Anjelah Johnson’s Alter Ego as Aggression Release
One of the most dynamic facets of American humor, the aggression-release theory of comedic invention provides a channel in which humorists are able to construct storylines and characters which highlight their stance towards the cultural status quo. Accomplishing this is often done through use of an alter ego, or a fictional character utilized to convey thoughts and experiences of the author’s reality. Anjelah Johnson’s Bon Qui Qui is a prime example of such a device. Through her, Johnson creates a hilarious context that actually exposes and satirizes stereotypes relevant to her life, prompting laughter and thought from the viewer and providing an effective, non-offensive manner to “rant” to her audience.
Understanding the basis of humor requires some knowledge of the creator’s background. In Nail Salon Uncut, Johnson divulges a few critical details of her early life, placing special emphasis on her mixed-race parents and how such parenting influenced her as a child and as an adult. Such cultural generalizations, while not inherently stereotypical, offer insight regarding the development of the stereotypes employed in Johnson’s comic career, making them more humorous to the viewer since are more likely “to appreciate humor when it enhances, rather than denigrates our own position relative to others” (Robinson & Lovin 128)
Aggression release humor requires inventing plots and characters that both reflect the author’s intentions and are easily comprehended by a large audience. The easiest and most effective way to accomplish this is to augment and over-dramatize one or more stereotypes. Johnson, in her now-famous skit Bon Qui Qui at King Burger, not only portrayed and mocked the “ghetto black female” persona, but also arguably set the standard for 21st century humor involving an alter ego. Everything about Bon Qui Qui- her voice, appearance, mannerisms, job, social interaction, location- was built on that stereotype.
All stereotypes are essentially generalizations that are so oversimplified that they are offensive. Thus, it can be said that they are all rooted in at least some truth. If the Bon Qui Qui skits center on such a concept, why is the audience rolling with laughter as opposed to shaking their heads in offense? The skits, for all intensive purposes, seem racist, but delving a little deeper, it is more likely that “the social context of a joke may tell you something about its meaning; that ethnic groups may interpret a joke differently; that the mere fact that an ethnic minority tells a joke with racial content is no guarantee that it is not racist-even if his/her group is the butt; and that a relatively mild joke may still have a sting to it that isn't equally obvious to all concerned” (Davidson 298). With this in mind, two proposed theories are at play in this situation: the importance of context and the nature of aggression release.
Humor is only as funny as the context will allow it to be. Just because someone is comical does not mean an audience will laugh at their jokes. The time and place must be appropriate, and the environment must be conducive for keeping jokes alive; in other words, “the joke listener must formulate an opinion about the joke teller's attitudes and intent in order to assess the joke teller's cultural codes and the effect of those codes on the meaning of the joke” (Leveen 35). Johnson mastered this art in King Burger. It was aired on MadTV, a television program filmed in front of a live audience and aired on late-night programming. While the skit itself was pre-filmed, when it was aired to the live audience, the environment was already overflowing with hilarity from racist, sexist, and otherwise stereotypical skits. The combination of all of these factors provoked laughter at situations normally deemed by society as distasteful.
Regarding the Bon Qui Qui skits, context plays a trivial role in comparison to the nature of aggression release humor theory. In its simplest form, such comedy is an expose of the cultural status quo by over exaggerating multiple aspects of said culture. The humorist, in turn, anticipates the audience to laugh at the scenes created in addition to pondering the derivation of and stigmatic approach to these stereotypes. Without an implied call to action, aggression release humor is worthless- only if the audience sympathizes with the author is it effective, for then it has purpose. Johnson’s exaggeration- perhaps even marginalization- of the stereotypes found in Bon Qui Qui allows the viewers to establish a connection with Johnson regarding from where her alter ego is derived and why she is so aggressively stereotypical. This guarantees that any laughter produced is not malicious (i.e. the “laughing with you, not at you” mentality) which ensures that the audience can readily receive any underlying call to action.
The context would be undermined and the aggression release theory weakened were it not for the use of an alter ego. Had Johnson performed these skits as herself, the audience would have perceived them to be a rather serious life story instead of a rip-roarious tale of a ghetto African-American female with an attitude. Viewers are much more inclined to absorb information when their attention has been completely caught. The King Burger restaurant is the perfect reel, and Bon Qui Qui is the perfect bait. This setup gives the audience Johnson’s eyes; after all, most scholars argue that the alter ego is “Freudian and dramatistic concepts… explaining the nature of the identification process within the individual” (Ambrester 208). Both parties, then, see Anjelah Johnson in her alter ego.
Examining the humor found in Anjelah Johnson’s Bon Qui Qui is not nearly as fun as observing the skits. However, through analyzing the theories and concepts employed in creating such a stereotypical alter ego, invaluable insight is gained regarding the omnipresent aggression release source of comedy.
Ambrester, Roy. "Identification Within: Kenneth Burke's View of the Unconscious." Philosophy & Rhetoric 7.4 (1974): 205-16. JSTOR. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
Davidson, Chandler. "Ethnic Jokes: An Introduction to Race and Nationality." Teaching Sociology 15.3 (1987): 296-302. JSTOR. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
Leveen, Lois. "Only When I Laugh: Textual Dynamics of Ethnic Humor." Ethnic Humor 21.4 (1996): 29-55. JSTOR. Web. 3 Nov. 2011.
Robinson, Dawn T., and Lynn Smith-Lovin. "Getting a Laugh: Gender, Status, and Humor in Task Discussions." Social Forces 80.1 (2001): 123-58. JSTOR. Web. 1 Nov. 2011.
