History Main / AcceptableEthnicTargets

* Also women who ''aren't'' skinny and/or petite, are considered "unfeminine" (see "skinny men" above). Examples: Donna from ''That 70's Show'' pits the larger-than-average Laura Prepon with Topher Grace as a stark reversal of the typical "large male/petite female" couple. Despite their both being the perpetual ButtMonkey of sizism jokes, this is played in stark contrast to the equal subversion of Ashton Kutcher with Mila Kunis as "beautiful idiots" as a clear subversion of "BeautyEqualsGoodness"

** Examples: Men: Carrot-top, Howdy-Doody, Alfred E. Neuman, Bozo the Clown, Danny [[strike:Partridge]] Bonaduce, Roger Rabbit. Women: Jessica Rabbit, Tina Louise, Shirley [=MacLaine=].

* The OP is being somewhat [[Angst angsty]]. Scotland has one of the largest populations of red-haired people in the world, and yet "anti-gingerism" is hardly a widespread or brutal problem. Most people simply don't care. It is simply absurd to suggest that you ''must'' dye your hair as soon as you can or you will be subject to sexual abuse and stabbings.

->''"Take the word "Nigger." There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word "Nigger" in and of itself. It's the racist asshole who's using it that you ought to be concerned about. We don't mind when RichardPryor or EddieMurphy say it. Why? Because we know they're not racist. They're Niggers! Context. Context. We don't mind their context because we know they're black. Hey, I know I'm whitey, the blue-eyed devil, paddy-o, fay gray boy, honkey, mother-fucker myself. Don't bother my ass none. They're just words."''
-->-- '''GeorgeCarlin''', in ''Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics''

* Politically-corrected on ''{{L.A. Law}},'' where a midget-attorney ([[{{Willow}} Warwick]] [[{{Film/Leprechaun}} Davis]]) was harassed by punks, only to be "saved" by Jimmy Smitts. The rest of the episode showed Smitts embarassingly grinning and laughing like an idiot Jack-o-Lantern while chumming around with him, pretending to hit it off together as the studio bent over backwards to be politically-correct and "height-blind."

You're still allowed to depict blonde females as TheDitz or worse, consistently and unremorsefully. Paris. If they're lucky, they'll be the GeniusDitz but they ''will'' be some ditz variety... unless they're middle-aged blondes with PowerHair. For some reason, applying peroxide to your hair often activates this, even if everyone knew you before. [[BlondGuysAreEvil Blond men]] are no better off either. Where blondes are generally depicted as dim but well meaning, blond guys are generally depicted as evil bastards. Maybe a reminiscence of the Nazi era or maybe in accordance to the portrayal of male WASPs.

'''White Anglo-Saxon Protestant males'''

Since the WASP is arguably the largest single piece of the American-population pie chart, it's completely unavoidable that a large portion of them will be jibed for being too square and behind-the-times, as well as being punching bags for angry women. Since the white men in question have not spent their life suffering systematic prejudice for their gender or race, the temporary reversal of fortune for these jokes is likely to be merely irritating rather than hurtful. Of course, since most of the cast, writers, and producers of most movies are white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, this could be considered under the same classification as minorities done by minorities.

** I remember civil-rights groups making a big stink about this movie back in '94, and being somewhat taken aback by it. It seemed to me that many Arabs were offended by reality more than anything else. If they just want to watch movies set in fantasy worlds where there are no Arab terrorists, fine by me. But please just quiet down.

*** A clear lie, since the very ''term'' "ginger" is a pejorative.
*** Is it always, though? A lot of people refer to their friends by insulting terms as a form of ''endearment'' -- my two best friends call me 'Ginger' as a matter of course, and one of the three of us is German; we call her [[http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=jerry Jerry]]. The thing about being comfortable with someone is knowing you can get away with that, because under any other circumstances, calling a German person a 'Jerry' would be horrifically insulting. The Doctor clearly has a liking for red hair, so the fact that the word was used doesn't automatically mean that the BBC people actually ''do'' have a secret hatred of gingers.
*** Hey, now, TerryPratchett had Greebo say he "always wanted to be a ginger" in ... Greebo's not a role model. Or good in any way except, y'know, being able to kill people we don't like because Nanny wants him to. But that means he's technically a hero and he's a hero who always wanted to be a ginger. And he doesn't always kill people! He just wants to hurt them. And sometimes [[RapeAsComedy rape them]]. If they're women. Ish.

You're still allowed to depict blonde females as TheDitz or worse, consistently and unremorsefully. If they're lucky, they'll be the GeniusDitz but they ''will'' be some ditz variety... unless they're middle-aged blondes with PowerHair. For some reason, applying peroxide to your hair often activates this, even if everyone knew you before. [[BlondGuysAreEvil Blond men]] are no better off either. Where blondes are generally depicted as dim but well meaning, blond guys are generally depicted as evil bastards. Maybe a reminiscence of the Nazi era or maybe in accordance to the portrayal of male WASPs.

You're still allowed to depict blonde females as TheDitz or worse, consistently and unremorsefully. Paris. If they're lucky, they'll be the GeniusDitz but they ''will'' be some ditz variety... unless they're middle-aged blondes with PowerHair. For some reason, applying peroxide to your hair often activates this, even if everyone knew you before. [[BlondGuysAreEvil Blond men]] are no better off either. Where blondes are generally depicted as dim but well meaning, blond guys are generally depicted as evil bastards. Maybe a reminiscence of the Nazi era or maybe in accordance to the portrayal of male WASPs.

** It should be noted that in the original comic book Tony's captors were all ''Vietnamese'' (it was published around the time of the Viet Nam War) including Professor Yinsen, who, yes, helps Tony to build the armor and makes a HeroicSacrifice to save him.

* In some cases, some Hispanics are automatically classified gay due to their clothing which is often showing less skin. One of the earliest examples was Ricky in ''{{My So-Called Life}}''. A minor recurring character on ''{{The Simpsons}}'' is a gay Costa Rican man who is a major member of the Springfield Democratic Party.

** ''The Last Crusade'' seems to be a better aversion, though, as most Arabs there are actually trying to stop the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] from getting their hands on the Holy Grail.

A subset of AcceptableTargets. Remember that these aren't always ethnic in the literal sense we're used to -- they just refer to someone who has something about them which, short of plastic surgery, they can't really change.

''Slavs, especially the Russians'''

