It is interesting that you refuse in two emails to confront the Margaret Cho
and Chris Rock questions that we have raised. In our extended 90 minute show
we mock many ethnic groups. We beleive people are laughing at the absurdity of
the line slip menus under the door not the hard working chinese delivery man
that is sliding it under the door. You also refuse to acknoledge the mean
spirited behavior of calling people racist and offensive. You sound anti white in
your rants perhaps seeing all white men as the oppressor. We obviously are not
dismissing you by telling you to chill and lighten up. We would not continue
this correspondance if we were. Calling people racists is mean.Examine your
own language and how you have chosen to communicate.We love white people.
chinese people and all living beings. Do you love the white man?Hurting your
feelings on Wednesday was not our intention.You dismiss the opinions of numerous
chinese people in referance to the joke you find offensice. Is one persons view
more important then many?fascist tend to think so. Are you a fascist?Did any
other part of the show on wednesday offend you?Dogay comics mocking married
couples as breeders offend You?
And, egged on, hot-headed, pissed off, stuffed with hubris, the Angry Chinee writes back:
> It is interesting that you refuse in two emails to confront the Margaret Cho
> and Chris Rock questions that we have raised.
I have not. Let me reference the parts of my previous emails that have
addressed these questions:
I wrote last night: "Margaret Cho can mock gay people and mock Asian
people because she has herself identified very strongly with both
groups of people (to my knowledge, Margaret Cho has not mocked white
people). Margaret Cho contributes her money and her performances and
her publicity to both of these communities, giving her some legitimacy
to rib those she knows best...Likewise, you two can stick to your
black/Jewish interracial couple jokes, and get hearty and legitimate
laughs out of that. But once you start working in territory foreign to
you--and it is obvious that this territory is foreign to you, because
the only Chinese people you address you assume to be service workers
and PRC citizens--you start losing traction.
You see, your reasoning is nonsensical because you two claim
legitimacy by playing off your identities (i.e., you are black/Jewish
interracial couple, so you make jokes about that) while at the same
time you don't see how identities that are not your own are off
limits. You two understand, on the one hand, that the reception of
your black/Jewish jokes depends on the audience and the speakers. A
hypothetical will underscore my point: if you performed your act in
front of a KKK crowd, who would love hearing all about how black women
are sexualized vixens and Jewish men are orally rapacious Jude
Suesses, you are promulgating hurtful racist stereotypes. You are
putting on a minstrel show. It's only because you have considered your
audience and your own positions thoughtfully that you can pull off
your black/Jewish jokes. But, on the other hand, you're not applying
this same thoughtfulness to your Chinese jokes. If you thought as
carefully about the audience and the speakers in the Chinese joke
gags, then I would hope that you would reconsider what you were
saying."
After that, I wrote: "I don't doubt that you "target everyone with
love in [your] hearts," like you said. And I said before, and I'll say
again, that I don't doubt you're trying to do the right thing. I don't
think there's anything wrong with making fun of racial stereotypes.
But the point I was trying to make in the last email was that the
spirit of the joke really matters when you make a racial joke. It's
funny when you guys make fun of each other, because you obviously love
and respect each other. Your audience knows that. It's just not
obvious that you have any respect for Chinese people when you are
making the menu joke."
Again, what matters in racial humor is the tone and the spirit of the
joke, the speaker's position and the audience's reception. I'm not
censoring anyone, but I am suggesting there is inappropriate speech
that sensitive, thoughtful people should try their best to be mindful
of. For example, what was Quentin Tarantino thinking when he called a
bunch of guys "niggas" in "Pulp Fiction"? Was that racist? Maybe not
in spirit, but it was a pretty stupid idea. Different words have
different meanings when spoken by different people: when Margaret Cho
says "fag," it has a different connotation than when Eminem says
"fag." You of all people, who rely on this distinction to make your
humor work, should see my point. My point is that you guys are closer
to Eminem here than Margaret Cho.
Does that address your concern? If you want to start talking about
legitimacy, you need to take a long hard look at your act and see if
you really have a right to be saying what you are saying.
