I watch 2 Broke Girls. Do you watch 2 Broke Girls?
Watching that show from a social justice perspective is a bizarre experiment in emotional whiplash. On the one hand, it’s a show about a complementary friendship between two smart, hardworking young women, whose storylines do not revolve around dating or shopping, but about their entrepreneurship and growing bond. It’s one of the few shows in my recent memory that frequently passes the Bechdel test.
On the other hand, it’s a show about two white girls who work at a diner with a supporting cast of racial stereotypes that make the crows from Dumbo cringe in secondhand embarrassment.
That’s really the problem with 2 Broke Girls right there. Max and Caroline are allowed to be fairly complex (at least for a sitcom), but Earl, Oleg, and Han seem like they’re on a completely different program. They have very few (if any) character traits that exist outside their designated stereotypes.
Fans and critics (not that those two things are mutually exclusive) asked questions about the ethnic/racial jokes and stereotypes at the press tour, to which Michael Patrick King (co-creator of the show) essentially said, “I’m gay so that makes it okay for me to make fun of other marginalized people!”
That’s not an exaggeration. Read more here.
Of course, someone pulled out the “equal opportunity defender” card. Someone always pulls out the “equal opportunity defender” card. We make fun of all groups! FREE SPEECH STOP REPRESSING ME WAAAAH!
I’m so glad Michael Patrick King and his defenders can use the “free speech/equal opportunity” defense for their so-called “irreverent” comedy that “pokes fun at all groups.” Because if there’s something that comedy really needed desperately, it was another sexless Asian male character. Han Lee is a pioneering character in the comedy world, because Michael Patrick King said so.
Reading about this controversy over 2 Broke Girls was oddly refreshing, to tell the truth. King’s butthurt response to the criticism was not refreshing, but the criticism itself was. I was pleasantly surprised to see several members of the mainstream media push forward with the “Seriously, what’s up with all the racist stereotypes?” questions.
In response, King did what any socially responsible or creative person would do: he made a creative decision to add a “hot” Asian male character to his show so people would shut up about the stereotyping in his existing characters.
*facepalm*
This is not an exaggeration, people. Read more at The A.V. Club:
“Keeping CBS’s promises that the future would see 2 Broke Girls creator Michael Patrick King attempt to “dimensionalize” some of its racist stereotypes—this despite King being gay, which means he doesn’t have to—the show recently put out a casting call for a “hot Asian guy” to come and romance Beth Behrs’ character with some of his hot Asianness. The arrival of this hot Asian guy would provide a much-needed balance to the comedy’s Korean caricature Han, demonstrating that there are many colors in the Asian rainbow: hot, hilariously indecipherable, unable to drive, etc. Of course, the blog that first picked up the casting call, Angry Asian Man, argues that showing that Asians can also be hot and worthy of making out with Beth Behrs doesn’t exactly make up for 2 Broke Girls’ egregious, simplistic Asian stereotyping. But then, he’s probably just upset that he’s an angry Asian man instead of one of those hot ones.”
As a feminist and someone who cares about social justice, I feel like I should be outraged. But I don’t have it in me to be outraged because I’m just overwhelmed by the cluelessness behind this P.R. move.
I really need Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler (and Kermit the Frog) to help me with this, because…Really?!
King is criticized because his character Han Lee, the Asian male stereotype, is…well, nothing but an Asian male stereotype. Instead of, I don’t know, fleshing out his existing character, he decides to add a Hot Asian Guy character – like he’ll get EXTRA token points for having TWO Asian characters on the same program, and that it will shut up all those HATERZ who don’t like Han Lee!
Brilliant move, Mr. King. I’m sure Asians will be completely pacified and pleased knowing that you’re throwing in an obligatory Non-Stereotype Character whose sole purpose will be to sex up a white woman and prove that you are TOTALLY NOT RACIST.
I could point out how stereotypical characters just continue to perpetuate stereotypes and how harmful those stereotypes can be, but forget about that for a moment. When you get right down to it, the use of these stereotypes shows a complete lack of imagination.
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I’m utterly sick of offensive humor. It’s just gotten so boring. Let’s make jokes based on offensive stereotypes, because no one else has ever done that! Push the envelope by reinforcing hateful tropes older than television! More infuriating than the tired and hateful jokes is the tendency to defend them by setting yourself up as some kind of bold visionary maverick speaking truth to power. (a) You’re not speaking truth to power, you’re reinforcing power; (b) EVERYONE ELSE in mainstream entertainment is making the same claim.
I especially hate it, because I do like a bit of gallows humor, and I believe comedy can be bleak or morbid without being a steamroller in service of the kyriarchy – but no one seems to make that distinction. When I’m warned that a particular comedy is “not for everyone” or “potentially offensive”, I want it to fall in the first category, but it’s almost always the second. It’s getting to the point where I just want to stop people in their tracks by saying, “Yes, actually, I *am* easily offended.”
Now that I’m thinking about it, gallows humor as I define it is pretty much the polar opposite of offensive-stereotype humor. Gallows humor is about critiquing the power structures of society from beneath. It’s genuinely edgy because it carries that desperate undercurrent of true anger at the status quo and radical desire for change. Offensive-stereotype humor is just normative groups pointing at non-normative people and laughing.
I love this whole comment so very, very much.
I’ve only watched 2 Broke Girls a few times but I’ve been following the controversy over it’s racial stereotypes for a little while now. It’s fascinating to me, personally, because if they presented the show as, literally, being full of stereotypes for a purpose (took the angle of debunking them, or showcasing how utterly ridiculous/offensive/outdated they were), I might be able to swallow it. I find that’s what Community does with Pierce Hawthorne – his comments and actions tend to be purposefully outrageous. Not a single character thinks they’re okay, you know?
But maybe it’s just the race and culture class I’m taking, but it’s made me examine a lot of the shows I watch and most especially, the comedies (since I watch significantly more comedies than anything else) and I’ve been slowly realizing that the majority of them do not have non-white characters. And when they do, it could be argued that they’re ‘token’ characters. It’s made me think more deeply about how race is presented on screen too – if characters are supposed to be non-white (token or not), must they look non-white to “count”?
It’s been kind of disheartening to realize that a lot of the shows I watch fall short on presentations of different races, cultures and ethnicities, Community is one of the few exceptions (three non-white characters, a variety of religious affiliations, though fairly homogenous in gender and sexual orientations). How I Met Your Mother only introduced a non-white character for a longer arc recently, for instance.
I find that’s what Community does with Pierce Hawthorne – his comments and actions tend to be purposefully outrageous. Not a single character thinks they’re okay, you know?
Exactly. Pierce falls into the Dr. Kelso from Scrubs, Archie Bunker, Eric Cartman category of “characters who are funny because we know they’re doing the wrong thing.” If he makes a racist joke about Shirley or Troy or Abed, or a sexist joke about Shirley or Annie or Britta, the joke is on HIM for being prejudiced, not his victims.
It’s made me think more deeply about how race is presented on screen too – if characters are supposed to be non-white (token or not), must they look non-white to “count”?
That’s an interesting question and I’m not sure how to answer it. It also makes me think about non-white actors who play white characters because they can “pass” for white.