Yakov Smirnoff

Yakov Smirnoff may be one of the unfunniest men who ever lived on earth.  When I came to the US, he was huge and he only got bigger under the Republican administrations.  Here was a Russian-born obnoxious clown who would stand up before American audiences and not only mock the Soviet political system (which is fine if that is what he wanted to do) but he would also mock Russian culture and Russian women, and Americans loved him for it.  This is exactly the role that American dominant culture wants from Arabs in Washington, DC and many of them (especially those Lebanese who work in the media of Saudi princes) play that role to the hilt.  The more they clown and the more they make the White Man feel comfortable in his ignorance and bigotry, the more appreciated they become.