PANDJI PRAGIWAKSONO Laughing at life, learning through laughters : a study of stand-up comedy.

effectively used butt of jokes of their bits; that was where common enemies in forms of immediate social issues were presented to the audience as something to fight together. The social issues the writer found in the four shows covered various topics, among them were bits about technology, national security, racial issues, and health- service matters. In order to add some weight to his claims, the writer has chosen bits from all four shows. Without any particular order, the writer began with the observation of Russell Peters‟ bits to find how he inserted vital issues to his bits and discovered that he attacked how various media had been presenting news across the globe in exaggerated manners. From Peters‟ London show, the writer noted one bit in which he addressed the media tendency when on minute 34.05 he said, “You should go check the Middle East. It‟s not at all how the media makes the Middle East seems. You watch the news, especially the North American news, they have been so hard on the Arabs. They make the Arabs look crazy. When you watch the CNN, don‟t you get mad? They just make Arabs look like they‟re exploding every five minutes.” Russell Peters‟ being American-Indian also meant him being a hybrid, and being just that gave him the privilege of presenting multiple points of view which allowed him to use America-related and India-related issues as his butts of jokes, and he did exactly that in the above bit as he made fun of American news media, CNN, by implying that it had been sending wrong messages to its audience by giving false perceptions on Arab countries. The use of „like they‟re the Arabs exploding every five minutes‟ term demonstrated how North American media, as represented by CNN, had been manipulating its news at the expense of what was really happening in the Middle East. By delivering this bit, Peters expected that his audience would open their minds in order that they could become more critical in filtering slanted opinions off facts. Furthermore, this was a bit that warned audience, indirectl y, that there could be a hidden agenda by „the North American media‟ by presenting the Middle East region as a dangerous explosive place. What the writer meant by „hidden agenda‟ here was that the biased news was intended to be biased so that viewers of such news could be talked into agreeing whatever actions doable to make the seemingly-hostile Middle East area a friendly place, given the label attached to the United States of American as the „global police‟ with the authority to do all means necessary to bring global peace. The effects, if any, on Peters‟ bit above were probably not immediate as the first reaction shown by the audience was a roar of laughter. However, if laughter were a sign of understanding, then Peters could have achieved a goal through that bit where deceitful news media was put as the butt of joke. Still on Peters‟ bits, the writer identified that a comic‟s demography played an important role and granted one the privilege of bit selection. What the writer meant here was, again, given P eters‟ status as an American-Indian, he would have no problem criticizing them harshly. A confirmation of the statement was found on 35:37 when he described the treatment received by many Indians who lived and worked in the Middle East. He said, “They treat us Indians like sht. A woman from the audience was spotted saying, ‘that’s true. And listen, you go to the Middle East; Indians are like the Mexicans of the Middle East.” This bit about Indians he was delivering was an obvious example of using people of India who were treated badly in the Middle East as seen in the use of a derogative and the comparison between the Indians and the Mexicans. Although this bit could have also contained his criticism towards Arabs arrogance, the writer observed that from a different angle. The writer was convinced that Peters must have been more confident in criticizing the Indians because he had Indian blood running in him. As painful as it must have sounded to Indians, again, the writer thought that actually Peters invited his fellow Indians to start changing themselves in order to earn a more respectable place in other nations‟ eyes. The writer argued that the placement of the Indians in the butt of jokes was not to humiliate them, rather that was a call for action so that in the future Indian people would no longer be perceived as slaves who can be treated disrespectfully and criminal-like, but as their complete opposites. And returning to the case of privilege, the writer argued that Peters had some much confidence to make fun of his own people, because he identified himself as one of them and felt the necessity to send out some inspiration through what did best, making jokes. In a broader scope, the writer saw this example of how a comic‟s ethnicity was a powerful weapon in a comic‟s arsenal to accomplish hisher missions. Speaking of utilizing one‟s ethnicity, another example was also drawn from the writer‟s second subject, an African-American comic, Chris Rock. Performing in New York, the global village for people of different ethnicities, he made time to powerfully send messages to his fellow African-Americans without any hesitation, given the fact that he was one of them. On 43:50 Rock said, “I think we need a new leader. We haven‟t had a black leader in a while. claps. In a long time. You know we had Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and after that a bunch of substitute btches”. The writer saw that bit as a massive statement that underlined the urgency for the African-Americans to step forward instead of being the opposite of a „leader‟, a „follower‟. By saying so, Rock intentionally put the African-Americans in the butt of joke for nothing but a motivational purpose, as well as showing how a comic‟s demography could bring an advantage in the delivery of the bit because Rock was undoubtedly a member of the community he was criticizing. That Chris Rock showed his responsibility as an African-American was expected, however, the show could also saw Rock present himself not only as an African- American, but also an American who needed to give examples to many others by addressing vital issues. On 05:36 he gave his bit on the nation‟s gun control policy, saying that, “If you have a gun, you don‟t need to work out. I ain‟t working out, I ain‟t jogging. You don‟t need no gun control, you know what you need? You need some bullet control. I think all bullets should cost 5,000, because if all bullets cost 5,000 there will be no more innocent bodies”. Using the bit, the writer could argue that Rock‟s decision to put that bit early in his show was meant to draw supports from the heterogeneous audience by using a hot topic of gun control in America. Using „fear method‟ to begin the show in the global village was a deft decision, because by that Rock would have his audience b ehind him in the show‟s opening minutes. Furthermore, he was successful in creating a common enemy in the topic of gun control implying that the value of life had been declining, hence the price of bullets needed to be increased. Above examples taken from the American comics‟ shows were evidence of the writer‟s claims that creating a common opposition could be a effective method to get