Stop Being Stereotypical: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also see [[Broken Base]], a common place for enthusiasts to sling such accusations against each other; and [[Vocal Minority]] which emphasizes that the stereotypes are the tiniest but loudest part of a given group; [[Don't Shoot the Message]] is the ideological variant of this, when the person complaining supports what's being said, just not how it comes across. Compare [[My Species Doth Protest Too Much]] when non-humans come on to the scene, and [[Self-Deprecation]] for the comedic cousin. Compare [[Cultural Cringe]]. Contrast with [[Boomerang Bigot]] and [[Klingon Scientists Get No Respect]], who ''aren't'' stereotypical and get flack for it.

 

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

* ''[[Dork Tower]]'' has done several strips where the characters and/or the artist (who are all avid [[Tabletop Games]] players) call out other gamers for their lack of social skills (civility, personal hygiene, inappropriate clothing, etc.), especially at conventions.

* From the DC Elseworlds series ''[[Kingdom Come]]'':

** There is also a [[Funny Background Event|background gag]] in the last issue where Swastika, one of the reformed metabeings on Themyscyra, spits during [[Wonder Woman]]'s crowning ceremony, and gets an immediate [[Dope Slap]] from Magog.

* In ''[[Maus]]'', Art Spiegelman calls out his father for behaving in a very stereotypical miserly fashion since he worries how this will affect people's opinions of Jews. [[Justified Trope]]: his father explains it as a result of being in the Holocaust, rather than a normal part of his personality. It's also [[Averted Trope|averted]]: His father's wife comments that she, and a number of Holocaust survivors they know, didn't react that way.

* As [[Deadpool]] put it: "Holy crap you're an Arab living in America and you're a terrorist?! That's so disappointingly stereotypical and racist!"

 

== Film ==

* ''First Time Felon'': [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Calhoun]], explaining his views to Yance, quotes Chris Rock:

'''Alpa:''' ... What the fuck...? }}

** "Whoa, whoa. What do you mean, 'you people'?" "What do ''you'' mean, 'you people'?"

* This is the theme of ''A Soldier's Story'' as well as the Pulitzer Prize-winning play it was based on, ''A Soldier's Play''.

* In ''[[The Nutty Professor]]'', Professor Klump is a morbidly obese man looked down on for his weight. His family is also morbidly obese and portrays fat people as loud, obnoxious, lazy slobs who eat only junk food. After having a nightmare where he became a [[Godzilla]]-style caricature of a fat person, he decides to invent something that will get rid of his excess fat since he's too ashamed to be affiliated with anyone as heavy as himself.

* In ''[[A Christmas Story]]'', the manager of the Chinese restaurant gets frustrated and embarrassed when his employees are trying to sing Christmas carols for their customers and keep having trouble with [[Japanese Ranguage|the Ls]].

* In ''The Way'', [[Martin Sheen]]'s character has his backpack, which also has his dead son's ashes, stolen by a Roma (Gypsy) boy. Though the boy gets away, his father drags his son back to return the pack and complains that his people have a hard enough time being smeared as thieves without his stupid son proving the stereotype true. To make up for it the father invites the pilgrims for a get-together, where he advises Sheen's character to go an extra distance to a seaside church to honor his own late son and has his thieving son carry the pilgrim's pack for him to the city limits as punishment.

 

== Literature ==

 

** In another scene, as Frank leaves a gay bar full of stereotypically gay-looking men, one man shouts to Frank to come back sometime in a very effeminate voice, prompting his dance partner to berate him for "making us all look bad." They then return to bumping and grinding.

* On the topic of Bill Cosby, there was a [[Mad TV]] sketch where he (played by [[Orlando Jones]]) was shown [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kemIXkoa_Zs proposing a show to prove he was] actually black, and not an Uncle Tom. Unfortunately (like [[Bamboozled]]), the show [[Springtime for Hitler|becomes a huge success]], much to his horror.

* In an episode of ''[[Psych]]'' Shawn and Gus hire an Asian-American assistant and assume he knows about the Triads simply because of his ethnicity. While he finds it offensive, he begrudgingly admits that he ''does'' know enough to get the case started, seeming genuinely disappointed that he was able to help.