*''[[RedHeadedStepchild Gingers]]''. Some places in the UK have very heavy prejudice against ginger hair, almost to the point of racism. If you're a redhead, you'd better dye your hair black as soon as you're old enough to take hair dye, because hate crimes, up to and including sexual abuse and stabbing, have been exercised against red-headed victims for "being ginger." Also seen in the US saying "beat him/her like a red-headed stepchild". It's possibly because it's a stereotypical trait of Scottish and Irish people, who have themselves occupied the AcceptableTargets niche in the past. Less common in North America, though, than in Britain, perhaps because there's less history of hating (but there is still ''some''), and likewise many more Americans have Celtic ancestry than even in Ireland or Scotland. (Note: it wasn't the Celts who were hated, but the Norman ''Vikings'' who preceded them with heavy raids, which resulted in the largely red-haired trait and customs among the Celts in northern Scotland and Ireland).
** Note the redheaded ''men'' don't get off Scot-free here they are sometimes stigmatized as ridiculous and ugly-looking and generally inferior-- just like other non-Aryan ethnicities; conversely, for women, the [[HeroesWantRedheads appeal]] that exists can go too far, and they can be viewed as sex-objects.
*** Examples: Men: Carrot-top, Howdy-Doody, Alfred E. Neuman, Bozo the Clown, Danny [[strike:Partridge]] Bonaduce, Roger Rabbit. Women: Jessica Rabbit, Tina Louise, Shirley [=MacLaine=].
** I'm surprised it's not officially called racism considering the extremes certain people will go to express their hatred for people with red hair. A British schoolboy committed suicide because of unrelenting bullying for his hair color.
*** It's due to the hypocrisy of self-justifying social whims, rather than upholding logical principle. Gingerism is even attacked as ''not'' being a form of racism-- often ironically while comparing it with actual ''physical defects'' or shortcomings, in claiming how "it's not racism" but simply how "any difference is mocked--" while ignoring the direct racist implication that this considers ginger hair to be a not a racial characteristic, but a ''physical defect.''
**http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_13897167
** HarryPotter could fall under this trope, even if it's Draco Malfoy, an unsympathetic villain, doing the mocking. According to him, there are three things wrong with the Weasleys: 1) they are poor, 2) they have a lot of kids, and 3) they have red hair. Apparently the Weasleys are the only redheads in magical Britain, because having red hair is a clear sign that you are one.
*** ...Draco is [[FantasticRacism a bigot in other ways]], and presented as a thoroughly unpleasant character [[DracoInLeatherPants despite what the fangirls think]], and the Weasleys [[RedHeadedHero were specifically created to avert the negative stereotypes towards redheads]]. Bzzt, try again. It's PositiveDiscrimination if anything, considering the Weasleys are a BadassFamily.
*** He doesn't say that their red hair is necessarily a bad thing in itself, just that it's a way to identify the Weasleys: very poor and redheaded.
** The new episodes of Doctor Who invert this. With every regeneration since the ninth, the Doctor laments that he didn't become a Ginger.
*** Unfortunately, to some viewers who didn't see or didn't remember the Tenth Doctor's "I wanted to be ginger!" lament from three years before, Eleven's "still not ginger!" came off as though he was ''pleased'' about it. After a number of complaints the BBC had to clarify that they do not have an anti-ginger bias.
**** A clear lie, since the very ''term'' "ginger" is a pejorative.
**** Is it always, though? A lot of people refer to their friends by insulting terms as a form of ''endearment'' -- my two best friends call me 'Ginger' as a matter of course, and one of the three of us is German; we call her [[http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=jerry Jerry]]. The thing about being comfortable with someone is knowing you can get away with that, because under any other circumstances, calling a German person a 'Jerry' would be horrifically insulting. The Doctor clearly has a liking for red hair, so the fact that the word was used doesn't automatically mean that the BBC people actually ''do'' have a secret hatred of gingers.
**** Hey, now, TerryPratchett had Greebo say he "always wanted to be a ginger" in ... Greebo's not a role model. Or good in any way except, y'know, being able to kill people we don't like because Nanny wants him to. But that means he's technically a hero and he's a hero who always wanted to be a ginger. And he doesn't always kill people! He just wants to hurt them. And sometimes [[RapeAsComedy rape them]]. If they're women. Ish.
** Subverted on the ''South Park'' episode "Ginger Kids;" Cartman, the perpetual ButtMonkey, hates kids with red hair more than any other minority, and is allowed to get away with presenting outright hate-propaganda and defamation in class as absolute ''fact;'' meanwhile Cartman was ''jailed'' for throwing a rock at Token, simply because he ''happened'' to be black, even though this was not the motivating factor.
** What with the recent discovery that many Neanderthals had red hair, this prejudice could very well be OlderThanDirt.
** It's more likely that the prejudice, which exists mainly in Western Europe, is in response to the Norman conquests because many Vikings had red hair, which in turn played on the fears of their victims, and this fear in turn became embedded in cultural prejudice and stereotypes. This fear and hatred was similar against Asians, blacks, Semites etc.
** Interesting possible subversion. Menelaos, husband of Helen of Trojan fame is known in English translations as "the red-haired king". This is because he is repeatedly called Menelaos Xanthos. That's Greek for "Menelaos the Blond". And Greeks are known for their dark hair. They can't be blond! Also, Xanthos was a term for slave, because Greeks aren't blond! There's a lot of interesting metatextual crap there. In the end, a hero ends up a ginger because ... something.
*''Skinny Men.'' Some people call guys like this 'runts' which is frankly incredibly undermining and insulting. Furthermore, more thuggish characters assume a skinny man is weak, insecure and an easy target, so they're often the end of snide remarks in bars and clubs where women are around.
** Eric Foreman from ''[[ThatSeventiesShow That '70s Show]]'' often falls under this trope, since Topher Grace is fairly skinny; his friends call him "girly," and his mother even castratingly reassures him that he's "not skinny, but ''dainty!'' Meanwhile his girlfriend and mother alike fall immediately for the more traditionally "manly" Casey Kelso.
** "[[FightClub Skinny guys fight 'till they're burger]]."
** The old "Charles Atlas" ad.
*''[[FatGirl Overweight Women]]'': Such women are pretty much the DistaffCounterpart to the above. While overweight men are not free from being bashed, fat women are generally the butt of all jokes in RealLife and media alike, often called 'whales' or 'hippo-ladies' and considered the epitome of ugliness. Not to mention that positive portrayals in the media are almost non-existent which adds fuel to the bullying of such women.
** Also women who ''aren't'' skinny and/or petite, are considered "unfeminine" (see "skinny men" above). Examples: Donna from ''That 70's Show'' pits the larger-than-average Laura Prepon with Topher Grace as a stark reversal of the typical "large male/petite female" couple. Despite their both being the perpetual ButtMonkey of sizism jokes, this is played in stark contrast to the equal subversion of Ashton Kutcher with Mila Kunis as "beautiful idiots" as a clear subversion of "BeautyEqualsGoodness"
*''Dwarves''. Also, short people in general. Mostly for the visual. This occurs with the very tall sometimes, but nearly every appearance of a dwarf on television is because their height is going to be emphasized. May be TheNapoleon.
** An episode of ''{{CSI}}'' dealing with dwarfs swung in its treatment of them from respectful to "humorous".
** ''[[HouseMD House]]'' had an episode with a dwarf woman and her daughter; the daughter's problem ended up having nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that she was short.
*** Yes, it did. It turned out she wasn't a dwarf at all (though her mother was). Her shortness was a symptom. Her body wasn't producing enough growth hormone.
**** That's ''is'' a dwarf, i.e. someone who is undersized due to a HGH-deficiency.
***** The daughter's condition was caused by a curable disease, meaning that when cured, she hit a growth spurt. I believe the disease was Cushing's.
** Exception: The short-lived alien invasion drama ''{{Threshold}}'' included a dwarf character, and as far as this editor is aware the fact that he was short was mentioned only in a few purely practical contexts along the lines of explaining why he couldn't drive someone else's car.
** Exception: The HBO drama ''{{Carnivale}}'' featured a dwarf, Samson, who was effectively the traveling carnival's leader.
** Exception: The VinDiesel movie ''Find Me Guilty'' featured a Dwarf lawyer, played by Peter Dinklage, who was largely treated as just another character, his height hardly even being commented upon. This was primarily because the movie was almost entirely based on real events, and he was portraying a real lawyer who just happened to be a midget.
** Exception: In ''{{Seinfeld}}'', one of Kramer's closest friends aside from the other three main characters is a dwarf named Mickey. In one episode, his height becomes important: The child actor he doubles has grown, so he uses insoles - which the other dwarfs don't like.
