According to the article, people may have greater feeling on their ethnicity in the film. For example, an African American may have stronger feelings on African Americans depicted in the films than other people of different ethnicity. They would be more sensitive to the stereotypes and falsity regarding their race. Therefore, people may know better about the characters in the film if they are from similar cultural backgrounds.

In Radio Days, Woody Allen depicted a Jewish family that wasn’t familiar with their Judaism traditions. Because I came from a totally different cultural background, so I don’t know whether the family in this film was a typical American-Jewish family or not. However, from the discussion in class, I realized that Allen somehow twisted the truth of the life of the typical American-Jewish families. The film is not a realistic reflection of the American-Jewish families. In my opinion, viewers of similar cultural backgrounds may have “more rights” in commenting this film. They knew about the culture and tradition, and they are more sensitive to the characters’ actions. From Radio Days, I realized why Woody Allen has earned a reputation of self-hatred. Although I didn’t come from the Jewish culture, I could understand that Allen had twisted the images of American-Jewish family, while Allen himself was an American-Jewish director.

In Welcome Back, Kotter, a similar situation may raise. In the episode of Basket Case, Washington, who was Mr. Kotter’s student, thought he would pass because he was in the basketball team. From an “outsider’s” point of view, I felt silly for Washington as well as his classmates, because academic is independent from sports. I don’t understand why Mr. Kotter’s students would even ask their teacher to pass Washington simply because he was in the basketball team. Moreover, the principal and P.E. teacher would even tell Mr. Kotter to pass Washington because “the team cannot win without Washington.” The principal’s comment on Mr. Kotter’s test question “When was the Declaration of Independence signed” as a tricky question was laughable but also stereotypical. Washington, who was an African American, was being portrayed as the underprivileged students in the education system. I don’t know what opinions African American viewers would have about this scene. Yet, I believed they wouldn’t agree with Washington’s actions, and they would treat it as a stereotype against African American students. In addition to the students’ plea, I don’t understand why the principal and the P.E. teacher would persuade Mr. Kotter’s to pass Washington. I would rather believe that the director has twisted the fact than to believe my point of view is totally deviated from the Americans’ point of view. I understand that Americans emphasize on the balance between extracurricular activities and academics, but I don’t believe they would prefer sports over education. Therefore, I would conclude that the director has twisted the facts in order to make the show “funny.”

Radio Days and Welcome Back, Kotter have depicted a rather stereotypical aspect of the ethnicities. While I don’t know how the people of the same ethnicity feel in these two films, I believe they wouldn’t think the characters’ actions are justifiable in terms of the culture. Yet, I would like to know how African Americans feel for Washington in Welcome Back, Kotter.

In his essay entitled, “Bakhtin, Polyphony, and Racial-Ethnic Representation”, Robert Stam said that Bakhtinian analysis of film can allow viewers to examine ethnic relationships without being concerned about truth and fact. This idea appealed to me when I watched the TV show this week. I believe this fact allowed characters to joke about standard touchy subjects relating to ethnicity without viewers getting offended. This allows viewers to have an open mind when thinking about ethnic relationships.

In the episode, “Welcome Back”, Kotter initially expressed his disgust for his job and the students he was teaching. He wanted nothing to do with them and was frustrated when he could not get through to them. The students initially ignored him, insulted him, and made him feel worthless. If this TV show had been a drama, viewers would likely be disgusted by all the characters in this show and could potentially consider many of them racist. The inference that their negative interactions were related to race was emphasized based on a sprinkling of multiple ethnicities throughout the classroom. However, the fact that this show is a comedy changed everything. Viewers are given the opportunity to view the interactions between teacher and students without being blinded by realism. Insulting comments can be viewed in a different light when they are phrased as jokes. The open, friendly mindset inspired by comedies can allow for a more understanding view of each ethnicity present in the show.

In addition, humor allows the characters to interact without truly hurting each other, thus allowing them to maintain the lines of communication. For example, in the episode entitled, “Basket Case”, Kotter is able to get through to Washington using humor. Serious rebukes simply served to make Washington defensive but humor made Washington feel Kotter was on his side. Humor broke down the student-teacher barrier, as well as the ethnic barrier between Kotter and Washington, allowing them to communicate rationally and effectively. The saying, “laughter is the best medicine”, certainly applies when you consider the effects of humor on ethnic relationships.

