For as long as stand up and sitcoms have existed, so too have questions about stereotypes. For minorities not represented in mainstream pop culture, comedy has become the common language of the outsider.

But as much as it gives those excluded a voice ... culture-based comedy is also undeniably mainstream packaged for and consumed by mass audiences. Think Richard Pryor, early Eddie Murphy and Woody Allen. So is this stereotype-based comedy a window into a minority community or a lens that distorts and twists those represented by the stereotype?

Comedy and stereotypes go together like Asians and kung-fu ... Americans and stupidity ... Quebeckers and poutine. We had three guests in studio to help us explore who can make fun of whom -- when it's funny and when it's dangerous.

Andrew Clarke is a comedy instructor and expert on comedy history at Humber College's School of Comedy.

Kenny Robinson is a veteran Canadian comedian and the founder of the Nubian Disciples All Black Comedy Revue.

And Sky Gilbert is a writer who holds the University chair for Creative Writing and Theatre Studies at Guelph University.