LONG DUK DONG

Anyway my thoughts are I'm worried that this is like the Chappelle Show

Where the showrunners think they're twisting stereotypes

But non-black (or in this case non-azn) audiences are just like "Haha I'm rick james, bitch!!" or here "Haha his name is Dong and he has a funny accent"

I thought this take by Arthur Chu was good

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/television/2015/03/race_in_unbreakable_kimmy_schmidt_how_critics_are_missing_the_point.html

I also wish Dong had confidently grabbed the model minority stereotype by the horns to play with and mock it—maybe I’ve been spoiled by Fresh Off the Boat. Or I’d have liked Dong’s negative reaction to racism to become the source of some over-the-top humor—I see Sr. Chang’s explosive reaction to people questioning his ability to be a Spanish teacher in Community as a perfect gag, its own version of Titus trying to wear the werewolf costume 24/7 because being a werewolf improves his life.

Instead we get weaksauce stuff like Dong actually being good at math but Kimmy being chided for racism for saying so. Limp stuff like people making dick jokes about his name only for him to briefly comment that Kimmy also means penis in Vietnamese.

...

Similarly, Dong would’ve been groundbreaking 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago. But in a post-Selfie, post-Fresh Off the Boat world I just don’t care about him. Kimmy’s landlady Lillian gets a great line about how white women “swimming upstream” against negative stereotypes about Asian men can “clean up,” but Dong is, from top to bottom, a stereotype. He’s positively portrayed, but everything about that positive portrayal is straight-up model minority stuff—hardworking, smart, earnestly naive about sex and romance, unimpeachably innocent and well-intentioned.

Every single other important character on the show—Lillian, her boss Jacqueline, her roommate Titus, her fellow captives, her teenage frenemy Xanthippe, Kimmy herself—is a grotesque cartoon who is lovable despite the fact that in real life they’d be intolerable for all kinds of reasons. This only makes Dong, who would be a bland character on a “normal” sitcom, even more of a misstep.

Which is probably why even though Ki Hong Lee is a really good looking guy, there was zero chemistry or heat between Dong and Kimmy on-screen, whereas the previous show with a redhead white chick with an Asian dude love interest, Selfie, has this scene. It’s not a fair comparison. Selfie was built around Henry and Eliza’s will-they-or-won’t-they romance while Dong is a late introduction to the show. But that’s the point.

Like there's just not enough to separate nu-Dong from that dude on Two Broke Girls

i was half impressed to learn at least some of the "in my culture that means something else!" stuff was true, i.e. fingers-crossed.

wow - that Arthur Chu bit nails it.

This is not the first time I've read something where Arthur Chu articulates a really relatable position that just makes sense. Love that guy.

kind of wish I could hire him to follow me around and explain my life to me

that fucking headline tho

slate having a bad headline is pretty par for the course

Lee is pretty great in Maze Runners

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2015/03/would-you-drink-beer-called-happy-ending.html

An eight-member K-pop group was detained for 15 hours at LAX because authorities thought they were sex workers, according to the group's agency.

http://laist.com/2015/12/11/oh_my_girl_lax.php

Later stories reveal the actual reason they were stopped is that they claimed to be here for a vacation, but in fact were scheduled to perform, and didn't get the performance visa they needed for that. The sex worker thing was the story they told the media.

http://jezebel.com/margaret-cho-calls-out-absolutely-fabulous-movie-for-ye-1749365367

Margaret Cho expressed disappointment over the upcoming Absolutely Fabulous movie’s decision to cast a white actress Janette Tough as a male Japanese fashion designer named “Huki Muki.”

Wtf?! What century are these movie-makers living in?

http://welcometotwinpeaks.com/wp-content/uploads/mr-tojamura-2-785x785.jpg

ahahaha. Janette Tough = Jimmy Krankie.