* The primary catalyst for [[American Idol|William Hung's]] fame and notoriety was the fact that he was a [[Modern Minstrelsy|walking Asian stereotype]].

* Jocelyn Jee Esien's sketch show featured the character of Fiona, a woman who believes that her all-white coworkers don't know she's black. Her sketches always involved another black person, like a courier or handyman, showing up in the office and Fiona berating them for their "stereotypical" behavior because she does not want her "secret" to be found out.

* This ''occasionally'' happens to Frasier and Niles Crane on ''[[Frasier]]'', when they're around people even more snooty than themselves. Emphasis on the ''occasionally'', and it should be mentioned that they're not so much bothered by extreme snobbishness as much as stereotypically ''insincere'' snobbishness: They have a ''genuine'' passion for all things high-cultured, intellectual, and ultra-refined and are disgusted by people who fake it.

 

== Professional Wrestling ==

* Inverted, in a sense, in the spring and summer of 2005, when the "Arab" "Muhammad Hassan" [[Fake Nationality|(actually an Italian-American named Mark Copani)]] and his valet Khosrow Daivari (who was actually Persian) appeared on the pro wrestling scene. A proud Arab-American from [[Motor City|Detroit]], Muhammad Hassan was full of anger and resentment against the prejudice faced by Arab-Americans during the [[War On Terror]]. You'd ''think'' he was an assimilated, Westernized ethnic Arab who despised fundamentalists, right? Well, no: Hassan was a Muslim extremist [[You Fail History Forever|(though most Arab-Americans have historically been Christians or Jews)]] who proudly wore a keffiyeh and chanted like a muezzin while being carried into the ring on a litter like a sheikh by men in black catsuits and ski masks. Even as the other WWE Superstars assured him that they hated him due to his being an "asshole American" rather than an Arab-American, Hassan just became even more angered: He despised "normal" Arab-Americans for [[Uncle Tomfoolery|being too cowardly to embrace their ancestral culture and instead sucking up to European-Americans]].

 

== Video Games ==

** [[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Tycho]] assumes the Heavy's [[Drink Order]] would be [[Vodka Drunkenski|vodka]]; turns out he's partial to a peach bellini.

*** Also the assumption that everyone had regarding the Heavy being the [[Dumb Muscle]], rather than the [[Genius Bruiser]] that he is - he just doesn't know English well enough to shed the assumption.

** Pretty much every second conversation with the Heavy is dedicated to this.

* Garrosh Hellscream of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is utterly loathed by fans for making the [[Our Orcs Are Different|orcish race less like blizzard orcs and more like Tolkien orcs.]]

 

* In ''[[Multiplex]]'', the gay manager once gave an employee a dressing-down for acting overtly and stereotypically gay (which he was), to the point that it was it was distracting customers and, more importantly, was personally offensive to him said manager. Or, as another employee told [[Oh Crap|their newly arrived co-head manager]], was "[[Accidental Innuendo|reaming him out]]" for "gaying it up."

** Also a good example and lampshading of [[Transhuman Treachery]].

 

== Web Original ==

** And again in [http://www.theonion.com/articles/gaypride-parade-sets-mainstream-acceptance-of-gays,351/ "Gay Pride Parade Sets Mainstream Acceptance of Gays Back 50 Years"].

** And yet again in [http://www.theonion.com/articles/chinese-laundry-owner-blasted-for-reinforcing-nega,1563/ "Chinese Laundry Owner Blasted For Reinforcing Negative Ethnic Stereotypes"].

* [[Moviebob]] made a video discussing how gamers should avoid the negative stereotypes associated with them.

* [[Macho Sauce Productions|Alfonzo Rachel]] often criticizes his fellow black people for living up to their negative stereotypes, and it seems to be a major theme of his videos. It's also inverted in that he himself had been accused of "acting white".

