Latino Comedians

In the world of Latino comedy, there's always a wacky cultural collision just around the corner. Cheech and Chong poked at matters of race and class in America, and in the process led Latino comedians into the mainstream atop a cloud of hazy hilarity. No one does the intercultural fracas quite like Mexican-American Angeleno and TV family man George Lopez, and cuts like "Jack In the Box" bear witness. Pablo Francisco pulls in some of his usual ethnic caricatures in the Hollywood send-up "Movie Previews."

Marga Gomez defies any conventional sort of "lady's touch" with her off-the-cuff gender romps. And Joey Medina is here with his own sort of Public Service Announcement: "Latin Women Are Violent."

Don't sleep on Willie Barcena's street-style "Life As A Kid." And beyond the most well-known representatives of the comedy genre are surreal newer West Side Story poses such as Eugenio Derbez' "Vampire Mother." And if you missed Gilberto Esquivel's two-column tirade, find out where you stand in "Mexicans Vs. Meskins."

Latino Comedians often tell us about the intercultural mash-up that is being Latino in America, ranging from the why-we're-not-that-different-from-you-non-Latinos-after-all family guy gags of George Lopez to Carlos Mencia's we're-pretty-different raunchy rants. Sometimes caricatures are knocked down like cardboard cut-outs and sometimes they're embraced as uncut truth. And sometimes, it's just Cheech and Chong encountering screaming nuns.