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Lisa Lampanelli: So Racist She Just Might Work

February 16th, 2009 · 17 Comments

NOTE: Thanks to the discussion of this post, I realized I needed to clarify my thinking, so the second half has been rewritten. Here’s to discussion!

I just got home from working on a (fantastic) theater project that included rape jokes, Second Life sex, and coy use of the phrase “scat bottom.” I’m not easy to shock.

But Lisa Lampanelli? Shocks me.

Last week, I caught her HBO stand-up comedy special, and I actually blushed at several of the “queen of mean’s” jokes. Because y’all… Don Rickles and Howard Stern might drop some off-color bombs, but I have never, ever encountered a comedian who is more gleefully and universally offensive than Lisa Lampanelli. I mean, things I wouldn’t dare to think come flying out of her mouth, and that’s given her a lot of success.

Her comedy isn’t especially funny (more on that later), but it’s compelling because it’s just as racist, homophobic, and sexist as any Don Imus radio broadcast. So far, however, Lampanelli’s gotten Grammy nominations instead of lawsuits. 

For many people, her humor obviously falls on this side of “objectionable.” But why?

I’ve figured out why I wasn’t offended by her HBO special Long Live the Queen, and I’d wager a lot of people share my reasons. I’ll lay them out… after the jump!

Before we start, here’s the first part of her HBO special. The rest is also on YouTube (for now.)


 

First, it helps that Lampanelli is a woman. For me, that excuses her many, many jokes about women, since as far as I’m concerned, if you’re part of a group that gets stereotyped, you have the right to reclaim those labels with an empowering one liner. By mocking your own people, you prove that you’re not only aware of your deviations from the norm, but also that you’re unafraid of them. You eradicate the power someone might have over you by happily acknowledging what supposedly makes you a misfit.

You also tell your peers that by laughing with you, they are building defenses against the people who would laugh at them. I suspect this is partly why the minorities in her audience laugh at the jokes she makes about them:They embrace her as a fellow outsider. Laughing with her lets them join her assault against the words that are supposed to hurt them. 

Along those lines, taboos are diminished because Lampanelli makes so many jokes about her own life, like her obsession with screwing black guys. By letting us know she loves black men, she frees herself to mock them. 

Well… sort of. This is a thorny area, because if Lampanelli were a white man who loved screwing black women, then the jokes wouldn’t fly. White men—especially white Christian heterosexual men—are the most powerful and privileged people in our culture. If they mock the folks who have less power than they do, they come across as tyrannical, rude, or ungrateful, like rich kids who tease poor kids for having old shoes.

And though it’s mitigated by her sex and her black-guy thing, Lampanelli’s whiteness will always put a sting in her racial jokes, just like her straightness will always make her gay jokes a little vicious. But again, I’m not offended. 

Because here’s the thing: For her HBO special, Lampanelli overdoes her feminine image. She strolls out in front of a pink “magic mirror,” and she wears an outfit that is so over-the-top 1950s that even Donna Reed might call it old-fashioned. Her dress has a bright floral pattern and the starched hem is as big around as a Hula Hoop. Her pumps are plum-colored, her make-up is bright, and her hair is ten feet high. She’s a caricature of a demure flower.

Her oversized image parodies our expectations of a “ladylike” woman, and it suggests that Lampanelli’s off-color humor isn’t a reflection of what she actually thinks—the way Don Imus seems to believe what he says—but is instead a commentary on what’s roiling beneath polite society. She’s performing a character instead of being herself, which invites us to find the message in her madness. 

But here’s my beef: I’m more fascinated by Lampanelli than entertained. As Michael says in the comments on this post, her material lacks the “joy of laughter.” I can be shocked by the taboos she breaks, and I can be intrigued by the persona that allows her to break them, but I can’t actually enjoy myself when I watch her.