** There was said to be a stigma among dwarf-actors about "trying to heighten," because that creates unfair competition.
** ''{{Shrek}}'' made it clear that it is ok to make fun of short people. You should disrespect and joke about Lord Farquaad not because he is evil, but because he is short.
*** The jokes about Farquaad weren't about him simply being short, but more because he denies his height and expresses his frustration about it by punishing others. Also, nobody made a short joke about him except as a response to him constantly calling attention to it, i.e. the castle, the armor, the wedding cake, etc.
**** So when Shrek describes Farquaad to Fiona as "some people think ''little'' of him," and Donkey says "that's a ''short'' subject," then that was also in response to his calling attention to it?
**** That time they were reacting to Fiona's overly romanticised view of Farquard as a Prince Charming figure, if this troper remembers correctly.
*** Farquaad seems to be modeled after the king in ''Wizard of Id,'' the victim of many "too short to rule" jokes.
****Also, Shrek is established from the word go to be a [[GoodIsNotNice decent but uncouth]] sorta guy.
** Subverted ''and'' used, extensively, in the 1981 comedy film ''Under The Rainbow''.
** In an interesting lampshade, the stand-up comedian Brad Williams is a dwarf and makes extensive use of it in his routine, which generally includes a lot of physical humor. One notable staple of his routine is dancing to various styles of music chosen by the audience. Why? Well, as he and his fellow comedian Carlos Mencia point out, dancing midgets are just funny.
** Played half-straight in ''{{Scrubs}}''. A recurring character holds a black belt that's generally shown with punches to the crotch, or in one case, crushing the hand of another character to end a tense handshake.
*** "Would you stop using that expression, Randall? It's stuck in my head."
*** But averted in an episode where assisting a really short surgeon is considered a terrible assignment to pull; the "boys' club" that uses him as an instrument of social coercion is portrayed as a pack of {{Jerkass}}es, and he gets to deliver the {{Aesop}} of the episode.
**** To be fair, the "punishment" aspect of being assigned to assist the incredibly short doctor was due to the fact that the assisting surgeon would be required to stand hunched over for hours at a time, resulting in severe back pain and stiffness because of the height disparity.
** ''PushingDaisies'''s fifth episode, "Girth", may as well be renamed "CHENO IS SHORT", given that it consists almost entirely of reminders that Kristin Chenoweth is 4'11" - ranging from a backstory involving a stereotypical short person's profession of horse jockey to a scene where she can't use a spade as a lever because she can't get traction on the ground. And deliberately shooting her from high angles to make her look even shorter. We get it.
***This one wonders, if a scene in The West Wing, where her character is walking on a hallway with C.J. "Flamingo" Cregg, is poking fun at her slight stature, or C.J.'s towering one.
***This troper could be wrong, but she thinks the creator of the show has something of a petite girl fetish. She's yet to see a tall girl any of the episodes.
****It is highly unlikely show creator [[StraightGay Bryan Fuller]] has such a fetish.
** Semi-averted in ''PiratesOfTheCaribbean''. A member of Jack's crew is also a little person, and while they once or twice play his size for laughs, he's largely treated as just another member of Jack's dysfunctional little "family".
*** Nearly every production that features [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0458514/ Martin Klebba]] generally ignores his condition... unless his dwarfism is the entire point of his appearance. He's a person not afraid to laugh at himself, after all...
*** Perhaps because he looks like he could beat up the other actors.
** Played straight in the second ''AustinPowers'' film with Mini-Me.
*** Mini-Me is a mutated clone and mute, not a normal dwarf; he's also stated to have certain "compensating" advantages.
** Subverted but also played straight in some ways in ''MaxAndPaddysRoadToNowhere''. Max admits to having a midget girlfriend and the abuse that she gets, as well as what he has to put up with for being so much taller than her, is rightfully shown as hurtful. She later finds Max indulging in jokes at her expense behind her back, causing her to leave him. The trope is played straight when Paddy calls her a dwarf, prompting Max to "correct" him on the differences between dwarves and midgets: "Dwarves are in the circus and do cartwheels." This is less a joke at the expense of dwarves and more one about Max's ignorance.
** The size of presenters Richard Hammond and Jeremy Clarkson is a source of numerous jokes on {{Top Gear}}. Hammond's height may have actually saved his life during a [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSnLl_eOli0 serious crash of a Vampire drag racer at 288 mph]]; it is believed that a taller man could have been decapitated.
** Tyrion from ''{{A Song of Ice and Fire}}'' gets a lot of mockery for being short and ugly, sometimes being referred to as "Halfman" and "the Imp" by certain characters and is hated by the common people. Of course, this has left him very embittered. And when [[spoiler: Cersei tries to have him killed, it leads to a veritable parade of people killing dwarves on the basis that it might be him, and bringing her their heads]]. Although one other dwarf is shown with a relatively high station in a religious settlement, it is clear that were he not a son of the richest and most powerful lord in the land, Tyrion would have suffered even more, something he is well aware of.
** ''{{NCIS}}'' halfway-subverts this- {{Goth}} 'lab rat' Abby dates an intelligent, charming fellow science geek with a love for bowling, who just happens to be a dwarf. The one time the script calls for a joke about it, it's at the expense of Abby- who says something rather thoughtlessly in her typical way that comes across as a jab about his height, and apologises. However, the relationship doesn't last- the actor playing her love interest committed suicide, and it's implied she was dumped due to her differing height.
** Mostly, any show where [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0247860 Meredith Eaton]] makes a participation is a self aversion, as she's usually proud of her genetic condition and is shown to not be intimidated by the "tall" people.
*** Most notably in BostonLegal . Her size is often played for laughs, but she's shown to be an accomplished woman and a relentless lawyer. Also, Denny Crane is shown to fall in love with her and finding her unique proportions exotic and sexy, but it is a very turbulent relation.
**Possibly averted in ''TheIncredibles,'' in which there are two characters short enough to potentially be the butt of dwarf jokes, but both characterizations are based on something else entirely--Mr. Huph is defined by his callous indifference to human suffering, and the humor of Edna Mode's character stems from her artistic temperament. It is only a possible aversion because the cartoony style of the film makes it uncertain whether their shortness is supposed to be indicative of dwarfism, or just a quirk of character design.
*** Most likely it's to contrast them with Mr. Incredible. Mr. Huph because it's thus more humorous that this tiny little guy is ranting and ordering around a massive, superpowered dude because of his authority, and Edna because she smacks the same guy around and bends him to her will with far more style and good humor.
** The film ''Living In Oblivion'' completely skewers the use of dwarfs as surreal visual elements. When the filmmaker protagonists film a dream sequence in which a dwarf walks around holding an apple, the dwarf actor insists that the whole thing is overplayed, yells at the director and eventually storms off the set.
** Subversion: ''Death at a Funeral'' features Peter Dinklage as a major character. His height is never commented on except as an identifying feature.
** ''InBruges'' has Jordan Prentice playing Jimmy, an actor with dwarfism. In this one, his height is commented on by the main characters several times, usually in a derogatory way, but never to his face. He's also mistaken for a child. And he's an asshole with a coke habit and occasionally racist rants, but this is shown as having more to do with him being an actor than being a dwarf. In spite of this, though, he's a fairly multilayered, believable character.
** The protagonist of ''The Station Agent'' has dwarfism. It's a major part of the film, but isn't played for laughs at all. So... {{averted}}.
** Daniel Frishman as District Attorney Vincent Daniels on ''Night Court''. While many jokes were made at the expense of his height, Frishman played up his character as a smug, over-rich, total and complete bastard, the direct antithesis of the usual "adorable midget" phenomenon that was sweeping the nation at the time.
*** The jokes were made by Dan Fielding, who taunted Daniels mercilessly about his height-- but got his punishment when Daniels turned out to be his ''supervisor.''
** Politically-corrected on ''L.A. Law,'' where a midget-attorney ([[{{Willow}} Warwick]] [[{{Film/Leprechaun}} Davis]]) was harassed by punks, only to be "saved" by Jimmy Smitts. The rest of the episode showed Smitts embarassingly grinning and laughing like an idiot Jack-o-Lantern while chumming around with him, pretending to hit it off together as the studio bent over backwards to be politically-correct and "height-blind."
**One of ''TheNowShow'''s many RunningGag s is the small stature of Jon Holmes. It is exaggerated for humourous effect.

