Mike Epps and his team of diverse comedians are searching for the source of a bunch of racist jokes—but also have fun while doing it. That's Racist is an ethnography-of-comedy web-series for AOL Originals. Each episode, Epps tackles one simple joke—that's become a stereotype—and breaks down the real mechanics of when and why it became offensive. Five episodes are online now, and there are more to come in March.
For the first episode (above) Epps holds a roundtable with comedians Randy Sklar, Jason Sklar, Helong Hong, Rick Overton, John Viener and Sharon Houston and asks: why do black people love fried chicken? Is that even true? And why can something delicious be offensive? Epps goes to Oakland to eat some fried chicken in the hood, and finds mostly white folks eating it. Some professors give the brief history of long work hours, the class system of food, refrigeration, and—boom!—there's the historical fodder to why it's racist. But whose idea was the complementary waffle?
In the first batch of episodes that are currently available, Epps and his comedians (and y'know, the bookish folks who know the answers) discuss what people mean when they say, "Jews are cheap," "Asians can't drive," "Muslims are terrorists," and "white men can't jump."
The first five episodes are available here.