That’s partly because insult humor, no matter who delivers it, makes me uncomfortable, but it’s also because none of Lamapnelli’s jokes are that surprising. I mean, Mexicans don’t get jobs? Gay guys are slutty? Really? That’s the best she’s got? What a shame to construct such a fascinating character and then fill her with recycled material. 

What do you guys think about her?

Tags: Television

17 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Lena // Feb 16, 2009 at 3:33 am

    I think she is adorable. In this country, only comedians are allowed to speak up (kind of, as far as PC stuff is concerned – a very unique context if you compare to other places). Let’s face it, most people are racist (except for me, of course). I’ve seen more kinds of racism than I have fingers and toes combined. However, everybody has been trained to hush it. I am not talking intellectual racism, I am talking emotional racism. Or rather, cultural racism. Each person prefers people of the same social context and trusts them more. Not so much color or other physical things, but the culture and background. Okay. I am going to shut up. I could talk for a week about it, with all travels and adventures I had. Bottom line, I am still surprised that people laugh at being insulted personally (if she did a Russian joke, I would probably have the same reaction as Arthur Nersesian’s character mistakenly trying a dungeon – namely, “Fuck You!”), but not at all surprised that people laugh at everybody else getting insulted. Okay, the end.

  • 2 Kevin // Feb 16, 2009 at 3:37 am

    Interesting stuff, Mark. I admit I hadn’t heard of Lisa until tonight.

    I think your analysis is pretty spot on (in particular, your assertion that she’s not all that funny).

    The shock stuff just isn’t really all that fresh anymore, in my opinion. John Waters did it ages ago (Lenny Bruce before him, among others) – and better, if you ask me, and Lampanelli owes a lot to Divine (in particular) and drag culture (in general). Put her up against some of the biggest queens, and I’m afraid she might be…uh…drinking her own milkshake…… or something.

    As it stands, Lampanelli is a bit of a female/female drag (faux queen or whatever they’re being called these days), which allows her a lot of wiggle room – blurring the gender/sex/sexuality lines and assuming a plasticine, charicaturish persona that is little more than a stereotype – there’s no emotion to what she says, little truth, so it’s hard to take offense.

    Interesting stuff, as I said. Especially since what she’s doing is not all that interesting, ultimately. The interesting part is how mainstream this kind of stuff has now become.

  • 3 lisa rothauser // Feb 16, 2009 at 6:24 pm

    i have adored her since 2 years ago seeing her live at The Palace Theatre in Stamford. She is a comic genius. No female or male comic past or present has gotten away with the shit she says. honestly…if people have “issue” with her, then I say, take y’self to therapy and lighten up! peace.

  • 4 Amy Brand // Feb 16, 2009 at 9:04 pm

    I had never heard of her until I read this blog. I don’t think she is funny at all in any respect. Maybe it was because I was always the one picked-on & ridiculed growing up, so I am very sensitive to it. It is obscene, and I think she is a perfect example of what is wrong with the industry. I am a pretty light-hearted person, but there is no place for her type of disrespect.

  • 5 Michael // Feb 16, 2009 at 10:07 pm

    I can’t find a conclusion here, but it’s fun to waver among the options. I–lover of standup and recovering prude–find Lampanelli bracing, but never feel the release of laughter in her work. I wonder how much of my grudging respect for her comes from interviews I’ve read in which she reveals herself as a whip-smart, self-aware, self-possessed woman, a former copy editor with a precise sense of language. The exposed subtext of all of her comedy is “I choose to be rude, and I know you wish you could be too. Want to see how rude I can be? Hear THIS!” It goes beyond PC-irritablilty, it gets to sheer social effrontery for its own sake, social fearlessness. Most of us try to be nice; she uses insult as a high-concept device to challenge that very basic, possibly fearful, drive. No, it’s not howlingly funny–but to give credit where it’s due, she knows how to craft a joke, she’s got a distinctive delivery and a signature structure going. But it’s also really very carefully graduated insult comedy, pointing us beyond the actual insults to something else–she’s smiling, choosing minority audience members and winking at them as she dares them to play along (and they want to!), complimenting the black men in the audience, creating a virtual space of “in the know” where we will hear something beyond her offensiveness.