**Averted in Penelope. Though one character is a dwarf nobody makes any mention of this except one clearly idiotic character who is ignored.
** [[BerserkButton WHO ARE YOU]] [[FullmetalAlchemist CALLING SHORT?]]
** Lampshaded in one promo for ''ShastaMcNasty'', where a character played by Verne Troyer remarks that "people get freaked out by little people"... and then proves it by screaming in the ear of a guy who was napping, causing him to freak out.
** {{Averted}} in the movie {{Penelope}}, where the fact that the reporter [[FaceHeelTurn Lemon]] is a dwarf is ignored (meaning no short jokes OR annoying politcal correctness), and he is instead treated like just another character. He also wears a bitchin' eyepatch.
** Averted in movies of Luis Bunuel, who occasionally cast dwarves because he liked their demeanor in front of the camera, even though [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075824/ script didn't require a dwarf]].
**In ''TheSimpsons'', there's a deconstruction of this. Moe dated a Little Person named Maya that he met on the Web. He was so nervous about dating someone that was "different" (and thus offending her), that he ended up always making asinine comments about her height. [[spoiler: Eventually, his comments about her height caused the demise of their relationship.]]

*''The Tall''. While not nearly as common as mockery of short people, there's still a certain amount of mockery directed towards anyone over a certain number of feet. While often PositiveDiscrimination, mostly expect to see stuff like hitting their heads on light fixtures, driving a too-tiny car, and their head being cut off in photos of groups of friends/family. Also "fun" nicknames such as Stretch and plays on "The _____ Giant". For some reason seems to often have a funny-sounding voice, so may mix this with the "Speech Impediment" acceptable target. The tall and the generally big are also often depicted as being dumb, though there's no correlation between size and brains ''at all''.
** Lurch from ''TheAddamsFamily''.
*** Lurch is more of a Frankenstein-like monster than simply a tall man.
** Nelson's sketch from the "Stories of Springfield" episode of ''TheSimpsons'' had one. Though he does get his revenge on Nelson, something a lot of the town seemed to want, he's portrayed so goofy that there's not much payoff from it.
*** The man's voice is perhaps a side effect of genetic gigantism, so it actually adds to the payoff by driving home Nelson's unfair mockery.
** Robert from ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is a running "tall" joke. While Brad Garrett is tall, he's been shown before in other roles without drawing attention to it (such as the mechanic in ''Seinfeld'' who steals Jerry's car); meanwhile Robert Barone is only role where he's shown to be Frankensteinishly enormous.
** RealLife Example: Stephen Merchant, known for collaborating with Ricky Gervais on ''TheOffice'' and ''{{Extras}}'' finds it quite unfair that being tall is apparently considered some kind of achievement and that jokes at the expense of the very tall like himself are perfectly okay while jokes about dwarves and fat people are frowned upon nowadays. He has gone over the drawbacks to being so tall many times in the past.
*** Which may be partially responsible for one of the most cringingly hilarious moments in the Merchant-written ''{{Extras}}'', when Merchant's character Darren Lamb meets noted little person actor Warwick Davis and squeals, "Oh, look! A midget!" He later asks Davis, "Can I fit in your house?"
*** Not only that, but also the [[{{Prussia}} the Potsdam Giants]] a military battalion made up exclusivly of tall people
** Actor Jared Padalecki of ''{{Supernatural}}'' gets this all the time, and not just from fans--the cast, crew, and writing team love to poke fun at his height. Among other things, director/producer Kim Manners has nicknamed him "Sasquatch," and JensenAckles once claimed in an interview that Jared makes him look like he's 5'9". He's clearly 6'5", but he claims he's either 6'3" or 6'4", probably out of insecurity about it. Jared also had a tendency to hunch when he walks, also probably out of insecurity.
** Space Jam made a joke when several very tall basketball players and one short basketball player are walking down the hall following a doctor. they walk through a door way... or at least the short one and the doctor do, the others hit their heads on the door frame.
** In ''{{The Weekenders}}'', Carver receives a love letter he later finds out is from a girl named Nona, who's quite tall, and Carver is biased about it, to the point of having nightmares about if they got together, culminating in her delivering a gigantic baby.
*** His friends aren't above it either, as when he tells them Nona is his secret admirer, they all hold their hands out and up and say "THAT Nona?".
*''Speech impediments''. Common speech problems ranging from the lisp, stutter, or pronunciation of "r" as "w", are still regularly used for comic effect. This can even extend all the way up to damaged vocal cords requiring the use of an external electronic voicebox, or complete loss of speech, which usually results in jokes about people having to [[SignLanguage write down everything they say]]. Most LooneyToons characters had amusing speech impediments, but the classic examples have to be Michael Palin's portrayal of Pontius Pilate in the MontyPython movie ''LifeOfBrian'', and Peter Cooke's Impressive Clergyman in ''ThePrincessBride''.
**** Foreign/unusual accents and dialects are also typically considered speech impediments, and therefore become subjects of mockery. Examples include Borat, Inspector Cluseau, Ricky Ricardo, "Fes," ''King of the Hill'''s "Boomhauer," etc.
**** Spoiler alert! In the movie ''{{Chinatown}}'' directed by Roman Polanski. Used and then subverted. A Japanese gardener refers to the "grasses" but the detective (along with the audience) only identifies the gardener's bad grammar and so dismisses him as a humourous red herring with nothing valuable to offer. Later, the detective returns and comes to realizes an essential clue from the gardener who wasn't saying "grasses" but "glasses". The error wasn't in grammar but in pronunciation: the 'r' and 'l' being commonly mispronounced by those Japanese who attempt to speak English. Shame on the detective for being so quick to dismiss an unsophisticated foreigner, eh?
*** Astonishingly, this troper never even thought Monty Python were making fun of people with speech impediments in ''LifeOfBrian''; he instead thought they were making fun of the "Received Pronunciation" accents used whenever ancient Rome is portrayed.
*** Apparently the Romans used a V but not U, and this V was consonantal as well as a vowel, so it was an u and w, but not a v sound. SO vinum would be pronounced winum
** Tara in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' was mocked only by the evil-doer for her stutter.
** Another Michael Palin example, in ''AFishCalledWanda'', in which his character stutters like crazy, but only the villain makes fun of him for it. Palin based this aspect of the character partially on his father, who had a stammer. There now exists, in London, the Michael Palin Institute for Stammering Children.
** This is common in cartoons: Mush-mouth from ''Fat Albert,'' Elmer Fudd, Porky Pig, and Sylvester the Cat are prime examples.
** The Roman emperor Claudius stuttered due to cerebral palsy, and in ''IClaudius,'' his family is presented as very cruel because of the way they shun him for this. He is able to overcome this impediment through a lot of training, although he continues to pretend to stutter prior to becoming emperor to preserve his public image as [[ObfuscatingStupidity "poor Claudius"]].
**This is an old one, having been used by George Feydeaux in the 1900 French comedy "A Flea in her Ear"
**"Homestah Wunnah" from ''HomestarRunner''. His impediment seems to be presented as part of his general [[TheDitz Ditziness]], but the only person who ever makes fun of him for it is Strong Bad, who makes fun of Homestar for ''everything''.
***Then there's Coach Z, who sports a strong accent that sounds like nothing on Earth. There's [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/cantsayjob.html an entire cartoon]] devoted to the cast's attempts to get Coach Z to pronounce "job" correctly. Though in [[http://www.homestarrunner.com/ween03.html one cartoon]], it's implied that, for some incomprehensible reason, Z is deliberately exaggerating his accent:

** Worth noting that the actor who played the stuttering public attorney in ''MyCousinVinny'' actually had a speech impediment in real life for years and only recently beat it before signing up for the role. He thought of his character having a speech impediment as a "sick joke."
*''White Anglo-Saxon Protestant males''. Since the WASP is arguably the largest single piece of the American-population pie chart, it's completely unavoidable that a large portion of them will be jibed for being too square and behind-the-times, as well as being punching bags for angry women. Since the white men in question have not spent their life suffering systematic prejudice for their gender or race, the temporary reversal of fortune for these jokes is likely to be merely irritating rather than hurtful. Of course, since most of the cast, writers, and producers of most movies are white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant, this could be considered under the same classification as minorities done by minorities.
**Considering the large amount of Americans of Irish or German descent, the Anglo-Saxon part holds the least well.
** Perhaps the ultimate shot at [=WASPs=] was ''Caddyshack'', in the characters of the Lutheran Bishop Pickering and the WASP's WASP, Judge Smails, portrayed as only Ted Knight can.
** One example which can be considered particularly {{egregious}} is that in ''DannyPhantom'', where the parents of Samantha Manson are cast as [=WASPs=], despite being [[{{InformedJudaism}} Jewish.]]
** ''StarTrekVoyager'' was notorious for this, with the anti-WASP male stereotype Paris, but also with treating B'Elanna Torres' periodically breaking the limbs of male WASP underlings as a source of humor: beating up weaker people is allegedly funny, [[DoubleStandard so long as the weaker people are WASP males and the abusive figure is female]].
*** Even if the latter is an alien.
** The Wayans' movie ''WhiteChicks'' ran a song called "What if I was White" under its credits, which listed absolutely every white stereotype, such as an inability to dance, express themselves, or tolerate hiphop, as fact. Imagine trying to get away with a "What if I was Black" song along the same lines and see how well it would be received.
***It possible you might be CompletelyMissingThePoint, especially since ''Eminem'' sings the hook. This troper always interpreted the song as meaning that trading in one set of stereotypes for another would not solve anything.
** The Harlem Globetrotters, famous trick basketball players have an opponent team called a variety of names who are "Jobbers", a bunch of players who are required to go out and be the goofy white dudes who are flummoxed and utterly shown up by the Jesters of Basketball, generally simply standing around looking stupid while the Globetrotters perform. Imagine the uproar if a bunch of black guys were being paid to go out and be humiliated and shown to look inferior to a bunch of white guys!
***Both the aforementioned teams were owned by white men. In the early days the focus was less on basketball and more on comedy set-pieces and clowning acts, but since the late 70's, the exhibition games have become competitive with the addition of collegiate all-stars to the Generals roster.
** Now lemme ask you this...have you '''ever''' seen people get in trouble for calling people names like "Cracker" and "Honky"? Or booted out because they were racist against white people?
*** No but that's just because I've never heard anyone seriously use these words.
**** Then you weren't listening. http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=175817

