I, along with many others, think the entire thing is hysterical, but there is certainly another way to read the film. The jokes definitely land, but most of them are told at the expense of Toula's Greek family and generally about their being Greek. Ian's family gets ribbed for their incredible WASP-ness, but the story is about Toula and her family and that's where the jokes are.
There is a Seinfeld episode in which Jerry suspects that his friend, Tim Whatley, becomes Jewish so that he can tell Jewish jokes. Vardalos is Greek, so she can tell Greek jokes, but some would suggest that non-Greeks shouldn't laugh at them. Is it okay for you to laugh at Jewish jokes if you're not Jewish? African-American jokes if you're not African-American? The answer may not be clear cut.
In a new featurette included on the Blu-ray (the only new item included), Vardalos discusses how she wrote the screenplay and did the one woman show because she couldn't get another job in Hollywood. She talks about how she wasn't seen as being pretty enough to be a leading lady, she wasn't Latino enough to play a Latino woman, etc., and so was in a sense forced to sell her Greek-ness and did it with comedy. Was she forced then to sell—and undercut—her culture, making it acceptable to "mainstream?"
From the featurette it seems that Vardalos would probably disagree, and for me that's enough. If Vardalos is okay with people laughing, if that's the point of the whole thing, then I'm fine with laughing. And, as said, there really is a whole lot to laugh about – the film is hysterically funny. It isn't just Vardalos, Corbett, Constantine, and Kazan who are funny, it is everyone. Louis Mandylor as Toula's brother, Nikki, and Andrea Martin as her Aunt Voula particularly stand out.
In terms of this Blu-ray's bonus features, however, things could be better. There is a digital and DVD copy, and the aforementioned featurette as well as a commentary from the original DVD release and some deleted scenes. That's it. While the new featurette is an amusing and fun 30 minutes—it features Vardalos and Corbett talking along with some older interviews—the anecdotes told in it would be better were they supplemented with more pieces.
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