Stereotypes: Knowing where to stop laughing

After watching the movie The Other Woman, I realized something. We need to change the way characters are depicted in comedies. Not just rom coms - but all movies - although rom coms and comedies do have a bad track record for stock characters and stereotypes. Stereotypes are, to some degree, harmless, but we need to question what they are making fun of - and why these stereotypes are funny to us.

Let's start with the "dumb blonde." It's 2014, and we all "know" that the "dumb blonde" is just a stupid stereotype. But do we? I have the feeling that maybe, in a way, our society "creates" dumb blondes. Blonde girls who are depicted so routinely as clueless, cute, happy-go-lucky, carefree and chic no doubt have an influence on blonde girls watching these movies. Some may react with outrage, some with lesser degrees of frustration, but the worst is for those blonde girls who are actually LAUGHING at a stock character that is representing THEM, based on nothing more than hair colour. In The Other Woman, the character of Amber is the stereotypical "dumb blonde" who can do nothing but flaunt her double Ds, get distracted easily, and look cute. And I say: What. The. Hell. You would think they'd make her character more genuine. More real.

Next up, skinny pale men who are computer nerds and are socially awkward. Let's call this one "the geek." We're always told that stereotypes are based on something true. OK, so let's say that there is a tendency for "the geek" to be male, socially awkward, and skinny and pale. Let's say they have a tendency to love computer tech, role-playing games, and video games. And as a society, we make fun of their identity. Their love for computers, or role playing games, or whatever the hell it is they are into. Does it matter? Should we have the power to make them feel ridiculous based on what they like? Are their hobbies somehow stupid and ridiculous to us? Why?

Or how about the foreigner with the accent who plays one of two roles: shallow love interest OR clueless, ridiculous tourist. Let's call this one "the foreigner." You can tell who "the foreigner" is either by physical appearance or accent or behaviour. And usually, "the foreigner" is supposed to be laughed at. In Agent Cody Banks, the Mandarin-accented driver's ed teacher does nothing but yell at Cody like a maniac, puke all over himself, and exit the scene. In James Bond, the number of love interests with exotic accents (and boobs) enter into Bond's life, only to be killed off tragically. Just a butterfly for Bond to have sex with. Or let's not forget the character of Gael from How I Met Your Mother. Foreigners need more respect than this in our movies and TV shows. How are we supposed to treat real people with the respect they deserve if all we've ever done is laughed at caricatures of them portrayed in our movies?

I think comedies and rom coms could do better than this. They could actually use funny material that is clever. That is REAL. That doesn't rely on the existence and use of stock characters that border on ridiculous.