Welcome Back, Kotter uses comic relief to cover the tense urban space where the characters perform. After re-watching the first and second episodes, I noticed that the space allotted is quite clustered. In the first episode, Pilot, we see Kotter’s cramped bedroom, kitchen, living and dining room all in less than one floor of the house. The theme song then interrupts and we see multiple shots of a bustling city environment. There is the sign of Brooklyn being the 4^th largest city of the world followed by a crowded street. Once the theme song finishes, we are presented with the irregular structure of the school where the hallway twists and turns, and appears almost abnormal in appearance. Though we are less than three minutes into the episode, it is quite clear of the uninviting space which occupies most of the scenes.

To complement the small and narrow spaces presented before us, we are introduced to the solemnness of the unresponsive class, which almost seems like a jail cell. At the beginning there is hardly any life to the students and we are turned away from the classroom by the characters, especially Ebstein, who is “most likely to take a life” (4:40) and whose favorite subject is assault. The awkwardness of Horshack and the principal’s rugged attitude further discourages the viewer in this space.

However, to much avail, we are lured into Kotter’s world by the comedy presented before us. Throughout every moment of tight spaces, we find ourselves laughing and though we do not want to be a part of the space, we cannot resist. At the end of the first episode, the students have a desire to write a paper on whatever they are passionate about and this creates an atmosphere of where we wouldn’t mind being sucked into the urban landscape because the students are showing a positive change.

Basketcase, likewise, does not seem welcoming at all. The spatial arrangement of Kotter’s ‘house’ is still cramped. Additionally, we are resisting the urban space occupied by Kotter because there is much tension presented in two scenes: Kotter versus the class and Kotter versus the principal and coach. In both scenes, Kotter stands alone, but the comedy presented in both situations cuts the tension and does an excellent job in making it seem as if it’s not even there. When Kotter is not able to win the class over regarding the grades of “Boom-Boom,” Barbarino shifts the attention in participating in a comedic talk with Kotter.

Thus, the space does not seem inviting, but this is of no concern to the viewer. We are caught in the moment of the joke and this partially shifts our attention away from the problem at hand because we feel confident that our protagonist Kotter will find some way to deal with it.

Welcome Back, Kotter is a seventies’ television sitcom with a hackneyed concept. A man, Kotter, reluctantly becomes a teacher at his old high school. He becomes a mentor to a group of misfit kids and along with teaching them he attempts to instill some of the values he almost missed out on.

“The gangs here don’t use guns, they insert the bullets manually.” Underneath the colorful upbeat tone of the series there is a slight gloom. Kotter is forced to teach a group of degenerate remedial social studies and though he is constantly cracking jokes and making light of his situation, it is evident that he would rather not be back in Brooklyn teaching at his Alma matter. Brooklyn is not actually the beautiful, homey community the theme song “Welcome Back” makes it out to be. As the credits roll we see overcrowded city streets and trains covered in graffiti.

Kotter has not come back to his old high school by choice. After graduating with a teaching with a teaching degree he couldn’t find a place to work. Kotter needed a job so he could support both his wife and himself. And their lifestyle is by no means luxurious. Kotter and his wife live in a tiny one-room apartment. They sleep on their pullout couch and have dinner in their kitchen/living space. They probably don’t live in the worst neighborhood, but the area Kotter works is probably much worse than where he sleeps.

The manners of an individual are a reflection of the environment of which they’ve grown up. In the first episode, “Welcome Back” we see that Kotter’s students are practical jokesters who lack ambition or respect for authority. The neighborhood of is full of much the same if not worse. The moral compasses of those out of school are not as malleable as the students Kotter teaches. Welcome Back, Kotter points out the faults and problems of those in their the society through comedy. And then presents methods of tackling these problems through Mr. Kotter’s interaction with his students.

In reality, the problems of troubled, poverty stricken teens are not so easy to fix. See, the bright overhead lights of the studio aren’t really shining down in the classrooms of the Brooklyn based institution the school is based on. Honestly, Kotter’s hip and happenin’ act is not as appealing as Welcome Back makes it out to be, and neither is the backdrop.