  • 6 Mark Blankenship // Feb 17, 2009 at 1:35 am

    Thanks for all these comments! Taken together, they all helped me clarify my thinking about my reactions to Lampanelli’s humor, so I edited the post to make my point a little stronger.

    And that’s exactly why I launched this site… for just this kind of discussion. Excellent!

  • 7 Sarah // Feb 17, 2009 at 1:53 am

    meh. ironic racism is still racism.

  • 8 trish // Feb 19, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    I happened to catch her special on HBO last nite. Turned it off after 10 mins. Totally Bored. Never laughed once. I always wonder if those people in the audience are “plants” or “friends”. What was so funny? I love stand up comedy. I loved Richard Pryor, Don Rickles etc… I do not even consider Lisa Lampanelli in the same league. Oh well, that’s just me .. By the way, I can watch Kathy Griffen all day and there alot of people who do not find her entertaining… to each is own…

  • 9 Not PC // Feb 22, 2009 at 7:39 am

    I’m not PC – but come on! She is not funny – and I don’t care if it’s ironic or whatever – She IS a racist. No one can stand up for an hour and
    deliver so many unfunny one liners and NOT be
    racist. She has no talent.

  • 10 LAME // Feb 24, 2009 at 4:02 am

    Just caught this special on HBO…wow, what an untalented racist hack. Super unfunny. She offends everyone equally??? Um yeah, but how about being offensive AND funny? Every stereotype is played for the most obvious corresponding lazy stereotype joke. Blacks are stupid. HAHAHA. Hispanics are lazy HAHAHAHA. Jews love money. HAHAHA. Gays are flamboyant. HAHAHAH. Lots of references to Howard Stern for cheap applause, a constant reminder of how insecure she is about her own talent.

  • 11 ButteryPat // Mar 16, 2009 at 1:53 am

    I feel like the people that enjoy and defend this crap are all just falling over themselves to prove they’re all so hip and modern and not-racist they can laugh at a string of idiotic stereotypes just to show how not racist they are. Lisa Lampanelli provides just the right mechanism for that- after all she always says she “loves the blacks”! And don’t forget how “un-PC” and “taboo” all of this is. Never mind that better comedians have been doing this schtick for 35 years, this time it’s a lady in a pink dress! When will this seemingly endless fascination with tired stereotypes society is going through end?

    The mere fact that you admit that you felt uncomfortable laughing at these jokes in the presence of black people should give you serious cause for some self examination. Never mind the obvious point that if he was at a Lisa Lampanelli show he’s probably a fan, if you think something is funny, why the hell should it matter who you’re sitting next to? If she and you are so obviously not racist, shouldn’t it not matter whether or not it’s “mixed” company?

    Lisa Lampanelli reminds me of so many ignorant middle-aged white women who justify their ignorance with an over-the-top reverence for all things black and constant reminders of how attractive they think black men are. They say things like “why are black babies so adorable?”

  • 12 Not a fan // Mar 28, 2009 at 3:07 am

    One thing I noticed is that any racist person could take a bit of her film or a joke of hers and use it at a race-based hate rally…if it could EASILY be used for those purposes, then it’s racist. You would be hard pressed to find a joke from Dave C., Carlos Mencia, or Chris Rock that would flow into a racist conversation as easy as her comments would. Theres a difference between playing on sterotypes (being tasteful) and being racist (being trashy)…I don’t think she’s found that medium.

    I love a good laugh and always watch comedy shows/movies…but to be honest, this didn’t make me laugh. At all. It offended me. It wasn’t tasteful at all.

