Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
Where do we draw the line?
I first read about this video from Gerald’s blog, so I went to watch it for myself. After watching the first few seconds, you know if you have seen it or not. If you have, just pause it and read on. If not, please watch it and take note of your reaction to the video.
Did you laugh after watching the video? Why did you or did you not laugh? Did you feel that this was racial/religious discrimination at it’s peak, or did you feel that this was a pure stroke of genius?
I had a mixed reaction to this video. Yes, it was funny, but I only found the irritation of the stall owner funny. It’s not unlike what Mr Bean would do: constantly repeating some dumb action to irritate people. However, what was TOTALLY NOT funny is the stereotyping of the stall owner.
The producers of this video are perhaps somewhat creative, but whether the creativity is in the right direction is questionable. The video can probably parallel Borat in the sense that it portrayed a stereotype of a group of people (in this case, an Indian who might be Muslim as well). The problem with the video is that the stereotype isn’t accurate. Not all Indians speak English like that. I know enough Indians who speak English so impeccably well that I would hang my head in shame at my poorer standard.
Well, some people think stereotyping is funny, but it ain’t funny if you are the one being stereotyped. Just look at how strongly Kazakhstan reacted to Borat. There is nothing wrong with doing comedy, but the question that we should wonder is, where do we draw the line between being funny and being possibly offensive?
UPDATE!
The video has been taken down by Youtube. Apparently it violated something in their TOS.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 01/02/2007 at 2:23 am, and is filed under Perspective. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 5 years ago
But isn’t comedy built on stereotypes?
Satire is used to poke fun at certain groups of society, much like the mrbrown show…the mrbrown show just wants to paint dreary singapore life in a funnier light, but who does he poke fun indirectly at?
When we laugh at mr bean, we are laughing at him. We are always laughing AT something. if we laughed for no good reason, we’d be nutters.
about 5 years ago
To answer your question, I laughed when I watched the video. It was so much the stereotyping but rather the response of our Indian friend. He could have walked away but instead played into the hands of our mischievious friends. I don’t think it was anything particularly offensive. Definitely unlike the caricature of the prophet which was very offensive to muslims.
about 5 years ago
>”Not all Indians speak English like that. I know enough Indians who speak English so impeccably well that I would hang my head in shame at my poorer standard.”
What is wrong with the Indian character’s accent? Admittedly, it is exaggerated but it is characteristic of many foreign-born Indian Singaporeans. Didn’t you notice that the two Chinese jokers also had an accent typical of Chinese Singaporeans and didn’t speak the language any better than the Indian stall owner?
about 5 years ago
Aaron
we think you are really full of horse manure. You are an opinionated fool. For a good read come to the intelligent singaporean.
long live the brotherhood!
about 5 years ago
Obviously staged. Racial discrimination exists everywhere, even in the land of the free apparently.
Fear of the unknown often leads to prejudice – the pre-judging, the pre-supposing of what things are or are not. So I guess to overcome prejudice to find out more. Willingness to do so, well that’s another issue altogether.
about 5 years ago
Hi Aaron,
Interesting that you should talk about this. I actually saw this video about a week back. Someone MSNed me the link and said that it was very funny. And I started to see it linked on blogs on quite a number of people.
I was a little amused when I heard the video, but to be honest, I think that it was a very pointless exercise, and not all that amusing or funny to begin with. I don’t really think that the authors of this video intended for it to be rather anti-Islam/racist, but I did think that it was not in very good taste.
It’s interesting that you compared it Borat; I never even considered the comparison. I thought that the stereotyping in Borat had an objective – to show an existence of prejudice and how ridiculous it is; I felt that this clip had no such intention beyond being silly.
*shrugs* Oh well.
about 5 years ago
Guojun,
You have a point. Comedy indeed sometimes build on stereotypes. However, maybe we have to wonder sometimes, when is something funny, and when is something offensive? I have no answer to that, but I did think that the general Indian dude is probably not going to find it funny.
I supposed it’s fine to laugh at Mr Bean because he doesn’t mind being laughed at. If he minded, he wouldn’t be acting stupid, no? However, I think the difference in this little video is that there is a group of people being made fun of, and I don’t think all of them are agreeable to being made fun of. That’s the difference.
about 5 years ago
Yun,
Some people think that caricatures of the prophet is a good joke, while others think it’s blasphemous. The problem is that we cannot predict what people’s reactions are, and the fallout from it.
I remember reading the papers in the past week about Sunni-Shite violence in some Middle East country (I cannot remember which one). It started because of a scuffle between a couple of Sunni and Shite students in a university, and there was a spillover into the streets. I do not mean to make an analogous comparison, but what I’m trying to say is that what some think is a small matter (i.e. a scuffle or a silly stereotyping video) might very well lead to unintended consequences.
about 5 years ago
Fox,
I did notice, but the problem is that the joke is obviously not on them. While something is characteristic, that doesn’t mean that it has to be made fun of. I do think there’s a tension between freedom of expression and civility. On one had, we want to have the freedom to speak but on the other, we have to be mindful that we do inadvertently offend people.
about 5 years ago
Hi brotherhood,
If I’m full of horse manure, why are you even bothering to read? And of course, why is horse manure being listed on the Intelligent Singaporean?
