Pan-Foreignism

“That 70s Show” is one of the few situation comedies on television which sometimes makes me laugh aloud. Even when I’m alone. Why is this? Mostly, I think it’s what I’d call the “naturalism” of the cast even as they deliver carefully scripted comedy. The timing is good and they seem like they’re having fun. In spite of this, “That 70s Show,” like almost any television show you might choose, does not always stand up to scrutiny when we consider its take on gender and race.

A separate thesis might be written about gender roles on the show – its sunny revisionist history of women’s sexual liberation, it’s problematic presentations of body image, marital relationships, and romantic relationships in general - but here I’ll limit my scope to its treatment of Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), its lone “ethnic” character. That Fez was written at all seems ostensibly to be a jab at the role of the “token” ethnic character in sitcoms, and much of the mistreatment of his character must be considered in this light. However, while he is an integral personality among the cast, the show is exhaustive in depersonalizing him. It remains difficult to tell the exact intentions of the show’s creators.

Here are some thoughts:

Fez does not have a name. On the show, Fez stands for “foreign exchange student” and his other nicknames include Hadji, Ali Baba, Boy With the Accent, Tonto, etc. Some of these nicknames are accorded him by the unremittingly nasty father character, Red, whose actions are not necessarily condoned. But it remains a structural element of the show’s comedy that Fez’ real name is unpronounceable and unknown.

Fez does not have an ethnic or national identity. We never learn his origins. In one sense, this parodies the tendency of television to downplay ethnic distinctions. In another sense, once we’ve gotten the joke, we spend the entire series with an ethnic character to whose specific ethnicity we are ignorant. Fez is indistinctly “brown” with an inscrutable accent.

Fez is a bumbling idiot. Yes, so is Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), but Kelso is also a sex symbol. Fez is the subject of continual embarrassment and misunderstanding. He has unusual habits, lending to the notion of the dopey, perplexing foreigner. He is at once oversexed and sexless. Though enthusiastic about pornography, his real-world sexual exploits are usually thwarted by his hopeless naïvete. Like many brown men depicted on TV, he lusts after the beautiful white women (though, admittedly, 70s Wisconsin seems bereft of other options).

In the rerun I happened upon on daytime cable, Fez is peripheral to the storyline. It is late in the series, the characters are preparing for college, and they are busy enacting their long-established sexual dramas, of which Fez has little part. He appears only to make a few obtuse comments. In a plot twist I can only guess at (not having seen the entire series), he is married, but he and his wife are not romantically involved. These features of the episode are in keeping with the show’s dominant treatment of Fez.

So, to what extent is “That 70s Show” commenting on token characters on television and to what extent is it making crude jokes at the expense of the foreign exchange student? Fez functions to exemplify a few vague ideas of the foreigner, as detailed above. Pan-foreignism. Maybe the show is just saying that: to a bunch of high school kids and their parents in 70s Midwest America, all foreigners seemed pretty much the same. One funny thing is though, Fez’ lack of a specific ethnic identity renders it impossible to assign him very much specific stereotyped behavior. And that’s one of the other things about the show that makes me laugh aloud – its simultaneous adherence to and irreverence toward television conventions.