Are You Even Indian?

     Mindy Kaling is best known for her work as a writer and producer for the popular comedy The Office, but she also plays the funny Indian American co-worker Kelly Kapoor within the show. Introduced in episode two, she initially plays a minor role as just another static character of the office in most of season one. As part of the somewhat racially mixed cast that also includes African American sales representative “Stanley” and Latino accountant “Oscar”, Kelley usually finds herself at the end of Michael’s (Steve Carell) racial jokes throughout the season for the effect of comedy, but like the rest of the workers she puts up with the pranks and quirkiness of her manager. It is not until season three that Kelly develops a much more complex character exemplifying, although generally, an Indian American.

     Kelly’s portrayal as a product of polyculturalism in America is best featured in the season 3 episode “Diwali” where the episode starts off with her extending an invitation to the office to attend the “Indian Halloween,” but to Michael’s disbelief, she is not able to explain the deeper significance of the holiday. Michael was initially “appalled” at the office workers for not being knowledgeable enough of the Indian festival and was hoping for an excellent explanation from Kelly, but she amusingly plays it off as just being an “awesome” celebration with food and dancing. I think Michael’s disappointed response represents some of the audience member’s reactions to her very uninformed reply to his question, but I think this was the reception that Mindy Kaling wanted to create to say something about Asian American participation in Asian traditions through the genre of comedy shows. Just because someone is Asian, or even of another racial background, does not mean they understand what a festival so closely connected to the “motherland” is truly about because they grow up in America where older traditions tend to not guide the whole of their lives. Also, by using comedy, Mindy is able to get audience members to easily understand such a complex subject as identity. For Kelly, Diwali and other festivals might be special to her in defining herself to be Indian American in some small way, but it certainly does not seem to have the same amount of meaning as it does with her older generation parents who are introduced later in the episode. Even so, she willingly chooses to participate in that cultural space among her relatives and even tries to friendly invite her co-workers to have fun while in attendance. This then may bring up the question, what makes someone an Asian American? Kelly’s character continues to develop throughout the seasons of The Office by being largely contradictory of the properly behaved Indian American stereotype with her exaggeration for her love of shopping or lack of knowledge of Indian culture. Yet, she informs audiences of what it means to be polycultural because, as not stereotyped as she is portrayed in the show, it is very difficult for anyone to define the boundaries that make Kelly an Indian American or not. Kelly is certainly ethnically Indian, but the way she portrays herself as an Indian American and to what extent, is ideally up to her.

     Mindy eventually plays off her own character’s lack of knowledge by having Michael and Dwight hilariously teach the office in detail about Diwali and the “weirder” side of Indian culture in the beginning of the episode because they “don’t want to be embarrassed when they attend” the Diwali celebration. However, the important concept to take away from this episode from an Asian American point of view is that Kelly, like Raj in "The Big Bang Theory", is a product of both her Indian parents and her life in America. By participating in Diwali she still shows that she wants to try to remain connected to her Indian heritage despite often contradicting the Indian American stereotype in comedic ways. Because the episode is primarily written for comedy as well, humor also allows audience members to understand these complex concepts in an easier way.

Be sure to comment below! I would like to hear your thoughts whether in agreement or disagreement! I think it is important to discuss these even in the context of speaking about comedy shows!

Video link to the scene: http://www.spike.com/video-clips/2ud21r/the-office-dwight-explains-diwali

2 Broke Girls - Walking Joke Han Lee

Written by Xue Li

Han Lee is the Korean American immigrant owner of Williamsburg diner in 2 Broke Girls played by Matthew Moy. Max Black and Caroline Channing are two girls who work for Han Lee’s diner and they like to tease Han because of his height. His character is very controversial to the audiences, because many people feel like Han is being made fun of because of race but actually most of the jokes of Han is based on his height and small he is. Han is an immigrant from Korea so he constantly tries to fit in to the American society to prove he is indifferent. In fact, it’s not hard to tell that Han is an immigrant because the way he portrays the character with an accent. Han always likes to makes joke that no one can understand and he is sometimes being made of fun of because he tries so hard to be “hipster”.