In anycase, I don’t think you are part of the brotherhood. You are a cheap imitation. The real brotherhood doesn’t go around bullshiting.
about 5 years ago
Kitana,
Maybe this video had the intention of showing the existence of prejudice, but without the intention of showing how ridiculous it is?
about 5 years ago
Aaron,
The issue is not the Indian accent, but the fact that they were deliberately provoking him by repeatedly asking him for pork. Perhaps they think Muslims are just being finicky about pork. Basically they are making light of and laughing another religion and the practices its followers hold dear. It’s an utter lack of respect — just like the Prophet cartoons.
While I don’t like it that Borat made fun of Kazakhstan, at least his ultimate objective was to poke fun at the ignorance of Westerners. I don’t think these guys had any intention of laughing at themselves. Their only objective was to make fun of another race. That’s what I find bloody irritating.
No, I don’t think it even crossed their mind to use this recording to show the existence of prejudice here. That would be too sophisticated for their “small” minds.
about 5 years ago
Gerald,
Yeah I think it’s really not nice to make fun of another group of people, esp people who are in the minority. When I went to the UK, I felt like a minority and I was like, “Omg this feeling sucks.” And I wasn’t even discriminated against. It just felt kinda terrifying to be in the minority already.
about 5 years ago
hi aaron, please let me know the i.p. of that person who claims to be “brotherhood.” the b’hood post only under a single i.p. address, so if that is not the same as the one as the one i have, we know conclusively that guy is a troll.
about 5 years ago
also, pls do not delete the comment, so that all evidence is retained. thanks
about 5 years ago
Well, even if it’s not very nice – i believe that the average citizen is able to take things with a pinch of salt and laugh it off. I hope our egos are not as fragile as those of our political leaders.
about 5 years ago
Hi Aaron,
Good job in putting this video up. I admit that I found it quite funny, at the start, but after the ad infinitum repetition of ‘pok’ it did start to get a little dreary.
Anyway, pork (or pigs) is a very sensitive issue to Muslims, and I will not be surprised I see those two ‘Chinese jokers’ again — in court.
After all, if it is a crime to tap into other people’s wireless (which I admit I did), insulting other people’s religion is surely a crime in Singapore….
about 5 years ago
Maybe it depends on the significance of what is being made fun of in the context of the person(s) values/worldview.
It’s like how in one of my modules at RMIT where the Indons discussed the Prophet cartoons.
Then one student made the comment that a joke is just, a joke.
Then when the tutor asked if it’d be alright to make fun of Jesus that way, they all went very quiet.
It depends on how sacred a thing is to someone. And especially if the sanctity of that thing is very obvious and commonly known, it’s common sense that you shouldn’t be making fun of it.
about 5 years ago
this on the sanctity of a religious brings into view a problem which may be philosophical, even theological – so we think we are above God now?
Many wouldn’t dare to say it explicitly. But the growth of human technology seems to point in that direction. Once, people looked upon nature as an object of wonder and God’s creation.
Today, people look upon nature as resources to be harvested.
So where do we stand? as you said above, one of the students remarked that ‘a joke is a joke’ until it came to his own religion.
Does that mean that their God is above all others?
Similarly, the Chinese people could have just said that it was just a joke – which they definitely will use if they ever find themselves in court.
But will they get charged? If they wanted to charge people for breaching the Sedition Act, they can go into any SAF camp and detain almost everyone.
Aaron, it is terrifying to be a minority – i am the sole Singaporean in my part of germany. But being the minority means being able, even forced, to go out, to see more, and to be more tolerant. I have endured jokes against me too by schoolchildren who didn’t know better.
So what was i going to do – charge them under the sedition act? I laughed it off, and joked with them. Intolerance only goes so far, and sometimes it is wiser and more gracious to take things with a pinch of salt.
about 5 years ago
I am so glad that youtube deleted the video, which is offensive and senseless. Racial prejudice is never a funny matter and I seethe at the thought of people who feel that this is something light hearted. All you need to do is imagine if you are the one at the wrong end of the stick – eg a Chinese Singaporean being called a “slant eyed chink” by another race – to know how wrong it is.
about 5 years ago
Dear Aaron,
Thank you for the heads-up regarding YouTube’s deletion of the “No Pork” video.
If you don’t mind, I would like to include a link in this thread to my analysis of the video, as it may be of interest to your readers. The analysis has been published on Singapore Angle at:
“No Pork” Podcast: The Evil That Men Broadcast
Best wishes,
Speranza Nuova
about 5 years ago
Go ahead! No a problem at all.
about 5 years ago
Of course, many people would find it funny. I did, then I realised that maybe I wouldn’t be laughing so much if it was a couple of Caucasians in a Chinese restaurant requesting for dog meat.
It’s something I can joke about with close friends the next time we’re having roti prata, but certainly not something I would be proud to put up on my blog.
about 5 years ago
So what was i going to do – charge them under the sedition act? I laughed it off, and joked with them. Intolerance only goes so far, and sometimes it is wiser and more gracious to take things with a pinch of salt.
Yes, that’s the other way of looking at it.
Though my Aussie classmates all gave me The Look when I said Jesus cartoons would’ve been fine with me.
‘Hands up! Who’d like a beer?’
about 5 years ago
i’d love a beer. HAWHAW.
about 5 years ago
>”However, what was TOTALLY NOT funny is the stereotyping of the stall owner.”
So… what do you think of Mr Brown’s Fly the Skinny Sky which was posted last November?