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Comedic persona
Lewis drawing from his childhood traumas, he crafted a complex comedic persona that involved four social aspects: sexuality, gender, race/ethnicity, and disability. Through these social aspects, he challenged norms, was misrepresented, and heavily criticized. During his Martin and Lewis years, he challenged what it meant to be a heterosexual male. Not afraid to display sensitivity and a childlike innocence, he pushed aside heterosexual normality and embraced distorted conventions. This did not sit well with some critics who thought his actions were appalling and what they considered gay. Lewis' feminine movements is what placed the stereotypes of what a gay man was, during that time, on his comedic persona with disregard to the girl crazy, sexual panic youth that his character represented.

In the Martin and Lewis duo, Lewis' comedic persona was viewed as effeminate, weak, and inexperienced, which in turn made the Martin persona look masculine, strong, and experienced. The Lewis character was unconventional, in regards to gender, and that challenged what masculinity was. There are a couple of Martin and Lewis films that present the Lewis character in gender-swapped roles, but it was Lewis' solo films that posed questions about gender and gender roles. Aside from Cinderfella (1960) that cast him in the Cinderella role, films such as Rock-A-Bye Baby (1958) and The Geisha Boy (1958) showed his interactions with children that put him less in the authoritative father role and placed him more in the nurturing mother role. In the 1965 film The Family Jewels, Lewis takes on the dual role as protector, the father role, and nurturer, the mother role. Through his comedic persona and films, he showed that a man can take on what are considered feminine traits without that being a threat to his masculinity.

Lewis made it no secret that he was Jewish, yet he was criticized for hiding his Jewish heritage. Although Lewis' films, with Martin and as a solo act, have moments where it hints at him being Jewish, it is never the thing that truly defines his character. Aside from the 1959 television movie The Jazz Singer and the unreleased 1972 film The Day the Clown Cried, Lewis has never had a film or film role that had any ties to his Jewish heritage. When asked about this lack of Jewish portrayal in a 1984 interview, Lewis stated, "I never hid it, but I wouldn’t announce it and I wouldn’t exploit it. Plus the fact it had no room in the visual direction I was taking in my work."

His physical movements received criticism because it was seen as him imitating those with a physical disability. Through the years, the disability that has been attached to his comedic persona has not been physical, but mental. through countless books has been mental. Neuroticism and schizophrenia have been a part of Lewis' persona since his partnership with Dean Martin; however, it was in his solo career that these disabilities became the basis of his films and the character. In films such as The Ladies Man (1961), The Disorderly Orderly (1964), The Patsy (1964), and Cracking Up (1983), there is either neuroticism, schizophrenia, or both that drive the plot. Lewis was able to explore and dissect the psychological side of his persona, which provided a depth to the character and the films that was not present in his previous efforts.