Rush Hour 2

Makin funny faces

Two guys chillin in a manhole

Bein zany with nothin but a towel on

The Jackie Chan/Chris Tucker vehicle exhibits several different racial groups. Right off the bat, there is a scene with the two main characters driving through Hong Kong. Tucker and Chan's characters are singing along to the Beach Boys' "California Girls," a fairly stereotypically white American song. They are horrible singers, being extremely out of key, and we laugh at the funny way their voices sound. The two pull up next to a car with some young, attractive females listening to a pop/R & B-type music. Tucker attempts to pick them up with a line that he delivers in Chinese. With the "lame"-seeming Beach Boys playing in the background, the girls scoff and drive off. This is a strong juxtaposition of cultures, as the Chinese women see someone completely different from who they would expect in Hong Kong, and do not receive his overtures kindly.

A short while later, in a bar, a Chinese man sings karaoke, in particular the song "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson. Most of the comedy in this scene derives from playing on stereotypes of Asians singing karaoke, but also something I like to call the "funny voice phenomenon." It seems that when a person is placed in a somewhat normal situation, but "talks funny" due to a natural accent, it elicits a comedic response from the audience. Another example of this is during the 2009 Cougar Football season. During each game, they would show a commercial called "How Coug Are You?" that seemed to encourage donations. All of the people featured in the commercial "looked normal," except for one "brown guy," a Middle Eastern student who asked fans, "how Coug are you?" but with a "funny accent." This section of the commercial always resulted in an uproar of laughter from the crowd. I was consistently horrified and embarrassed at my fellow Cougar fans.

Anyway, the African American character, Chris Tucker, gets up and continues the Michael Jackson song, but does so ostensibly with "soul," and succeeds in getting a group of virile young woman to dance with him on stage.

A short while later, a white Secret Service agent, played by Harris Yulin, appears, and evinces a pretty standard "white guy" approach. He is normal by most considerations, and is simply a government agent. His straight-laced appearance offsets the wacky antics of the Chinese and African American characters, further exaggerating how off-the-wall they are.

The film is pretty standard in its depictions of the various races. It does not attempt to break any new ground or provide new discourse on the subjects of race in popular culture. Rush Hour 2 simply plays to stereotypes and preconceived ideas of race to get a few cheap laughs (although I would argue that it fails in this attempt).