Ethnicity is a key component in the humor that makes Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-79) come alive. Even though I didn’t find the show to be hilarious (that may be because the humor was from a different time period), I did find the humor in the stereotypes that were played. The most noticeable stereotype and probably the most significant stereotype that was exuded was the one of the Black athlete in “Basket Case.”

Freddie Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) is represented as the potential star athlete that feels that his athleticism will get him where he wants to go without worrying about actually doing well in his academics. Obviously, I didn’t really like how his character is portrayed; I feel that he is the epitome of the stereotypical Black student. What really struck me was how racist comments were constantly being thrown into the dialogue that was casual enough to be funny (I have to admit, I cracked up a few times).

In one scene, Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta) compares Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) to Freddie. He talks about the obvious differences in the body types of Mr. Kotter and Freddie and how Freddie’s body is the type for physical activity and athletic success, while Mr. Kotter’s body is for sitting and getting fat. It was obviously supposed to be really funny joke, and it was, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it’s because I’m an Anthropology major and in one of my classes we had just finished discussing the misconceptions about “race” and the traits and, physical and mental abilities that come with them. One of them was about the “Black race” that has been widely accepted to be the athletically superior race, but not the most intellectually superior. It was just a bit difficult to see in the sitcom.

The time period this show takes place in also has an affect on the humor. Coming out of the psychedelic and counter-culture 60s, racial integration is a newly accepted national norm for schools. So, it is interesting to see how stereotypes are played to relieve the newly “diverse” school system.

Although I thought the humor in Radio Days (1987) was superior to that of Welcome Back Kotter, I found some striking similarities between Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) and a few of the characters in Radio Days. However, I felt like the whiteness in the t.v show and the film was a little different. By that, I mean there was a different whiteness to live up to in each.

There is a similar situation that Kotter and Joe’s family are both put in that I’d like to point out. Joe’s family attempts to stay true to their Jewish traditions, and the scene that’s relevant to my point is the one where they are resting on the holy day, but the neighbors are playing music. When the uncle goes next door to “tell them off”, he comes back and is considering the newly proposed, white lifestyle that these neighbors suggested. He is easily influenced here, and that’s the quality that’s transferred over to Kotter in “Basket Case.”

Kotter is in a little bit of a different situation here.  When the basketball player needs to pass in order to play, Kotter is pressured by an overwhelming majority, including adults, to pass him regardless of his class performance. However, what surprises me here with Kotter’s character is that I didn’t see him as one to give in to pressure. I thought for sure that he would stand up for what he thought was morally right. This is where I became confused when analyzing the whiteness in both, because I don’t understand how the whiteness he’s surrounded by here is supposed to come off as. In a way, it’s a whiteness that wants to strip him of his morals?

In a way, I kind of wanted to combine all three questions, because it seems like this whiteness comes out through the humor that pressures him in this urban environment to change his identity! But that would take up more than a blog post, so I’ll end on this statement: whiteness seems to appear in the films and shows that we watch almost as an epidemic. As of now, it doesn’t seem that Kotter is immune to it!

Welcome Back, Kotter and Woody Allen don’t have much in common, other than the outdated humor that I’m personally not a fan of.  On one hand, Woody Allen makes a point of projecting his disillusionment with many aspects of his Jewish heritage.  As for Kotter, he doesn’t seem to be terribly bothered by his.  In fact, I wouldn’t have known he was Jewish if I hadn’t come across it on Welcome Back, Kotter’s Wikipedia page and seen Ebrahim mention it in his blog.  He definitely seems to identify himself more as a Sweathog than as a Jewish man.

First I’ll deal with my dear old friend Woody Allen.  I honestly don’t have a problem with his representation of his Jewish heritage.  I know there are definitely people who don’t like it, but even though I’m not Jewish myself, I think that if he were a Catholic talking about his Catholicism I would at least understand where he was coming from, if not agree with some of his points.  I respect his creative license to portray his culture in Radio Days as he remembers it and not necessarily as people would like him to remember it.  Of course, that’s not to say that I’m a Woody Allen fan by any means.  I find his quirkiness to be a lot more irritating than funny.

