Funny Peeplrs with Ken Jeong
This comes by way of our boy Slanty over at slanteyefortheroundeye.com.
Judd Apatow really can’t do no wrong. The man writes/directs Knocked Up and 40-Year Old Virgin, produces Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and singlehandedly launches the career of blockbuster gold like Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen (among other countless actors/actresses you surely see on a regular basis). And creates the single best season of a comedy TV show of all time (Freaks and Geeks). But Jesus man, taken out of context, this clip from Funny People (which he wrote and directed) coming out on July 31st just isn’t funny. There’s a thin line between racism (Michael Richards) and racial comedy (Russell Peters), and this shit just ain’t comedy. I realize its a play on the infamous noodle slurping scene in Tom Selleck’s film, Mr. Baseball, but this sh!t goes waaay to far. The abusive husband wearing a short sleeve button up dress shirt and tie speaking with a complete lack of indefinite and definite articles, yelling at his submissive (UNSATISFIED) wife and chinky-eyed kids.
I would blame Ken Jeong, especially after his “small dick”, full frontal catastrophic (to Asian American civil rights) role in The Hangover, with his effeminate/gay/fobby accent (DAMN, that’s a lot of slashes!). I initially liked it for its self deprecating (albeit, racist overtones) until I saw this sh!t from Funny People, and realized Ken Jeong’s selling out and traded in his doctor’s coat for a Charlie Chan suit. Dude, come on. Do you want to win the award for the next Margaret Cho to be the latest and greatest Asian American comedic pariah sacrificed on the alter to eventually get a low budget, ABC Family sitcom starring you and a wacky ambiguously gay Latino roommate? It took her 10 years to come back, and she’s only got a niche market now! I implore you, take the John Cho route and stop with the small dick jokes and shitty accents.
July 29, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Guess we all know how much of a racist Judd Apatow can be. This scene is going to be pretty tough to sit through IF I make it out to watch this film. Too bad, the film was looking pretty good otherwise.
July 29, 2009 at 4:48 pm
That really is bullshit. This isn’t the least bit funny.
August 3, 2009 at 9:56 am
[...] people from criticism when they reinforce negative stereotypes that do us harm (see: Tila Tequila, Ken Jeong’s recent work). This does bring up the question for me though – when viewers look at Jon, do they identify [...]
December 1, 2009 at 8:04 am
[...] have always been critical of Hollywood for portrayals of Asian Americans and to some degree, the actors that play the roles. And a lot of times, other Asian American blogs have also (see The Minority Militant’s [...]
January 9, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I actually thought that was pretty funny. The only questionable portion was the “you know, as far as we can open them” crack about the eyes. Not funny. Obviously written by a white dude. Not needed for the scene.