** The villainous Mayor in MichaelJackson's ''Ghosts'' short film, a fat, bigoted white man who picks on the mysterious Maestro for being different (i.e., being Michael Jackson), is a good example of this, and played more for drama than jokes. Jackson played both roles, the Mayor under heavy makeup.
* ''[[DumbBlonde Blondes]]''. You're still allowed to depict blonde females as TheDitz or worse, consistently and unremorsefully. Paris. If they're lucky, they'll be the GeniusDitz but they ''will'' be some ditz variety... unless they're middle-aged blondes with PowerHair. For some reason, applying peroxide to your hair often activates this, even if everyone knew you before. [[BlondGuysAreEvil Blond men]] are no better off either. Where blondes are generally depicted as dim but well meaning, blond guys are generally depicted as evil bastards. Maybe a reminiscence of the Nazi era or maybe in accordance to the portrayal of male WASPs.
*** Come on. Paris Hilton is a parody of HERSELF. Her hair color has nothing to do with her sense of entitlement and general worthless idiocy.
** Bleached-blondes ''choose'' their color, so it's not technically the same.
** Occasionally, though, there will be a slightly subversive exception to this. The most notable example is the lead character of ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', which was actually ''created'' as a subversion of the [[DeadUnicornTrope "unnamed dumb blonde gets eaten by monster in dark alley" cliche of horror films]]. The title character is not always the brightest in the bunch, but that seems to stem more from impulsiveness than from genuine stupidity, as you can't be the Slayer for years on end and be a complete idiot, and she's generally pretty good at thinking fast on her feet, given the circumstances.
** Albeit the same series had one of the definitive examples of blonde ditziness on television.
** Interestingly enough, another series that subverts the "dumb blonde" trope is ''BostonLegal'', despite the fact that the majority of the long list of "Acceptable Targets" cliches above are played straight and usually for humor with great relish on the same show. In fact, lawyers seem to get a slight reprieve more often - remember the sharp, capable blonde D.A. on ''[[LawAndOrder Law & Order]]''?
*** Southerlyn? Capable?
**** OK, capable blonde lawyers - Alex Cabot and her boss Elizabeth Donnelly from LawAndOrderSVU, and Jill Bernhardt from Women'sMurderClub.
**Another subversive example is Karrin Murphy from the ''TheDresdenFiles'' books, tiny, blonde, cute, generally far more intelligent than Harry and can kill you six different ways before you hit the ground.
*** Frequently does so too, with little provocation and equally little thinking. Whatever intelligence she may have, she doesn't tend to actually show it until the later books. A few near-death experiences seem to have pulled her out of her "All men are pigs!" caricature of feminism and made her somewhat more reasonable.
*** Murphy never exhibited any "all men are pigs" attitudes - Jim Butcher is too good of a writer to resort to an easy stereotype. She was complicated: a hero-father who she was trying to live up to, a mother who wanted her to have a more traditionally "female" job and life, a 'perfect' sister who does live that life, up to and including marrying Murphy's patronizing ex-husband, and to top if off, Murphy was assigned command over a squad of detectives whom she can NEVER show any weakness in front of...complicated. And Murphy's lack of trust in Harry (that sometimes became outright hostility) sprang from Harry never telling her full details on the nature of the magical community. In the first two books, she only hired Harry because he seemed to have insight into "weird" crimes, but as far as Murphy knew, that insight could have come from involvement with the crimes from the start. It wasn't until the third (or fourth?) book that Harry gave her the whole story on the power structures behind magic.
** One of the earliest subversions/aversions on network TV would be Jennifer, Carlson's secretary on ''{{WKRP in Cincinnati}}.'' The creators of the show deliberately refused to cater to the "dumb blonde" stereotype, and wrote her as intelligent, witty, ambitious, and more than a touch sarcastic.
** Ainsley Hayes from ''TheWestWing'' is not only a "hot blonde" who is perfectly intelligent and capable, but she is also conservative on a show when almost the rest of the main cast is liberal, up to allowing her to make persuasive arguments on conservative issues. Although, her character is often defined by the other characters as "[[BlondeRepublicanSexKitten the blonde Republican woman]]". Donna Moss is a slightly more traditional example, although she is quite smart, just not as smart as Josh.

** More subversion: ''CSI Miami'' has Calleigh Duquesne who is not only blonde, but fairly short, with a rather "little-girl" sort of voice--absolutely none of which affects her ability as an investigator.
** Cornelia from ''{{WITCH}}''. While a fairly calm and intelligent girl in the comic books, she became TheDitz for the television series. She liked her transformation because of the big breasts that came with it.
** Subversion: Sam Carter from ''{{Stargate SG1}}'' is something of an astrophysics genius.
** Glenda from {{Wicked}}.

* [[CarpetOfVirility ''The hairy'']]. Dense body hair, which is naturally [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chest_hair quite common]] in men, is treated as something extremely repulsive and unhygienic that only gross individuals have. That is when it appears at all -- generally men's chests shown on television are utterly hairless. A hairy-backed man suffers this more than most; for women it's hair where a man's moustache would be. Then again, most people react to this in real life and often wonder why such people don't wax or go the whole hog. Ironically, dense chest hair [[strike: is a sign of having strong genetic material]] is a sign of being genetically predisposed to thick hair, and ''that is all''.
** Fedor Jeftichew, better known as "Jojo the Dogfaced Boy," based his entire career on his hypertrichosis.
*** In ''{{Transylvania 6-5000}}'' the wolfman is actually a man suffering from generalized hypertrichosis. Note: Hypertrichosis has been informally called the "werewolf syndrome."
** Subverted by PierceBrosnan in... well everything. Some Bonds don't feel the need to do the waxing thing, Craig.
*** Craig didn't wax, he just has fairly fine hair which is also blonde. Check out the beach scene with Vesper in Casino Royale, you can see the sand sticking to it.
*** Averted by SeanConnery. Just look [[http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05_01/bondsDM2704_468x491.jpg here]]. Can't be way [[http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2007/specials/sexiest_man/covers/12_18_89_300x400.jpg too bad]].
** The village elder from ''[[JungleWaItsumoHaleNochiGuu Haré+Guu]]'', has a massive mound of chest hair that shakes like shrubbery when he moves. At one point Guu actually steals his chest hair and, much to his horror, ''wears it as an afro''.
** If you're a hairy [[ProfessionalWrestling pro wrestler]], either you're a savage, an unhygienic boor... or Shawn Michaels, who only gets away with it because he's a living legend at this point. Otherwise, you have a career worth of "Shave your back! Shave your back!" chants to look forward to.
** Ryan Giggs has expressed regret about his shirt-stripping goal celebration in 1999 due to the subsequent mocking he received over the reveal of his chest rug.
** RobinWilliams is notoriously hairy and he knows this, and pokes fun at it at every opportunity in his stand up.
** Played with in ''The 40-Year-Old Virgin''; the movie also revealed the REAL reason for waxing your anything. It's not to look good for anyone-it's to entertain your friends, who are standing there watching.
** This troper finds this entry rather odd, as when he was growing up he always thought it was expected for men to have hairy chests and it was a sign of masculinity. Phrases like "This'll put hairs on your chest!" further drove home this idea, as did depictions on comic books and TV shows of younger characters being jealous of "studs" on the beach who were admired for their hairy chests.
** That attitude has been gone for a ''long'' time now, at least a decade. Nowadays it is firmly the other way around, at least in the West.
*** The Hairy chest reached its peak in the 1970s, where 'sexy' meant having about as much hair on your chest as on your head. It was taken to such a ridiculous level that it has since swung back the other day.
*** It's no longer the nineties, and chest hair has made a comeback, at least if everything from advertising posters to personal ads is an indication. The reason that many movies celebrities appeared hairless in the past is that hirsuteness was once considered "risque", and showing chest hair would have been like wearing a bikini. And, until about the 70s, this was the norm for male leads. (Chest hair, that is, not wearing a bikini.)
*** In an early StarTrek novel, [=McCoy=] tells a high-ranking Klingon that mint juleps will do this. The Klingon recoils, deeply disturbed by the notion, contributing to an ongoing diplomatic incident.
** In the film version of ''{{Stardust}}'', lovable hero Tristan has loads of chest hair, visible whenever he undoes his top button.
* ''Bald people'' -- {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s like Lex Luthor, losers like [[{{Seinfeld}} George Costanza]], and let's not even start about Nazi skinheads. And Jeffrey Tambor's character in the ''SpongebobSquarepants'' movie. For some reason, however, this doesn't apply if you're also black, even if you're not a BaldBlackLeaderGuy. Perhaps this is because blacks are seen as much more likely to shave their heads as an intentional hairstyle rather than male pattern baldness than white people are, and this trope only seems to apply if you've actually lost the ability to grow hair. See also BaldOfEvil.
** Averted with Jean-Luc Picard in ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. Many people who try to deny they are turned off by bald people list him as an example, and for good reason.
** Another notable exception is Jason Statham.
** Also averted with Ted Hoffman in ''Murder One'' - who comes off as the greatest and coolest defense lawyer ever, as well as being incorruptible and a loyal husband and father.
*** This troper remembers reading a newspaper article saying that audience research revealed that Ted Hoffman was by far the least popular character.
** Played with in Roald Dahl's ''{{Matilda}}''. Mr Wormwood declares that a thick head of hair is a sign of intelligence. When Matilda points out that Shakespeare was bald, Mr Wormwood displays his ignorance by asking "who?"
*** Although playing it straight in Dahl's other novel, ''{{The Witches}}''. The eponymous [[NightmareFuel Witches]] are as bald as eggs.
** Can I get a [[{{Film/Nosferatu}} Graf von Orlok]]?
** ....Poor Colin Mochrie..
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDPmbpgndO4 Indeed.]]
** Also averted with pretty much every BaldBlackLeaderGuy. Or most black bald guys, it seems.
*** Exception: CoolRunnings
** [[{{Hitman}} Agent 47]]
* ''Humans, when [[PunyEarthlings compared to other intelligent races]]''. Every IntellectualAnimal and SufficientlyAdvancedAlien knows that HumansAreBastards.
** ''[[ThirdRockFromTheSun 3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' had an episode where Dick learns about tolerance and explains at the end that no one is "better" than anyone else, just different. The rest of the aliens burst out laughing at the idea that they're no better than humans.
** Averted by Kojak, although Telly Savalas' other roles after he went bald do fit this sub-trope.
* ''[[NWordPrivileges Minorities, when done by a minority]].'' Unacceptable targets become acceptable targets when the targeting is being done by someone who is themselves an unacceptable target. Note that here, the one taking the shots is not required to limit themselves to their own group; as long as they're not white, any ethnicity becomes alright to mock. And, of course, you have all the other acceptable targets available to you as well.
** The ''RushHour'' movies are big offenders here. In the second movie, Chris Tucker punches Jackie Chan by accident while fighting Chinese Triads and says, "All y'all alike!" Now, imagine that phrase spoken by a white character fighting a black gang. Or for that matter, even a white character fighting Asians.
*** Unfortunately, Chris Tucker's character does not improve by much as the series continues. By the third movie, he does admittedly stop taking shots as Lee's culture or ethnicity. However, in one scene, he happily admits to racially profiling Iranians because he thinks they're all terrorists who build nukes ''while he's being reprimanded by a superior.''
*** ''{{MASH}}'' beat them by a few decades, and used it in a bit of satire; a 'Korean' (played by Pat Morita), on asked about someone, reported that 'all you [white] folks look alike to us'.
** This is played with, lampshaded and subverted many times in ''TheBoondocks.'' The first example is when Uncle Ruckus sings "Don't trust them new niggers over there" and is applauded by a crowd of [=WASPs=] because "It's OK if one of ''them'' says it."

