Comic Spirit and "bringing Down the House"

Comedy has existed with the human spirit as far back as humans began writing the first plays and stories. Comedy and laughing at other peoples' situations has always been a very good way to tell an entertaining story. Yet, at the same time, it can be an effective way to share lessons about life and the human condition. The "comic spirit" takes many forms throughout human civilization and several classic examples can be seen in Roman and Greek comedies. Greek comedies often create humor from the conflicts created by stereotypes and imbalances. For example, the play Lisistrata has a main character who is a woman who tries to stop the Peloponnesian War by convincing all the women of Athens to stop having sex with their husbands. Taking place during a period when women did not have power in society (compared to men), this Greek comedy used the imbalances of women to create a funny story while at the same time as making a statement against war. A more modern comedy that uses imbalances and stereotypes to create humor is the movie "Bringing Down the House" starring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah. The humor in this movie is created by the use of multiple stereotypes, imbalances and ultimate role reversals of a white, wealthy male and a black, ex-convict female who first meet each other in an Internet chat room. There are also contrasts between young and old people. Although the imbalances and stereotypes throughout the movie create funny situations, it may have a negative side effect because it takes advantage of racial, gender and age stereotypes, which may be insulting or hurtful to some people, just to get a laugh.

The story begins with Steve Martin's character, Peter Sanderson, chatting online with someone who he thinks is a pretty, blonde lawyer. When he finally arranges to meet her for a "first date," he is shocked to find out that the blonde lawyer turns out to be a black ex-convict named Charlene (played by Queen Latifah) who wants Peter to help prove her innocence from being set up in a bank robbery that sent her to prison for four years.

The movie uses several elements of imbalance and stereotypes to create humorous situations in the story. For example, there is contrast between Peter and Charlene. On the surface in the beginning of the movie Peter seems to be a regular a white male with a successful, upper middle class lifestyle. He lives in a nice home in a nice neighborhood, drives a new Mercedes and has two normal looking kids. Charlene, on the other hand, is still wearing her prison outfit when she first meets Peter. We don't know if she is telling the truth about her innocence or if she is trying to take advantage of Peter.

The humor in the early part of the movie is around Charlene's interference in Peter's life and his attempts to hide her true identity from people he knows. For example, Charlene invites her friends to Peter's home for a big house party. When Peter finds out after coming back from work, he kicks everyone out just in time before his neighbor, played by Betty White, wonders if she heard some kind of disturbance in the neighborhood. Peter has to lie and pretend nothing happened. Later, Peter goes to work and tries to win the business of a new client, an elderly, wealthy lady named Mrs. Arness (played by Joan Plowright). Charlene shows up in his workplace and Peter has to explain to Mrs. Arness who Charlene is. He makes up a story by saying that Charlene is a nanny and is taking care of his son and daughter. Charlene promises to help Peter and pretend to be the nanny if he promises to help her prove her innocence. This concept of hiding a person's identity or trying to prevent others from seeing the reality is a very common technique in humor. It creates funny situations where the main character tries very hard to hide the truth.

As the story continues, we see that Peter's life is not as successful as it seems on the surface. Although he appears to be successful in his career, he is less successful in his relationships with his family members. This is why he is divorced and he does not have a strong relationship with his two children, Sarah and Georgey (at least in the beginning of the movie). He does not even know, for example, that his daughter sneaks out of the house at night to go partying with friends. He drives by his old home and seems to miss his wife and his old life before he got divorced. In contrast, Charlene becomes more of the caring parent figure as the movie moves forward. For example, when Peter's daughter, Sarah, is at a party and calls for help, Charlene is the one who goes to the party and beats up the "boyfriend" who made Sarah cry and makes him apologize to her. Charlene also teaches Georgey, Peter's son, how to read. Finally, Charlene shows Peter that his kids need a father to be there for them and in a few funny scenes teaches him how to dance, loosen up, and even how to flirt with a woman. These scenes create a type of role reversal because we see Peter start to loosen up more and while Charlene becomes more of a regular family member.

The use of role imbalance to create humor is also seen in several other side characters. For example, Peter's ex-wife is dating a very young man - in fact Peter's former caddy. Her sister, Ashley, on the other hand, always dates very old men because she is after their money. In one silly scene, Ashley is spoon feeding her new companion, a very old man in a wheel chair. In many funny scenes, Peter's co-worker at the law firm, Howie (played by Eugene Levy), is a white man attracted to Charlene who uses black, urban slang and other phrases in a very non-black accent.

Although the use of imbalance and stereotypes creates a few funny scenes in the movie, there are other uses of stereotypes that create a negative effect. The move tries to create humor by making fun of race, gender, age and social class differences. These areas have become sensitive issues in our society today because people try to encourage equality and not discriminate. Some of the humor might be offensive. For example, Betty White's character is Peter's nosy neighbor. She makes some rude comments hearing "negro" when Charlene throws the house party in Peter's home. She also says she is concerned about minorities moving into her neighborhood by saying that the only Hispanics that she wants to see in the area are those who "carry leaf blowers." This seems to be a very racist and insensitive remark about immigrant laborers such as workers from Mexico who make a living as lawn maintenance and landscaping workers. Additionally, the scene where Mrs. Arness