Snide and Prejudice

The characters of ABC's "Cavemen" are saddled with all sorts of stereotypes, though not the hairy-back, drooling-mouth ones you'd expect. They are revered for their athleticism. Also for their dancing ability and sexual prowess. One caveman throws around the phrase "Cro-Magger" in a conversation with another, and when he's chided for using what is apparently a slur, he says it's OK when cavemen use the term with each other. In case you haven't caught on, these cavemen assume stereotypes commonly associated with African-Americans. Well, at least they did. That episode, which was supposed to be the show's pilot, was summarily dumped—or "reshot," as they say in Hollywood. The show's producers say they weren't responding to earlier criticism of the show's premise. They deny, then as now, the charge that the show's subtext is racial in any particular way. "I think it's really a show about acclimation more than anything," producer Joe Lawson has said, "and that's something that everybody deals with, doesn't matter whether you are a minority or not."

"Cavemen" is one of two new sitcoms—the other is the CW's "Aliens in America"—that are shopworn fish-out-of-water stories with an edgy currency. They both employ racial and cultural differences as a means of exploring what it means to be an outsider. But the execution of both shows demonstrates that their creators don't understand how it feels to be excluded because of your race. And while neither show is racist—at least in the sense of the term that connotes malice—both pull onto the road paved with good intentions and floor the gas pedal.

Where "Cavemen" trades on stereotypes of African-Americans, the conceit of "Aliens" is couched in post-9/11 xenophobia. Justin Tolchuck (Dan Byrd) is a 16-year-old student at the bottom rung of his Wisconsin high school's social ladder. His starched mother, Franny, requests a foreign-exchange student so Justin can make a friend, but she's got motives of her own. She expects a downy-haired Scandinavian hunk who will give her some eye candy in exchange for the room and board. Instead, the Tolchucks get Raja (Adhir Kalyan), a Pakistani Muslim. Panic ensues. Franny suggests sending Raja home. "If I ordered a coffeemaker and I got a toaster, I'd return that," she says. Naturally, Raja is an outcast at school when he shows up wearing his traditional Muslim garb. A teacher turns his religion and ethnicity into a class discussion, in which one girl innocently says, "I feel angry because his people blew up the towers in New York." Cue the laugh track.

The show's most central relationship is its most problematic. Justin and Raja are bonded through their shared exclusion. They are the aliens in the show's title—Raja because he's a visitor from a distant world, Justin because, well, he's a geek. But equating Raja's exclusion with Justin's minimizes the psychological stress that comes from racial discrimination. It's similar to the person who hears that his friend's parent has passed away and thinks he's sympathizing when he says, "I know how you feel. I was a complete wreck when my goldfish died." That isn't to say social exclusion doesn't hurt, too, but as we've seen time and again through then-and-now photos of glamorous Hollywood stars, geek washes off, Pakistani doesn't.

The "Cavemen" producers at least got an early warning that their concept might not fly. The new pilot drastically mutes the racial overtones. There's still a bit of the allegorical premise left, however. Joel (Bill English) agonizes over whether to tell his caveman-supremacist roommate Nick (Nick Kroll) that his girlfriend, Kate (Kaitlin Doubleday), is a "sape" (a Homo sapien, in cavemen parlance). When he finally does, Nick doesn't take kindly to the news. "Keep your penis in your genus," he tells Joel. Joel becomes concerned that he hasn't met Kate's friends, a sign, he thinks, that she's ashamed of him. He barges in on her girls' night out and introduces himself to her conveniently multiracial gal pals. They don't care that he's Cro-Magnon. As it turns out, Kate has dated Cro-Magnon men before. Nick muses that she may have a fetish for them, a joke that leans on the earlier pilot's jab at the fetishization of black men.

"Cavemen" and "Aliens" don't work because the subtlety required to explore racial dynamics doesn't mix well with the broad strokes required of a network sitcom. The result is two shows about intolerance that feel intolerant in their worst moments, and emotionally disconnected from the subject matter at best. You can see that disconnect in the way the show depicts prejudice. After the girl in "Aliens" says she's angry about the towers, the teacher asks if anyone else feels the same way. The entire class raises their hands. In the real world, racism isn't usually expressed so overtly. For every incident like the hanging of a noose in Jena, La., there are countless clutched purses and suspicious glances. Slights like those, however, don't make for good comedy. As the "Aliens" theme song asks, "What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?" The answer: nothing at all. But these shows demonstrate that intolerance isn't that funny, either.

© 2007