** Carlos Mencia's entire schtick.
*** Though, this may be more an example of "People pretending to be a minority can insult that minority," considering Mr. Mencia's secret identity: a half Honduran, half Dutch named Ned Holness.
****Pretending nothing. Carlos Mencia/Ned Holness is half Mexican and half Honduran.
*****No, he's half Honduran, half Dutch, the Mexican part is pretend.
******TheOtherWiki claims his mother is Mexican.
******* Spoiler: People lie on the internet.
** MelBrooks could not have gotten away with half the stuff he did if it wasn't for the fact that he himself is Jewish.
** Compared to Sarah Silverman, Mel Brooks is ''so'' politically correct.
** Joel and Ethan Coen. ''Miller's Crossing''.
** A number of black comedians have making fun of black people as the linchpin of their stand-up act. Chris Rock is probably the most prominent of these, but he's far from the only one. He is changing, though. While he used to split his time between making fun of blacks and making fun of whites, as his act has progressed it's gradually changed from "White people screw with black people, and black people aren't helping the situation" to more purely white-themed jokes. He ditched a lot of the jokes blaming black people for "the situation" around the same time he noticed just how much his white audiences were enjoying his "The difference between black people and niggers" bits, though it was also partially him dropping very old material.
** Russel Peters gets away with all sorts of race jokes because he - despite his name - is East Indian.
** The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour is entirely based on this principle. Not only do the Middle-Eastern comics make ample fun of themselves, they also take plenty of shots at Jews and other minorities.
* ''Irish-Americans''. Cast as being in the seat of white privilege (which means, of course, that they're Catholics who are considered WASPs), and still obsessed with their heritage and worse days that may or may not have existed. Ironically, this opens the door to the old Nash stereotypes like untenably large families, alcoholism, and elaborate wakes, since rather than even [[ModernMinstrelsy making fun of the stereotypes]], it's making fun of the self-serving reification of the stereotypes.
** This of course overlooks the fact that less than a hundred years ago, the Irish were in a very similar situation to the African-American community, right down to some of the racial epithets used to describe them. Hell, as recent as the '50s it was considered shameful to have Irish blood. But hey, go ahead and make alcoholism jokes; we'll just keep biting our tongues...
***"I'll be on the veranda since you're already on the cross."
*** For more on the history thereof, I'd recommend reading ''[[http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Became-White-Noel-Ignatiev/dp/0415918251 How the Irish Became White]]''.
*** [[http://www.amazon.com/Paddy-Whacked-Untold-American-Gangster/dp/0060590033/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1277177502&sr=8-1 Paddy Whacked]] covers this topic in detail as well, especially in focusing on the effects of the Kennedy's on national stereotypes.
*** There's also the scene in ''BlazingSaddles'' where the town will accept every racial minority ''except'' the Irish. Admittedly, this is an aesop about racism, but still...
** ''TheSimpsons'' has made a few jokes based on the Irish being OnceAcceptableTargets. It's tough to think of Bart's revelation that Whacking Day was originally "an excuse to beat up the Irish" being done with most other groups.

