is pure Id. Perhaps it's because the spot is intended to combat prejudice, not advance it. I dunno. But it isn't just that it's funny; it's that there's no bitterness.
Ta-Nehisi, that line sooooo got a blank stare from me. I felt the way dude looked when he got up and walked out.
"Car of choice? The Cadillac!" did earn a chuckle.
I'm sorry but my answer is still no.
I support the sentiment, but until I see a super-ly self-aware, ultra-liberal, irony-flinging, too-cool-for-school Jewish woman (or man--I mean that whole sector--the Larry Davids and Sarah Silvermen of the world or whomever) objectified in the name of comedy in the way that Silverman does to black people (and lots others to be fair) on the regular, I will not be satisfied. Seriously. Wake me up when the joke is, "oh my God, isn't it soooo funny how "the Jews" think they're so smart and have the market cornered on biting, snarky wit?"
I know I sound racist or Anti-Semitic, but that is so not my intention. Blah, blah, blah ...
This election could really use a re-animated Bill Hicks.
Awesome. I loved it and Sarah Silverman is not normally my style. I agree with Cynic above, no bitterness, no malice, comedy gold.
Wake me up when the joke is, "oh my God, isn't it soooo funny how "the Jews" think they're so smart and have the market cornered on biting, snarky wit?"
Wasn't that Seinfeld?
I didn't realize Sarah Silverman was Jewish.
I didn't realize Sarah Silverman was Jewish.
Now that's funny.
"support the sentiment, but until I see a super-ly self-aware, ultra-liberal, irony-flinging, too-cool-for-school Jewish woman (or man--I mean that whole sector--the Larry Davids and Sarah Silvermen of the world or whomever) objectified in the name of comedy in the way that Silverman does to black people (and lots others to be fair) on the regular, I will not be satisfied."
Aren't Silverman's and David's acts all about objectifying their own super-ly self-aware, ultra-liberal, irony-flinging, too-cool-for-school Jewishisness in the name of comedy?
Woody Allen might tend to disagree with your premise as well seeing as how he pretty much invented the comedy archetype of the super-ly self-aware, ultra-liberal, irony-flinging, too-cool-for-school Jew.
Weak and mostly boring.
The Joel W theory on White People telling Black Jokes:
1) Be funny.
2) No jokes about things that white people could have been responsible for: slavery, Jim Crow, employment problems, crime problems.
3) Being Jewish helps.
That's it. White people if they're funny can tell jokes about barbecues and watermelon, just as a good Jewish joke about latkes can be funny. My friend Eric, who is half black and half Jewish once told a joke where he claimed he had to sit at the back of the furnace, but I digress. They can be Jeffrey Ross talking about Shaq as a gorilla. They can be about appearance of almost any sort (save for maybe penis size, which implies many things about black sexuality for which there are many reasons that society should avoid).
Sarah Silverman touches the line in her joke about teenage black pregnancy, but it fits all three of the first criteria.
Also, approve 'the funny.' Watched it three times now.. Laughed the whole time and not a member of either pertinent social-ethnic subgroup.
Guys, please import some real comedians/ comediennes from Ye Olde Englande. Your comedians aren't remotely funny. No, I don't care if she is Jewish and this invokes her holocaust history and she needs a shrink after this. :-/
See, we can say that sort of stuff in England. It is 60 years after the war, ok? You too should get over it. Now YOU guys seem in need of a Marshall Plan to save your collective bottoms from the martial acts you have been perpetrating elsewhere. Oh and we can say all this an nobody tries to separate our underpants off us with a lawyer's help.
Our black people are more self-reliant than yours. They need no fancy-schmancy education no more, ok? Yo, maan? Geddit? They stab each other and let our politicians blame their absentee fathers. They do not need a sense of humour when they are the butt of all jokes, do they? Oh that is when the butt is not being kicked by a copper or their own black buddies trying to stick a knife into it.
Sarah Silverman makes me want to lick the fuzz from my teeth. Don't get her at all: smug, tedious and unfunny about 89 percent of the time. Ho-hum.
Frankly, I think her appeal is some kind of boy thing.
Normally, I don't find silverman to be all that humorous--occasionally--but not so much..
.. but I found this hilarious.. and I'm sure most of my Jewish Friends would too...
In any case.. humor is always a partiuclar thing.. Ta-Nehisi finds it hilarious.. and so do I.. but many don't..
Big deal.. I find arguments like that posed by "From the Motherland" to be rather specious... There is no "one type of humor" that everyone finds funny...
I, personally, find most British humor to be rather boring and unfunny... but so what.. many of my friends love it..
Enjoy it or don't..
I have gotten away with doing the "this is how black guys talk" thing for years.
Motherland, she didn't invoke the holocaust, like, at all? She was making fun of old people who happened to be Jewish, in Florida. You know, Florida? Land of beaches, Disney World, and where (speaking of the holocaust) watching British tourists sizzle from fish-belly-white to lobster red is a local pasttime. I know you must have seen the old folks when you bought your Solarcaine. They're the ones who dress like flamingos and drive verrrrry slowly in front of you on I-4. You must have old broads over there. I'm pretty sure the Queen is one. What's her name? Charles?
As for your comedians, well, if you're exporting, is Rowan Atkinson doing anything funny these days? Like, Blackadder-funny, not Mr. Bean-funny? Oh, and thanks for Little Britain. Fat suits never get old, do they? And Catherine Tate I could warm up to, but she need to mix it up: driving recurring characters into the ground with unfunny catchphrases has been a proud American tradition since 1980's Saturday Night Live.
So, if you're done with American stuff, please send back our Simpsons tapes. In good condition, please? The last one we got had Britain's Got Talent taped over it. The dog wouldn't come out from under the couch for a week. Ta.
I don't think Sarah Silverman is funny. Too many loud guitars for my taste...
Oh...sorry. Wrong thread.
Seconding AG: no citizen of a country that made Little Britain a hit ever gets to criticize the comedic tastes of any other country.
I don't know. Aren't you just being like all those conservatives who now say, "Look, Obama is almost President; no more whining from black people about racism"?
I wonder if the number of "not funny" comments here undermines Ta-Nehisi's claim.
In my defense, Hmmm, I did it from my day job. Which I am not giving up.
Part of Sarah's appeal is that she is so gorgeous.
I´m black and that was so funny, you go girl, really great. Totally refreshing.