A Minute for Comedy & Asian Stereotypes
Thahn Tan has an article about fighting Asian stereotypes and that's all well and good. She believes that in order to dispel the idea of Asians being the Model Minority and other stereotypes we need to look at the data. I encourage you to read it. One thing that comes up in Tan's article and that has been bothering me lately, is the mischaracterization of a joke. During the Oscars Chris Rock made a cheap and hack joke about Asian accountants using kids as the punchline. It sucked, the kids were cute and ruined the foolishness of the joke with their cuteness. Yeah, Rock screwed up and did the very thing he criticizes. The AAPI community was in flames. Then members of the community went too far as they also were aghast by a joke told by Sacha Baron Cohen. Tan explains : ... actor Sacha Baron Cohen made a cringe-inducing reference to “very hardworking, little yellow people with tiny” private parts. Thanks, Hollywood. As if we needed more reminders that the powers that be...