Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 6, 2021

Lukas Arnold talks about his life all the time; its central to the comedy that has earned him 1.1 million followers on TikTok. And yet, the more he talks about himself, the more of an enigma he becomes.

The 25-year-old comedian and voice actors dad is Ashkenazi, with ancestry in Poland. His mom is half Sudanese and half British. He grew up unvaccinated in Brooklyn, but now advocates for public health. He is tall and lanky, with a strikingly sharp jawline, a deep voice, curly hair, and white skin, and people are always guessing what his background is. Its just a fun little surprise sometimes, I enjoy seeing how people react, he said.

Also gotten young Christopher walken, Malcolm gladwell, joe from you, it goes on ##fyp##foryou

Arnolds comedy runs the gamut from impressions of Donald Duck and John Mulaney to absurdism; recently his videos have largely featured him making egregious puns in a sing-songy monotone (somehow it works).

And, Arnold has leveraged his comedic skills and biography to bring insight to many of the major issues, such as last summers Black Lives Matter protests. Even in the apps 15-60 second window, his comedic commentaries hit home.

Asked whether his Sudanese heritage gives him the n word pass a hot-button issue on TikTok, where stars have frequently gotten in trouble for mouthing the word while lip syncing Arnold posted a succinct video explaining his feelings about the issue.

The n-word still holds a lot of violent power behind it, he said. But you know what Id feel if someone said that to me? Id be confused, Id be like get your eyes checked. Regardless of my heritage, I function and walk through the world very much as a white person. And in virtually all situations, it is impossible for me to receive the sting of that word, so I cant use it as a word of camaraderie.

The Forward spoke with Arnold about identity, comedy, politics and the way TikTok has changed his life. Highlights from our conversation are below.

Being Sudanese is something that I hold very deeply in my heart and in my identity, and I feel very comfortable owning that side of myself.

I would say a big part of the Black American experience is the fact that your history has been taken away from you because a lot of people are descended from slaves. Whereas I know exactly what my cultural and national identity is. Its a different thing, but it is also something that we can relate on.

Help wanted ##joke##comedy##comedian##leggings##silly##fyp##foryou##sudanese##food##thicctok##thicktok##goodbye

I remember when I was in middle school, I mentioned to a teacher like, Oh yeah my mom is Black. And this teacher corrected me and said, I think you mean African American. Which is on one side is just like, kind of shitty, but on the other hand it was also wrong! My mom is an American citizen now, but if anything that goes to show how this American viewpoint of things is a little bit myopic.

When I was maybe 2 or 3 years old, we were visiting my grandmother in Florida, and my mom had me sitting on her lap, and these friends of my grandmother started playing matchmaker for my dad. By this point my parents had been married, but they pretended that my mom didnt exist. And my dad told me about one or two stories, about a cousin who was very clearly racist and she said that she worked at a factory but there were too many schvartzes. Even though I know that most people on that side of the family were not racist to my mom and never did or said anything to me, it did kind of sour my opinion on them.

Is this a thing? A Jewish tradition they dont tell you about? Everyone please weigh in. Was she even real?? ##storytime##comedy##funny##fyp##foryou

I told this story on TikTok, and I prefaced it by saying Im half Jewish but I dont know a lot of cultural stuff, is this something a lot of people go through? I guess sort of half a joke. But then the comment section was littered with people saying, Which half Jewish is it, your mom or your dad? This matters. Or other people saying, If its your dad, youre not Jewish at all, you cant be half Jewish.

It was a lot of needling arguments, it was trying to take away. It really bothered me because every now and again, I wonder if I want to like, just learn a little bit more about the culture and practices and stuff. But anytime people talk about purity or bloodlines, I just shut down, like we dont have anything to talk about, I dont have patience for it.

I dont look like some of my family members, I dont immediately look like my moms child. Weve had trouble going through airport security when I was a kid. Weve even been kept from planes because they thought I was maybe her hostage.

When youre mixed but only look white ##mixedproblems##standupcomedy##comedian##comedy##funny##storytime##fyp##foryou##foryoupage

[Comments] will say stuff like stick to comedy, stick to impressions. But whats really sweet and I find honestly kind of heartwarming is I have much nicer followers who I align more with who will say He can do whatever he wants! This is his page!

On one hand, I think its important to understand that you have the potential to hurt people with the platform you have and the things you say, so you should take measures to double-check yourself. But at the same time there are always going to be people who get offended at anything. I like to have healthy self-doubt..

I have a friend of mine on Tiktok who Ive met over quarantine, very talented artist, and he is trans and gay, and whenever I make a video concerning the community I send the video to him and I say, Hey what do you think about it? And he always says Post it, its awesome.

Its definitely changed my life a lot, its probably what I think about, maybe not most of the day, but maybe half of my day my mind glances to it. TikTok has opened so many doors for me. It definitely causes me stress, because the algorithm is something Im always thinking about. But its just allowed me to do so much and its given me an audience, and given me confidence in myself in so many ways, its been an overwhelmingly positive experience in so many different ways.

Yeah I am a TikToker, I definitely do kind of have to say that now.

Mira Fox is a fellow at the Forward. You can reach her at fox@forward.com or on Twitter @miraefox.

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This 25-year-old Ashkenazi-British-Sudanese comedian is blowing up on TikTok - Forward

Category: Ashkenazi
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