Blackface minstrelsy consists of white people wearing a blackface and performing caricatures of African-Americans. Their lifestyle is objectified in this way. Hybrid minstrelsy, on the other hand, includes both white and black players. They share the textual construction that consists of an addresser, a black object of ridicule and a spectator. In “Carwash”, the industry film is the addresser, a bunch of African-American employees in a carwash business is the object, and it is aimed to an interracial mainstream audience. For example, the cameo appearance of Professor Irwin Corey specifically attracts a mainstream audience.
Carwash avoids social subjects concerning African-Americans because hybrid minstrel humor lacks any dramatization of black lifestyle. This film is intended to amuse mainstream audience. It is humor without social or political intent. For example, when the laborers are cleaning the cars, they sing happily unconcerned by their low salary. It isn’t realistic because no life is that free of worries. The Fly, for instance, has no money,
Banos 2
no future, and gets refused by the woman he loves. It is not until the end that he has some serious words with the waitress about their similar situation. Abdula and the ex-convict are the only characters that add touch of gravity to the socioeconomic situation of African-Americans.
The popularity of this movie with both white and black audiences indicates the existence of various ways of reading the movie. There are tensions among race, gender, class and sexuality that make these readings possible. One can avoid the sexist and racist implications of the film. The traditional purpose of black humor has been to resist and subvert humor that ridicules members of the black community, so that reading this film in that way is a common and natural interpretation. For example, although the black people portrayed in this film are poor and unskilled, not all African-Americans have these living conditions. An example of tension within race and between sexuality is the confrontation between the travestied and Abdula. The former does not hesitate in arguing about his right to have any sexual identity and criticizes Abdula’s unconstructive approach to life.
“Carwash” was released in 1976. Directed and scored by African-Americans, the film attracted a large mainstream audience and grossed six times the production costs. The appearance of famous artists, such as George Carlin and Professor Irwin Corey, contributed to the film’s success. I enjoyed the film because of the esthetics it portrayed. The language usage, such as the ungrammatical use of “do” and “does”, was interesting to me. I have a wider perspective of African-American comedy now than before watching “Carwash”.