Which brings me to Welcome Back, Kotter.  Oh dear, what a comedic mess.  I think I was so underwhelmed because by this point I’ve already seen most of the jokes done better on The Simpsons and other more modern comedies—which actually isn’t the show’s fault, to be fair.  But anyway, back to Kotter’s ethnic identity.  I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Kotter’s Jewish heritage doesn’t seem to be as much of a part of his daily life as his status as a Sweathog is.  Kotter and his students all bond over the fact that they are Sweathogs, which is what ties all of their varying ethnicities together.  Being Sweathogs is kind of like the radio for Joe’s family in Radio Days; it’s a significant unifying force.

I think, in Welcome Back, Kotter(1975-1979), Gabe Kaplan’s choice of setting the show in school is very interesting and proper because school is a most likely place where people from different ethnicities gather and interact with each other. Class is not as serious as the work place, so it will not create much tension when micro-jokings(which is not severely offensive) of ethnicity is brought up.  What’s more, students in high school are usually not mature, and they like joking of anything without taking it seriously, so their joke of ethnicity would be taken as lighthearted. Who would care what children say?

When the carefree high school students meet the comical teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabe Kaplan), a series of amusing stories happen spontaneously.

I would not say the school in this show is inviting because it is pretty corrupted. First, the students, no matter which ethnicities they are from, do not care about education. Freddie ‘Boom Boom’ Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) is the one who does not care about education that much, but dreams of becoming a basketball super star. Freddie is the only African American in the class; portraying him as careless about formal education but obsessive with basketball dream suggests the society’s typical stereotype against African-Americans as not paying attention to education. Another student, Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), an Italian American, who seems like a leader of the class, cheats on test, and tries to bribe the teacher. He behaves like a gang leader in Goodfellas who gives command to the other “gangsters” in the class. He leads the silent rebellion against Kotter when Kotter does not agree to pass Freddie, and decides that the introduction should start with him.  The principal Mr. Woodman (John Sylvester White)is corrupted too. He even comes to persuade Kotter to pass Freddie because he wants to see the basketball team win. Kotter himself is too amusing to monitor the students. Facing the undisciplined students, he cannot do anything. Overall, this is a very bad school based on what we watched so far.

However, I have to agree that this show is really funny. I do not see many offensive jokes about ethnicity, or maybe I do not realize it because I am not familiar with the stereotype the New York society has on different ethnicity. I am more familiar with people’s stereotype toward African American, perceiving them as not caring about education. However, even though it is bad to stereotype people, the minority should also make effort to improve themselves to get rid of people’s negative stereotype against them.

Comedy can serve as a disguise for many issues being portrayed by the media. Racial tensions and stereotypes are just one of these issues that ignite less controversy once wrapped up in comedy. Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1975) is a sitcom that revolves around the concept of diversity and ethnic stereotypes. The show’s audience does not walk out in offense towards its racial jokes, but rather laughs along with its hilarious racism (as cruel as it sounds). Somehow cracking jokes and taking away the seriousness of ethnic conflicts gives birth to comfort and laughter.

Every character in Welcome Back, Kotter is a distinct personality that provides humor by playing on ethnic stereotypes. Mr. Kotter’s (Gabe Kaplan) students are an interesting bunch to introduce and demonstrate how ethnicities and their stereotypes were thrown into characters consciously. Freddie Washington (Lauren Hilton-Jacobs) is the African American of the group. He’s one of the over-confident hip students who disregards schoolwork because he just knows he’s going to be a basket player. Mr. Kotter struggles to emphasize the importance of school over Freddie’s unguaranteed shot as a basketball career. He gives Joe Franklin’s unsuccessful example of neither becoming a basketball player nor graduating college. Of course all this stereotypical jumble of an African-American not considering college and aspiring to be a basketball player is concealed under jokes of taking Advanced Toe-Nail Clipping classes and Hair Combing 101(which had me dying of laughter, by the way!).

