On a New York City subway train stocked with edgy white folks and one slouched and stuporous young black man, three inner-city toughs storm into the car. They shout at the black rider, then drag him to the floor and stomp on his face. The other passengers cringe, until the pummeling abruptly ceases and all four men rise smiling, as if for a curtain call. "Ladies and gentlemen!" one of the thugs intones with cultured geniality. "You have just witnessed another performance of Ghetto Theater."
Hangin' with the Homeboys, the engaging new black-Hispanic comedy in which this scene appears, isn't the...