I kinda like it. The show spends more time making fun of “stupid Americans” as it does Indians, so I dont really see the claim of racism.
Is that really the issue, or is it that the narrative is filtered through the subjectivity of the outsourcers, rather than the outsourcees?
Since when are the Indian characters on The Office “weird stereotypes”? (I assume we’re talking about the U.S. version.) The only major Indian-American character I can recall is Kelly, who’s shallow, ditzy, and clingy, but I’m not aware that any of those traits are stereotypes of Indians. She’d be way more stereotypical if recast as a blond Caucasian.
Other than that, there was that Sikh tech-support guy, who seemed pretty normal but Micheal assumed he was a terrorist. I guess Vikram (who worked with Michael at his telemarketing job) was a bit stereotypical, but he was in, what, three episodes?
Not to speak for Colibri, but he clearly meant ALL of the characters in the Office could be considered weird stereotypes, not just Kelly.
I was under the impression that the character Abed was supposed to be Lebanese or some other Middle Eastern type (his dad owns a falafel restaurant).
One of the problems with the show is that it overly simplifies aspects of Indian culture – the Indian characters essentially have none of the specificity of identity that real Indians do. So it kind of ends up being misleading in portraying Indians as having a unified culture.
Yes, Abed is supposed to be half-Palestinian, half-Polish, although the actor himself is half-Indian, half-Polish.
I’ve been to India for work. I’ve also watched all four episodes of Outsourced on Hulu and, as someone upthread alluded, the show does portray a somewhat unreal, whitewashed version of India and Indians. Then again, it is a comedy, and when have comedies been overly concerned with realism?
I don’t find the show racist, or the characters stereotypical, thank goodness, but I don’t see it surviving for too long. It’s just not funny or interesting enough. I don’t think the audience is going to be able to relate to, or care about, a novelty company for too long. Heck, I’m American, and I don’t understand why anyone would purchase any of the products the fictional novelty company hawks. That alone may cause me to give up on the show after a couple more episodes.
Now, a show about Dell’s or Microsoft’s call center tech support, that’s something I would be interested in watching.
Just wanted to say that the subplot this week had the Mid-America novelties folks getting back at the Apple help desk folks on their own, without any “outsourcer” character interacting in the subplot or even knowing about it. More of that, please.
This is pretty much my own experience with it. My parents find this show hilarious for some reason- I watched the first episode and have to say it’s not my comedy, but it wasn’t as offensive as I thought it would be- mostly because it does tend to focus on the American guy’s issues with a new culture vs. mocking Indians for their culture.
That said, I didn’t think it was particularly funny, but meh, different tastes.
My personal favorite “Brown” guy in a role- Kal Penn’s character on House a few seasons ago. That’s how it SHOULD be done. I could relate more to that one than the characters in Outsourced.
I thought that part was pretty unrealistic. No group of lunch diners are going to march around a table to simultaneously put their trays down.
Just as unrealistic is how Todd did not act on Pippa Black’s Tonya character’s offer for relations. Just ask Charlie for the green light and then get with that fine, fine Aussie.
Well, not Just as unrealistic. People frequently decline offers of sex, even ftom hot people, especially if they are propositioned in front of doneone they’re actually interested in and is likely go know about such an encounter.
India has a tradition of large numbers of people having been educated in English. They may have heavy accents (to American ears), but many of them speak perfectly grammatical English.
Oh, OK… but they’re not really racial/ethinic stereotypes, right? I don’t even think I’d consider most of them stereotypes, just weirdos with exaggerated personality traits.
I’ve watched all four episodes of Outsourced so far, and none of the Indian characters would be out of place in any type of office comedy I’ve seen. There’s plenty of cultural humor, but I’ve not noticed anything racial.
The people calling in seem to get paintbrushed a lot more than the stars, but since they’re midwestern and southern American by accent, there’s nothing said about it.
Not the first!
Back in the mid-80’s, there was a fairly popular movie, Gung Ho, starring Michael Keaton as a manager at an American auto plant that is bought by a Japanese company. The Japanese management comes to America to run the plant, and Keaton has to show them how to deal with American culture and work habits. Hilarity ensues!
The movie spawned a short-lived TV series of the same name–sans Keaton but with some of the actors from the movie reprising their roles.
He said China.
He also said “the first American sitcom dealing with American-Eastern country relations”
Tangent just said “Not the first!”, in reply to Gestalt’s surprise as to what country the first American sitcom dealing with American-Eastern country relations was set in. Tangent’s was merely establishing that Outsourced was not the first such program, regardless of whether the first such program was or was not situated in China.
The proper reply to Tangent is not “He said China”, but rather, technically, “He said sitcom”.
ETA: acsenray’s post wasn’t there when I wrote this.
As I posted, the movie spawned a TV series. The TV series was a sitcom.
Oops. My bad; I somehow missed that last part. The proper response then is “Thank you, Tangent, for that most salient piece of information.”. 