* A variant in "Super Smash Brothers Brawl Taunts: Part 3": Bowser calls Peach out for "setting women's rights back about 400 years" by listing several of her traits, like slapping opponents, wearing heels, having a plethora of crops, and [[Ass Kicks You|her powerful rear]]. Peach responds by angrily whacking him with her [[Frying Pan of Doom]] and says she got it from her kitchen.

* Repeatedly used on this very wiki. The prevalence of autism-spectrum disorders among the userbase and the ''[[Sonichu]]'' article turning into such a cesspool of vitriol it had to be locked are definitely not coincidental.

* A video titled "Sakuracon Teh Comic" has a bystander angrily shouting at a group of people who are overenthusiactic about the things they like in Japan such as sushi, their music, anime and manga, dubbing them as "weeaboos". This lampshades the real life phenomenon of people who act like this in an exaggerated manner.

 

== Western Animation ==

** In another episode, R. Kelly is brought to trial over accusations of urinating on an underaged girl (mimicking the real-life sex scandal). The prosecutor has mountains of evidence against him, including a [[Played for Laughs|video]] of R. Kelly committing the act, turning to face the camera, and answering a phone call where he promptly states his full birth name, profession, and social security number. Despite this, R. Kelly's lawyer distracts the jury from the fact that he's guilty and convinces them that the whole trial is ''really'' about racism, and that the system just wants to keep R. Kelly down because he's black. A boom box is revealed, an R. Kelly song begins to play, and everyone in the courtroom cheers and bursts into dance. [[Only Sane Man|Huey]] shuts off the boom box, walks to the front of the courtroom, and delivers '''this''' [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]:

'''And stop the damn dancing!''' Act like you got some '''goddamned sense,''' people! '''Damn.''' }}

** [[Subverted Trope|They]] [[Ignored Epiphany|still proclaim him innocent, to Huey's annoyance.]]

* In an episode of ''[[South Park]]'', Kyle becomes horrified when his cousin comes to visit and turns out to be an outlandishly exaggerated embodiment of Jewish stereotypes, which threatens to undermine the good name Kyle has been trying to give Judaism in the town. Stan points out that Kyle has become a [[Boomerang Bigot|self-hating Jew]], which is ''itself'' a stereotype. It's then inverted at the end of the episode when {{spoiler|the boys find out that Kyle's cousin is rich, so they want him to hang around, but he refuses and wants to go back home. He wants to go back because in his eyes, the protagonists are "a bunch of hick jock stereotypes" since Kyle's efforts to get his cousin to be less stereotypically Jewish included trying to get him to play football}}.

** In "Christian Rock Hard," Token ends up doing this to ''himself'':

'''Token:''' (immediately launches into a skilled bass line) ''Goddammit.'' }}

** In a related variation, the students get a trip to the Museum of Tolerance. One section has sculptures depicting damaging racial stereotypes, like the crazy terrorist Muslim, the greedy covetous Jew, and the sleeping lazy Mexican, the latter of which actually turns out to be a janitor napping on the job.

** In the episode involving the blood feud between the owner of City Wok (a Chinese man) and the owner of City Sushi (a Japanese man), the City Sushi owner stereotypically commits ritual suicide out of his great shame at being naive enough to believe that {{spoiler|the City Wok owner was an actual Chinese man rather than a Caucasian man with multiple-personality disorder}}. As he's falling to his death, he berates ''himself'' for being stereotypical.

* When "[[Token Minority|Asian Reporter]] Trisha Takanawa" meets [[David Bowie]] on ''[[Family Guy]]'', [[Me Love You Long Time|she throws away her microphone, grabs his leg, and offers to make him fishball soup]].

 

== Real Life ==

* One of Chris Rock's most infamous comedy routines is "Niggas vs. Black People," a rant on how a few blacks perpetuate negative media stereotypes and mess things up for everyone else. He later stopped doing the piece for fear that some would interpret it as [[N-Word Privileges|a license to use racial epithets]]. [[Image Boards|Sure enough...]]

** [[Barack Obama]] [http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2008/06/obama-channels-chris-rock referred to Rock's routine] during a June 2008 speech on the responsibilities of fatherhood.