** Family Guy nonstop, pretty much take every single Irish stereotype and turn it UpToEleven.
**On the other hand, the Irish have earned a reputation in parts of North America for claiming to be the greatest victims the planet has ever seen whose travails in life dwarf those of anyone else. This troper has heard an Irish immigrant screech in rage at an older man that the Irish were the most discriminated-against group in history - which wouldn't have been as jaw-droppingly obscene had the man he was screeching at not been a survivor of Auschwitz, tattoo and all.
**Also, a lot of times this trope is played in positive way. Irish families are depicted as pretty strong and Irish characters are often some of the best at dealing with tragedy.
* ''{{Roma}}'' A.K.A. "Gypsies". They're backward, colorfully dressed nomads with funny accents. They're mysterious, if they aren't outright {{trickster}}s and thieves. Often able to use magic of some kind. Little do most people know that they're continuing the ancient European tradition of discriminating against the Roma, which was at its height around the Holocaust.
** Brad Pitt's fighting gypsy in ''{{Snatch}}''.
** Frex in StephenKing's ''Thinner''.
** Not acceptable in Central Europe. Around here, the word "gypsy" is as taboo as "Neger", which is a somewhat milder form of "nigger". Which is to say, old people still use it out of habit, but it's otherwise not acceptable.
*** Or rather, it's ''not supposed to be'' acceptable in Central Europe but since casual racism against Roma is unfortunately very common, most people still use it. Even in government positions.
*** Considering the massive amount of Czech skinheads (I live in the CZ, don't think I'm exaggerating) any Roma jokes make you seem like one. These are the skinheads that have swastika tattoos, by the way. Yeah. "Acceptable" not so much.
** Discrimination against Travellers was basically the entire point of TheRiches.
** A big part of the backstory of the ''CalLeandros'' books includes the Leandros brothers' Roma heritage. Their mother was an abusive and alcoholic monster (metaphorically speaking), none of which is directly blamed on her being Roma, but it doesn't help that she engaged in a lifestyle that matches the worst of the anti-Gypsy stereotype (fortune-teller, scam artist, thief and jailbird). Worse are the Sarzo clan and their witch of a matriarch, Abelia-Roo (especially in the fifth book). We're told that, of all of human society, only the Roma are aware as a society of the non-human inhabitants in that particular universe. This trooper loves the books, but is made uneasy by the portrayal of an ''entire ethnicity'' as 'superstition'-savvy and immersed in the guardianship of arcane lore and dangerous magical objects.
** Which is a pity, because I always thought that 'gypsy' was such a beautiful-sounding word.
* ''Arabs''. Except, ironically, [[TooSoon just after the 9/11 attack]].
** There are several different Arab stereotypes: most obviously, the terrorist stereotype, but there's also the barbaric savage stereotype, and the oppressed woman stereotype:
** ''TrueLies'', in which Arnold Schwarzenegger battles a group of Arab terrorists who are plotting a nuclear attack. Made slightly less offensive because one of Arnold's anti-terror colleagues is an Arab-American chap named Faisal, who is portrayed as being a NiceGuy and occasional badass.
** ''BackToTheFuture'' features Libyan terrorists who try to shoot the heroes. The "language" they speak in the film is absolute nonsense and in no way resembles the language actually spoken in Libya.
** ''The Siege'', in which Arab terrorists attack New York, after which Arabs are rounded up into concentration camps. However, the movie is quite {{Anvilicious}} about averting this trope, with even the WellIntentionedExtremist GeneralRipper responsible for the said round-up making a speech ''against instituting martial law''. It also contains HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler:The MysteriousInformant]] is not only [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curveball_(informant) a liar]], but also TheMole. Remember, this film was released four years before the second Gulf War.
** ''Delta Force'' centers around a plane hijacking by a group of Lebanese terrorists (probably based off the real-life 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking).
** ''Film/IronMan'' attempts to avert this trope by saying that the terrorist group includes people who "speak many different languages -- Arabic, Farsi, Dari, Urdu, Russian, Hungarian (!)..." However, all the terrorists shown onscreen are brown (although some are undoubtedly supposed to be Afghan, not Arab). And the main terrorist henchman speaks Arabic in all his scenes and is played by an Arab (though Urdu is spoken in some scenes, and is a realistic choice for a multi-ethnic group)...so the attempted aversion doesn't really work.
***Perhaps a subversion later on when Iron Man actually saves innocent Middle Eastern citizens from the terrorists. There's also the nice prisoner who helps Tony build his suit. A bit of a MagicalNegro in a few ways, but his HeroicSacrifice (aka he walks into a group of armed men with basically no chance for survival) is made more interesting when he reveals that he's actually trying to get himself killed so that he can be with his dead family again.
*** It should be noted that in the original comic book Tony's captors were all ''Vietnamese'' (it was published around the time of the Viet Nam War) including Professor Yinsen, who, yes, helps Tony to build the armor and makes a HeroicSacrifice to save him.
** ''[[IndianaJones Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' has lots of swarthy Arabs in turbans who keep trying to slice Indy up with their swords. Somewhat averted by the character of Sallah, Indy's trustworthy Egyptian friend...who is played by a Welshman.
*** ''The Last Crusade'' seems to be a better aversion, though, as most Arabs there are actually trying to stop the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] from getting their hands on the Holy Grail.
** ''TheSheik'', the 1921 silent movie starring Rudolph Valentino, depicts the title character as a NobleSavage who wins over the virginal European heroine with his violent passion. Averted since the end of the movie reveals that he's actually European, not Arab (thus making the romance acceptable). It's worth noting that in the original novel, the sheik rapes the heroine, [[RapeIsLove thus making her fall in love with him]]. In the movie's sequel, ''Son of the Sheik'', Rudolph Valentino's character does actually rape the female protagonist, and by the end of the movie they're happily in love.
** ''{{Hidalgo}}'' includes untrustworthy Bedouins who try to double-cross the hero so he loses the big horse race. It also features an oppressed Arab woman, the sheikh's daughter, who is being forced into a marriage to her cousin.
*** To be fair the main Bedouin who pushes him around ultimately saves his life. Also, it's heavily implied that their treatment of him was due to the fact that they felt he was unworthy of being in the race, since it had an Arabs only race.
** Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}.'' The original lyrics to "Arabian Nights" started this way: "Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place/Where the caravan camels roam/Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face/It's barbaric, but hey, it's home!" Then there's Jasmine, a princess who dresses like a harem girl. It's also worth noting that the good characters have more Western-looking appearances (Aladdin was actually modeled on Tom Cruise), and generic American accents, while the evil Jafar has more Semitic features and an [[http://www.metamercury.net/film%20phenomena/quoted/Does%20evil%20have%20an%20accent_files/Does%20evil%20have%20an%20accent.htm evil British accent]].
** ''Rules of Engagement.'' In this movie, American Marines open fire on unarmed Yemeni civilians at the American embassy in Sana'a (Samuel L. Jackson gives the order to "Waste the motherfuckers!"), killing women and children. In the end, though, it turns out that the civilians were no better than terrorists themselves -- they all, even a four-year-old girl, fired on the Marines first! So the whole movie is a justification for killing Arab civilians, even women and kids -- because they're not actually innocent civilians, they're terrorists too.
*** To be fair, one of the film's more complicated characters (and ultimately, one of the ones with the most moral fiber) is the Arab doctor who translates the tapes and who testifies at the trial. He could have easily lied on the stand, but instead he tells the truth even though it's obviously painful for him to do so, which ultimately helps get Samuel L Jackson aquitted. The director also confirmed that it was originally supposed to be ambiguous as to whether the crowd was shooting or if that was what Sam Jackson deluded himself into believing. The audience didn't like it, so they changed it. Also, There are extra arabs (the guard who gets beaten to death, the terrified secretary) who are sympathetic, and in addition Sam Jackson does admit that there were people who died that were innocent. As for the child soldier....pretty much every group in history has pulled that stunt at some point. Whites, Asians, Blacks...In real life there have been child soldiers in palestine.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi1ZNEjEarw This video]] demonstrates nearly every portrayal of Arabs as either a) terrorists, b) religious fanatics, c) America haters, or d) all of the above in film over the past 30 years.
** Subverted in ''TheLongKissGoodnight'' where the dead Arab is the scapegoat [[spoiler:of the film's evil CIA operatives staging a terrorist outrage to increase their budget]].
** Believe it or not, {{TNA}} Wrestling actually manages to avert it, ''and'' subvert it. The aversion comes with Raisha Saeed, burqa-clad wrestler/manager who is one of the most powerful women in TNA's "Knockout" division (thanks largely to her association with the unstoppable Awesome Kong), and about whom nobody ever mentions anything about terrorism or terrorists (though she's still a {{Heel}}). The subversion comes with "Sheik Abdul Bashir", who would seem to be the epitome of that standard "terrorist" stereotype, what with the angry rhetoric and the comments about holding the X-Division title "hostage"... but only if you ignore his introductory vignettes, which established him as a former Iranian-American businessman who lost everything after 9/11 due to runaway hatred of Middle Easterners, and then decided that he would make himself into the very personification of American fears as the ultimate revenge. Said vignettes even established that Abdul Bashir isn't even his real name; that would be Shawn Daivari.
*** Daivari himself also portrayed the childhood friend of a DoubleSubversion in Muhammad Hassan. Hassan was introduced and constantly described as an American-born of Arab descent who was just as appalled by 9/11 as "we" were, but became the victim of racism from those who didn't want to know him. The double subversion came when irony bit HARD on the character, as the fans didn't want to know him and booed him for his race. The writing team quickly applied {{Flanderization}} like there was no tomorrow and turned him into the evil Arab the fans wanted to think of him as, culminating in choking an opponent out with a piano wire garrotte while Daivari was carried out as though a martyr by a bunch of people in ski masks, thus taking what might have been one of the most interesting characters ever and making him the most offensive. Irony kept biting when the WWE taped that particular scene on 4 July 2005 for a show to air on 7 July, meaning it was already in the can when London got attacked. Everyone in the media, [[WallBanger including those who really should know better]], [[DidNotDoTheResearch said the WWE was capitalizing on the terrorist attack]], and Hassan's career was over before it ever started.
** This troper once caught part of an Indie movie about a Middle-Eastern bit-part actor in the middle of dressing in stereotypical garbs, and then having an {{Imagine Spot}} about being a {{James Bond}}-esque hero that shoots down a cackling WASP terrorist and getting the Blonde Bombshell. Then he's pulled out of it by the director calling for The Terrorists to be on scene, which he shuffles of to with a resigned sigh.
** Somewhat averted by ''LawrenceOfArabia'' where the Arab characters are generally heroes. Only somewhat, because every major Arab character (except the one played by Omar Sharif) is played by a Westerner, and the fact they are unable to overcome their tribal differences in Damascus, allowing the British and French to take over from the 'children.'
*** That was also kind of what really happened: the various factions were unable to agree on anything and couldn't present a unified front to the League of Nations.
*** Yeah, but the movie also portrayed the British and the French as beings complete racist bastards who only care about Arabia as being a part of their empires. All the factions in the movie were bastards, to some extent.
** The movie version of TomClancy's TheSumOfAllFears replaced the books' Arab terrorists with Neo-Nazis, the former apparently being considered cliche. Then 9/11 happened while the film was in production.
** Seriously? No one has mentioned ''[[TeamAmericaWorldPolice Team America: World Police]]''?

