Is This Okay?

Tucked away in my little booth, I see a lot more than just the show onstage. Especially in our current set-up, where I am pretty much facing the entire audience.


Greater Tuna is a spoof-- it's a play set in rural Texas, and every sort of stereotype therein is fully explored and exploited for laughs. On top of your casual, thoughtless racists (the housewife who is trying to get Roots banned from schools because it "only shows one side of the slavery issue" and who is a member of Citizens for Fewer Blacks in Literature) there is a Klan member spoofed. And I must stressed spoofed. The racism of these characters is used as a punchline at the character's expense, showcasing the ignorance and sometimes downright stupidity of these small town folks. They say outrageously racist things and you are meant to laugh at the ridiculousness of these views.


Now we don't have a lot of African American subscribers up here in the Studio, but we do have some. I would say that four shows a week we at least have one African American in our audience.


When there are no black people in the audience, everyone laughs at the racist remarks the characters make. How stupid are these people, to say things like that! But a funny thing happens when a white person sitting next to an African American hears one of these remarks. Before they laugh, they always glance over at the black person. If the black person laughs, they laugh too. If they don't, the white person returns their gaze to the stage, somewhat uncomfortably.


This never fails. It doesn't matter if the white person is there with the black person, or if they're strangers who just happened to sit next to each other. Each time, there is a check-in. Is it okay to laugh at this? Is this funny? Am I allowed to be amused by their racism?


White people, relax. If you think it's funny, laugh. If it offends you, don't laugh. That's just what your African American neighbor is doing, why do you need their approval?


I don't know why, but the check-in really annoys me. But then again, I'm just a girl in a tiny darkened booth, wearing a red leather cowboy hat and staring at strangers watching a play. What do I know?


The awesome artwork of Charles Browning, including the painting at the top of this blog, can be found here.