Never Scared: The Cultural Significance of Chris Rock

Standup pay offdians exemplify the trans-generational nature of our culture. With their ability to fully actualise all of societies diverging value, dapple still unendingly grazing the edge of change, they serve as the conscience of the people. As Lawrence Mintz argues, comics be evidenced to asseverate the undefin sufficient be caseful they permit the pity of the earreach they use the military group of laughter to unite communities and tread societies shade of gray, and the around successful of them exercise a full cognisance in the art of elaborateness. Mintz points out that comedians use these faint-hearted pity warranting social postal services to actually empower themselves.iOne of the eliminate plump forup comedians k outrightadaysn for this today is Chris leaning he uses rhetoric to persuade his audience into finding humor in some of the darkest aspects of our society. Chris rocknroll uses rhetoric in his standup never Sc atomic number 18d to persuade his audience to adopt his views, while at the resembling time reversing the pity warranting image that Mintzs claims gives a comic his license to tattle freely. Both of these in-person intentions of judders in his stand up are dependent solely on how well he connects to the core set of his audience. Rock is credited for being best able at connecting the disintegration of family and alliance value of Blacks.In neer Scared, Chris Rock discusses the deteriorating values of Black the States and how these values are affecting ominous culture in America. He utilizes theories in social family structure with the African American family today and establishes himself as a parting molding for the melanise culture. He likewise sar sanctifyically undermines the institution of marriage and the battle of the sexes in an legal and witty compositionner. Not only is he socially aware of all of these things that I have handstioned, he is also aware of the embarrassing acts from his race w hom he spitefully labels common racoons. Allow me to expand on the issues Chris Rock brings up in his comedy chips.The days of leery schtick and prat falls are essentially over. Through the years, much more(prenominal) substance has come to the attention of America when it comes to stand-up comedy. Lawrence Mintz states the following c one timerning this phenomena on page 72 Clearly it is a commonplace art that is central to American entertainment, yet in the universal tradition of public joking rituals it is more than that as well it is an important part of the rural areas cultural life.iChris Rock is an minute character of this statement.In Never Scared, Rock opens his routine with confidence and mentions his daughter, alluding to the ground why he hasnt been on the way in so long.Its amazing when you have a girl Its eye opening, because I realize, Im the man in her life. My relationship with my daughter is going to affect her relationship with men for the rest of her l ife. Every man in here has dated a woman with some soda issues. That emailprotected%$ aint merriment ok. Shes gift you a hard time for some emailprotected%$ her dadaism did in 1969. (Chris Rock, 2006)Ever the sarcastic encourager, Rock sets up an pillowcase that needs to be revisited in the grisly community of interests. Hes sensible and funny here merely he is also alluding to something important. The black man in todays culture needs to sym streetize the importance of bringing up baby girls. He states that sometimes he picks her up out of her stroller, looks at her and thats when it hits himMy job in this life now is to keep my baby off the poleOf carry he is referring to the ever-ominous pole found in all unclothe club in the world. This is profound intelligence for the deadbeat dads out there who arent with their daughters. nigh fathers are right in the room save to busy pictureing the game to pay each attention to the direction she might be headed if he doesnt start to get to cut his slender girl who is take oning up.Its interesting to tonus that an article by Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein al near discuss the same issue.ii With the rise of single mothers in urban areas and their beat to make ends meet, we have to admire what the sociological and mental implications for the child are growing up in an environment without a father. Many of these children will grow up to be drug dealers, strippers and prostitutes in their fight to get away from the economic prison they were unwillingly placed in at birth.Speaking of birth, lets examine Rocks use of abortion and marriage. Nilsen discusses the important element of sexism in comedy routines in his articleSexist humor, which makes fun of the real or imagined characteristics of males and females, is seen in the oldest myths, fairy tales, folk tales, nursery rhymes, and set apart writings. Because jokes are a kind of shorthand, creators do not start with a whole new cast of characters for e ach joke instead they rely on familiar scripts that include exaggerations and stereotypes. This enables listeners to fill in the expound from the material that their minds have already absorbed from the everyday culture.ivThroughout Rocks comedy routines, he brings to agility the battle of the sexes concerning abortion and marriage. He discusses the two options that a man has when he finds out his girlfriend is enceinteWow Im so cheerful I love you so much. Or the ill-omened So, whatcha gonna do? Once again he word littlely stabs at the lack of responsibility concerning the man in this issue. He goes on to discuss the item that the conclusiveness for abortion is made between the woman and her girlfriends. It is a sad barely real commentary on the disintegration of society in general but Chris seems to be directing it toward black culture specifically.There are strong arguments for the fact that married couples experience less stress and live a healthier life(Waite).iii Ro ck equates marriage to simple transferenceWhen youre single, you wanna slay yourself. When youre married, you wanna kill your spouseHe discusses the difficulty of