When I told my brother about what we were learning about in class (TV Tokenism), he immediately thought of this character on South Park. He is an African-American character named “Token Black,” with a big “T” on his shirt reminding viewers he’s there to be the token black. While I don’t watch the show, many high schoolers watch or have heard of the show South Park, an animated adult sitcom. I have only seen about an episode's worth my entire life, but I do remember one scene specifically where Token Black is made fun of for having expensive clothes, or being the "best dressed minority" as we discussed in class.
We saw a clip in class of the show 30 Rock, which had this same idea of the making it clear the black character “Toofer” was there to be a token black character. Sitcoms often use stereotypes that we are familiar with to make us laugh. One of the sitcoms I do watch, Modern Family, has made quite a few of these exaggerated stereotype jokes about Asians specifically, for example being bad at driving. I was laughing when I watched that scene, but my little sister wasn't, and asked me to explain it to her. She hasn't been as exposed to stereotypes, so the joke went over her head.
I wonder if by using this as material for comedy it shows progression or not. We find them funny because they’re so exaggerated, but is it just further enforcing these stereotypes? If we’re laughing at them does that make them okay?
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