"We can laugh at ourselves": Hawai'i Ethnic Humor, Local Identity and the Myth of Multiculturalism  

Oleh:

Labrador, Roderick N.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Pragmatics: Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association vol. 14 no. 2 dan 3 (2004), page 291-316.
Topik: Race/ethnicity; Representation; Ethnic humor; Filipino; Hawaii.
Fulltext: 439-733-1-PB.pdf (256.78KB)

Isi artikel

Hawaiis multiculturalism and perceived harmonious race and ethnic relations are widely celebrated in popular and academic discourse. The image of Hawaii as a racial paradise, a rainbow of peacefully co-existing groups, partially stems from the fact that among the various racial and ethnic groups there is no numerical majority and from the common belief in equality of opportunity and status. Hawaii ethnic humor is part and parcel of the maintenance and continued reinforcement of the notion of Hawaii as racial paradise with underlying racializing and stigmatizing discourses that disguise severe social inequalities and elide differential access to wealth and power. In this paper, I examine the intersection of language, humor, and representation by analyzing the linguistic practices in the comedy performances of Frank DeLima, a pioneer in Hawaii ethnic humor, and excerpts from Buckaloose: Shmall Keed Time (Small Kid Time), a comedy CD by Da Braddahs, a relatively new but tremendously popular comedy duo in Hawaii. Central to these comedy performances is the use of a language variety that I call Mock Filipino, a strategy often employed by Local comedians to differentiate the speakers of Philippine languages from speakers of Hawaii Creole English (or Pidgin). A key component to understanding the use of Mock Filipino is the idea of Local as a cultural and linguistic identity category and its concomitant multiculturalist discourse. I argue that the Local comedians use of Mock Filipino relies on the myth of multiculturalism while constructing racializing discourses which position immigrant Filipinos as a cultural and linguistic Other, signifying their outsider status and their subordinate position in the social hierarchy and order. The linguistic practices in the comedy performances are thus identity acts that help to produce and disseminate ideas about language, culture, and identity while normalizing Local and reinforcing Hawaiis mainstream multiculturalist ideology.

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