David Lopez
David Lopez has 720,037 subscribers on YouTube to date (“David Lopez”). He, like Ochoa, is a Mexican-American (“@Davidlopezfilms”), who, like Lele Pons, got his start on Vine. Though he does a variety of comedy skits, some of his most famous content involves a character he calls “Juan”. In fact, Lopez’s background image for his YouTube channel is a sketch of Juan. In his videos, Lopez mainly expresses his latinidad by exaggerating stereotypes and poking fun at typically racist and ignorant conceptions.
In “The Adventures of David & Juan” where Lopez acts out skits as himself and as Juan, the stereotypical dress that distinguishes Juan from Lopez is glaringly obvious.
Juan is dressed in a red flannel, long-sleeved shirt tucked into blue work jeans with a dark brown or black belt. He is also wearing brown guaraches with black socks. Finally, Juan has a thick black mustache. Together, these pieces of clothing create a specific look that Lopez is creating to communicate a message to his audience: Juan is a stereotypical Mexican immigrant campesino. In fact, in one of the first lines in “The Adventures of David & Juan”, Juan mentions that he was “working in the fields like always” (“David Lopez”), which, besides supporting the clothing stereotype, is in itself an occupation stereotype. Although Lopez appears to be reinforcing these stereotypes through his videos, it becomes obvious that his videos are satire.
In “The Adventures of David & Juan Part 2”, he plays himself, Juan, and a thug who, with a Caucasian-American partner, is trying to kill Juan and Lopez. The Caucasian-American partner makes the mistake of saying something along the lines of “you guys all look the same to me” (“David Lopez”), to which Juan indignantly replies, “what do you mean, you people?!” (“David Lopez”). The humor in this exchange lies in the double meaning of the words.In “The Adventures of David & Juan” where Lopez acts out skits as himself and as Juan, the stereotypical dress that distinguishes Juan from Lopez is glaringly obvious.
Juan is dressed in a red flannel, long-sleeved shirt tucked into blue work jeans with a dark brown or black belt. He is also wearing brown guaraches with black socks. Finally, Juan has a thick black mustache. Together, these pieces of clothing create a specific look that Lopez is creating to communicate a message to his audience: Juan is a stereotypical Mexican immigrant campesino. In fact, in one of the first lines in “The Adventures of David & Juan”, Juan mentions that he was “working in the fields like always” (“David Lopez”), which, besides supporting the clothing stereotype, is in itself an occupation stereotype. Although Lopez appears to be reinforcing these stereotypes through his videos, it becomes obvious that his videos are satire.
It is obvious that the thug, Juan, and Lopez all look the same; they are portrayed by the same person. But Juan takes it the wrong way, thinking that the partner is referring to the fact that they are all Mexican and therefore all look the same, a common racist sentiment. Lopez is exposing the ridiculousness of the sentiment: Do all Mexicans really look alike? As alike as Lopez playing three people?
Though not as prominent as his comedic use of stereotypes, Lopez also uses language to express latinidad. When portraying Juan, Lopez adopts a heavy Mexican accent in order to reemphasize that Juan is a Mexican immigrant campesino. Although Juan speaks mostly in his accented English, he occasionally uses a few words in Spanish. Unlike Pons and Ochoa, however, he does not frequently use slang or curse words. Instead, he uses Spanish for everyday words like “eggs”, which he replaces with “huevos” in “The Adventures of Juan & David” (“David Lopez”). Through the use of language in his skits, Lopez contributes to the representation of latinidad.
NOTES:
- The word "campesino" is the Spanish word for a farm/field worker/laborer.
