> > She purposely picked the most
>> inoffensive racist term she could find.
>
>I don't think the "-- and who doesn't?" would have worked as well with
>other "more offensive" (??) groups ...
_In this sense_ Sarah Silverman's joke is not so much on racists as on Asians & Asian Americans, in that the joke depends, for effect, on the fact that the word "chink" is, alas, not considered as offensive as "n-word" (except by Asians, Asian Americans, & very politically conscious anti-racists); the joke doesn't challenge the audience at all in this respect. Sadly, Guy Aoki didn't bring up this angle in _Politically Incorrect_.
The level of "discussion" on the show was very low. The worst came from David Spade:
***** Bill: All right. I'm gonna read from David Spade's article he wrote in I think "George" magazine, the now-defunct "George" a couple of years ago. It's called "White Man's Blues." And you say, "You couldn't have a white parade because if you're in a gay parade, it doesn't mean you hate straight people, but if you're in a white parade, it means you hate everyone else on the face of the planet." [ Laughter ]
David: It hits the ear wrong, white parade. But yeah, I'm not -- I can't be in your shoes. I can't be in your shoes, and I hear -- I can't complain, so I just feel it's weird. I mean, you get comedy out of it by people saying, "We want to be equal. Please don't see color. Let's just all be the same." At the same time, there's the "Source" awards, where no white people are allowed. Hanson's not performing there. You know what I mean? [ Laughter ]
It's like -- then you have the Latin Grammys. And I go, "Didn't Latin people do good enough at the regular Grammys?" Like, Santana swept, but they wanna make sure they win? [ Light laughter ]
So I start thinking, that's separating yourself. Why would you do that? We all are in the same contest.
Bill: Yes.
David: Does that make sense? Does that sound crazy?
<http://abc.go.com/primetime/politicallyincorrect/transcripts/transcript_20010822.html> *****
Yoshie