Portrayals in Popular Culture
Greasers are usually portrayed as urban working class ethnics, often Italian American or Hispanic American. The terms greaser or greaseball are ethnic slurs applied to Italian Americans or Hispanic Americans due to stereotypes of either naturally greasier hair or widespread usage of hair grease. Notable exceptions to the urban ethnic portrayal include films such as The Wild One (1953) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Outsiders (1983), which portrayed a more rural, southern United States variant of the greaser subculture. Other films and TV shows featuring greasers include: Crime in the Streets (1956), The Delinquents (1957), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), The Young Savages (1961), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971), American Graffiti (1973), Badlands (1973), Happy Days (1974–1984), The Lords of Flatbush (1974), The California Kid (1974), Grease (1978), The Wanderers (1979), Grease 2 (1982), The Loveless (1982), The Outsiders (1983) Eddie and the Cruisers (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), Streets of Fire (1984), Tuff Turf (1985), Stand By Me (1986), La Bamba (1987), Full House (1987–1995), Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Cry-Baby (1990), This Boy's Life (1993), Roadracers (1994), Deuces Wild (2002), Secondhand Lions (2003), the children's cartoon Johnny Bravo, the video game Bully (2006), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Fallout 3 (2008), Mafia II (2010) and Fallout: New Vegas (2010), The Violent Kind (2010)
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