I was the only non-white person in attendance as far as I could tell, and obviously the only Asian American. Maybe she was emboldened by the makeup of the club that night, or her perception of it. Because it didn’t seem as though she were punching down - how could she be, from a hospital bed? - making a joke of his accent felt like fair game. Take O’Donnell’s bit: She positioned her doctor as a model minority. But it illustrates how Asian Americans still occupy a position as punchlines, which other minorities have more forcefully sought to vacate. Using an accent as the butt of a joke is nowhere near as egregious as the remarks that led to Gillis’s firing. That’s what we’re finding out.” In response to his dismissal, Gillis called himself “a comedian who pushes boundaries,” as though floating racist jokes were groundbreaking instead of outdated. “You throw stuff out there and you get to see them react to things, like yea or nay, what’s funny and what’s not,” Gillis said. When SNL hired then quickly fired Shane Gillis in September over homophobic statements and racist remarks about Asians, a 2016 interview surfaced in which the comedian discussed testing new material in small clubs.
Even in the most liberal environments, comedy at the expense of Asian Americans feels socially permissible.
#Worst racist jokes reddit Pc#
“In this new liberal progressive PC world nothing is a joke anymore,” one user wrote. “It’s comedy … grow up,” was a common refrain in my replies.
He was not the doctor who saved my life - he was one of many who came in to see how i survived - he brought me a fruit basket - i ate and went into shock - that dr was from bombay - if u were offended - my apologies- ROSIE July 8, 2019įans of O’Donnell came to her defense on Twitter, piling on. “That doctor was from Bombay - if u were offended - my apologies,” she later added. O’Donnell replied on Twitter a few days later, claiming she’d performed many accents that night (if she had, I couldn’t recall the others). I’d imagined myself in an especially liberal and accepting space, given O’Donnell’s politics and Provincetown’s history as a haven for queer travelers, and it was jarring to be proven otherwise. Later, I expressed my discomfort on Twitter, pointing out the blind spot that even someone as progressive as O’Donnell can have when it comes to race. But O’Donnell had made his ethnic difference - and mine - the butt of the joke. O’Donnell hadn’t said anything overtly derogatory in fact, she used the doctor as a foil for self-deprecation. When the bit was over, heat drained from my cheeks and my body flooded with post-adrenaline relief. I took a big sip of cheap Sauvignon Blanc and felt my forehead beading with sweat. The friends I’d come with, who were white, looked at me with uncertainty. The near-death experience she described wasn’t funny it was her performance of the doctor’s voice that got the room laughing. I was the only Indian person in the beachside club, and O’Donnell couldn’t see me as she launched into a story about her 2012 heart attack and recovery.Ī doctor she described as Indian played a central role, and she proceeded to tell the joke using a caricatured Indian accent. Sitting far to one side of the stage, I felt my stomach lurch. Rosie O’Donnell apologized if there were any Indian people in the room during a standup set in Provincetown, Massachusetts, this past July. Part of Issue #10 of The Highlight, our home for ambitious stories that explain our world.