unhappily married men and their addiction to strip clubs. He adds that reasons for this are that women are domineering. In a funny little clip, Chris talks near the ho convention and glass heels. Then he brings up the fact that a wife is there to offer for you and be there for you but if you bring a pair of glass heels in the house, it will cause all sorts of problems.As you can see, he strengthens his views of the black man being the wifes pet or the one thats supposed to do everything for her by using these jokes. He also portrays the man in the abortion bit as not having a say in anything that happens with the child. He portrays the womans friends at a higher level than her protest boyfriend and the father of her child.He jokes about strip clubs and infidelity but he still holds to the division model persona. He stands by his conviction of not deceiver on your spouse and once again cements his position in black culture. Voicing his family values opens the audience up for his personal opinions about society. Rocks humorous perspective on life and his personal opinions about society mark the defining cable length between him as an individual and the family values he has affirmed to gain the audiences trust.In his essay, Standup clowning as affable and Cultural Mediation, Mintz explains the furtherification croup the stand up comedians license to speak freely. Considering the fact that Chris Rock is an African American, he has free reign to speak out on the problems with African- Americans. As he displays his disgust with black stars corresponding the child molesting, wanna-be- ovalbumin Michael Jackson, he flows freely into the R-Kelly contingency with the young girl on video.We all know that he is using these incidents as well as the Kobe Bryant cut offe case and the OJ Simpson case because they are excellent material for comedy. But, its also obvious that he uses these men as examples for negative black role models in America as well. It makes one wonder if he is warning his black audience of the path of self-destruction they may be on together. aft(prenominal) all, great men like Sydney Poitier or crowd Earl Jones didnt do things like this to embarrass the black community.Personally, I believe that his roughly compelling routine is the I hate Niggas routine. The courage that it takes for a black man to stand up and say Everything white people dont like about black people, black people hate flat more. I love black people but I hate niggas. He jokes about the fact that every time black people examine to get together and have some fun like going to a movie, some nigga pulls out a gun and shoots at the screen. It is most flop when he utilizes this rhetoric in the posture of a more affluent black community.By perform in D.C., Rock intentionally markets hi mself towards the wealthiest blacks in the united States, giving him all the more power once he is able to form a community inwardly the room. But, this community Rock make waters must be structured on some form of values with which he knows everyone can basically agree, and that will create an atmosphere of familial comfort. Rock does this perfectly in his stand up, and the structure can be say from start to finish.We can also observe the incorrupt erosion of rap music. It use to be a positive influence in the black community. Chris Rock has played an important role in promoting rap music. Although, in Never Scared, He mentions the fact that it keeps acquire harder to defend this popular urban genre. He states that it employ to be easy to defend groups like potassium Master Flash because they represented the black urban culture as a whole. Then he goes on to state that he hates to defend it now because of lines such as the famous line from Lil JonTo the windows, to the wall s, til the sweat drips from my balls.These lyrics cant be defended. They do not spell anything positive for black society and the song certainly shows no keep an eye on for black women whatsoever. Granted, there were some pretty vernacular lyrics in the early days of rap also but not to the extent of today.If we observe the cause of Chris Rock, a strong argument can be made that he has created some of the most powerful rhetoric concerning the degradation of his own race in America. He stands by his values and doesnt twine under the microscope like some stars. He has used his influence to create a teachable intellect of the social inequalities that occur in America. But, more than this he has made it simple for the average black family, or any family, to understand the major social issues ring black culture today. I think the most important thing that Chris Rock has done for the black culture and every culture in America is created a vital understanding for accountability withi n our own cultural social dynamic.I have perceive many people say that Chris Rock is a comedian, but he is an activist as well. Others say that his comedy is racially motivated against the white race of America. Still, some just wont watch him or listen to him because of his language usage. There are a number of labels we can put on this man and he allows us to do so liberally. Chris Rock may have missed his true calling as a social scientist. perhaps one-day comedians like Rock will receive unearned PhDs for their body of work in stand up comedy but for now, hes just a great comedian.iv Nilsen A.P and Nilsen D.L.B (2000) Encyclopedia of the twentieth deoxycytidine monophosphate American Humor.Gender Humor. Phoenix, AZ Oryz Press, pp.170-174.i Standup Comedy as Social and Cultural Mediation. Lawrence E. Mintz.American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, Special Issue American Humor. (Spring, 1985), pp. 71-80.ii Work, Welfare, and the Single Mothers Economic Survival Strategies. Kathryn Edin and Laura Lein. American sociological Review.iii Does Marriage Matter?. Waite, Linda J. Demography. Vol. 32, No. 4, November 1995.iv Nilsen A.P and Nilsen D.L.B (2000) Encyclopedia of the 20th century American Humor.Gender Humor. Phoenix, AZ Oryz Press, pp.170-174.Quotes from Chris Rock came from his stand up routine Never Scared. 2006.