    I recently watched an old show of hers. She called a black woman some sterotypical “ghetto” name (the womans name was Shannon) and then proceeded to ask her if it was a “real name” or a “black name”. Her constant jokes about black D**** (as she lovingly calls it) and calling any Black man Tyrone is nothing short of racism. It only proved to me that she had a fetish…which is no better than racism and shouldn’t be praised. I don’t feel like minorities hsould only be upset with her, but regular whites too. She distorts history (saying Hispanics moved into the country without permission but seems to forget that Americans STOLE most of Mexico), blames whites, claims she’s not racist by throwing the blame on someone else, and for some reason believes that there isn’t much of a problem with saying racial slurrs…as long as it isn’t the N-word (which baffles me, racial slurrs are that for a reaosn and should not be used).

    Most comedians who make these jokes don’t do it out of ignorance. They know their history, sterotypes, and spend an equal amount of time bashing people (not devoting an hour talking about Black men).

    Also, no one should really “embrace” stertypes. Sterotypes wouldn’t rub people the wrong way if they made life easier/were correct. The fact is, they make life harder for the person. I’ve met plenty of Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics who were okay with the sterotypes. They could laugh it up with the best of them…until they realized that they couldn’t get a job, were ignored as potential partners, or stared at in stores or soemthing else unfortunate because they “Accepted” these sterotypes. Accepting them only proves they are right.

    Basically, this woman is making racist jokes…not jokes based off of sterotypes. If they were actually funny, I’d let them pass (because I’d be laughing with the people in the crowd). But she spends a great deal of time attacking people without anything funny or contructive being said. Just compare her work to other comedians (esp. those who have done quite a few race-based jokes), she’s not even in the same category.

  • 13 Greg // Apr 30, 2009 at 6:46 am

    As a black man I can’t stand Lisa Lampanelli. If she thinks her jokes are so offensive then why doesn’t she go down to Harlem and let’s see how long she lasts ? But the thing is her insults are NOT the real issue. The issue is that her insults take place against a backdrop of systemic and institutional racism. And that backdrop of housing and job discrimination, racial profiling, unequal health care access, and a media that regularly presents us blacks in the WORST possible light makes her verbal insults, take on a magnitude well beyond the moment of their issuance.

    Also for those white people in here who claim she attacks white people and calls you white devils , honky or cracker – PLEASE note : It is precisely the LACK of any POTENT, institutional force to back up those words, which makes them so much easier for you to shrug off. But we black people well aware that the slurs used against us, particularly when verbalized by whites, are often the tip of a much larger and more destructive iceberg, beneath which tip lies an edifice capable of shattering opportunities, of damaging and even destroying lives. In truth, even the words themselves can injure, especially the young, for whom an insistence on the development of thick skin seems especially heartless.

  • 14 haleenicole // Jan 19, 2010 at 3:03 pm

    lisa lampanelli is by far the funniest women i’ve ever met. my parents believe i’m going to be like her when i grow up. if all you wanna do is complain go watch dane cook because if you wanna talk about somebody that sucks it’d be him. if you dont like her, dont watch her. i love you lisa =]

  • 15 Effi // Mar 13, 2010 at 1:45 am

    Totally agree with ButteryPat. I just came across her on HBO found this woman absolutely nauseating. And 1.) she is so not funny and 2.) VERY offensive (and I don’t offend that easily).

    What is this new trend that allows people to “demonstrate” how non-racist they are by making racist jokes and banter? Irony? No, I don’t think so. If it walks like a duck and acts like a duck….it’s probably a duck.

    And also, like another person commented, there is no institutional racism against whites, so it’s not the same if the tables were turned.

    I see the same sort of thing sometimes with Bill Maher—to the extent I don’t even like watching him anymore.

  • 16 Anika // Dec 9, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Greg, you are spot on.

  • 17 Jacky // Apr 30, 2011 at 3:55 am

    I just saw her show on HBO VOD. All I got to say is she is offensive but she is not funny at all. She sucks. Greg is right. He is kind of interesting because what she says on stage is just shocking. While she keep going on and on about liking black men yet she is racist as hell towards them on stage.

    She is stupid and not funny at all. Why people would pay for shows is beyond me. She is just not a very good comic.

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