For those of you not aware, Janette Tough is Scotland's leading drag king.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJmnLzw8NA4

At the end of An American Tail, the mice successfully chase off the cats who end up on a freighter to Hong Kong, whose destination is revealed with an "oriental" music cue. I had never thought about it until recently, but is this supposed to be a subtle nod to the stereotype that Chinese people eat cats? Something like, "these cats think they have it bad now, wait til they get where they're going!" I'm not even sure if I'm perceiving this right. Almost on a dogwhistle level, maybe?

https://youtu.be/V6igEQFnk7w?t=2m9s

when did ilx u-turn on Arthur Chu?

wow - that Arthur Chu bit nails it.

― Brio2, Thursday, March 26, 2015 5:56 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is not the first time I've read something where Arthur Chu articulates a really relatable position that just makes sense. Love that guy.

― mh, Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:00 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

kind of wish I could hire him to follow me around and explain my life to me

― mh, Thursday, March 26, 2015 6:01 PM (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the Hong Kong/"oriental" music cue stuff just seemed to me like they were emphasising the idea that the villains were being sent very very far away from our heroes, Hong Kong as somewhere exotic and remote, rather than anything more specific about how cats might be treated in HK? idk

just like making clear that the mice have definitively escaped from the cats, "that's the last we'll be seeing of them" or whatever

No I like HL's interpretation

yeah.. i'm gonna give it a 7/10 on the "probably racist" scale

soref, I think he stopped being at all relatable and stopped making sense, but we have an entire thread for that

http://www.stereogum.com/1961930/chainsmokers-apologize-for-joking-that-chinese-people-eat-dogs/news/

I'm cackling at "because I have read reports" in the apology

At least some percentage of Switzerland apparently eats cats, that should be the default stereotype.

I've heard they don't even really have cuckoo clocks

it's a dumb joke, but what there's a meat festival??

David Cross, Charlyne Yi.

http://www.yomyomf.com/charlyne-yi-dumbfounded-by-the-racist-comments-comedian-david-cross-made-towards-her/

imo david cross is someone who comes across as obv an asshole but wow

he does seem like he would be insufferably jerky irl

Bob otoh seems like a total bro

lol maybe that's just southern vs. midwestern

Cross is a jerk and he has always been a jerk and also he is not funny. I do not know why anybody likes him. But yeah, Bob is great.

his stand-up is generally pretty unfunny - I was into it pretty big at the age of 19, but I went back and listened to some of it, and yikes. the jokes aren't necessarily terrible but he can't help but come off like a total prick. nowadays it sounds like he's trying to do a Louis CK type set but doesn't have the personality.

he's good in other people's stuff though.

he's great in Mr. Show. His standup is hard to take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3KX8g00kCQ

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-soft-racism-of-apu-from-the-simpsons/amp

The Current South-Asian American Comedy Renaissance (Kumail Nanjiani, Aziz Ansari, Hasan Minhaj, Hari Kondabolu, Aperna Nancherl etc.)

Was searching for a GIF of rice in Facebook's Messenger app, because I wanted to send a message to somebody about eating rice, but the first image result was

https://i.imgur.com/26NnBGp.jpg

Is that filthy Frank?

apparently. whoever that is.

Oh, apparently he is part-Japanese.

I don't feel that fact makes it any better, in terms of content that Facebook is actively pushing out.

Good thread:

The Simpsons, 1989 - 2018 #RIP 😢 https://t.co/FLTsUwFBsQ

— Wakanda Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) April 9, 2018

That sucks so much ass

Like, especially since the last 10-or-so years of Simpsons has just been "invite every comedian on for a guest spot," imagine what a fully engaged Simpsons writing team could do in collabo with Hari Kondabolu exploring and having fun with the issue instead of being petulant brats.

a fully engaged Simpsons writing team

well there's your first stumbling block, there's hasn't been one of those for decades

i remember when i used the say how the Simpsons was great but "the last few" seasons haven't been up to par, and i realize it's probably been about twenty years since it's been near the peak (and even then it was on the descent a bit.)

It really does blow my mind that the Simpsons has basically been on autopilot for nearly 20 years. You have one of the most successful brands in television history and you just squander it year after year. Like there would be any real consequence in just, like, doing a good job