** In a later routine, he lightheartedly called out [[Public Enemy|Flava Flav]] for his [[Uncle Tomfoolery]], especially in the light of the candidacy of [[Barack Obama]]:

** Like the [[Bill Cosby]] example, there has been backlash from that; primarily by Jesse Jackson, who criticized his fatherhood speech as "talking down to black people".

* [[Bill Cosby]] provoked a [[Real Life]] [[Flame War]] in 2004 when, during a celebration of the ''Brown v. Board of Education'' ruling, he criticized African Americans who put higher priorities on sports, fashion, and "acting hard" than on family, education, self-respect and self-improvement. Some celebrated his speech as lending a dignified public voice and face to sentiments that had long existed within the black community, while others accused him of being patronizing to lower-class blacks or even of [[Uncle Tomfoolery]].

* The religious principle in Judaism known in Hebrew as "Kiddush HaShem" (sanctifying God's Name) and Hillul HaShem (desecrating God's name) is the idea that you shouldn't bring shame upon your people or, for religious Jews, upon God. The Yiddish expression "Shandeh far di Goyim" ("scandal before the Gentiles") references this, and would be leveled at Jews who are representing their community badly to the outside world. It was famously hurled by Abbie Hoffman at the Jewish judge of the Chicago 7 trial.

* In many Islamic communities, especially in the West, there is a cultural movement to avoid outwardly protesting things that offend Muslim sensibilities. This mostly stems from wanting to avoid the idea of all Muslims being fiercely religious, easily angered, and prone to violence.

** Likewise, several studies have shown that women who list Islam as their religion, performed better than virtually all other students on questions engineered to require extensive, rote memorization. The post-test interviews revealed that many of these women studied aggressively for the test for fear of doing poorly and reinforcing the "all Muslim women are uneducated" stereotype.

** They did another one where an Arab angrily decries Western movies as depicting Arabs as violent psychos, and [[I Resemble That Remark|threatens to blow something up if Hollywood doesn't change its tune]].

* [http://newhumanist.org.uk/2085 Some atheists despair] that Richard Dawkins is perceived by the public as an unofficial spokesperson for atheism. He's often viewed as needlessly antagonistic and condescending towards people of faith, and as occasionally over-emphasizing the virtues of science.

** Christopher Hitchens, who held similar views prior to his death, called himself an "anti-theist" to differentiate between simply not believing and considering faith itself pure undiluted evil. A really good example of the condescending atheist type he went after is [[The Amazing Atheist]], who will post videos tearing down the viewpoints of non-atheists with plenty of scorn heaped on top.

** A lot of atheists tend to ''despise'' [[Family Guy]] because Brian, the only acknowledged atheist in the entire show, acts like an egotistical prick who only cares about his own happiness, a stereotype most atheists have been trying to tear down for decades. [[Your Mileage May Vary|You might be supposed to take him seriously, or perhaps he's meant to satirize "bad" atheists]]; regrettably, the show has never been clear on this point. [[Jerkass|Atheists who like to go further than Brian do not help. At all.]]

* Most Christians also feel this way about [[Jack Chick]], Fred Phelps, and their ilk.

* Religious scientists and skeptical theists, such as deists, tend to hate the extremists on both sides acting like science/logic/reason goes hand-in-hand with atheism; that also includes those who know that "evidence against" and "lack of proof" are very different things. Just because you cannot find proof for a hypothesis doesn't mean it's disproved: It just means you don't have any ''proof'' and it can't be considered a theory.

* Some Young-Earth Creationists have [http://creation.com/maintaining-creationist-integrity-response-to-kent-hovind called out Kent Hovind] for his use of misinformation and weak arguments against evolution.

** Many gay people hate ''[[Family Guy]]'' because practically every gay on that show is a walking stereotype. Ironically, the show does try to preach [[Gay Aesop|gay tolerance]] [[Broken Aesop|but fails horribly because of this.]]

** This was brought to a head when [[Chris Crocker]] did the now-infamous "Leave [[Britney Spears|Britney]] Alone!" video, leading to images pointing out that there's a difference between being gay (e.g. [[Ian McKellen]]) and camp (e.g. Chris Crocker).

