Native Humor Clips Response

One thing I found both interesting and extremely funny throughout these clips was the Native comics' abilities to blend aspects of white, mainstream culture with both contemporary and older Native culture. They all seemed to do this very effectively.

In the "Last Real Indians" comic, the artist combined the taking aspects of Native identity and culture by modern, white hipsters with the idea of identity theft protection through "Hipster Repellent." The Chiefs of Comedy blended older Native stereotypical culture with the animal skins and the feathers and the music of the Beastie Boys--definitely a juxtaposition, but funny and done well. The Frybread movie combined the traditional art and competition of making Frybread with the skeleton of a modern, mainstream cooking competition that might be found on the Food Network. This, in a way, mocks how seriously some people, even Natives themselves, might take cooking competitions. It seemed that some of this trailer may have been tongue-in-cheek, but it's hard to tell for sure. Finally, Charlie Ballard's clip (my personal favorite) linked traditional stereotypes of Native peoples with modern stereotypes of gay men. Statements such as "I'm not afraid of getting HIV from white men, I'm afraid of getting smallpox!" humorously combine these cultures.

I think this blending of cultural ideas is extremely effective for these comedians. Not only does it make the clips hilarious, but it also sends a message about the relevance of Native culture. These clips show the links between modern white culture and contemporary Native culture, which is a connection which most white people don't really think exists. Most white people think that Native Americans all still wear headdresses and feathers, or are all sad and angry at white people. This is simply not a fair generalization to make, and these comedians show this. These connections also serve another important purpose, separately for white people and for Natives. The Native humor aspects help the comedians connect to the Native audience, while the jokes about white, mainstream culture help comedians relate to a white audience. In this way, then, everyone is in on the joke, and this greatly helps advance understanding of Native culture for non-Natives.