Misaimed Fandom/Recorded and Stand Up Comedy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

* Sacha Baron Cohen relies on this phenomenon when performing in the character of ''[[Borat]]'' -- he presents what can only be described as an over-the-top, wholly unbelievable portrayal of a backwards, anti-Semitic Central Asian reporter, expressing opinions that most people would find intolerable, and in so doing, gets people to ''agree'' with those opinions. Perhaps the ultimate example is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vb3IMTJjzfo "In My Country There Is Problem"], which starts off innocently enough before launching into the chorus "Throw the Jew down the well/So my country can be free..." which the audience had no reservations at all about singing along to. The video is both hilarious and very, very disturbing.

* Dutch comedians Kees van Kooten and Wim de Bie had it happen to them with their characters Jacobse en van Es. Originally, they were supposed to be smalltime crooks, until, in 1980, they decided to start a political party called de Tegenpartij (the Opposing Party) with the motto "geen gezeik, iedereen rijk" which means "no complaining, everybody rich" ("geen gezeik" is Dutch slang for "no pissing" and by extension "no complaining"). It was supposed to be a spoof on all the extreme right-wing political parties. Unfortunately, said political parties had no sense of satire and openly embraced the Tegenpartij. As a result, on May 10th 1981, "Jacobse en van Es" were shot to death while staging a coup d'etat in The Hague. Van Kooten en de Bie were very sorry to have to retire their favourite characters, and had them come back from the dead several times.

** The Centrum Partij, a full on extreme right wing party, had the characters on the cover of their pamphlets and said: "THESE GUYS FINALLY LET PEOPLE HEAR THE TRUTH!"

* Dave Chappelle is one of the ultimate cautionary tales of racial comedy -- he stopped doing ''[[Chappelle's Show]]'' when he realized that much of his white audience was just laughing at the sight of a black entertainer doing clownish, stereotypical things, not paying attention to the messages.

** It got to the point where he was even ''teaching'' actual racists new things to be racist about. The show had gone from satire to ''educational''.

** Part of the problem was that Clay didn't break character in interviews, leading many to believe that the Diceman ''was'' a real guy. He has since attempted a comeback by returning to that character after his failures to move into more mainstream and family-friendly fare.