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  3. The price of the punch line : analyzing ethnic humor’s ability to change racial understandings on The Goldbergs
Title

The price of the punch line : analyzing ethnic humor’s ability to change racial understandings on The Goldbergs

    Item Description
    Limited Access
    The author(s) chose to restrict access to this thesis to current Whitman students, faculty, and staff. Please log in to view it.
    Linked Agent
    Creator (cre): Christensen, Mary E.
    Advisor (adv): Simek, Nicole
    Department (dpt): Whitman College. Race and Ethnic Studies
    Date
    May 13, 2015
    Graduation Year
    2015
    Abstract

    Some scholars critique ethnic humor’s progressive potential, claiming that it relies on stereotypes for its comic effect and therefore cannot change racial understandings. The 1930’s radio show, The Goldbergs, deviates from this pattern: it was a comic show about a Jewish family that ran just as Jewishness was becoming conflated with whiteness. By intersecting 1930’s Jewish-American identity, the nature of radio in race production, and theories of ethnic humor, this thesis explores how an ethnic comedy came to undermine, rather than reinforce, the perception of its Jewish characters as "others."

    Subject
    Ethnic groups -- Identity
    Ethnic stereotypes -- America, 1930-1940
    Jews -- Identity -- Case studies
    Jews -- Identity -- Humor
    Radio programs -- United States -- History and criticism
    Other (Philosophy) -- Social aspects
    Stereotyped behavior -- Ethnic humor
    Rise of the Goldbergs (Radio Program) -- The Goldbergs
    Language and culture
    Academic theses
    Whitman College 2015 -- Dissertation collection -- Race and Ethnic Studies
    Geographic Subject
    United States
    Genre
    Theses
    Extent
    44 pages
    Permanent URL
    http://works.whitman.edu/20151121
    Rights
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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    If you have questions about permitted uses of this content, please contact the Arminda administrator: http://works.whitman.edu/contact-arminda

    8027628
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