Being brown on bad TV

You know, after all those Metro PCS commercials (rant below), desi cameos in TV sitcoms, and Russel Peters jokes, I've come to accept that brown people are going to be ridiculed in this country for a good laugh. And ok, I laugh too. But there's an art to all the racially-regressive crap they spew out that at least makes the jokes bearable. If you're going to stereotype groups of people, at least make it funny. SNL didn't get that memo.

So here's a breakdown: young Indian boy (who is played by a girl) has started his own talk show due to his father's encouragement (read: orders). Alright, that's an entertaining premise. The Indian boy also seems to be very knowledgeable about everything (registered: the model minority stereotype). But then it just goes haywire.

Enter Jude Law with a clumsy and pointless role as the talk show's guest. The camera randomly turns to a sardar-ji uncle wearing a messy turban and drinking alcohol. The skit fails, miserably. The humor is lost (the audience didn't laugh), the American-raised desi boys has a heavy and painful Indian accent, the dad and uncle are both played by non-South Asian actors that don't add anything except to try to fill the role of an overly-zealous father and alcoholic uncle (as a side point: why is the uncle a sardarji when no one in the family is?). There was nothing to laugh about. Not even a "that's racist but so hilarious" moment. And just to make me cringe some more, in the last 10 seconds, three desi people entered the scene for a family portrait. Oh, and the Indian woman was carrying a baby.

I appreciate the effort, but really, couldn't SNL have at least TRIED for some humor? I'm not even sure whether to call it racist or just really really bad comedy.

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Rant about Metro PCS:

Somewhere, some teenage boy is sitting on his couch, laughing hysterically at the Metro PCS commercial that has just come on TV. The commercial itself isn’t particularly funny, but the two Indian men enunciating every word with thick accents are comical. And it manages to provide enough sound bites to mimic later: “There is always a penalty” and “Cold…like an ice lolli.”

But because they are lacking in creativity, what Metro PCS really has going for them is mocking Indian men who accent every syllable of their 30-second script and reference stereotypes of Indian culture (for no obvious reason that I can find). In other words, Metro PCS tries to create humor by racially stereotyping Indians.

The cell-phone company features Ranjit and Chad in multiple commercials, and the scenarios are similar: the duo hosts “Tech and Talk” and informs their callers that Metro PCS is the best and most affordable cell phone plan on the market. That’s about 10 seconds of the commercial. The rest is a bizarre blend of exaggerated music and attempted humor that relies on making fools of the two hosts.

All of these commercials include stereotypes associated with a rural India: a snake charmer, heightened shame (over choosing the wrong cell phone plan), and even calling a newspaper “hot and spicy.” At one point, Ranjit admonishes a consumer by telling him, “You’re like my uncle’s goat, tied to the post, milking at regular intervals.” (What does that even mean?)

Just to create a further bizarre world, which starts to look more like a circus after about 15 seconds, one commercial concludes with two Indian women, clad in elaborate clothes, dancing around a white customer. [Check out the videos below]. Sure, some of it is funny, but the rest is completely unnecessary and offensive. Why does Metro PCS think it’s OK to exploit the stereotypes imposed on a certain group for comedic effect?

But if that wasn’t enough, Metro PCS goes one step further. It creates humor that relies not just on Ranjit and Chad making jokes, but also on the two humiliating themselves. In one commercial, for example, Chad displays his “dancing skills” that are purposefully abominable, and in another, both men are donning large sunglasses and feminine hats (quite randomly), which just ups the ridicule factor.

The portrayal of Indian men as socially awkward and heavily accented, with thick mustaches and who are completely oblivious of people laughing at them is…well, it’s racist. It further perpetuates an almost circus-like persona to a group of people, most of whom look and sound little like Ranjit and Chad.

I love diversity on TV, and wouldn’t mind seeing more South Asians on screen, but I find it hard to believe Metro PCS couldn’t think of a better storyline that used brown people in their commercials without requiring them to make fools of themselves and their culture. How about a bit more creativity than that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPuSI0WSFok&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFytHoXdG3E&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CErb461jHA&feature=related