Vincent “Vinnie” Barbarino (John Travolta) is the cocky Italian-American of the group. His name itself shouts out his Italian roots, and I must say his personality does not fall short of representing Italian-ness either. Vinnie is the classroom leader. He has authority over other students and stands up and speaks for everyone. Mr. Kotter asks the students to introduce themselves, and the very confident Mr. Barbarino not only introduces himself but his class as well. He even controls when Arnold Horshack (Ron Pallilo) can speak and goes so far to participate in an insult competiton with Mr. Kotter. The boy is a little mastermind as he comes up with various tactics to cheat on the test and even tries to bribe Mr. Kotter into passing Freddie. Stretching his personality perhaps a bit too far, he almost reminded me of the mafia in Goodfellas (1990). The need to be a leader, the obsession of having authority, and the criminal mind are common stereotypes associated with Italians. The director has obviously made a conscious choice in incorporating such characteristic into Vinnie, only of course, he made it funny.

Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes) is the proud Puerto-Rican Jew, whose ethnic relationship to humor comes quite close to being offensive, in my opinion. He was considered the tough one amongst the group and even voted “Most Likely to Take a Life”. Offense and controversy were nowhere to be seen however, as Epstein was proud of his threatening persona. He outright stated his favorite subject to be assault as well. Although such jokes allow the audience to make the connection between the character’s personality to his ethnicity, they allow force the audience to laugh it off.

Lastly, we have the foreigner of the group, Arnold Horshack. His laugh, accent, and just odd nature are so hilarious that the audience is forced to forget the underlying racism against immigrants. Rather than spewing out negative emotions, the audience in fact, makes a positive relationship with Arnold and they love his humorous stupidity. My favorite part was when Mr. Kotter asked Arnold to distribute the test papers, and the kid literally walked towards the door to distribute the test papers elsewhere. Moreover, he had it in him to ironically ask the teacher to use English properly as it is a very “precise tool”.

Hence we see humor’s dual nature here. Not only is it being used to highlight one’s ethnic differences from another, it is blindfolding the masses and steering them away from any possible racism that might be felt as well. Although the show is funny and I did enjoy it, I’m not too sure if ethnic/race humor is the best. The humor kind of makes fun of each ethnicity. Bringing ethnic stereotypes to the media only reinforces the notions held against every ethnicity. This show reminded me of a show called Asunción that I went to see with my Arts in New York City Seminar. The show was definitely amusing and had the audience cracking up to tears, but is it disturbing if I tell you that it was about an extremely innocent guy who mistook a Pilipino girl to be a sex slave just because she was Pilipino? Of course it is, and that’s exactly my point. I’d still love to go watch that show again because the characters were just hilarious, but the underlying concept of unintentional racism and negative preconceived notions against ethnicities even by the most innocent of people shows how perhaps this issue needs much more (for the lack of a better word) broad-mindedness.

I think it would be very interesting to juxtapose and compare the characters of Kotter and Woody Allen. So far I’ve seen two Woody Allen films, Manhattan and Radio Days, as well as clips from Annie Hall. Although the characters Allen creates have different names they’re all the same. They all display Allen’s neuroses, his quirks, his fascination with romance, his ability to sexualize everything, and of course his Jewishness. He not only makes it lucidly clear that he is Jewish but as we discussed last Friday, he presents it in an almost self-hate manner, insulting the traditions, etc.

Now for Mr. Kotter, honestly I didn’t even know he was Jewish, my family had to point it out! Unlike Woody Allen’s characters he doesn’t poke fun at Jewishness I don’t think he even acknowledges the fact that he’s Jewish. Instead he clings to the fact that he was one of the Sweathogs. I think the group itself is revealed as its own unique ethnic identity. Although the group is made up of people of different ethnicities and backgrounds, they all cling to the fact that they’re a Sweathog not that they’re blank ethnicity. Moreover, the Sweathogs as a group are given stereotypes the way an ethnicity would. For instance, the Sweathogs are known to steal, be a menace to society, sleep on a pull over mattress, have their kitchen in the living room, etc.

In terms of whiteness in Welcome Back Kotter I found that John Travolta’s character embodied whiteness the most. He represented all the perks of being white: the popular guy, the womanizer, everyone listens to him, the leader, etc. I think you can argue that Kotter also meets the definition of whiteness set by Dyer, where whiteness represents the norm. He’s what Henry from Goodfellas would call a schnook. He lives an average life, average job, worries about bills and taking care of his wife/the house, etc.