Han has some typical and stereotype Asian characteristics that was presented throughout the show. He is known for being small, cheap, greedy, weird and awkward with a thick Korean accent. Han is considered as one of the most racially stereotyped character on television because all of the characteristics that is listed above. Han successfully showed a uncool Asian American immigrant that tries very hard to fit in the American society, but there are also other sides of him that is different from the stereotyped Asian American because in one of the episodes he helped out Caroline Channing when there was a thief in the diner and Han had a gun that was being used to defeat the thief. Although Han is seen as a stereotyped Korean American immigrant but he can also be very brave and courageous when it comes to the moment of truth. Overall, Han is one the character that appears to be a walking joke, because wherever he goes there will be laughter.

Community: Michelle Krusiec as Mai Wu- ''Yellow Fever"

By Guadalupe R.


The episode, “Competitive Wine Tasting,” of the TV series: Community, displays Gender bias, “Yellow Fever,” and social stereotypes that involve Asian Americans and other ethnicities. In this episode, the social stereotypes and “Yellow Fever” phenomenon is displayed by Asian American actress named, Michelle Krusiec(as Mai Wu), and Caucasian male actors Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase). In this episode Jeff and Pierce see an Asian American female (Krusiec) and immediately attempt to seduce her and date her because of her Asian beauty. Unfortunately for Jeff, Mai and Pierce, got engaged after meeting each other and that is where the direct social stereotypes come to play. Jeff assumes that the only reason why Mai would be interested in marrying an old man, like Pierce, is because she is interested in obtaining a green card and / or financial help, since she is Asian. Gender bias is portrayed throughout the episode by portraying Mai Wu as a submissive, respectful, and gold digging woman; the typical role- in which American society places Asian women. Society assumes that all Asian women are submissive and that they search for husbands for economic dependency. But, that is not always the case. In the end, all gender bias and social stereotypes are proved wrong because Mai Wu turned out to be the complete opposite. She was not submissive or respectful; she was a corporate spy. However, the “Yellow Fever” phenomenon did not end. In the end, Pierce and Mai decide to continue to date despite their racial differences.

This episode reminded me, in a lot of ways, of the documentary film, “Seeking Asian Women,”  that we watched in class because Mai Wu, a young attractive Asian female- like Sandy in “Seeking Asian Women,” gets engaged to an elderly Caucasian man. Also because the stereotypes that surrounded Sandy in the documentary were similar to Mai’s stereotypes in the TV series – Community; both Asian females were stereotyped and criticized for being in a relationship with an elder man outside of their ethnic race to obtain legal status and / or economic stability. And finally, toward the end of the documentary and the episode, we see the increase of the “Yellow Fever” phenomenon- where different ethnicities, in this case Caucasian, are becoming more and more interested to date or marry Asian females.

Tom Haverford: Lost without the Internet

Written by Tina 

In season 5, episode 4 of Parks and Recreation, Tommy Edamame was in full on crisis mode after an unfortunate brush with the law (live tweeting while driving which resulted in the inevitable car crash to a fire hydrant) left him a punishment that fit the crime: Big T must be without screens for a week.

Tom Haverford cannot function without technology. Without his GPS, he showed up hours late to work even though he lives 3 miles away (literally he is lost without technology). As a coping mechanism, Tom made his own Pinterest board and iPhone out of cardboard ("I really wish I could click on these" -T.H. dejectedly tapping on pieces of paper). He tried to get his screen fix by spying on a coworker's computer monitor with a handheld mirror (“Oh my god, Jerry. When you check your email you go to Altavista and type, ‘Please go to yahoo.com?’ You don’t deserve the internet!” –T.H. going through withdrawal).

If someone could get delirium tremens from a media blackout, it would be Tom Haverford. Ron, his boss and friend, tries to help Tom by taking him out on a camping trip:

Even though Tom Haverford’s dependence on the internet is just a gag, the pervasiveness of technology is a reality, with Asian Americans playing a pivotal role in the digital media and social web front.

Asian Americans have taken the internet by storm. The Asian American demographic group is the most active user on the social web. 87% of Asian Americans use the internet everyday. Social media sites like Twitter and WordPress are also most viewed by the Asian American demographic (Pew Research Center studies). The internet has also offered Asian Americans more media exposure than the entertainment industry thanks to video-sharing websites such as YouTube. And although Tom Haverford’s antics to a media blackout are completely absurd, Asian Americans, the woefully underrepresented demographic group in mainstream media, use the internet as a tool to make their voices heard.

Poor Tommy Timberlake. No screens for a week? The struggle is real.