The book tells us that pop culture is "a new name for low culture, referring to those cultural products that most people share and know about, including television, music, videos, and popular magazines" (Martin, Nakayama). It is no secret that pop cultural surrounds us in our everyday lives. It is hard to get away from the stereotypes that pop cultural creates, the book says "Our knowledge about other places, even places we have been, is largely influenced by popular culture. For people who do not travel and who interact in relatively homogeneous social circles, impact of popular culture may be even greater"(Martin, Nakayama). One of my favorite shows to watch and I can never grow sick of is the show "Scrubs". In the show there are a few stereotypes that I feel are worth taking about.
A little background of the show, the show follows around Dr. John Michael "J.D." Dorian as he learns the way of medicine and life while working in a hospital. J.D goes through this journey along side his lifetime friends Turk and secret crush Elliot. Throughout the nine seasons you get to see the ups and downs of J.D.'s life. The show does a great job of developing different characters, however also you can see some stereotypes within these characters.
One of the biggest stereotypes that you pick up on quickly is the way Judy Reyes plays the role of Nurse Carla Espinosa. Carla is a Latino nurse that marries J.D friend Turk. During the show you learn that Carla couldn't offered college due to the fact she was raised in a rough neighborhood. I find it interesting they pick the only latino character to not come from a traditional college. Also Carla comes off as a very judgmental, mean and hot headed women. This is another form of stereotyping.
Like I said before Carla is married to J.D's best friends Turk. Turk is the only main character that is black. Turk character is also considered a jock and a very good dancer. These are a few stereotypes of used to describe African Americans. Also towards the end of the show you learn that Turk has diabetes, being the only black character I find it odd the show decides to give turk diabetes a illness mostly effects the African American community. The scene below is one of my favorite from the show.
Stereotypes are over the place, it is hard to get away from. Scrubs is yet another example of using race to reenforce stereotypes. Pop culture and stereotypes go hand and hand and it is easy to see examples of this in Scrubs. Now I want to leave you with one of the best endings to any show I have watched in my life. This scene has the power to make the most mainly man shed a tear.
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