I think your jokes fall into the category of boneheaded goodwill that
attempts to redress racial and sexual problems by "praising" minority
groups for putatively positive characteristics. Hey, do you remember
when Reggie White went before the Wisconsin legislature about five
years ago to talk about race relations? Everyone was really excited
that he was reaching out, but then he said things like, "[Black
people] like to dance, and if you go to a black church, you see people
jumping up and down because they really get into it...Hispanics are
gifted in family structure. You see a Hispanic person, and they can
put 20 or 30 people in one home...When you look at the Asian, the
Asian is very gifted in creativity and invention. If you go to Japan
or any Asian country, they can turn a television into a watch." Like
Reggie White, you two think you have lots of good feelings to put out
there, but your approach is turned 180 to what it should be.
> We beleive people are laughing at the absurdity of
> the line slip menus under the door not the hard working chinese delivery man
> that is sliding it under the door.
This is the closest you've come to answering the question that I have
posed three times to you already: how does a white man and a black
woman making fun of Chinese people help repair race relations in
America? You suggest that what's funny is the absurdity of the menu
image.
A pat, but unbelievable, excuse. Is this really what people are
laughing at? You really think so? I would find this explanation more
believable if this part of the joke wasn't buffered by lines like
"Chinese people have sex so fast and still slip a menu under a door."
I think I remember something about diagramming sentences from the
fourth grade, and it seems to me that the subject in this sentence is
Chinese people, not those funny little menus.
> You also refuse to acknoledge the mean spirited behavior of calling people racist and offensive...Calling people racists is mean...
Portraying an ethnic group as capable only of fucking fast and
delivering food is also mean. I think you're winning in the meanness
race.
> You sound anti white in your rants perhaps seeing all white men as the oppressor.
Let me apply your reasoning to this. I'll slander all white men with a
declaration--white men are pallid, baby-eating thieves with hairy
assholes--and then excuse myself from responsibility for that
statement by saying many white men like my act and get the joke. Maybe
you should lighten up, right?
> You dismiss the opinions of numerous chinese people in referance to the joke you find offensice.
Wow, your reasoning is so fiercely resistant to logic. Once again,
just because some Chinese people have ostensibly OK'd your joke
doesn't give you free reign to make it. Just because you volunteered
your services for a worthy cause doesn't mean you get to say any old
offensive shit you want to say.
> Is one persons view
> more important then many?fascist tend to think so. Are you a fascist?Did any
> other part of the show on wednesday offend you?Dogay comics mocking married
> couples as breeders offend You?
Yikes. Here you justify racism with majoritarianism, and then you do
some rhetorical maneuvering to make it seem like I'm the one being
unreasonable. Racism is anti-American. You seem like you hate America.
Why do you hate America? Why do you hate your country? Why is it that
you continue to eat babies? Why did you shelter Saddam Hussein in
March 2003?
What offends me most is the devolution of your email into unrelated
accusations and promiscuity with language, ideas, and capitalization.
I have never heard of, let alone been offended by, dogay comics.
This exchange is only depressing me. What is it going to take for you
to change your mind? I don't think you're prepared to hear anything
that I'm saying, so I suppose you will continue to make jokes you find
funny but that audience does not. My heartfelt concern goes out to the
people upon which you will continue to inflict your poor taste.
Thanks for writing back so many times. I will continue to hope that
one day a glimmer of thoughtfulness will illuminate your sadly
misguided gimmick.
With hope,
Mandy
I'm ending the emailing right there, unless E&H write back rudely, in which case, the floodgates open. I'm still not doing so hot with my people-can-be-persuaded game. Plus I'm sick to death of thinking about these stale old hacks with their stale old racial jokes. Since their material is so intolerably dull, it's likely that their comedic lifespans will be short. Soon they will have no one to offend but themselves.
Until then, malice is the only solution. I'm going to all of their shows and heckling the shit out of them. Bring your urine-filled Supersoakers and join me, why doncha?
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