Hey Laurie,

Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

Without any shred of irony or sarcasm, I'd like to say (and I said it at the performance too) that I think "Smell Yo Dick" is one of the best songs released last year.

I understand the long history of white people using black sterotypes to make fun of black people, i.e. blackface. Blackface portrayed blacks as ignorant buffoons, and that is terrible.

In covering this song, I'm attempting to celebrate it, not make fun of it. It's a funny song, and it's funny because it rings very true, that it's a true story. I think that people (whatever their background) laugh because the song takes a delicate situation (infidelity) and puts it into indelicate terms.

I understand what you mean when you say you feel that my performance of this song is like blackface. I can see the connection you are making. But I disagree.

This is not a song that I wrote. And I don't believe that it portrays black people as inferior. On the contrary, this is a song whose honesty I admire. The blunt message of this song transcends race.

Further, the audience that I play to is not a mainstream audience. If you are looking for the modern day equivalent of blackface, look to the white executives who produce a large portion of "black" entertainment media that is marketed to mainstream audiences.

Let me ask you a question: Would you prefer that I changed the word "nigga" to the word "faggot" when I sing the song?

One more thing I'd like to add...
I was caught on tape backstage at Milwaukee Pridefest last Saturday doing a duet of this song with internet drag sensation Britney Houston. Several thousand people have seen it, including DJ Quest, the original song's producer. He left a comment saying, "hahahaha thank you for the support!!! - Dj Quest"

I want to be sensitive to your feelings and to the feelings of others who might be offended, but if you were me, and the original artist greenlighted your cover version, what would you do?

I look forward to more!

http://tinyurl.com/5mzach

same as: http://www.benlerman.net/benlerman/home/Entries/2008/6/13_Meltdown!_-_%E2%80%9CSmell_Yo%E2%80%99_Dick%E2%80%9D.html

Without getting into it at all at this point, please check out this page (contains two short videos) from backstage at Pridefest. It could be helpful to this discussion.

Text from that page (there are links embedded on the original page):

"Meltdown! - “Smell Yo’ Dick”

Friday, June 13, 2008

We were waiting Pridefest stage to open, where the Feast of Fools, Britney Houston (above left), and I were opening for Natasha Bedingfield (above right), after the giant tornado and rain that hit Milwaukee that night, we were all a little gloomy, sitting in the Feast of Fools trailer backstage. I decided it was time for a little sing-along to pick up the mood. Britney Houston was all over that, and when she started “playing the blinds” I almost fell out of my chair. Fun!!!

Watch it below or here, where the people have talked about how cute I am and how much they love me. You know what? I never get tired or hearing that."

todd wrote:

QUOTE:


Take "Greencard" for example... I'd buy it if it seemed like the humor was directed at the employer, and not the worker--

Hey Todd,

I worked in restaurants for many years. In one restaurant, the management was bouncing checks and not paying the employees. For the people who were citizens, we could (and did) file complaints with the labor board. We eventually got the money owed to us. The people who were undocumented could do nothing. Their only option was to find work at another restaurant where they would probably be treated just as poorly. This experience was the impetus for this song.

I find that the immigration debate in the popular media ignores a very basic truth, that people use undocumented immigrant labor on a daily basis.

Also, I would like you to know that I've played this song in front of an audience that was made up of a very diverse crowd at Brooklyn College, including many Caribbean and Latin-American immigrants, at Brooklyn College. The response was overwhelmingly positive. They understood that I was championing the undocumented worker, shining a light on one of the myriad ways he is mistreated.

Thanks,
Ben

QUOTE:
They understood that I was championing the undocumented worker, shining a light on one of the myriad ways he is mistreated.

May I ask how this song champions the undocumented worker? By depicting a job/boss that is exploitative/racially oppressive? But it still seems to me that, to turn on a cliche, we are invited not to laugh at this speaker/boss (as we should be) but instead laugh with him (and thus at the workers he is exploiting. These immigrant workers seem the target of the joke as the song closes with "the only person I can pay less is the retard" and a rendition of racist caricatures in the sampling of "La Cucaracha" and "aiee!" ).

