Desperate for attention? They didn’t even give a comment…

Whatever happened to “why so serious?”. Really people? Its a parody video, and its funny. Some people might find it offensive, but I’m pretty sure most people just think its harmless. (I’m Asian and I’m in no way offended and find it dumb that people find it offensive.) If you find this at all offensive, go to Youtube. You’ll be appalled at the some of the videos that are allowed on there! For shame! Oh wait. Its a little something called freedom and we have it here.

I actually find offense with the author’s last line. You sound a bit racist yourself Mr. Adam Estes.

FINALLY SOMEONE BRAVE ENOUGH TO CALL OUT THOSE DARN ASIANS

maybe they should’ve paid more attention to the dance part. but the content itself? it’s obviously a joke and they are just making fun of the stereotypes. like they don’t know what they are implying.
i don’t understand what the big deal is.

I didn’t get insulted by this when I saw it, mainly because it’s so ridiculous. But I can see where some of the lyrics can hit sensitive spots…

However, I did cringe a bit at the less-than-mediocre dancing

content: not offensive
lack of dancing ability: offensive

Just as offensive as Tommy Brothers, i.e. not at all offensive. Both recycled Asian stereotypes in poor attempts to be humorous. One got flayed because he was a white male, while the others are seen as cute because they are not white males. Funny how that works out, huh?

Tommy Brothers’ “joke” was like calling Barack Obama a nigger who should be out in the field picking cotton. It is clearly racist and offensive.

The video above is like a group of Latin girls ridiculing the white guys’ obsession with their butts. It is in poor taste, but is only borderline offensive/not really and not at all racist. If the white guys were doing the same video, it would actually be offensive and racist. Guess what, depending on who’s saying it, the same thing can be offensive/not offensive, racist/not racist, and criminal/not criminal. This is true with many things in life.

If you can’t still tell the difference, it just means that you are very obtuse.

I’m going to ignore most of these comments, but I’d really be a little more comfortable with this if these weren’t the only four asian girls in the group.

Easy flow chart for identifying (written) asian languages:

Does it look asian? Yes-continue on, No-find a different flow chart.

Does it have circles in it? Yes-it’s Korean. No-continue on.

Are there a LOT of lines per character? Yes-it’s traditional chinese or Japanese. No-it’s simplified chinese.

….you get the picture.

That’s not entirely accurate because the Japanese writing system also contains simplified characters, known as hiragana and katakana, which can be mixed with straight Chinese characters (kanji). Kanji is often a small fraction of the characters used in a sentence.

Everything taken into account, on average, Chinese > Japanese > Korean in the number of strokes per character.

to yalie 2010: the KKK is has a website and they’re pretty legit, too–do they have your support?

i’m not sure where to begin with these comments, but would like to make an example of them–these are the kinds of comments, from the kind of people, that this video will perpetuate. people who think that asian american women are submissive, dragon ladies who will fulfill all of their craziest fantasies. people who buy into the model minority myth that the biggest problems of asian americans is getting into med school. never mind the asian americans living in projects or suffering from mental disorders. lucy liu, zhang zi yi, gong li, soon yee–it’s all the same, it all sounds the same, right? each as replaceable as the other.

in reference to the girls who made this video, i hope they aren’t confused the next time someone heckles them on the street with “ni hao”s, “konichiwa”s, and “annyong”s. and if they meet guys who think that they are nothing more than pretty geisha dolls and then ask themselves, “why can’t anyone see me as anything more than an exotic escapade?”–they can watch their video to remind them.

this video did a good job perpetuating stereotypes about asian americans in general and asian american women (girls?) in particular. i agree with yale senior that this is a pathetic case of exploiting racist stereotypes for their own fifteen seconds of fame.

to Anonymous happy gray square,
Doesn’t your definition of offensiveness prove that it is a fickle and impulsive thing which doesn’t deserve the influence we lend it?

in other words, if the offensiveness of a statement depends on the speaker then it proves that it is not the content of the statement (in contradistinction to every remark in the previous thread) but rather the perceived intent of the speaker, which one can only speculate upon, exaggerate in their mind until the event becomes so incongruent that immediate retribution is required. Yes, this is how mobs are formed, and you will no doubt be a part of one some day.

DO NOT WANT

A statement can be offensive because of content and/or intent. These are not mutually exclusive.

A statement such as the one that Tommy Brothers made is offensive because of its content per se, and it would have been offensive if it had been made by an Asian person.

The Yale video above is borderline offensive based on its content and is not offensive based on its intent. It would have been offensive based on intent if it had been made by white males.

If you still don’t see how a statement can be offensive based on intent, consider this. If your brother-in-law tells your sister that he wants to make love to her, it would be considered romantic and not offensive. On the other hand, if you made the same statement to your sister, it would be considered offensive in most cultures.

I think the accents at the end are in poor taste, but I’m not going to be sending angry emails about it. The song is supposed to be a parody–both of Beyonce’s original, and of the stereotypes surrounding Asian people (and Asian women in particular).

I’m all for ironic, making-fun-of-stereotypes-and-those-who-use/believe-them humor… But this just isn’t that funny. I think the problem is with the execution. I think what they were trying to do was good… But they were just trying too damn hard without good enough results. In short, it’s not quite over-the-top enough to place it in the “we’re clearly making fun of Asian stereotypes, not reinforcing them” category. People aren’t laughing at the stereotypes because they’re too busy either laughing at the performance or being uncomfortable with the subject matter. I think people are probably pissed because hits close to home without being relatable enough to be funny.

I’m all for racial equality and I’m against jokes that demean any particular group of people, but sometimes it should be understood that tongue-and-cheek jokes like this do not have malevolent intent. In fact, to be offended by this video is not a proper reaction because it is just empowering “racist” tension. Sure, there are stereotypes upheld in this video but face it: stereotypes start because of some statistical basis. Nevertheless, I’m pretty sure that we are all aware that there are more people than just these three types of Asian molds out there. To find this so racist and offensive would be to say otherwise.

@yale senior – agreed.

in response to ” some asian language” being a racist statement:

This may be Culturalist, but I dont think its racist.

Most of the song seems to be about stereotypes and cultural generalizations, no?

‘people who buy into the model minority myth that the biggest problems of asian americans is getting into med school.’

As an asian, my biggest problem is not getting into med school…it is getting into law school.

my understanding is that they are spoofing, not asians, but asian stereotypes. It is funny not because “all asians are like that” but because there are a lot of different (and contradictory) stereotypes about asians.

OK, maybe not ready for professional prime time, but give them credit, it’s funny and visually distracting enough and made its point. There’s always the unavoidable paradox when a group wants to poke fun at its stereotypes. The awkward thing here is that Asians probably benefit more than suffer from the stereotypes parodied in this one. No doubt there would be a whole different set of comments if they had taken on the less savory Asian stereotypes, but I don’t expect to see the Asian ladies of Mixed Company doing that one any time soon.