*** That was obviously being played for laughs to mock how most movies do it. I mean Kim Jong Il is a walking stereotype. Besides, Team America's reckless stupidity is still viewed as a bad thing.
** TransformersGeneration1 had ''Carbombya,'' an obvious jab at Libya.
** Four words: ''[[JeffDunham Achmed the Dead Terrorist]]''. If it weren't for the fact that "Arab terrorists" were an acceptable target, he'd have been called out on that routine before [[SpotlightStealingSquad he let his acts become the Achmed the Dead Terrorist Show]].
*''Iranians/Persians''. Often portrayed similarly to and confused with Arabs.
** Even more ironically lumped in with Arabs, because they really look down on Arabs. Many Iranians strongly identify themselves as Caucasian (the whole "Aryan=Iranian" thing); and some Iranians stereotype Arabs as "lazy, violent hicks" in much the same way that New York Italians view Southerners (or British Protestant attitudes toward Irish Catholics). The stereotype of "civilized Persians" versus "desert-dwelling Arabs" is in fact a {{Forgotten Trope}} but is {{Older Than Dirt}}.
*** Identify themselves as Caucasians? This troper has known many Iranians, one of whom was his best friend for a while. Never did anything remotely like that occur. They have a very strong sense of self identity, ''separate'' from Caucasians, Black people, and Arabs.
***Caucasian doesn't necessarily mean white, although it tends to be used that way in the Us and some other place. If you go by the original caucasoid/mongloid/negroid division, Caucasian pretty much includes every ethnicity from India to Spain
**** US Labor Statistics identify them as Caucasian. Makes for an unfunny job if you have to guess your employees' race for reporting purposes (they can decline to tell you, but you have to tell the DOL something... so you guess... same rule goes for banks when they give out loans). Your WASPs, Iranians and Arabs all go in the same category - Caucasian.
*****That's because at least by an anthropological standpoint they ARE Caucasian. It's not about skin shading.
******Yeah. To be a Caucasian, you don't need pink skin; all you need are straight or wavy hair, thin nostrils, thin lips, and a lot of hair on your face if you're male. That said, cartoons always seem to depict Iranians as "Mexican brown," despite the fact that many of them could pass for European.
** ''Not Without My Daughter''.
*** This troper has never seen the movie, but feels it is worth mentioning that in the book, on a number of occasions the main character's husband's family is appalled by his treatment of her, and his wife meets a number of intelligent, sympathetic Iranians while living in Iran. Female AND male.
**** In the movie, these sympathetic Iranians are often VERY Western in behavior. The husband and the unsympathetic ones are more "Arab-looking". Considering that Iran is one of the Islamic countries that are more Western-like in general along with Lebanon, IIRC... Holy UnfortunateImplications! ([[http://www.mehrnews.com/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=523053 Read this]], as an example)
** In Finland, the stereotype is that they own a pizza or kebab place with broken Finnish in speech and menus. To be honest, many pizzerias and such are run by immigrants.
* Slavs, but especially the Russians. Because of the Soviet Union a little thing called the Cold War, and a good deal of old Czarist Russia. The peoples of Eastern Europe are widely mocked or cast as villains in action films because of the Cold War. Often portrayed as outwardly cold or immoral for their part in the former Soviet Union. Icy relations with the West are slowly seeing the resurgence of old stereotypes.
** Doubly so for the members of TheMafiya.
**In fairness, there are a lot of other Slavs and Eastern Europeans (Hungarians/Magyar and the Estonians aren't Slavs but get mistakenly lumped with them) who don't have very positive views of Russians, either.
*''Hispanics and/or Latinos''. This group has become a growing accepted target in the United States due to the growing amount of immigration of these people. They are usually portrayed as being incredibly poor and will usually be sorted in the same class stereotypes as some low-class African-American groups resulting in many conflicts (ex. gangs). This is often portrayed in dramas dealing with high schools in urban high crime areas such as ''DangerousMinds''.
** In comedy, Hispanics are often portrayed as lazy and willing to work low paying jobs. Many episodes of ''{{South Park}}'' feature hispanic men speaking English in a slow-witted lazy kind of matter. In the episode "D'ykes" a group of Hispanic men are recruited for several jobs from spying to substitute teaching. In another episode a sleeping Mexican janitor is mistaken for a wax sculpture while he is sleeping in a room displaying wax figures of people from different ethnicities portraying their stereotypes.
*** Subverted when they have the day laborers competently teaching long division.
*** Even more when the kids admit that the workers are teaching them more that their actual teacher would have.
** Six words. [[JeffDunham Jos?he Jalape?n a stick]].
** In some cases, some Hispanics are automatically classified gay due to their clothing which is often showing less skin. One of the earliest examples was Ricky in ''My So-Called Life''. A minor recurring character on {{The Simpsons}} is a gay Costa Rican man who is a major member of the Springfield Democratic Party.
** If the character is female, they may be portrayed as slutty and seductive. Ex. Adrian in ''The Secret Life of the American Teenager''.
** Exception: Disney Channel Programming. New shows and movies on the Disney Channel have come out with more Hispanic leads, mostly female, and are portrayed positively without reference or offense to their stereotypes. Ex. "Wizards of Waverly Place", Gabriella from the {{High School Musical}} films, anything starring Demi Lovato.
*** Demi Lovato is Greek and Italian. Nowhere near Hispanic, though she played a Hispanic girl in {{Camp Rock}}.
****Actually, she's of Mexican, Italian, and Irish ancestries.
**Toyed with but ultimately subverted in the 1999 film ''Bowfinger''. Bobby Bowfinger (Steve Martin) gets his film crew by hustling illegal Mexican immigrants into the back of his van. By the end of the movie, the men have learned all about film-making and are now respected and highly successful professionals.
* ''Filipinos.'' Tend to be mocked because of "not really being Asian" due to the fact that Filipino Culture has far more Western influences (due to three ''centuries'' of Spanish control and a few highly-influential decades of American rule and influence) than Eastern Asian ones. This thought was essentially summarized in the line of a ''MadTV'' sketch: ''"He's not Asian, he's Filipino!"'' Then there are all the jokes about Filipino foreign workers caricatured as being practically everywhere. Not to mention all the mail-order brides and prostitutes jokes that always seem to pop up. Plus the fact that young Filipino boys are now seen as a kid of catch-all for what gay men are supposed to be into.
* The Japanese: Not even close to what they once were, but there are still some bad feelings towards them in America for WWII, despite all the trade. Parodies of the Japanese tend to be a bit more subtle than the "I am honolable reader of Japan" of yesteryear, focusing more on superintelligent nerds who can't get girlfriends to save their lives. Of course, Japan's neighbor, China, has much, much worse feelings towards them for their actions in the Sino-Japanese wars.
** Somewhat ironic, as the Chinese are similar to the Japanese in terms of acceptable stereotypes. While the buck-toothed coolie and the FuManchu DiabolicalMastermind are no longer popular, Chinese are (also) often portrayed as glasses-wearing superintelligent nerds. The portrayal has also evolved somewhat, and may now include either sweatshop wage slaves toiling away for pennies (for low-status characters) or a secret CorruptCorporateExecutive plotting to buy [[strike:the United States]] the rest of the world.
** Japan's relationship with the Western world has improved vastly since the end of the second World War, thanks largely to Japan's soft power in the fields of entertainment, such as anime, cuisine, and video games which are widely embraced and loved in places like America. However, there are still a few points of friction which remain, the biggest being whaling and how Japan has no compunction against killing whales in the name of "scientific research." While Japan may have improved its image in modern times with samurai and manga, whaling and the killing of dolphins remains the one issue where Japan still receives the most vitriolic hatred.
** All Asians, in fact, are pretty acceptable targets. Especially in Hollywood. Try being an Asian and getting a role withOUT a stereotypically Asian surname. Try giving a black character a "black" name and see what an uproar you'll cause. Plus, yellowface is still acceptable even though blackface was considered a moral outrage a long time ago.
** You can portray Asians as sneaky evil bastards and nobody will call you out for racism on it.
*** EX. The asain gangster in ''The Hangover''. Not only does he have a a stereotypicly asain accent, but he's a sneaky, evil, bastard. Played for laughs of course, but still.
* ''Boers'': Portrayed in a manner bordering on that of the EvilAlbino, and shown to be racist tyrants who hate and oppress any black or brown people they come across.
** Why did the South African cross the road? '''APARTHEID!'''
**Subverted, or maybe inverted with {{District 9}}. While it's about an alien version of apartheid, pretty much all of South Africa is prejudiced against the extraterrestrials. The hero is also a Afrikaner who pulls a HeelFaceTurn.
* With the collapse of the Soviet Union, filmmakers have turned to the Chinese and especially the North Koreans for scary communists.
* ''American Indians'', who are generally portrayed as either AlwaysMale sex objects, [[MagicalNativeAmerican granola]], or greedy casino owners.
* ''Germans'': World War II ended over sixty years ago yet anyone from Germany or even with a German name is often shown as a throwback, in mannerisms and behavior if not outright villains.
** While on a trip to Germany, this Troper's guide told his group that prior to the 1980's, the Germans were so self-loathing, anyone who flew a German flag was thought to be a neo-Nazi.
** See also GermanicDepressives, and the PositiveDiscrimination version, GermanicEfficiency.
** Often seen as a meta-example, wherein a character portrayed as a JerkAss mistreats Germans: [[FawltyTowers don't mention]] [[SammysGlassEye the war!]]
*** There's also the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse character Fitz Kreiner, who's [[ButNotTooForeign half-German]], and in London in 1963 still lives in fear of someone ''kicking his head against a wall'' for his ethnicity and uses a fake surname. He's never actually treated as an acceptable ethnic target by the writers.
* ''Italian Americans''. Old stereotypes would have them as either [[TheMafia mobsters]] or [[MafiaPrincess the wives/daughters of mobsters]]. These stereotypes still crop up from time to time, but they've mostly faded out... only to be replaced by the stereotype of the "guido" in the last few years. Thanks to {{MTV}}'s ''JerseyShore'', having an Italian surname is an easy way for people to view you as a drunken, hard-partying, orange-skinned [[{{Jerkass}} douchebag]]. If you're male, it's assumed that you use steroids, and if you're female, it's assumed that you're [[ReallyGetsAround a slut]]. But hey, [[PositiveDiscrimination at least they make some great food]].
* ''Products of incest''. Yes, real-world incest is a horrible thing, and inbreeding does increase the odds of recessive alleles doubling up in the offspring. But demonization of incest tends to spill over onto any resulting next generation, creating an expectation that such children will ''invariably'' be mentally or physically impaired, if not a CannibalClan in the making. Even the legal system often exhibits this Never-Should've-Been-Born bias, making it easier for women to get an abortion if incest is involved. (Gee, that must ''really'' make a kid feel better about themselves....)
* Jews, to varying degrees in varying cultures. Open anti-Semitism is obviously [[OnceAcceptableTargets no longer acceptable]] in much of the Western world, although it is still prevalent in much of the Middle East and in other places.

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** A number of black comedians have making fun of black people as the [[StealthPun linch]]pin of their stand-up act. Chris Rock is probably the most prominent of these, but he's far from the only one. He is changing, though. While he used to split his time between making fun of blacks and making fun of whites, as his act has progressed it's gradually changed from "White people screw with black people, and black people aren't helping the situation" to more purely white-themed jokes. He ditched a lot of the jokes blaming black people for "the situation" around the same time he noticed just how much his white audiences were enjoying his "The difference between black people and niggers" bits, though it was also partially him dropping very old material.