I don’t know… Dwight Schrute the German Beet Farmer is quite an offensive ethnic stereotype. Quite a few German ethnic jokes and blatant anti-beetism. Really much more offensive than Darryl, the black, musical, ladies’ man.
I’ll go with stupid. Sitcoms have a long history of populating the series with idiots. Just because this time the idiots are brown instead of white (or black) only makes it offensive if you’ll also take offense at Fox’s Raising Hope and Running Wilde. IMNSHO, all three are offensively non-funny, but that is it.
None of the characters are really stupid though. The boss doesnt know much about India and so comes off as ignorant, but he isnt really stupid. Some of the Indians are socially inept, but none of them seem really stupid either.
I had the same gripe in college (though they were TA’s and not professors). But I also do wonder if it’s because I grew up hearing varying degrees of accented English, and they all sound “normal” to me.
Aziz Ansari is more frat boy than anything else.
And Ben Rapappaport and the other white guy are irritating as all get-out. I wish they’d just flit away, or change and not be so…unrealistic. I cannot believe that anyone from a reasonably sized suburb or city hasn’t eaten some form of Indian food (before he moves to India). Just can’t buy it.
Darryl is a little bit stereotyped (he’s good at basketball, either, though in that episode, Jim and Roy were also very good, so not too bad, on balance) but there are enough other black characters (especially Stanley, but the security guard and a couple other one-shot characters) on the show that it balances a little.
I don’t find that surprising at all. Why do you think everyone has eaten Indian food?
I like it and recording it, but it’s not a “must-see” for me at this point. I don’t consider it racist; seems to me that Todd (the American manager) is the butt of the joke, and comes off as ignorant, but well-meaning. The names made me laugh, as I’ve known several Indians and “Mandeep” was the name of one of them; so when “Manmeet” introduced himself, I cracked up. Thought the made-up holiday was hilarious, especially when Todd greets everyone with “Jolly Vindaloo!” I like the brief bits with Todd’s boss, back in the U. S. I like Diederich Bader too; he’s jaded but knowledgeable, and eager to help Todd and his employees, making for some humorous moments.
The street vendor who cheerfully sought to exploit Todd’s ignorance cracked me up, selling him spice to be thrown at people and such, though it occurred to me that a bag that size of real saffron would be incredibly expensive (even in India) suggesting some chicanery was afoot.
From an earlier episode, when the characters are amusing themselves by startling new arrivals with a fake wall-mounted deer that talks.
“Is she screaming?”
[pensively] “I’m not sure…”
Cracked me right up.
I would be quite surprised at anyone from a reasonably sized city who when faced with Indian food could cone up with nothing more specific than “green stuff” and “yellow lumpy stuff.” There are people like that and I would consider them to be unacceptably insular.
Someone that ignorant of the world around him should never be given a job like the one he has.
I guess I put it at the same level of “exoticity” as sushi, maybe? Would you be surprised if someone in their late 20s from a decent-sized place found themselves completely lost at a sushi bar?
I’m not Ellis, but I’m 28 and know plenty of people in the town of ~200,000 I work in that don’t know a thing about sushi except for the misapprehension that it’s all raw fish. Indian is even less well known.
Yea, the first Real Indian and Sushi Restaurant I had ever been to was in my late twenties/around thirty. Although I had eaten Indian food and sushi at certain opportunities in my early twenties, I didn’t really have any palpable reference point or vocabulary for Indian food until I ate at my first Indian Restaurant. Same with sushi.
I suppose it also relates to Indian and Japanese minorities and who/what came first. For our town the prevalent ethnic emmigrants and restaurant culture that have a strong presence are Lebanese, We have had a couple of Indian Restaurants over the years… Several/ dozens of Lebanese Restaurants over the years. And well, before there were Sushi houses the Japanese Steakhoiuse was the only thing around, prevalent and popular, and they only had a side menu of sushi.
I’d be surprised if Indian had the same exoticity as sushi. I’d make it more exotic than Mexican, Italian, French, and Chinese, but less exotic than Russian, Thai, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
And in today’s world, anybody who lives in a decent-sized city and has never come face-to-face with sushi just isn’t trying. They sell it at Kroger, for pete’s sake.
I wouldn’t. I know nothing about Indian food beyond having heard the word “curry.” I’m also not a big fan of sushi, though I’ve at least eaten it before. I’m familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, having eaten at a Vietnamese place just down the street from me with several Vietnamese friends on several occasions. (Plus at their wedding.)
I think this idea of “everyone knows Indian food” is just as insular as someone being completely ignorant of it. Thinking your experience is everyone’s experience is ignorant.
Ha, that’s a good one. I actually laughed. It’s like “failure to tolerate intolerance is intolerant.”
Indian restaurants have been mainstream in the United States since the 1990s. Any metropolitan supermarket has frozen Indian food. In 2010, Anyone who’s reached their 30s without having eaten any is not sufficiently aware of the world around him or is not sufficiently curious about his surroundings. I know plenty of people lime that. Many of them are nice people, but they have to work hard at remaining so isolated from their surroundings. It says something about their character and it’s not something good.
Or maybe it says something about their taste in food, and you are making a huge leap to an unsupported and unnecessarily judgmental conclusion.
Ding ding ding! We have a winner.
You have to have tried something to knw you dislike it. And no one with a reasonable aspect of the world around him cancels out entire cuisines. You don’t like tomatoes? Fine. You don’t like Tom yum gai? Fine. You’ve somehow managed not to get beyond “green stuff” or haven’t managed to. Get familiar with anything in a common cuisine. Then you’ve got your head in the sand. And reasonable people know the names of the things they dislike. If you can’t name it then you haven’t had it enough to know it’s beyond your taste.
Opinionated much?
I’ve tried a number of Indian dishes. I can tolerate a few. I severely dislike most. I don’t enjoy any. I’m not going to torture myself trying them all, or learning their names, to fit your idea of “reasonable.” I’m quite comfortable saying I don’t like Indian food, and quite happy not eating any of it, especially since there are so many other food choices that I do like. Sorry that bothers you so.