Caught the Jeff Dunham show in Bozeman Tuesday night. In case you haven't heard, he's a ventriloquist whose characters are a curmudgeon -- Walter, Bubba J-- redneck, Peanut -- hyper whatsis, and Achmed -- The Dead Terrorist, who is famous for saying ...
I always thought Achmed was edgy and bold. This morning, I'm wondering.
Last night, Dunham's character, Peanut, went on an extended rant about ordering Chinese food over the phone to a Chinese person who couldn't speak understandable English.
That's right. Chinese people talk funny.
At one point, Dunham admonished Peanut that this was racist, to which Peanut replied, "and funny as hell."
No, Jeff, racism is not funny. It's cheap and lazy.
But now, I'm wondering. Has Dunham's comedy always been racist, and I didn't mind because, afterall, who likes Arab terrorists?
Maybe, Jeff isn't the only one who should be ashamed of himself this morning.
Yeah, racist/sexist/ageist humor is always less than funny. When in doubt, I imagine the butt of the joke to be an OWL (old white lady) and then see if it's still funny. In the case you mentioned, it would be an OWL in China trying to take a restaurant order over then phone when she doesn's speak very good Chinese. Not funny.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't China, but I've been there. It's very stressful and you feel like such an idiot and the person on the other end giving your order gets frustrated and irritated, which doesn't help communication much. They talk about stupid old women...
Yeah, not funny, because it's personal. Now signages that are f'd up are different, because they are a public official item, and should be correct....