“She Said She’d Never Even Had Fried Chicken!”: Fried Chicken, Humor and Race in Bob Roberts SUE SAMUELSON AWARD FOR FOODWAYS SCHOLARSHIP 1st PLACE WINNER 2010
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Abstract
Fried chicken often serves as a vehicle in American popular media to talk about race (and sometimes class). The 1992 film Bob Roberts (starring, written and directed by Tim Robbins) makes use of the motif of fried chicken in a racist joke. Tim Robbins’s reasons for employing this particular joke may be complex; this paper outlines some possible meanings. First I discuss the function of fried chicken jokes in American popular culture. Next, I discuss the motif of fried chicken in the context of the different cultures at work in the film. Finally, I suggest possible reasons for Robbins’s choice of the fried chicken motif in the film. Ultimately, I contend that through unlaughter at this joke, Robbins is claiming that for black people, race is more important to identity than political ideals, and that the Republican party of the late 20th-century has no room for social change or resistance.
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