The Nikki Harrison

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=7403504



In this five minute stand up comedic act, a dear friend of mine, Nikki, thought it wise to justify that not all African American individuals behave and/or talk as the generalized population is believed to. She discusses in somewhat of an alternating pattern black demeanor and language along with some sexual content. Although this subject does not appear to be very controversial, its meaning and 'humor' would change drastically depending on the type of audience set in front of her.

Her main argument is that not all African American language is in the old form of Ebonics. Not all black people act a certain way. Nikki, for example, is not a typical black female one might come into contact with when visiting California or Georgia or even New York. And it is her demeanor while informing her audience of this that sets the mood and tone of the text. She uses not only humor to give her subject a funny tone, but she also uses sarcasm and irony to emphasize how ridiculous and silly today's African American Ebonics sounds and how politically incorrect most of today's language has become. I reacted somewhat on a personal, emotional level to this skit based on my own experiences, but I was not swayed one way or the other based on emotions. This stayed constant throughout her entire performance.

Nikki seemed to be set out, first and foremost, to entertain her audience. She appreciates good humor and uses her talents to shed light on the subject of her text. Based on military humor, ethics and personal experiences, she develops her ideas mainly through narration. While alternating from her two main topics she uses different methods to help explain her message(s). While commenting about sexual content she uses a great analogy about batman comics and the words written in to emphasize actions taking place. As she switches to African American demeanor, she accomplishes a better understanding of the ideas she is talking about by giving examples. With the use of some of our military humor, her character, and her first hand experiences she is able to set up several different scenarios where she takes the audience to a specific segment in time. Once here, she is able to explain, by narrating how each situation occurs, her major point more proficiently. Satisfied that the audience now understands where she is coming from (and her time being up for the night) she can end her skit by going back to the first sexually related topic.

Nikki argues to the people about her argument. I think not only her being a black individual, but being a female helps in relating to the audience and getting them to be comfortable with her views. If she argued as a white individual, none of her points (stories) would have been as effective. So based on this, I think these two components majorly helped in making her argument "funny." The way in which Nikki tells stories is incredibly effective also because one can see the emotion in her eyes and through her gestures. And if one isn't too sure whether what she just said was suppose to be funny, her laugh will confirm any doubts. This "humor" is definitely not intended for the younger ages and those offended easily. But there is a little bit of discourse for everyone within this skit. She relates to white and black individuals, females and males, and then to the kid in everyone while still keeping adult content, adult content. She is by far one of the most outspoken, say it like it is, people I have ever been proud to know. Nikki keeps her audience laughing but at the same time teaches them a little about the differences between our American races.