Malena Amusa

Lisa Lampanelli, the Racial Insult Queen

When it comes to comedy, I love brutal honesty, even if it means coming off a little insensitive.

So lately, I’ve been asking around: what comic deals with race most bluntly, not progressively, but clearly. One friend pointed me to Lisa Lampanelli, “a white woman who’s in love with Black men,” she said. She later sent me some YouTube clips. Check her out:

Now we’ve all grown bored with the “white people do this,” and “black people do that,” racial humor. But in place of that mess seems to be a more dynamic one, made up of comics whose styles are more strategic, badder, and actually more multi-cultural. Their take-no-prisoners comedy is gaining popularity as we’re seeing more people do a full-press, racial-offense (ive). Comics like Lampanelli and Russell Peters get free range with their blatant racism because they take-down everybody and not just certain groups. And people eat this stuff up.

What’s so endearing about this rogue racial comedy? Is it the only place where we can be transparent about our race opinions and insecurities?

Posted at 1:47 PM, Jun 21, 2007 in Pop Culture | Permalink | View Comments