** Many Americans, especially those who wished to be liked by foreigners, feel this way about the Flavor 2 [[Eagle Land]] types. See [[Cultural Cringe]].

** On the same token, non-Americans who harbor no ill will towards Americans feel the same way towards other non-Americans who treat Americans as an acceptable target. Unfortunately, both the Flavor 2 [[Eagle Land|Eaglelanders]] and the American-hating foreigners are the [[Vocal Minorities]] that are vastly overrepresented on the internet and in the media. Perhaps they are [[Not So Different]].

* Fans of alternative and underground music do this to both "posers," who perpetuate the idea that alternative subcultures are superficial faux-dissent, and to elitists, who perpetuate the (not incompatible) idea that alternative subcultures are composed of snobbish misanthropes. Punks, in particular, widely despise Real Life examples of [[The Quincy Punk]], who can embody both versions of the undesirable.

** There are many who hate that screaming in metal has become so popular. This is because it's become a stereotype of the genre and has ruined a lot of the variety the genre used to have.

** The above is a major factor in regards to any news report of a young adult male going on a killing spree. "[[New Media Are Evil|He played video games]]" is among the various phrases that gamers hate to hear uttered in connection with it, due to the [[Hitler Ate Sugar]] trope.

* [[PC vs. Console]]: Level-headed PC gamers hate being lumped in with the [[Basement Dweller|basement-dwelling]] segment who disparage anything console, sink thousands of dollars into unnecessary upgrades just to "keep up" and writing off those who don't, and aggressively considering PC gamers superior to console gamers. Similarly, console gamers hate being lumped in with the 13-year olds screaming derogatory remarks over XBL/PSN or homophobic/misogynistic frat boys with a collective IQ in the single digits. Unfortunately, magazines and other media that cater to gamers only reinforce these stereotypes.

* One interesting example of this was BET's [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgcZNpmOKuk&feature=related Read A Book](semi-NSFW version linked) music video, advising the network's viewers to read books, buy land, and drink water. One news network, for their segment, gathered a group of non-Stereotypical black people for a focus group who said the content of the video worried them. Specifically, [[Animation Age Ghetto|they were worried that kids might see it]]. The network apparently didn't inform them that it aired on a programming block kids shouldn't be watching anyway.

* Many [[Rated "M" for Manly|manly men]] are proud of the male stereotype and are baffled by other men who try to deny the stereotype or view it as being negative. They'll even take offense to women who give men the "benefit of the doubt" and ''don't'' assume that the stereotype applies to all men. "So, in other words, you don't like men to be men?" The increasingly common phrase this group use is the "pussification of men".

* [[Spike Lee]] has referred to [[Tyler Perry]]'s movies as "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ciwhh3fB6vE Coonery buffoonery]." Perry responded with "[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/20/tyler-perry-spike-lee-go-to-hell_n_851344.html Go straight to Hell]."

* Asian-American comedian Eliot Chang says that whenever he passes a car accident, he says to himself "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_3o94A0MG4&feature=g-u-u&context=G21d8e0bFUAAAAAAAPAA Please don't be Asian, please don't be Asian]..."

* A certain amount of this came out to play during the run up to the 2012 Academy Awards in regards to the film ''[[The Help]].'' A few people criticized the film for showing most or all of the African-American cast in stereotypical roles of servants. On the other side, multiple black entertainers basically cried [[Political Correctness Gone Mad]], and basically said to stop being so hypercritical of black actors who take "bad" roles like housekeepers because it does more harm to Black artists than good (Aisha Tyler specifically mentioned that actors aren't able to simply take roles because they're good or interesting, they always have to be cautious of the perception of the role and its implications.)

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EieFdXy_HwM This] poem by a Christian is a call to other Christians to Stop Being Stereotypical.

 

[[Lampshade Hanging|If I live to be a hundred]], [[Jim Ross|I will never understand why there are some who are so stereotypical.]] [[Poe's Law|It's almost as if they want to be seen badly.]]

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Prejudice Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Gender and Sexuality Tropes]]

[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]