Dialect comedy
The term "Dialect comedy" was coined by David Marc in his essay, "Origins of the genre". Dialect comedies are a genre of radio (and later television) sitcoms that were popular between the 1920s and the 1950s. They relied on the exaggerated and highly stylized portrayal of stereotypes, usually based on ethnic humor. The genre has its roots on the vaudeville stage and in the minstrel shows that became popular in the 19th century. The ethnicities of the actual actors portraying the dialects did not have to match the characters; while much Jewish dialect comedy was created and portrayed  by actual Jews, other dialect comedies, such as those involving blackface, were often not. Probably the most enduring program in this genre, Amos N Andy had two feet planted firmly in the minstrel tradition. In 1928, Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll, two white performers took their blackface act, Sam N Henry, which they did not have the rights to and changed it to Amos N Andy, which became one of the most popular shows of the time. In 1948 Variety proclaimed the show “a national habit, almost as familiar as radio itself.” By the time of its final broadcast in  1960, the show had been renamed Amos N Andy Music Hall. Life with Luigi premiered on CBS in 1948 and centered around Luigi Basco, an Italian immigrant living in Chicago. The title character was portrayed by J. Carrol Naish, an Irishman. Many of the plots were either about Luigi attending “citizenship classes” and the wacky immigrants he meets there or about his cranky landlord trying to convince Luigi to marry his overweight daughter. The TV version premiered in 1952 and was cancelled shortly after, in part due to the bumbling helpless portrayal of a character often referred to as “the  little immigrant” who didn’t understand how banks work even though there were banks in Italy at the time. Mama (alternately “I Remember Mama”) was a series about a Norwegian family living in San Francisco, CA starring Peggy Wood, Judson Laire and Rosemary Rice. "Beulah" was a radio series on CBS from 1945–1954 and a TV show on ABC from 1950-1952. It was the first series to feature an African American woman in the main role. Beulah drew much of the same criticism from the black community as Amos N Andy. The show was criticized for its portrayal of  the “Mammy” or the happy go lucky black servant who wanted nothing more from life than to serve white folks. When it first hit the radio waves, the character of Beulah was voiced by her creator, Marlin Hurt, a white male; the character was originally introduced nationwide as a supporting character on "Fibber McGee and Molly" before getting her own show. After Hurt's unexpected death in 1946, the character of Beulah was played by Bob Corley, another white man. In 1947, African American actress Hattie McDaniel took over, followed by two African American sisters Lillian Randolph and later Amanda  Randolph. The TV version of Beulah was portrayed by Ethel Waters and Louise Beavers. Often overlooked in modern times were regional dialects that were not directly based on ethnic humor. Hillbilly humor was a somewhat common form of dialect comedy during the radio era, with shows such as "Lum and Abner" using the genre to full effect. Southerners (especially haughty aristocrats from the South and their distinctive accents) were another target of dialect comedy, with one of the most famous examples being fictional U.S. Senator Beauregard Claghorn from "The Fred Allen Show". Occasional use of dialect comedy continued even after  political correctness led to the dramatic decline of its usage in the 1950s. Sara Berner, a noted dialect comic, noted in 1950: "Dialects are a natural part of American speech. And the sooner people stop being on the defensive about them, the sooner we can wipe out all that silly prejudice," also noting that "in all the years I’ve been doing them, I’ve never, not even once, got a nasty letter." She conceded: "You have to do them sympathetically. Otherwise you can cause trouble." José Jiménez, a fictional Bolivian immigrant who was created by non-Hispanic comedian Bill  Dana, remained popular as a guest act well into the 1960s; Dana never intended the character to be offensive and killed him off in the late 1970s, complete with a mock funeral. Foreigner Latka Gravas was one of Andy Kaufman's most popular characters in the late 1970s and 1980s. The 1980s sitcom "The Golden Girls" included Swedish dialect humor in the form of Betty White's Rose Nylund character, who fit early 20th-century stereotypes of the good-hearted but dense Swede (even though Rose Nylund is of Norwegian descent).