I agree with you that the pop media has portrayed this issue poorly, but as a former restaurant worker and long-time union organizer I actually see the song as playing into rather than criticizing a view that can all too easily turn into a Lou Dobbs-ish form of xenophobia. While seemingly at first sympathetic towards a laborer who is reluctant or unable to stand up for their rights at a job (a view which forgets that undocumented workers stand up in solidarity with each other all the time-- witness events like the last two May Day protests to institutions like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers as well as the fact that they participate in labor union activities on a daily basis), this view often relies upon notions of racial difference to build a nativist, thinly-veiled racist case for anti-immigrant action. I'm not saying the song is calling for a wall to be built on the US-Mexican border, but I am saying the song turns upon racialized differences in the workplace-- a wedge that has undercut and continues to undercut worker solidarity based on ridiculous cultural assumptions and stereotypes.

Todd,

It's a big, complicated problem. Clearly, it can't be fully exploreded in a 2 and 1/2 minute novelty song. But I think the song does its job as social satire. It brings to the forefront a character who is not entirely unsympathetic. Both the worker and the employer are in difficult positions. In the beginning of the song, the narrator says, "I can barely make ends meet." He says, "Consistency and value is what [consumers] want, but how can I compete?"

I think "La Cucaracha," the cockroach, the eternal symbol of an undesirable visitor (the view of anti-immigrant activists toward immigrants) is quite an appropriate end for this tale. And "Aieeee!" is a comical way to express frustration at the situation.

I'm no T.C. Boyle (The Tortilla Curtain). I'm not nearly smart enough. I'm just trying to point out some societal ills, and laugh at them. Because let's face it: they are enough to make you never want to get out of bed.

I think the refrain of the song is what people come away with, "I want someone willing to work hard, and you want a Green Card." It's simple and goes to the heart of the problem, the shadowy compromise of undocumented labor in a capitalist system. And, of course, it rhymes.

I would LOVE to hear what El Vez (the Mexican Elvis) thinks of this song. He's my hero. I think he'd like it.

All the best from Pittsburgh,
Ben

hi ben
i was not at the performance, and have not heard the songs, but my only recommendation is for you NOT to defend the material. the common intention as artists and comedians is to find the line and cross it, in order to create a reaction and a dialogue.

youve successfully done that. youre not going to please everyone, and not everyone is going to get it. especially since its satire, which is always criticized and not everyones taste of humor. (sarah silverman, south park- ect)

your greencard song sounds very much like a very popular M.I.A. song "Paper Planes," where in the chorus she repeatedly says "all i wana do is-gunshots- and take your money." a first time audience would simply write the song off while missing the deeper context. we could call it controversial, but could we call it racist? shes is a woman of color, so she doesnt have the white priviledge white people evidently always have to take into account.
(though white priviledge implies that white poverty does not exist. simply because of skin color white people are apparently immediately granted access to healthcare and education. also white people apparently are not victims of assault, abuse, addiction, rape or fear- but thats just what i think is implied when people say "white priviledge."

my opinion is that the comparison to "black face" comment from a poster was really a HUGE leap into the ridiculous and shows zero sensitivity or knowledge of the actual "black face" phenomena. i also think that just because someone doesn't get it, doesn't mean youre wrong ben. i dont think because youre white doesnt mean you can't cover black songs, i dont think it means you cant use the word nigger in art or performance. and i think some people should get off soapboxes and into the world to fight racism where it actually exists, which is probably not at a Queer multicultural festival. you sent a complex message to some complicated people. coming on here to declare yourself as "never being racist" is unnecessary and doesnt really reflect favorably. owning your message, taking responsability for creating discussion, and leaving a lasting impression on an audience who left your performance still processing is something that most artists will never achieve. congrats!