More on W. Kamau Bell
Guys, the more I watch of this guy, the more I think he's really, really awesome.
First of all, after One Direction won a bunch of VMAs, some far-right, ignorant, fear-mongering asshole lady apparently wrote an article accusing Zayn Malik of pimping jihad to American tweens/teens. So Kamau decided to interview some One Direction fans about their conversion to Islam. He got a group of "all-American" blonde white girl fans of 1D together, interviewed them, and made a joke of the idea that they were being converted to Islam by Zayn. I was just so impressed with how he handled the whole thing. He's really good at doing bits that involve real people in the service of his joke, but always bringing them in on the joke.
So he did that with these tween girls. He started by asking them a bunch of 1D trivia, and, like, who they each want to marry. A great way to make them comfortable, let them share their expertise, establish rapport. Then he slipped in questions about Islam and their conversion to it, and invited their natural responses, to make the joke. But then, THEN, he told them about the woman who wrote the article and her claims about Zayn Malik's agenda, and gave them an opportunity to respond. He showed them the article itself and let them read it and respond. And then at the end, there's a clip of them all sitting around watching a video of the woman on her website, and laughing and talking trash about her together. SO AWESOME. So respectful of these young girl 1D fans and their point of view!
And then he had this really interesting comedy monologue from a guy named Dwayne Kennedy, who gave a hilarious, smart, harshly critical read of the incident where the Republican white dude pizzeria owner bear hugged and lifted President Obama off his feet at a visit to his pizzeria. (YouTube link) It's a critical read of the racial dynamics in that moment, no holding back, and the guy has a weird, kind of off-kilter, but effective performance style. Not like anything I'm used to seeing on television, that's for sure. Note: I can't vouch for his other comedy, haven't seen anything but this one bit on Totally Biased. But his segment did make me think about how this show is carving out a weird little radical political space in the comedy tv landscape, and I sure hope it sticks around.
Then! Then he had Issa Rae, of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, as his guest! I have such a huge crush on her. She is just adooooorable. Smart and funny and quick, but also seriously adorable. Very cool to give her that exposure, and they're cute together during the interview segment.
I'm just really impressed! I always recommend with the caveat that I don't think any individual artist hits every right note for every audience member all the time. And that's certainly true of political artists hitting the right political notes for every audience member. So there may be a few things here and there that make me roll my eyes or shake my head, but he has yet to actually hurt my feelings or make me angry with anything he's said or done. I really do recommend him very highly! In addition to all of the above, he's very, very funny! Like, makes me literally LOL throughout the show. He is good times!
[This entry was originally posted at http://arallara.dreamwidth.org/168601.html. For now, please comment in either journal, but I encourage you to use OpenID at Dreamwidth--it's super easy! What is an OpenID account?.]
First of all, after One Direction won a bunch of VMAs, some far-right, ignorant, fear-mongering asshole lady apparently wrote an article accusing Zayn Malik of pimping jihad to American tweens/teens. So Kamau decided to interview some One Direction fans about their conversion to Islam. He got a group of "all-American" blonde white girl fans of 1D together, interviewed them, and made a joke of the idea that they were being converted to Islam by Zayn. I was just so impressed with how he handled the whole thing. He's really good at doing bits that involve real people in the service of his joke, but always bringing them in on the joke.
So he did that with these tween girls. He started by asking them a bunch of 1D trivia, and, like, who they each want to marry. A great way to make them comfortable, let them share their expertise, establish rapport. Then he slipped in questions about Islam and their conversion to it, and invited their natural responses, to make the joke. But then, THEN, he told them about the woman who wrote the article and her claims about Zayn Malik's agenda, and gave them an opportunity to respond. He showed them the article itself and let them read it and respond. And then at the end, there's a clip of them all sitting around watching a video of the woman on her website, and laughing and talking trash about her together. SO AWESOME. So respectful of these young girl 1D fans and their point of view!
And then he had this really interesting comedy monologue from a guy named Dwayne Kennedy, who gave a hilarious, smart, harshly critical read of the incident where the Republican white dude pizzeria owner bear hugged and lifted President Obama off his feet at a visit to his pizzeria. (YouTube link) It's a critical read of the racial dynamics in that moment, no holding back, and the guy has a weird, kind of off-kilter, but effective performance style. Not like anything I'm used to seeing on television, that's for sure. Note: I can't vouch for his other comedy, haven't seen anything but this one bit on Totally Biased. But his segment did make me think about how this show is carving out a weird little radical political space in the comedy tv landscape, and I sure hope it sticks around.
Then! Then he had Issa Rae, of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, as his guest! I have such a huge crush on her. She is just adooooorable. Smart and funny and quick, but also seriously adorable. Very cool to give her that exposure, and they're cute together during the interview segment.
I'm just really impressed! I always recommend with the caveat that I don't think any individual artist hits every right note for every audience member all the time. And that's certainly true of political artists hitting the right political notes for every audience member. So there may be a few things here and there that make me roll my eyes or shake my head, but he has yet to actually hurt my feelings or make me angry with anything he's said or done. I really do recommend him very highly! In addition to all of the above, he's very, very funny! Like, makes me literally LOL throughout the show. He is good times!
[This entry was originally posted at http://arallara.dreamwidth.org/168601.html. For now, please comment in either journal, but I encourage you to use OpenID at Dreamwidth--it's super easy! What is an OpenID account?.]